apcupsd not quite working

mfoley · 02-13-2016, 11:59 AM

I have installed apcupsd 3.14.13 on Ubuntu 14.04. I have an APC Back-UPS 550 connected via USB. It *almost* works. When I lose power, it logs the event to /var/log/apcupsd.events and sends an email to the configured $SYSADMIN. I also get a GUI notice, with percent remaining, in Unity. When power is restored I likewise get notices.

However, if the battery does drop below the configured % threshold, there is no notice an no email. It just shuts things down. My computer does not shutdown, but goes to the Ubuntu splash screen with the 5 blinking dots and stays there ... forever; even after the power resumes.

Ideas?

ferrari · 02-14-2016, 01:28 AM

Can you share your working configuration (/etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf)?

Does the system log provide any clues?

ferrari · 02-14-2016, 02:50 AM

I don't own a UPS (no need with a laptop), but in an effort to assist I installed it and from a quick look under the hood, I note that /etc/apcupsd/apccontrol is the script used to do a bunch of things including shutdown. By default, it uses '/sbin/shutdown -h now' to do this.

Code:

SHUTDOWN=/sbin/shutdown

Code:

doshutdown)
	. /etc/sysconfig/apcupsd
	if test "$APCUPSD_POWERFAIL_BEHAVIOR" = "hibernate" ; then
		echo "UPS ${2} initiated hibernation" | ${WALL}
		$HIBERNATE
	else
		echo "UPS ${2} initiated Shutdown Sequence" | ${WALL}
		${SHUTDOWN} -h now "apcupsd UPS ${2} initiated shutdown"
	fi
    ;;

Does your computer shutdown cleanly when this is command is invoked manually?

ferrari · 02-14-2016, 02:59 AM

These may be relevant/helpful to your situation

http://askubuntu.com/questions/12584...r-off-computer
http://www.unixmen.com/fix-shutdown-...-ubuntu-14-04/

mfoley · 02-20-2016, 12:33 AM

ferrari:

Quote:

Does your computer shutdown cleanly when this is command is invoked manually?

Yes, it does shutdown normally when I invoke `shutdown -h now` manually, but good info on the /etc/apcupsd/apccontrol script. Maybe it's running the HIBERNATE option. Something to check.

Excellent links in your 2nd post. These seem very relevant to my issue. Unfortunately, I've returned the UPS to the owner, but I'll bring the laptop in and check it out there on my next trip.

In any case, apcupsd seems to work fine on the production Slackware servers, so far ... I've pulled the plug and received the notifications, but I haven't actually tried the shutdown test yet as these are production, but I'll do that on a test host and report back.