UPower 1.91.3 fixes a bug that was accelerating laptop battery wear

The UPower developers have released version 1.91.3 — an important fix for the power-management abstraction layer used on Linux systems, primarily on laptops and desktop computers.

The new version fixes a bug in the service's behavior that, on some laptops, caused an unintended fallback to a “fast” battery charging mode. According to the developers, this mode can accelerate battery degradation over time.

UPower acts as an intermediary layer between the Linux kernel and user applications, providing information about battery status and managing related power settings. Bugs in this component can affect a wide range of distributions and desktop environments, since many of them rely on UPower for power monitoring and management.

The release of version 1.91.3 is described as an urgent fix aimed at ensuring that Linux laptop users don't experience accelerated battery wear due to incorrect operation of the charging mode. The developers recommend upgrading to the new version to avoid the undesirable behavior.

The brief announcement does not provide details about the specific causes of the bug or exactly which laptop models were affected.

Source: Phoronix