Dell Power Manager for Linux 🔋🛡️

A native, open-source Linux replacement for Dell Power Manager built for Dell laptops (Dell G15, Inspiron, XPS, Alienware, Latitude, Precision).

Easily limit battery charging to 50% (for maximum battery health while plugged into AC) or 80% (for longevity with mobility), switch charging profiles, monitor live battery health, and control charging thresholds directly via a native GTK3 graphical interface or a fast command-line tool.

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📌 Table of Contents

• Key Features
• Quick Installation
• Graphical Interface (GUI)
• Command-Line Interface (CLI)
• Service & Persistence
• Dell Linux Ecosystem
• Uninstallation
• License

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🌟 Key Features

• 🛡️ Battery Health Charging Limits:
  • Limit to 50% (Recommended for Desk/Gaming): Starts charging below 50%, stops at 55%. Keeps battery chemistry at optimal voltage to prevent cell degradation and swelling.
  • Limit to 80% (Balanced Daily Use): Starts charging below 75%, stops at 80%. Ideal balance for portability and longevity.
  • ⚙️ Custom Thresholds: Set any start percentage (50–95%) and stop percentage (55–100%).
• 🔌 Native Dell SMBIOS Charging Profiles:
  • Primarily AC Use: Dell BIOS hardware mode designed for continuous AC operation.
  • Adaptive: Dynamically learns and optimizes charging based on your usage habits.
  • Standard (100%): Standard safe full charging to 100%.
  • ExpressCharge: Dell high-speed rapid charge to 100%.
• 📊 Live Battery Telemetry:
  • Real-time battery capacity percentage & progress bar.
  • Health indicator (current capacity vs design capacity).
  • Current power draw in Watts and battery voltage.
  • AC adapter status and cycle count.
• 🖥️ Beautiful GTK3 Interface (dell-power-gui):
  • Sleek UI matching Zorin OS, GNOME, and modern Linux desktops.
  • One-click profile selection and live status feedback.
  • Native desktop launcher with custom Dell Power icon in your app menu.
• ⚡ Persistence Across Reboots:
  • Includes a systemd service (dell-power.service) that automatically re-enforces your chosen charging threshold on boot and resume from sleep/suspend.

Note

Hardware Compatibility Note (e.g., Dell G15 5515 AMD): On certain Dell models (such as the Dell G15 AMD Ryzen edition), Dell firmware disables operating-system runtime battery writes via SMBIOS/SMI. On these systems, dell-power provides full telemetry & diagnostics, detects the firmware restriction, and guides you to set the threshold once in Dell BIOS Setup (F2 on boot → Power → Primary Battery Charge Configuration → Custom). Once set in BIOS, the Embedded Controller enforces the limit permanently at the hardware level.

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🚀 Quick Installation

Prerequisites

• Linux kernel 5.x+ / 6.x+
• Python 3.10+
• Poetry package manager
• smbios-utils (Dell SMBIOS user tools)

On Ubuntu / Zorin OS / Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y python3-poetry smbios-utils python3-libsmbios python3-gi

Install with Installer Script

git clone https://github.com/moalmatry/dell-power-manager.git
cd dell-power-manager
./install.sh

The installer will:

1. Build the Poetry environment and dependencies.
2. Symlink global binaries /usr/local/bin/dell-power and /usr/local/bin/dell-power-gui.
3. Configure passwordless sudoers permissions for hardware SMBIOS calls.
4. Install the desktop launcher and custom SVG icon.
5. Enable the systemd service for boot/resume threshold persistence.
6. Automatically apply the 50% battery health limit.

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🖥️ Graphical Interface (GUI)

Launch from your desktop application launcher by searching for "Dell Power Manager", or launch from terminal:

dell-power-gui

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💻 Command-Line Interface (CLI)

View Battery Status & Health

dell-power status

Example Output:

=======================================================
           Dell Power Manager - Battery Status          
=======================================================
  Level:      [███████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░] 65%
  State:      Charging
  Power:      10.27 W @ 11.59 V
  AC Adapter: Connected (Online)
-------------------------------------------------------
  Health:     45.9% (3466 / 7544 mAh)
  Cycles:     0
-------------------------------------------------------
  Active Profile: 🛡️  Custom Limit (Start: 50%, Stop: 55%)
=======================================================

Limit Charging to 50% (Maximum Longevity)

dell-power limit 50

Limit Charging to 80% (Balanced Daily Use)

dell-power limit 80

Set Custom Start & Stop Thresholds

dell-power custom 50 60

(Start must be between 50–95%, Stop between 55–100%, and Stop must be at least 5% higher than Start).

Set Predefined Charging Profile

dell-power mode primarily_ac   # Optimized for laptops mostly plugged in
dell-power mode standard       # Full 100% normal charge
dell-power mode adaptive       # Auto-adapting
dell-power mode express        # Dell ExpressCharge fast charging

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🔄 Service & Persistence

The systemd service keeps your preferred charging limit active even after reboots, shut downs, and sleep/suspend events:

# Check service status
systemctl status dell-power.service

# Manually trigger re-application
dell-power apply

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🛠️ Uninstallation

To cleanly remove Dell Power Manager:

cd dell-power-manager
./uninstall.sh

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🌐 Dell Linux Ecosystem

Supercharge your Dell gaming laptop on Linux with companion tools from this suite:

• ⚡ dell-gmode — Native Linux background daemon and CLI utility to enable the Fn+F9 Game Shift (G-Mode) hardware key, 100% maximum fan cooling boost via Alienware WMAX ACPI, and CPU/GPU performance power profiles.
• 🌈 dell-g15-rgb — Native Linux driver, CLI, and GTK 3 GUI for Dell G15 & Alienware laptops to control AlienFX 4-Zone RGB keyboard lighting, custom hardware effects, brightness, and permanently fix the "stuck on red" backlight issue.

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📜 License

MIT License. Copyright (c) 2026 Mohamed Almatry.