Fwupd 1.3.6 Firmware Updater Released With Initial Windows Support

Fwupd 1.3.6 was released today for ending out a very successful year for this firmware updating utility that works in-step with the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS) for allowing hardware firmware/BIOS updating on Linux systems.

This year has been a lot of accomplishments for Fwupd/LVFS with more hardware vendors becoming involved, Google devices beginning to require their partners provide Fwupd/LVFS-compatible updates, and other hardware support improvements. With Fwupd 1.3.6 there are new plug-ins around TPM (Trusted Platform Module) support, ensuring the device protocol matches the meta-data value, and other improvements.

There are also a number of fixes around the version formatting for the Dell BIOS version, various quirks, vendor ID handling improvements, and other minor items.

One other work-in-progress item with Fwupd 1.3.6 is initial Windows support! Fwupd can now be built under MinGW and the basics of Fwupd are beginning to work on Microsoft Windows. This pull request details their bring-up of Windows support for Fwupd, including as of a few weeks ago some devices like the Dell Dock can now be flashed under Windows.

At this point the Fwupd Windows support appears to still be an early work-in-progress, but does open up the door for some interesting possibilities... In particular, possible increased IHV interest now that the firmware flashing can be done on both Windows and Linux in the same manner. We'll see how this impacts Fwupd+LVFS adoption as we move into 2020.

More details on Fwupd 1.3.6 via the announcement while the code is up on GitHub.