I have a 64 bit suse 10.0 system that I have connected to an APC ups. I've plugged in the usb cable that came with it. Then I loaded apcupsd with yast. What do i do now to set up the system to shut down shortly after the power fails?

I think that what happens is that /etc/inittab calls the /etc/init.d/powerfail script. Read through the /etc/inittab file , the powerfail script and the apcupsd daemon. The apcupsd should get a signal from the ups and if the power goes down, and run "init powerfail" if it does. If the power comes back up it should run "init powerokwait". If the battery is critically low, it should run "init powerfailnow".

There may not be anything special that you need to do. Perhaps unplug and replug in the ups and read the log to see if powerfail and poweroknow were started.

Hi,
There is also NUT which stands for Network UPS Tools.
You can get the latest version from http://www.networkupstools.org