[PLUG] UPS Advice needed

[John Jason Jordan]

On Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:13:41 -0700
Eitan Tsur <eitan.tsur at gmail.com> dijo:

> what about running rv batteries with an inverter or dc-dc supplies? id
> assume the hardest bit would be the switching circuit and charger.

Actually I have a 5000 watt gas powered generator. It puts out enough
to run the fridge, freezer, television, computer and lighting. When the
news said we were going to have snow and ice before last Christmas I
filled up a couple five gallon gas cans. From previous experience, they
are enough for nearly two days, and there's another 20 gallons in the
truck parked in the garage.

So I have plenty of backup power capability. The problem is that the
power from the generator is probably not the cleanest. I have run a
television off it with no problem, but the only time I ran a computer
off it was back when I had the UPS that ran everything off its own
battery 100% of the time.

I can do without the desktop, but not my laptop. And even when it was
brand new the battery lasted only about two hours. I know they say some
huge number of hours in their ads, but they get those numbers by
letting it sit and do nothing. In my experience, whatever the ads say,
cut it in half if you actually plan to use the computer.

And then there's the glitch in <some unknown part of Ubuntu> that makes
it go into suspend if it loses line power. Yes, the battery is fully
charged (although down to only about 85% of what it was when new three
years ago), but when it loses line power it goes into suspend and then
switches to the battery. That wouldn't be so bad except for an
additional glitch in <some unknown part of Ubuntu> that makes it refuse
to unsleep itself. If I hit Ctrl-F4 it tries to come back, but I can't
get X to resume and I can't even get to a command line.

Even though I have the generator I don't really want to fire it up
until the power has been out for long enough to make me worry about the
freezer and refrigerator. Therefore, I'd like something that would
produce line voltage to the laptop for, say, 12 hours. And it's a big
Thinkpad and I am really using it with lots of stuff running and lots
of disk activity, bright screen, etc. And, as someone else noted, I
need to keep my router, switch and modem running too.

So I remain unconvinced that I should get a small UPS. 

After reading the several responses I have concluded that the advice
that I really need is what UPS will work with a laptop and a desktop
that run only Ubuntu. Even when I had the old APC running I was using
Windows and I never connected any cables to the computer or installed
software to shut the computer down. So I know nothing about how that
part works. 

Bottom line: What FOSS software do I need to run, and which UPSs are
compatible with it?