System76 Unveils Their Firmware Manager Project For Graphically Updating Firmware

[skeevy420]

That's not the point. I just proved that the underlying framework works completely autonomous of Gnome and Plasma – i.e. you lied. You could have written a different front-end for fwupd, instead of rolling you NIH piece of garbage.

.....

[ezst036]

Thanks System76!

[Marc Driftmeyer]

Dear Web Site developers, make your inline images active links to full-size images or just don't include them.

[pal666]

Would you like to explain to your customers, and all of you end users, why they need to use command line applications in order to check for firmware updates, read their changelogs, and apply the updates?

they'll do it with all other software updates in their desktop as they currently do with all their software and firmware updates. if your proprietary desktop can't do that - write fwupd frontend for it. you can even do it in rust

[pal666]

The devs saw that there was no solid GUI for updating firmware that worked for their needs

i don't care about their needs. my needs are to update firmware via gnome-software, not via some vendor-provided closed source crap running as root

They even said they're completely open to a Qt port

i'm completely open for them to upload firmware to lvfs

. As for LVFS, "owned by the Linux Foundation" but run by average people, and people make mistakes. I feel like hate on this project is unjustified.

why should anyone trust system76 more than system76 trusts linux foundation?

[Pentarctagon]

i don't care about their needs.

And yet... here you are commenting anyway.

[mmstick]

they'll do it with all other software updates in their desktop as they currently do with all their software and firmware updates.

Many people aren't getting firmware updates, because there is neither a graphical frontend to fwupd, nor are there desktop notifications to notify them that there are updates. The only way to interface with fwupd on a GTK-based desktop today is through GNOME Software, or using fwupdmgr on the command line.

Many Linux distributions are using their own package management applications and software centers, and therefore do not have GNOME Software. Pop!_OS uses the elementary appcenter, which does not have fwupd integration, nor would it really make sense for an application center to double as a firmware center.

Therefore, we solved the problem for everyone that's been waiting for a solution. You now have an option where otherwise there was none. You can have firmware updates, and keep your graphical application / package management tool of choice. No need to install GNOME Software specifically for firmware updates.

if your proprietary desktop can't do that

Everything in Pop!_OS is open source. We are on GitHub, so you can see all that we do in real time.

write fwupd frontend for it. you can even do it in rust

That's exactly what Firmware Manager is. it's a fwupd + system76-firmware frontend, written in Rust.

i don't care about their needs. my needs are to update firmware via gnome-software

That's good for you, but many people do not have or use GNOME Software. If you are fine with what you have, then this will not effect you at all, so you have no reason to complain. But this will impact everyone that's been wishing for a simple means to keep their firmware updated without having to resort to installing GNOME Software specifically so that they can get firmware updates through a graphical tool.

not via some vendor-provided closed source crap running as root

1. Firmware Manager is open source, its on GitHub, and it is under the GNU GPLv3 license.
2. It does not run anything as root. It communicates to fwupd and system76-firmware through DBus.

[jrch2k8]

Many people aren't getting firmware updates, because there is neither a graphical frontend to fwupd, nor are there desktop notifications to notify them that there are updates. The only way to to interface with fwupd on a GTK-based desktop today is through GNOME Software, or using fwupdmgr on the command line.

Many Linux distributions are using their own package management applications and software centers, and therefore do not have GNOME Software. Pop!_OS uses the elementary appcenter, which does not have fwupd integration, nor would it really make sense for an application center to double as a firmware center.

Therefore, we solved the problem for you and all of our users. You now have an option where otherwise there was none.



Everything in Pop!_OS is open source.



That's exactly what Firmware Manager is. it's a fwupd + system76-firmware frontend, written in Rust.



That's good for you, but many people do not have or use GNOME Software. If you are fine with what you have, then this will not effect you at all, so you have no reason to complain. But this will impact everyone that's been wishing for a simple means to keep their firmware updated without having to resort to installing GNOME Software specifically so that they can get firmware updates through a graphical tool.



1. Firmware Manager is open source, its on GitHub, and it is under the GNU GPLv3 license.
2. It does not run anything as root. It communicates to fwupd and system76-firmware through DBus.

Mate, this is phoronix, just block the trolls don't feed them. Also note most of them have actual little knowledge outside what a quick google search can point out, so is useless to engage with them most of the time, is like trying to teach french to your cat ...

[re:fi.64]

Developer of the firmware manager here. This is an excellent summary of the project!



Would you like to explain to your customers, and all of you end users, why they need to use command line applications in order to check for firmware updates, read their changelogs, and apply the updates? Or do you want to give them automatic desktop notifications that open a nicely-designed UI where they can read changelogs and update firmware at the click of a button (or the return key of a keyboard)?

But...fwupd has a D-Bus API that's what Software and Discover call into... I just don't see why build an abstraction layer on top of another abstraction layer.

[concatime]

What I do not understand is whether or not I can use only fwupdmgr to update my firmware, w/o system76-firmware or firmware-manager?
From the blog post: "fwupd is a system service which connects to LVFS to check for firmware updates […] Both fwupd and system76-firmware are supported."
But LVFS lists no support for System76: https://fwupd.org/lvfs/vendorlist#system76
If yes, that’s a BIG win! Freedom of choice is always Good™!
If no, that’s a major downside because 1. you do not follow the "standard" way of distributing firmwares and 2. you lock people to your own softwares (Apple’s best know for).
This comment may be subject to further editing.