Nut upsuser - Oct 2007 - MGE Ellipse 800 shutdown problems - using upsmon NOTIFYCMD

upsmon.conf using NOTIFCMD and NOTIFYFLG is working well, it is calling my
script "notify" on requested events (ONBATTERY,LOWBATTERY and ONLINE).
Command
#upsmon -c fsd -u monmaster myups at localhost

gracefully shutdown my box and after several seconds switch off the ups's
load.

Two problems:
  - notify script is called and executed as user "nut" (as it used to
be
    defined in nut package for Debian 4.0 Etch). To execute forced shutdown
    it must be root!
  - seem to be a good idea, to set "ups.delay.start" for a resonabli
longer
    time!

How to these changes?

Thanks
  tovis

PS: Arjen de Korte suspected something was wrong around my "heater"
load,
for now I have used two 150W lamps and it cause load 52% in case
"ONBATTERY". When battery is charged over 95% the nut is working as
suspected, but after first shutdown - switch up cycle the charge is about
86% and sequence does not work (usp shutdown early).

tovis wrote:
> upsmon.conf using NOTIFCMD and NOTIFYFLG is working well, it is calling my
> script "notify" on requested events (ONBATTERY,LOWBATTERY and
ONLINE).
> Command
> #upsmon -c fsd -u monmaster myups at localhost
> 
> gracefully shutdown my box and after several seconds switch off the
ups's
> load.
> 
> Two problems:
>   - notify script is called and executed as user "nut" (as it
used to be
>     defined in nut package for Debian 4.0 Etch). To execute forced shutdown
>     it must be root!
Use 'sudo', with sufficient restrictions in place so that this user can
only execute

	upsmon -c fsd

as root.
>   - seem to be a good idea, to set "ups.delay.start" for a
resonabli longer
>     time!
Not really. In fact, this variable is implemented in the wrong way for
the NUT version you now have. Since it immediately acts upon a change,
this is an 'instcmd'. It should not be writeable through upsrw. This has
been corrected in the 'newmge-shut' driver from nut-2.2.1pre1.

Having said that, you probably should make yourself familiar with the
'One more tip' section in 'docs/shutdown.txt' which gives an
option how
to deal with this in a different way. Chances are however, that your UPS
will provide a way to do this automatically which is better. Please post
the output of 'upsc' for your UPS, so that we can see if that'
supported
by the driver you have now.
> How to these changes?
Please upgrade to a more recent version first. I have to dig deep into
the old sources to help here, which is taking me too much time. If you
need more help, I suggest you first upgrade to at least nut-2.2.0.

Best regards, Arjen

> Please upgrade to a more recent version first. I have to dig deep into
> the old sources to help here, which is taking me too much time. If you
> need more help, I suggest you first upgrade to at least nut-2.2.0.
OK
That mean I need to build from sources and somehow make it Debian
compatible, using old version scripts - may be build my own packet (I
never do it before exclude kernel). May be I can use package for testing
version.
Also I never use sudo - many sources agree that is unsecure.

At last here is the upsc output:

battery.charge: 86
battery.charge.low: 30
battery.runtime: 1475
driver.name: mge-shut
driver.parameter.port: /dev/ttyS1
driver.version: 2.0.4
driver.version.internal: 0.66
outlet.0.desc: Main Outlet
outlet.0.id: 1
outlet.0.switchable: 0
outlet.1.autoswitch.charge.low: 0
outlet.1.desc: PowerShare Outlet 1
outlet.1.id: 2
outlet.1.switch: 1
outlet.1.switchable: 0
output.voltage: 230
ups.delay.shutdown: -1
ups.delay.start: -1
ups.load: 0
ups.mfr: MGE UPS SYSTEMS
ups.model: ellipse 800
ups.power.nominal: 800
ups.serial: unknown
ups.status: OL CHRG

This is a usual situation after shutdown and restore.

Thanks for your time Arjen!

On 10/24/07, tovis <mailer.tovis at freemail.hu>
wrote:
> > Please upgrade to a more recent version first. I have to dig deep into
> > the old sources to help here, which is taking me too much time. If you
> > need more help, I suggest you first upgrade to at least nut-2.2.0.
> OK
> That mean I need to build from sources and somehow make it Debian
> compatible, using old version scripts - may be build my own packet (I
> never do it before exclude kernel). May be I can use package for testing
> version.
Starting in the top level NUT directory:

$ ln -s Packaging/debian .
$ debuild -us -uc

The built .debs will be stored one directory up.
> Also I never use sudo - many sources agree that is unsecure.
There are other alternatives, such as chiark-really, or using suidperl.

-- 
- Charles Lepple

Hi guys,

I'm still away due to the MGE UPS SYSTEMS dismantling, and the
creation of MGE Office Protection Systems
(http://www.mgeops.com/index.php/company/company).

I expect this to stop overloading me in around 2 weeks. So I'll get
back on NUT and the many subjects underway...

But I still follow lightly the ml. BTW, thanks a lot Arjen for your
excellent interim ;-)

2007/10/24, tovis <mailer.tovis at freemail.hu>:
> ...
> PS: Arjen de Korte suspected something was wrong around my
"heater" load,
> for now I have used two 150W lamps and it cause load 52% in case
> "ONBATTERY". When battery is charged over 95% the nut is working
as
> suspected, but after first shutdown - switch up cycle the charge is about
> 86% and sequence does not work (usp shutdown early).
well, this is a know behavior of the old Pulsar Ellipse. When
restarting after a shutoff, the battery level is set to 85 %, even if
the actual level is nearby 0, which was dumb and dangerous.

Newer models (Ellipse, Ellipse Max, Protection Center) now do the right thing...

Arjen already answered to the other points.

Arnaud
-- 
Free Software Developer - http://arnaud.quette.free.fr/
Debian Developer - http://people.debian.org/~aquette/
Network UPS Tools (NUT) Project Leader - http://www.networkupstools.org/
Ubuntu Media Center (UMC) Project Leader - https://launchpad.net/~umc-team