Lenovo Will Finally Offer Automatic Firmware Updates to Linux-Powered Computers

[JoeFootball]

https://news.softpedia.com/news/lenovo- ... 2256.shtml

[trytip]

i wouldn't trust Lenovo and autoupdate your bios https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lQL4WqKhhY they are known to sneak in spyware

[KBD47]

i wouldn't trust Lenovo and autoupdate your bios https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lQL4WqKhhY they are known to sneak in spyware

Agreed. Recently read on Reddit one machine was bricked after a bios update from Lenovo, another started running hot after bios update. No thanks Lenovo.

[Pepi]

I ain't gonna do it

[AndyMH]

Don't think so, not about to risk bricking my machines.

[thx-1138]

...to all Lenovo & above it all to the "BIOS update" haters...as our good friend catweasel says...NONSENSE
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do NOT update your BIOS "because"...well, just "because" - and then,
feel free to experience all kinds of 'unexplained' performance issues & security problems afterwards as time goes by...

...copy / pasting here for the sake of easiness:

... in regards to the "do-not-update-the-BIOS" advice out there, that seems to be surviving even under...2018.
It really has to be one of the most ill-advised techno-phobia ever...probably a remnant from early/ mid-90s,
from people blindly following experimental diy overclocking guides that were popping up in the net back in the day.

Vendors release BIOS updates for a good reason (to fix performance & security-related bugs):
not because they didn't had anything better to do in their spare time.
Not to mention the even more obvious - that it costs them $ to make them & test them...
(they could simply ignore doing so after having sold the 'goods' to customers, no law is forcing them to provide further updates).

...even in the relatively rare case someone manages to have a totally b0rked bios update,
he / she could still reset such by using an external flasher.
Alternatively, any decent local repair computer shop could also do such for a few bucks.
The chances it gets b0rked that much badly that not even an external flasher 'fixes' it, are almost the equivalent of...
swimming & getting killed due to being hit by a thunder: yes, it happens every 2 blue moons,
and exactly due to it being rather extra-ordinary, you then see it in the 8 o'clock news...

Taking back-ups before doing such operations is nothing more or less than (the rather obvious) common sense...

...Happy Linux customers, with their problems resolved, either partially or completely, exactly due to the BIOS having being updated first:

Jul 06, 2018:
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=272489

Jul 08, 2018:
viewtopic.php?f=59&t=272682

Jul 28, 2018:
viewtopic.php?p=1503478

I could also probably list way more cases...not just from July 2018.
================================================

Disagree with the above? 110% fine by me (hey, it's not my hardware after all). But...

...the news above is NOT some kind of secret conspiracy from big bad wolf Lenovo in order to...

• ...either install spyware in your machine...

• ...or alternatively, to somehow b0rk your machine...

It's the evil mastermind work of...tah-dah!!! => https://fwupd.org/
And also...(fwupdate etc) => https://github.com/rhboot

...now - surely the 'Red Hat Bootloader Team' knows something more than a random thx-1138 fella posting on the net?
PS1: ..."hi, how could i update BIOS under Linux? I can only find .exe files on the site!"
PS2: ..."blame the vendors for not supporting Linux"...

[trytip]

i don't disagree with that thx-1138 he know's what'up . i just wouldn't trust a company that's known to insert special surprises in their bios software.

While the automatic firmware update process might produce some discomfort to Linux users with Lenovo laptops, the developers assure us that they are doing they’re best to fix any annoyances as soon as possible. For now, users will experience multiple reboots with strange beeps during firmware updates, but they should not panic.

i guess it's up to the owner of the Lenovo laptop if they want to update. only thing is i don't believe Timeshift will fix any "errors"

[thx-1138]

...trytip, to not get myself misunderstood:
i also would NOT risk using the above for the time being - my time & income more importantly are...
quite limited to say at the very least, so i'm not really willing to become a beta tester for Red Hat...

...i do have a Lenovo ideapad here as well (ie. i have no illusions in regards to their various dubious practices)...

$ inxi -M
Machine: Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 80QH v: Lenovo ideapad 300-17ISK serial: <root required>
Mobo: LENOVO model: VIUU4 v: SDK0J40700 WIN serial: <root required> UEFI: LENOVO v: D5CN47WW
date: 08/26/2016

This is a laptop from early 2015, Skylake-based - ie. not "ancient" by any means.
Lenovo still has NOT released a BIOS that includes Meltdown & Spectre protection, and well...it seems they won't do so.
Yeap, no fix for a...3 yrs old laptop. How hard would it be for them to simply repackage the fixed microcode inside a newer BIOS update?
So yeah - simply put...they suck

All i'm saying is that Red Hat above, does the right thing though above convincing vendors to co-operate.
All kinds of crap (like the above) could be avoided if more vendors (Lenovo, HP, whoever) were convinced to join the game...