Battery indicator has disappeared from Gnome panel

Question

I'm using Gnome Flashback (still the best!) on Ubuntu 14.04. In the Indicator app, it used to always show the battery level indicator. Now, it's missing entirely:

I've looked in the power settings to make sure it's set to show no matter what:

I assume "When battery is present" means "show the battery indicator whether charging or plugged in or whatever, just as long as the physical battery is in the laptop." I also tried the other option, "When battery is charging or in use", but that doesn:t make a difference.

The battery indicator was there consistently since upgrading to 14.04 a month ago, and has only started to be shy about appearing within maybe the last few days. So far as I know, I haven't done anything to alter any settings regarding power or indicators or applets that would have any impact on this.

Why is my power indicator missing, and how do I get it back?

Answer 1

Note: Try steps 4/5 first, it may be fixed with 1st hit.

Below the extended instruction to debug the problem with the indicator.

1. Check if indicator-power-service is running:

   ps ax | grep indicator-power
   

2. If it's running, try reset its settings then restart it:

   dconf reset -f /com/canonical/indicator/power/
   pkill -f indicator-power-service
   

   No success, locate it then try it from terminal (looking for any errors in output):

   sudo updatedb; locate -r indicator-power-service$
   

   My system is 64bit, So:

   /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-power/indicator-power-service
   

   If it works with command, then some thing wrong with its autostart.

3. As it was checked, it isn't running on start up. Verify the existence of:

   /usr/share/upstart/sessions/indicator-power.conf

   description "Indicator Power Backend"
   
   # Want to move to indicator-services-[start|end], but that's not all
   # there yet.  Use the signals that exist today for now.
   
   start on indicators-loaded or indicator-services-start
   stop on desktop-end or indicator-services-end
   
   respawn
   
   exec /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-power/indicator-power-service
   

   /etc/xdg/autostart/indicator-power.desktop

   [Desktop Entry]
   Type=Application
   Name=Indicator Power
   Exec=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-power/indicator-power-service
   NotShowIn=Unity;
   NoDisplay=true
   StartupNotify=false
   Terminal=false
   

4. This works for me with a fresh Ubuntu 14.04, Modifing indicator-power.desktop for autostart conditions similar to the other indicators. (Submitted bug report lp#1330302)

   sudo nano /etc/xdg/autostart/indicator-power.desktop

   Remove:

   NotShowIn=Unity;
   

   Replace it with:

   OnlyShowIn=Unity;XFCE;GNOME;
   AutostartCondition=GNOME3 unless-session gnome
   

5. Logout/Login

---

Well if it didn't work:

1. Try purge it then reinstall it:

   sudo apt-get remove --purge indicator-power
   sudo apt-get install indicator-power
   

   Reboot, Check again

2. No success, as workaround you can run it this way (you may close terminal after this):

   /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-power/indicator-power-service & disown $!
   

   & run it in background
   disown $! command to detach a process for current terminal, $! variable that hold PID of last process run in background

   Or better if add it to user startup applications, see How do I start applications automatically on login?

Answer 2

(1)

sudo apt-get install indicator-applet-complete
sudo apt-get install dconf-editor

change icon-policy to present. This might help you.

(2)

If first one do not work you can try to install indicator-power by sudo apt-get install indicator-power. If indicator-power is already install then uninstall it and then reinstall. This might get the power indicator back on the panel. Have fun.

Answer 3

If you are using such themes as masalla, they somehow make the icons disappear or make the battery status to display incorrectly. I would suggest switching to the default theme or use a different theme. At least that was the issue for me.

Answer 4

If you have a wireless mouse plugged in it may be hiding underneath of it, just click the mouse and it should be in that pop-up menu,