APC Back-UPS CS 500Ei and Debian etch

January 17 2008 : posted under linux debian

Just got a new UPS and it’s working nicely :-)

Running on Debian Etch I had to upgrade the NUT package but this worked very simply by bringing in the one from Lenny (in testing)

added to /etc/apt/sources.list

deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free

then ran apt-get build-dep nut

as normal user

apt-get source nut
cd to nut dir
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc -b

then as root installed the .deb created

After that it was just a case of reading the docs and configuring.

I’m using the UPS for my desktop and monitor - it’s drawing 25% load with a predicted battery runtime of about 45minutes (which I don’t quite believe)