Lenovo To Support Configuring ThinkPad BIOS From Within Linux

[Kemosabe]

Is there any evidence for the lenovo-spies-for-CCP-on-you talk? Nothing really is equally attractive as a thinkpad to me. Too bad they were unable to deliver a few weeks ago so purchased DELL.

I'll happily buy more Chinese products if it will hasten the decline of the Anglo-Saxon economy.

My data is much safer in Chinese hands than in Western hands.

It would have helped the "Anglo-Saxon economy" the most to not pursue fantasies of past imperial might, a self inflicted loss long ago - for good. And making yourself dependent on dubious "partners" on the other side of the world instead next door makes it obviously much worse.

[Paradigm Shifter]

The OS and kernel has got no business touching or modifying the UEFI in any way.

I couldn't agree with this more!

Giving the OS the ability to change the BIOS is a horrible feature that should never been permitted. I support a hardware (jumpers, yay!) read-only/writeable toggle for BIOSes, because it would be hard for BIOS viruses to get in (and UEFI is even more vulnerable) if they can't write anything.

[Sonadow]

I couldn't agree with this more!

Giving the OS the ability to change the BIOS is a horrible feature that should never been permitted. I support a hardware (jumpers, yay!) read-only/writeable toggle for BIOSes, because it would be hard for BIOS viruses to get in (and UEFI is even more vulnerable) if they can't write anything.

IKR?

It's really interesting and horrifying how so many people think it's a good thing that an OS should be allowed to arbitrarily manage BIOS or UEFI settings.

The only place where such settings should be modified is through the limited interface provided by the UEFI vendors themselves or though purpose-built software programs that are specially designed do so (like the Linux Foundation's MOKutil).

[board]

years ago (months before the usa did go against huawei) i bought a huawei phone to protest against spy activity from USA/Germany
well can you believe this this really caused a volcanic eruption in the US/german intelligence community
1-2 monts after this the usa did ban huawei and sanctioned huawei...

i can not proof this but i think it was also because of me... (i am so sorry for huawei and i am also so sorry for the usa that huawei did get all the *secret* stuff i research on the internet) looks really like if you are a little bit destructive and do not want that your own government spy on you you just have to invide more people (enemies) spy on you... there was some damange of course but i am sick of having smartphones with government trojan horses.

Open hardware and open software is the way forward.

[Gonk]

The code says it works on all models that support WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation). I dug through some Lenovo docs to get the list of all models that do.

• all ThinkPad models from 2018 or newer
• ThinkPad models from before 2018:
  • 10 (all generations)
  • 11e, 13e, 13
  • E470, E570
  • Helix (machine types: 20CG, 20CH)
  • L430, L530, L440, L540, L450, L460, L560, L470, L570
  • P50, P50s, P70, P40 Yoga, P51, P51s, P71
  • S1, S2, S5
  • T430, T430s, T430u, T530, T440, T440p, T440s, T540p, T450, T450s, T550, W550s, T460, T460p, T460s, T560, T470, T470s, T470p, T570
  • W530, W540, W541
  • X1 Carbon (all generations)
  • X1 Tablet (all generations)
  • X1 Yoga (all generations)
  • X230, X230 Tablet, X240, X240s, X250, X260, X270
  • Yoga 11e
  • Yoga 260, Yoga 460, Yoga 370

[artivision]

Huawei refused to surrender the keys of their devices to the US government. After that they where accused of espionage without proof, only with the sole reason that if their devices are not open to the US government then something is hidden. That is the US law from a point and then. If it where not for a certain eastern terrorist religion, i would say that US is the bottom of humanity.

[some_canuck]

what's with all the geopolitical spam, none of that has anything to do with lenovo, or think-wmi...

that said, why does there need to be 50 wmi drivers when they could just roll them into one common driver?

[Doomsdayrs]

I couldn't agree with this more!

Giving the OS the ability to change the BIOS is a horrible feature that should never been permitted. I support a hardware (jumpers, yay!) read-only/writeable toggle for BIOSes, because it would be hard for BIOS viruses to get in (and UEFI is even more vulnerable) if they can't write anything.

I personally think this is a good thing, time to see if we can force hidden settings

[ElectricPrism]

I remember when my dad bought one of my siblings a Huawei phone. If you covered the camera it would show you an annoying popup message telling you to uncover the camera. So yeah, Chinese computer products are f'in creepy.

[ElectricPrism]

Michael can you whitelist accounts 5+ years old or with over 1,000 posts -- your spam filter literally is stopping me from sharing links & quoting information about how Lenovo is part of the CCP. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if the auto-spam filter through vBulletin is compromised to censor this kind of information