FWUPD 1.6 Released For Latest Linux Firmware Updating Capabilities

[r1348]

So the article claims it's a "triumphant success with growing industry adoption from major hardware vendors" and yet no normal person can use it? :-(

Anyone with a Dell or Lenovo laptop can use it. That's hundreds of millions of potential users.

[r1348]

Sadly, no desktop motherboard support fwupd. I find it disappointing to not see Asus, Asrock, Gigabyte, MSI, etc support fwupd.

My ASRock motherboards don't support *any* OS-level firmware update, you need to load the firmware file on an USB key and update from there. On one hand, this makes them OS agnostic, as long as your OS can unzip a file and put it on a USB key. On the other end, yeah fwupd support would be nice.

[hughsie]

and yet no normal person can use it? :-(

So far 27,330,876 people have used it, and I'm guessing at least some of those people are normal?

[phred14]

My ASRock motherboards don't support *any* OS-level firmware update, you need to load the firmware file on an USB key and update from there. On one hand, this makes them OS agnostic, as long as your OS can unzip a file and put it on a USB key. On the other end, yeah fwupd support would be nice.

I actually rather like this. I don't like the BIOS being accessible from an ordinary OS boot. That just seems too much like a potential attack vector to me. I like the idea of having to be there in person doing physical interventions in order to update the BIOS.

[Schugy]

Uhm no, UEFI on HP laptops can self-update from an ethernet connection, not needing any OS. I'd still like fwupd support though.

Thank you for the hint. My notebook has no ethernet port. So far there's no reply in the HP forums.

[baka0815]

This is the problem, we need more motherboard vendors onboard. This is a great idea and will help Linux “look” more professional but that only if we can buy products that use FWUPD.

on the otherhand I’m pretty sure many vendors like HP don’t give dAmn when it comes to firmware support. It really looks like we have run into a situation where vendors don’t want to support their hardware.

Can't you update most consumer boards via BIOS?
I have a GIGABYTE board where I just insert an USB stick with the new firmware and reboot into the BIOS to update the board from the stick.

[hughsie]

Can't you update most consumer boards via BIOS?

Yes, although the payload mechanism itself not the most valuable part of this system. How do you know if GIGABYTE released a new firmware fixing a critical CSME security bug, unless you're looking at the GIGABYTE forums and the product page for your motherboard? With LVFS, regardless of however you actually deploy the update the metadata allows us to notify you using your software center that an update is available the day it's released.

[baka0815]

hughsie Yes, that's valuable and sensible and it's great that FWUPD exists and more manufacturers start supporting it.
However for BIOS updates that was always the way I updated my BIOS. Download the firmware manually from the website of the manufacturer and then manually upgrading the BIOS either via the provided tools (Windows) or via the update mechanism the BIOS itself provided.
Since unfortunately most manufacturers still provide the update tools only for Windows, I'm glad that the update via BIOS exists.