Dell Command | Control Linux
Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2022 9:15 am
Just found out that Dell makes a Command | Control software (cli only) for Linux!! Amongst other things, if the device supports it, you can actually manage battery thresholds through this. My Inspiron 7415 2-in-1 isn't supported, but the Latitude 5420 is. So my Latitude is now set like my Lenovo's to only charge from 70% to 95% battery. If it's between those areas, even plugged in it won't charge. And I can change it so that if I"m traveling I can set it to charge again always from Linux, without having to go into bios. While not as convenient as Lenovo making this option integrate into KDE/Gnome's control panel, it's at least a way to do it.
If interested in testing the software, it can be downloaded from the Dell support site for your laptop by choosing Ubuntu 20.04 LTS in the OS field. If you want to see what alls supported even if the laptop doesn't have this OS listed, you can choose any laptop that DOES list it (Latitude 5420 for instance) and it should still install. NOte, the download is a .tar.gz of 2 .deb files. If running on Arch, the software is available via the AUR. If running a derivative of Red Hat, you can get it by looking up the Precision 5530 (RHEL 7) or 5540 (RHEL 8). I'm going to test at some point if the packages for RHEL 8 will install on OpenSUSE (they definitely won't work since I'll test in a VM).
If interested in testing the software, it can be downloaded from the Dell support site for your laptop by choosing Ubuntu 20.04 LTS in the OS field. If you want to see what alls supported even if the laptop doesn't have this OS listed, you can choose any laptop that DOES list it (Latitude 5420 for instance) and it should still install. NOte, the download is a .tar.gz of 2 .deb files. If running on Arch, the software is available via the AUR. If running a derivative of Red Hat, you can get it by looking up the Precision 5530 (RHEL 7) or 5540 (RHEL 8). I'm going to test at some point if the packages for RHEL 8 will install on OpenSUSE (they definitely won't work since I'll test in a VM).