Fwupd 1.8.6 Released With Smaller Package Size, New Hardware Support

Fwupd 1.8.6 is out today as the newest stable release of this open-source firmware updating tool most notably used by Linux systems but also supported on various BSDs and even Windows.

New hardware support with Fwupd 1.8.6 includes supporting Focaltech touchpads, FPC fingerprint readers, and support for Supermicro servers running Redfish. This Supermicro support comes from Kai Michaelis with 9elements Security, sadly not from Supermicro itself, and limited in scope to updating the BIOS using the Redfish API.

Fwupd 1.8.6 is also notable in that its install package size has been optimized and is now about 30% smaller than prior releases. This ~30% reduction comes via compressing some data files, building some plugins into the binary, and splitting out common code in tools.

Fwupd 1.8.6 also now uses a higher compression preset for UEFI splash images, more robust handling for locating the default ESP volume, preventing high memory use in some conditions, and a variety of other fixes and improvements.

Downloads and more details on Fwupd 1.8.6 via GitHub.