Fwupd 1.0.0 Released To Advance Linux Firmware Updating

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Fwupd 1.0.0 Released To Advance Linux Firmware Updating

Richard Hughes has announced the release of fwupd 1.0.0 today, the utility increasingly being used by many vendors for supporting updating of device firmware/microcode on Linux...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=fwupd-1.0-Released

[garegin]

I remember using crossover on a mac to install a printer firmware. Freaking ridicilous. Kudos to crossover, though
as far as i am concerned formware updates should be a matter of going into the bios and running the update from the internet or a file. Easy and without issues. I don’t know why they even bother with updating from the OS.

[AJenbo]

BIOS'es used to not be advanced enough. Besides firmware is also in your mouse, and i don't see you connecting that directly to the internet quite yet :P

[RussianNeuroMancer]

Just updated firmware for a couple of Logitech Unifying Receivers via fwupdmgr on Kubuntu 17.10, update was smooth and hassle free, just "fwupdmgr refresh" and then "fwupdmgr update".

[doublez13]

Now I have no idea what's going on in secret, but from what I can see, there's only 3 venders making use of this. Hopefully it picks up!

[starshipeleven]

BIOS'es used to not be advanced enough. Besides firmware is also in your mouse, and i don't see you connecting that directly to the internet quite yet :P

I remember most BIOSes in the last days of BIOS were able to update themselves by loading a flashing application and reading the image from a Fat32 thumbdrive.

Really, UEFI was not really required for this stuff.

[starshipeleven]

I'd like to know what is the dumb reason OpenSUSE tumbleweed is still bundling version 0.5, that is nowhere near modern...

[numacross]

I remember most BIOSes in the last days of BIOS were able to update themselves by loading a flashing application and reading the image from a Fat32 thumbdrive.

Really, UEFI was not really required for this stuff.

It was a bit further than the "last days of BIOS" though. We obviously need UEFI for the graphical BIOSes with mouse support... oh wait we had those too before it... I know! Internet-enabled UEFI updates that require a full TCP/IP,DHCP,DNS and HTTPS stacks, that's it!

[horizonbrave]

Am I wrong or Fedora beautifully integrates Fwupd in the Gnome Software GUI so that the user gets to update those firmwares through the regulate OS update process? I remember in f25 my Logitech unified receiver firmware got updated that way.

Please also, which other "user-friendly" distros offer that level of integration? Not sure about Ubuntu (Software updater + Ubuntu/Gnome Software) but remember that Manjaro removes Gnome Software, haven't tried Tumbleweed with Gnome in a while and have no idea about others with different DEs. Cheers

[Adarion]

I remember most BIOSes in the last days of BIOS were able to update themselves by loading a flashing application and reading the image from a Fat32 thumbdrive.
Really, UEFI was not really required for this stuff.

Absolutely. But not only in "the last days". Iiirc. AsRock, Asus and Gigabyte (at least those, probably more) had something they had their own label for (Z-flash, q-flash, whatever-flash). You'd just run the setup and have any VFAT media with the new image, point the setup to the file and load it. Done.
There were fewer and fewer devices that required some DOS diskette (or at least some DOS environment, and kudos to FreeDOS here!) or some that (painfully!) required a Windows environment.
UEFI was bloated crap, is crap and will stray crap. Nobody needs a network stack at firmware level but 3-letter-agencies and nobody really need animations of spinning fans in a software that is just meant to bring up the HW at early boot and then hand over to some bootloader on some attached storage device.