[Lubuntu] Capture "wall" messages for display on desktop?

[John Hupp]

On 10/27/2012 1:36 AM, Jonathan Marsden wrote:
> John,
>
> On 10/26/2012 04:52 PM, John Hupp wrote:
>
>> The only problem is that it only posts warning messages to the
>> wall command, which outputs only to console sessions.  ...
> In my experience, apcupsd is a *lot* more configurable than that -- did
> you read its documentation or its scripts before posting?
>
> You can create scripts for each class of event (onbattery, offbattery,
> etc.) handled by /etc/apcupsd/apccontrol that do *whatever* you want
> them to do -- turn the message into audio and speak it using a speech
> synth, if you really want :)
>
> You don't even need to edit /etc/apcupsd/apccontrol to do this, it will
> notice that your custom scripts exist, and use them instead of its
> internal default actions.
>
> Jonathan
>
>
[Newbie sent scurrying to dig into the "Customizing Event Handling" 
section of the apcupsd manual, and for some general research on desktop 
notificationmethods.]

OK, I found out that notify-send is a common desktop notification tool, 
and that one installs the libnotify-bin package to get it.  I did so.

I have now also created the shell script /etc/apcupsd/annoyme. It is 
owned by root. I used the Properties: Permissions sheet to give everyone 
Read & Write permission, and marked it executable.

The contents of annoyme:
     #!/bin/sh
     notify-send -u critical -t 5000 "The computer is running on 
battery." "It will shut down shortly. Please save your work and log off."
     exit 0

Running this script manually pops up a nice warning on the desktop for 5 
seconds.

But when I pull the plug for a UPS test, I do not get any desktop 
warnings, though apcupsd powers down the PC when expected. But if I log 
into a console during that time, I see the default onbattery and annoyme 
wall messages.  As I understand it, apccontrol should run my custom 
annoyme script before running its own default annoyme command.

I have not modified apccontrol.

Anyone recognize what the problem is?

--------------------------
I could add parameters from my current configured-for-testing apcupsd.conf:

UPSCABLE usb
UPSTYPE usb
DEVICE
LOCKFILE /var/lock
SCRIPTDIR /etc/apcupsd
PWRFAILDIR /etc/apcupsd
NOLOGINDIR /etc

ONBATTERYDELAY 6
BATTERYLEVEL 5
MINUTES 3
TIMEOUT 60
ANNOY 10
ANNOYDELAY 20
NOLOGON always
KILLDELAY 0

NETSERVER on
NISIP 0.0.0.0
NISPORT 3551
EVENTSFILE /var/log/apcupsd.events
EVENTSFILEMAX 10

UPSCLASS standalone
UPSMODE disable

STATTIME 0
STATFILE /var/log/apcupsd.status
LOGSTATS off
DATATIME 0
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