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Lenovo To Make Its BIOS/UEFI Updates Easier For Linux Users Via LVFS (phoronix.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Lenovo is making it easier for their customers running Linux to update their firmware now on ThinkPad, ThinkStation, and ThinkCenter hardware. Lenovo has joined the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS) and following collaboration with the upstream developers is beginning to roll-out support for offering their device firmware on this platform so it can be easily updated by users with the fwupd stack. Kudos to all involved especially with Lenovo ThinkPads being very popular among Linux users.
Lenovos are usually the hardware I have least trouble with when installing Ubuntu at least.
I thought that it was a file system that your BIOS could mount ;-)
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Only that it has been available forever. The only problem was that while killing a BIOS from userspace was always easy, updating it successfully was not.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Only that it has been available forever. The only problem was that while killing a BIOS from userspace was always easy, updating it successfully was not.
Have you even looked at Lenovo's support page? BIOS/UEFI updates are pretty much the category where updates are painless for Linux users since those updates are provided optionally as bootable disk images (based on some DOS system I think). In contrast, firmware updates for a lot of things (Wifi cards, network cards, GSM and so on) tend to be available only as Windows programs/drivers.
But the BIOS pretty much was the thing that was always reasonably easy to keep updated (I do remember that I had to fiddle with some Freedos disk juggling at some point of time when ThinkPads were still IBM, but even that was workable though not supported officially).
Being this is a feature common in Windows system... I don't see this a big change. Other then not needing windows to do the upgrade.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Updated my ThinkPad T470s using Kubuntu 18.04, just worked out of the box, this is simply amazing.
Sweet. I also notice that many or most enthusiast motherboards are shipping with Windows-independent bios updaters now. This suggests the Linux component of the enthusiast segment is signifcant. Another motivation would be, you see no end of forum posts about people bricking their motherboard because of running the bios update with the Windows utility.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
When is Linux going to work properly on X1 Tablet Gen3? launched in Feb, still trackpoint/buttons not working, suspend not working.
Looks like patches have been available for some time, some discussion here. Maybe just not landed in your distro yet. Make sure your bios is updated to current and check around to see which firmware packages you need. If you still have issues then get on a forum, Slashdot isn't ideal.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Most I know who run Linux also run Windows in a duel boot function anyway.
Is that the one where Linux and Windows fight to the death with rapiers?
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
On my Gigabyte motherboard, I download the new BIOS, stick it on a small FAT partition on an external drive I have for various things, boot into the BIOS and pick "upgrade". The BIOS will then read the firmware from the FAT partition in question, verify it then install it before rebooting automatically. I am sure if I stuck the BIOS on a thumb drive it would work as well (except that I would need to find a thumb drive whereas the extra partition on the existing external HDD is easy to work with)
Why can't everyone make it that easy rather than needing to run a Windows exe or boot from a special DOS boot disk or something (or even this new Linux thing)
There are already working solutions for this. For example, having FreeDOS on a USB drive, downloading the BIOS to it, and booting from it is very simple.
Did it on my Dell Latitude a while back, and got the latest BIOS on it without any issues.
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Dell has a solution to this that Lenovo should be able to implement: The ability to install BIOS updates from a flash drive straight from the boot options menu. No hacks or "firmware services" needed. Actually I am surprised that they don't (but I don't have much experience with modern Thinkpads, so they may already have the capability already).
Simply put the BIOS update file onto a FAT32 formatted flash drive, restart the system and press the key to bring up the boot menu (on Dell's it is F12), select the option for BIOS firmware update, select the BIOS update in the file explorer, and select update. This method takes an operating system out of the equation completely and the only tool you need is a common USB flash drive.
I'm holding out for the FEELpad. :-D LOL
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
There are reasons to open a laptop other than fixing it. Expanding memory, adding optional modules, upgrading storage, etc.. Most of those are quick and trivial
You know, the exact list of things that Apple was brave and courageous to SOLDER ON their supposedly "pro" range of laptops.
being able to manage it in a few minutes at a convenient time in the office greatly offsets the hassle of scheduling on-site service - let alone overnight or any other service type of "send it in" service.
And you can count on Apple's service being not "same-day / over-night", because they don't allow shops to keep local stock of replacement parts for the latest Pro models(need to ship a broken part in, before receiving the replacement part). Apparently to avoid some replacements ending up on ebay black market.
My current laptop is a Dell Latitude business laptop (there's exactly ONE single screw to open the bottom pannel and get immediate access to nearly everything).
My next one is going to be a good business laptop too (probably a ThinkPad one if they get a good feature set, including full AMD chipset, like on the A480 / E585)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Actually, to nitpick : you do NOT get user space to the Firmware.
Since UEFI, the firmware locks-down irreversibly lots of low-level access once its start to boot the OS.
It's impossible to recover these low-level access unless you reboot completely.
Thus these low-level access are only up and available while the UEFI firmware is active, they cannot be available while the OS is running.
Instead, it uses an approach called capsule :
- the userspace part just gives a plain file to the UEFI. And that's it. It does nothing on it's own. Usually after finishing that, the userspace program encourages you to reboot.
- on the following reboot, while the UEFI firmware is running, it can detect that a new payload is available, check its signature, check it is targetting the correct hardware, and eventually jumps into it *before* the usually boot-time hand-over lock-down of low-level function.
- the updater can itself perform futher checks and performs the flashing.
As it's a plain file, it's usually also possible to completely ignore the OS : just save it on a USB stick, and most UEFI menu have a special entry that starts a file browser and give you the possibilty to point to the file on the stick your self, instead of relying on the OS. It will then again run the check and jump into the updater as above.
Bottom line : it's not the user-space, it's the UEFI. And the UEFI has been able to update the UEFI since ages.
You can't write a virus that will write arbitrary bullshit on the UEFI firmware.
BUT if you have a valid signing key, you can write a valid upgrade that will pass all checks and will get the UEFI to self-overwrite with arbitrary bullshit.
The end result is the same (getting arbitrary bullshit), but mean is different (the user space has no access, its merely a short cut to avoid needing to manually point the update file with the UEFI menu file browser).
Given how simple the update is from the point of view of the OS, there's no technical reason why it should not be enabled on Linux.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
With a BIOS based machine, it works this way indeed, with a DOS boot (an OS that has no protection whatsover and could directly talk to the flasher to flash a new bios).
With UEFI that not the case anymore. Lots of low-level functionality (including flashing) is locked-down once the OS is booted. This is irreversible, a OS cannot reclaim the flashing capability, you need to reboot the machine back into UEFI.
In that case, the upgrade is simply a file.
This file can be either directly selected from a built-in file browser in the UEFI menu (another poster mentions this on Dell).
Or this file can be pushed by an executable. That's what the Windows or DOS upgrade executable do on modern UEFI machine. They don't actually flash the update, they give the file to the UEFI to use for flashing on the next reboot.
Given that its simply uploading a file, no low-level flashing, there's no reason why it couldn't be added to Linux too.
(Bonus point: the UEFI will check signatures and compatibility of such update capsules before starting them).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
boot into the BIOS and pick "upgrade". The BIOS will then read the firmware from the FAT partition in question, verify it then install it before rebooting automatically. I am sure if I stuck the BIOS on a thumb drive it would work as well (except that I would need to find a thumb drive whereas the extra partition on the existing external HDD is easy to work with)
And that's what the various user-space "updater" (Windows, or TFA's Linux, or even a few older DOS for those who use that) actually do :
they simply provide the file to the UEFI firmware and tell "please on the next reboot, use this file".
Since UEFI, user-space program cannot have the necessary access to perform the flashing themselves any more, it's locked-up when handing control from UEFI to OS.
Why can't everyone make it that easy rather than needing to run a Windows exe or boot from a special DOS boot disk or something (or even this new Linux thing)
The point here is *unattended upgrade*. A windows .EXE upgrade means that it can be part of some "update" software that runs periodically.
Being accessible to "fwupd" means that on Ubuntu and Fedora, it could be part of the regular update GUI (synaptic and I forgot what respectively).
Critical firmware bug could be fixed even for non-power user that would forget or even not be comfortable enough to boot into the UEFI menu to manually pick up the upgrade themselves.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
If so, I am seriously worried - Windows IS the Zombie apocalypse your mother warned you about!
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About the only thing I remember for those was that IBM supplied a program that wrote the disk out since it came as a disk image. The disk image of course contained PC-DOS (IBM, remember?).
But the last machine I had with IBM as a true builder was a Windows 95 ThinkPad and thus even the DOS disk image writers still worked on it.
Although I think IBM was unusual in that every disk they provided in various shrinkwrap packages were also available via the on system "Disk Creator" program. Thought it was neat I could create disks of some stuff, only to find it in the box later when I looked.