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Fwupd 1.8.4 Supports More Hardware, Starts Allowing To Make BIOS Changes From Linux

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  • Fwupd 1.8.4 Supports More Hardware, Starts Allowing To Make BIOS Changes From Linux

    Phoronix: Fwupd 1.8.4 Supports More Hardware, Starts Allowing To Make BIOS Changes From Linux

    Richard Hughes as the lead developer of the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS) and Fwupd at Red Hat announced the release this morning of Fwupd 1.8.4 as a nice update to this open-source firmware updating utility. Fwupd 1.8.4 not only adds support for some new hardware and fixes but notably begins adding the infrastructure to allow facilitating BIOS changes to the system from within Linux...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    Many Many thanks for the Linux developers effort. Should be possible to add security patches by fwpd to the unmaintained hardware manufacturers' UEFIs in the near future?

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    • #3
      Thanks Richard!

      fwupd is one of those Linux tools that is pretty much perfect. Nothing else in the industry even comes close to the wide reach, simplicity and openness. When I saw that I was able to upgrade the firmware on my pinephone, I almost fell off my chair because of how awesome that was. Imagine if all phones were as transparent as that...

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      • #4
        > Should be possible to add security patches by fwpd to the unmaintained hardware manufacturers' UEFIs in the near future

        Firmware no, but we can certainly sort out some of the misconfiguration. We always need the original vendor to upload and permit redistribution for legal reasons.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by hughsie View Post
          > Should be possible to add security patches by fwpd to the unmaintained hardware manufacturers' UEFIs in the near future

          Firmware no, but we can certainly sort out some of the misconfiguration. We always need the original vendor to upload and permit redistribution for legal reasons.
          Wasn't there talk about providing inofficial Coreboot firmware with fwupd for some platforms if possible?

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Jbk0 View Post
            Wasn't there talk about providing inofficial Coreboot firmware with fwupd for some platforms if possible?
            Yes, this is possible now, the legal stuff is actually the easiest part. The hardest part is actually loading coreboot when the BootGuard fuses have been set. We're still thinking about a compromise about that, one that works from a "coreboot is free software" and from a "static root of trust key is the same for all models" point of view.

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            • #7
              Let us import specific settings into the BIOS after updates so that we don't have to re-apply all friggin changes all the time. That'd be awesome.

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              • #8
                Fwupd 1.8.4 adds the initial support for modifying BIOS settings with the fwupdmgr tool from within Linux.​
                What a Dick move.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by anarki2 View Post
                  Let us import specific settings into the BIOS after updates so that we don't have to re-apply all friggin changes all the time. That'd be awesome.
                  This is actually totally on the vendor, and I _really_ hope more vendors start to do this right.
                  I have a company-computer from Dell running Linux. Never problems with fwupd to upgrade the BIOS (has been done a couple of times on the two different models I have had the last 4 years). And every time all the settings are retained. No need to re apply anything.
                  I think I also had upgrades for the BIOS in the HP I hade before that and that worked without problems with fwupdmgr.

                  My current desktop have a X570-motherboard from Gigabyte that gets totally fsck every time I upgrade the BIOS on it. Running UEFI with secureboot and enrolled in a way so the nvidia binary blob driver is signed and loaded. So for me to get everything as I want it means nearly always two-three reboots to bios to re-apply all settings, and including reset the keys from the bios because it always fails to re-activate without any message why before I do that. Then boot with nouveau to ssetup and reboot to re-enroll keys in mokutils. Then if I am lucky everything works OK.
                  And yes, I can save all my BIOS-settings as a profile to a USB-stick. But I cannot re-import those settings to a newer BIOS revision.

                  My older desktop had a motherboard from Asus with a Intel processor. The same there when upgradeing.

                  My HTPC has a B550 motherboard from MSI.
                  Same thing there.

                  So yes. This is how vendors like Dell vs Gigabyte implements stuff. Nothing to do with fwupd as far as I can see.

                  I think generally computers meant for businesses where an IT-department are meant to be able to remotely upgrade BIOSes without having to be on site to re-apply the correct boot-drive-settings for the system to even boot the companies have to spend that extra it meant to develop and test upgrades so they do not break if it is not booted with factory-settings afterwards.
                  For home desktops? Not so much.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Xake View Post
                    And yes, I can save all my BIOS-settings as a profile to a USB-stick. But I cannot re-import those settings to a newer BIOS revision.
                    You just described the number 1 dislike I have with my Gigabyte motherboard and why I'm still one firmware behind. It just isn't fun setting all that stuff up over and over again. Being able to put my changes into a systemd unit would be a godsend. We can only hope for decent Gigabyte support. I hope my other hand doesn't get full in the meantime. And if I'm hoping twice do I risk having up to two full hands or does hoping twice work like double negatives and they cancel each other out so I'm left with clean, empty hands?

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