In a recent thread there were questions about UPS software for SuSE where I pointed out that apcupsd was a good choice for APC UPS systems. I also noted that it was a good idea to get the software from http://apcupsd.com. Someone replied that instead of apcupsd one should use the PowerChute software from th official APC site so I got a copy to check it out. I found that it has some problems: 1) PowerChute for Linux is not a complete package. Here is a quote from the documentation: NOTE: Your Linux download only includes the Agent component of the three PowerChute Business Edition software components. The other two components only run on Windows... 2) PowerChute doesn't support a USB connection, which is the only type of connection that was shipped with the APC system I recently bought (BackUPS XS-1000). PowerChute insists on using a serial port. You will need to contact APC to get the proper serial cable. 3) PowerChute depends on a specific version of Java. About apcupsd: The version that comes with SuSE 9.3 (3.10.16) works, but it has a minor problem with the USB connection in that it gets some of the status wrong. There are some other problems as well, but its main functions do work OK. I got the latest source (3.10.18) from http://apcupsd.com and have been using that successfully for some time now. I didn't use the web site's rpm version (it only advertises SuSE support up to version 9.2) from the web site. The rpm on the SuSE CD/DVD has been patched by SuSE to improve its init script and a few other things. So, the best thing seems to be to install the rpm from the SuSE 9.3 CD/DVD, save the init script, build and install the newer version from the apcups web site, then put back the SuSE version of the init script. This is what I have done. Building the package is fairly standard -- configure, make, make install. But configure requires some options: ./configure --enable-cgi --enable-pthreads --enable-net \ --enable-master-slave --enable-apcsmart \ --enable-dumb --enable-usb make make install You may need to copy some files (e.g. the CGI files?) to their correct directories -- I don't remember exactly what I did. I know that all sounds like a lot of trouble, but it really isn't too hard and once installed apcupsd is a snap to configure and run. Work it all out with the SuSE version first then copy in the updated executables.