[Nut-upsuser] Problem installing NUT on 16.04

[Charles Lepple]

On Dec 2, 2016, at 10:23 PM, Jack McGee <jack at greendesk.net> wrote:
> 
> This is new install on Ubuntu 16.04, using packages from Synaptic, 
> Network UPS Tools upsd 2.7.2
> 
> I am getting these messages in the terminal:
> Broadcast message from nut at amethi (somewhere) (Fri Dec  2 12:33:03 2016):      
>                                                                                
> UPS CyberUPS1 at localhost is unavailable 
> 
> I am still unclear on where to set when nut shutdowns system.

The basic configuration is that upsmon will shut down the system (running SHUTDOWNCMD in /etc/nut/upsmon.conf) when the UPS signals that its battery is low.

Your UPS probably indicates this currently:

$ upsc tl ups.status 2>/dev/null
OL

The last line will change to "OB" when the power fails, and "OB LB" when the UPS has passed one of its low-power thresholds.

It looks like this UPS supports both a battery level threshold, and a time-remaining threshold:

http://networkupstools.org/ddl/Cyber_Power_Systems/CP1500PFCLCD.html

 * battery.charge.low
 * battery.runtime.low

You can adjust these with the "upsrw" command, but I don't think we have verified whether the settings are stored in non-volatile memory on this particular UPS.

> I had problem initially starting:
> 
> mythuser at amethi:/etc/nut$ sudo upsdrvctl start 
> Network UPS Tools - UPS driver controller 2.7.2 
> Network UPS Tools - Generic HID driver 0.38 (2.7.2) 
> USB communication driver 0.32 
> Can't claim USB device [0764:0501]: could not detach kernel driver from interface 0: Operation not permitted 
> Driver failed to start (exit status=1)
> 
> But that appeared to be resolved by unplugging USB cable and replugging it.
> 
This bug still applies: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nut/+bug/1540008

I should add a fix for that to my PPA build.

Speaking of which, there have been some long-term stability bugs related to the USB controllers on newer motherboards with the particular USB access method that NUT uses. Full history is here, but towards the end is a success story with a similar UPS (1000PFCLCD): https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/issues/300#issuecomment-263090233

The PPA switches NUT from libusb-0.1 to 1.0.

https://launchpad.net/%7Eclepple/+archive/ubuntu/nut