Hello,

yes, you are right. Probably this option is not possible with my model of XPS. It is not possible to set it in the BIOS.

I have seen in my research, that there was even a bug fix about the battery live. But it was only for newer models and my CPU was not affected.

Thanks for your advice.

Okay, so it seems, that there is no easy solution to save life of the battery of my Dell XPS and Ubuntu operating system.

The hard way still remains. I have a 3 1/2 year old Lenovo Y50 which controls an external switch to maintain the battery between 30% and 60%. I checked earlier today and the battery is at 65% capacity which seems decent for a laptop that has been plugged in for most of the 3 1/2 years. I can provide additional details if that would be helpful.

Hello everyone,
thanks for all the information you shared.

The command I use returns the following output on my XPS 13 9333 with Ubuntu 18.04 and BIOS version A03 release date 01/28/2014:

sudo /opt/dell/dcc/cctk --primarybatterycfg=custom:50-85
primarybatterycfg=custom:50-55

Checking the BIOS in fact returns that the custom levels are locked to be 50 to 55 and can't be changed.

Do you think upgrading to BIOS A08 (the last available for the XPS 13 9333) could unlock the custom levels ?

Cheers

I spent a few hours today, exploring all the options including Dell Command Configure and updating my BIOS, changing the BIOS settings, etc. I have definitively concluded that my Dell Laptop (E6410) does not and will never have this BIOS setting, therefore the Dell Command Configure utility cannot set this setting (because it is a BIOS setting command line utility).  Even though the documentation for the Dell Command Configure lists all possible settings, not all settings are available for every Laptop.

Dell Command Configure is available in the Ubuntu repositories (and therefore I installed it with synaptic package manager in Linux Mint).  Running it from path:

/opt/dell/dcc

Like so, lists all available settings for your BIOS on your laptop:

sudo ./cctk

It is a generic Dell BIOS command line utility that only lets you set the settings that are actually in your BIOS on your laptop.  If you upgrade your BIOS and new settings are added in that BIOS version, the same settings will be available to set through Linux / windows from Dell Command Configure. 

I now believe that the charge controller is built into your laptop hardware (motherboard) and if the BIOS setting is not available to configure the max charge and min charge values, then there is no way for (Linux OS / Software / BIOS) to control these settings. The max charge / min charge settings must be a feature of newer chargers / motherboards and their corresponding BIOS ROMs.  The only way to get the ability to control the charge is to upgrade the motherboard with one that has this feature built into it (and the BIOS).

The easiest way to change this setting if you have it in your BIOS is to go into the BIOS and change it there. If the Command Configure can't change the values then, maybe your BIOS is password protected?  The read-only values are listed with an asterisk (*) when you run it with no parameters.

Is there any way to tell the battery not to charge?

When powering from an external USB battery pack, I want to power the laptop only, not to charge its batteries. That's easy to do on thinkpad, but with dell, all I have is
/opt/dell/dcc/cctk --PrimaryBattChargeCfg=Custom:50-55
but this only works if the battery is still over 55%.
Is there anything better, or that's the best there is?

After installing dell-command-configure on Latitude E5540 running  Manjaro it seems to accept :

sudo cctk --PrimaryBattChargeCfg=Custom,50,80

But the system won't "respect" these changes sadly

@Manjaro22211​ That actually works on the latest Manjaro here

Installing dell-command-configure and running :

sudo cctk --PrimaryBattChargeCfg=Custom,50,80

Does work now here.

Hello there,

i see so many people struggling with this issue, and decided to post my feedback.

I actually run debian on dell Latitude 7290, and i try to limit the charge of my battery (say from 50 to 85%)

> Lauching cctk binary seems to work, but the tool tells me i cannot set custom charging  mode :

~# cctk --help PrimaryBattChargeCfg


PrimaryBattChargeCfg:  Configures the primary battery charging.
....
Arguments: Standard+ | Express+ | PrimAcUse | Adaptive | Custom
Note : + Indicates the arguments supported in the current machine.


~# cctk --PrimaryBattChargeCfg=Custom:50-85 

Error in Setting the Value.

> So i ended up using package "smbios-utils"

~# smbios-battery-ctl --set-charging-mode=custom
~# smbios-battery-ctl --set-custom-charge-interval=50 85

--------

System: Debian 12 stable

Machine : Dell Latitude 7290 2nd hand (i doubt the battery is a genuine DELL one, maybe there is some battery-firmware-sorcery in place)

I have a Dell Latitude 7480 and the BIOS trick worked for me.

I'm using a freshly installed Zorin OS 17.2 Core version.