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An old linux user rambling on about linux, FOSS, and other geekery.

fwupdmgr ftw!

2021-01-12 | #poweredge #fwupdmgr #fwupd #LVFS #thinkpad #hardware #FOSS #linux

fwupdmgr is awesome. Used to be, updating the bios and firmware on a computer with linux installed was more difficult than it is now. Sadly, Dell Poweredge machines aren't on the supported list (yet) of machines able to use fwupdmgr, and are therefore a real pain in the neck when BIOS and firmware updates come around; having to boot off a usb drive and execute a windows .exe file is never fun. Thankfully, Lenovo Thinkpads are supported and firmware updates are easy.

What makes this easy is the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS). LVFS is a secure web service where computer hardware vendors upload their firmware updates. If your hardware is supported, the firmware update daemon (fwupd) will connect to the LVFS and notify you when there are firmware updates. The updates can then be installed with the command line firmware update manager (fwupdmgr) client. There are even GUI fwupdmgr clients, but I have never used any of them.

For me at least, using fwupdmgr has been simple and, so far has just worked. The list of supported hardware[1] is long, and chances are good that your hardware is supported. If your hardware is not on the list yet, it could be added in the future as the list grows.

1: https://fwupd.org/lvfs/devices/

So before ado is anyway furthered, here is the line by line:

Display all devices detected by fwupd:

`fwupdmgr get-devices`

download the latest metadata:

`fwupdmgr refresh`

list all available updates for your machine:

`fwupdmgr-get updates`

and install the updates:

`fwupdmgr update`

You can even install the updates individually from the command line , but ONLY of you are SURE you have the correct cab file: fwupdmgr install *name-of-the-file-you-are-sure-about*.cab.

YMMV, but mine has been good so far.

-dsyates

fwupdmgr ftw!

2021-01-12 | #poweredge #fwupdmgr #fwupd #LVFS #thinkpad #hardware #FOSS #linux

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