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Dell XPS has the following option in Windows 8: I assume it's a hardware switch that is set somehow, so does it stick when rebooting to Ubuntu? Is there a way to check or switch this option from Linux?
I assume there's a driver somewhere since Dell makes the XPS 13, a Linux-preinstalled version of the XPS.
As previous answers have mentioned, this is not a hardware switch, but instead a software function. There is a kernel module available (tp-smapi-dkms), but it only works for Lenovo ThinkPads.
Enabling this function on your Dell laptop would require you or the vendor to write and implement a kernel module for your laptop model, the same way as they wrote the software for Windows.
Right now, your best bet is to unplug the battery manually when it's reached 80%. If you have some coding skills, you can use acpitool and notify-send to write an script to let you know when the battery has reached its 80%. acpitool -B will display information about your battery, from where you can grep some information.
tl;dr: No, you cannot do it at this point, your vendor would need to write the software as it's not a hardware switch.
There is a command line tool from dell https://www.dell.com/support/article/de/de/debsdt1/sln311302/dell-command-configure?lang=en
which is probably doing what you want
C: in that page.
I just stumbled upon this link and it looks like it's working.. No errors. I'll keep you updated if it does stop at 80% https://github.com/glynhudson/dell-charge-limit
Update: Use DELL Command | Configure
This answer is no longer relavent
Dell longevity feature is only usable on Windows OS via driver.
Dell haven`t developed any program to support that feature on Linux, also there are no third party drivers for that.
no, it is not a hardware swtich. it is a software function. you can even set the same thing to happen in ubuntu. look at the link below for clarification.
For what it's worth, on the Dell XPS 15 (model 9550), this option seems to work in linux if you enable in the BIOS. That is, the XPS 15 provides both an Windows tool (Dell Command Power Manager, or something like that) and BIOS options to set the battery change behavior.
If you set the BIOS options, they seem to work in Ubuntu. That is, I've set it to 90% max change, and the change state in Ubuntu goes up to 89% and stays there.
There are some inconsistencies though - sometimes it breaks through the 89% barrier and goes up to 100%. I haven't figured that out yet.
