How to update BIOS on a system that only use Linux as OS.
Asking this because some clowns at Acer decided that they will only provide BIOS updates through Windows Update.
I know some BIOS update that works with FreeDOS.
Just basically need to flash it into a USB drive and run the BIOS update .exe with it.
There’s no exe. They don’t even provide BIOS file in the first place.
What do they provide then?
Also, in Linux there’s fwupd
Updates via Windows update
Nothing on their download page either?
There is no download page for this particular laptop.🥲
Try to check if it’s supported by fwupd then.
All the security updates are in the microcode loaded by the bootloader even before the kernel is loaded, so unless there’s some new feature, bugfix, or hardware support you specifically know you need it’s not important to update your BIOS anyway. Which is good, because as far as I can tell you’re just screwed by a bad hardware vendor.
not important to update your BIOS
Not actually gonna update BIOS. but just curious.
bad hardware vendor.
Which accurately translates to Acer.
Frankly in my opinion, bios should only be updatable from the bios itself. No matter which os we talk about, it can always get in the way.
Thank you sane person.
if the provide and exe, You can always create a bootable usb stick of freedos or another dos tool. Copy the file onto the stick. boot to it and cd to where the file is and issue filename.exe
I know for HP machines, the bios updater exe can be decompressed and you can just get the bios image and the signature file from that.
Idk what machine you have, but at least for an older aspire laptop my friend has, there is a bios download.
If you follow instructions to make bios recovery media, you can update your bios through that.
Edit: that Acer laptop you have doesn’t even show up on Acer’s support page. Supposedly it’s sold as an Acer aspire a something or other. If you search based on your snid, you should be able to get to a downloads page.
Also clevo seems to make this laptop, according to the Acer India webpage I found for it
doesn’t even show up on Acer’s support page.
This is exactly my problem.
If you search based on your snid, you should be able to get to a downloads page.
Still nothing.
Thank You.
What’s your snid? It might show up as a different model on a different website.
Install windows on a second/spare drive. Boot PC from this and run their tool.
I know you’re trying to find a way around not using windows, but if the vendors only solution involves it, I wouldn’t trust any hacky workarounds when it comes to bios updates.
Thank you. Makes sense.
Acer supports 2 of their devices on Linux
Thank you. Sadly mine is different.
And this is one more reason I will only buy a laptop from System76, Framework, or Tuxedo to run Linux.
All motherboard manufacturers irrespective of OEM should provider a firmware mode that can be boot to, allowing BIOS upgrades. But since they don’t seem to, especially with laptops, seems best to stick with known vendors whose primary OS they support is Linux.
Good luck, OP. Hope the live Windows USB thing works. Just be careful to not get infected with Recall or any other Microsoft nonsense :)
Razer was the worst. It had to be done thru a ‘legitimate’ copy of the latest full Microsoft Windows (no old Windows, Windows PE, FreeDOS, etc.) & the purpose was to give you a black+green GUI experience. After I emailed them about this several years ago when I had a Razer laptop, they put up a sign on the support page now saying installing Linux voids both you warranty & any support tickets.
Yeah, I’ve also found Razer to be quite bad both in quality of hardware and support.
Only thing I own now that is made by Razer is a mouse.
Depends on the exact model. The usual way on Linux is via
fwupdmgr.I’m not talking about installing the BIOS file. They don’t even provide BIOS file in the first place.
Also, I don’t think fwupd has firmware for this particular laptop. ( Acer One 14 Z2-493 )
Try it out. I was often pleasantly surprised by the things provided by fwupd.
There is no universal solution to this. Some vendors support fwupd (LVFS) on some hardware (Dell, Lenovo), some allow to update via a file on a USB stick (Asus).
Unless it is a system from Linux first company (Tuxedo, StarLabs, System76, Slimbook) expect to manually check what the specific model you are looking at supports.
I’m not talking about installing the BIOS file. They don’t even provide BIOS file in the first place.
Also, I don’t think fwupd has firmware for this particular laptop. ( Acer One 14 Z2-493 )
That’s the thing - there is no option to update BIOS on Linux then.
You must install Windows or maybe use one of those unofficial Windows Live USB images.
unofficial Windows Live USB images.
I just came to know about this
system from Linux first company (Tuxedo, StarLabs, System76, Slimbook)
Indeed that’s IMHO the solution, namely prioritizing ecosystem that genuinely see Linux as something valuable, with an addressable market, rather than a cost linked to annoying users.
it’s just sad that they are not selling on my country
Usually you can extract the windows updater exe and use the bios/bin/upd file via mainboard bios update mechanisms
They don’t even provide BIOS file in the first place. So no exe to extract.
Is there an option to save the new bios update file to a USB stick, then enter bios and trigger an update manually that fetches the file from said USB stick?
I’ve done it this way with an Asrock motherboard for desktop running Bazzite.
They don’t even provide BIOS file in the first place.
I had an Acer laptop once. I had Ubuntu on it. I had problems with random crashing after a few minutes, I ran memtest, it took a few hours for a full test and came back with a whole slew of faults. I sent it to Acer under warranty and they told me that Linux was the problem and I should leave windows on it.
I called the “technical” support regarding this issue. And they said they’ll only support Windows.
Making your entire hardware reliant on particular proprietary software like Windows is just stupid.
Never buying Acer again.
At this point, I don’t even which vendor to buy, when everybody is shit.
Have a look at Starlabs. You can choose coreboot
Tuxedo, Framework, Slimbook, System76, Starlabs are Linux-first vendors with an excellent track record.
I know and Framework is just mouth watering. And Chad76 created their own distro and DE.
it’s just sad that they are not selling on my country.
Framework uses proprietary BIOS. They ditched coreboot, which is pretty bad.
Afaik they were also a lot behind on updates.
3mdeb, Novacustom, Pine64
Minisforum is also said to work well.
Any of these European or (even better) UK based…?
Yes. Tuxedo is German, Slimbook Spanish, Starlabs British, NovaCustom Dutch… Framework is US/Taiwanese but sells within select EU countries and the UK. AFAIK S76 is US/Canada only.
Edit: most of these actually ship worldwide but won’t collect VAT and probably won’t honor warranty claims outside their territory.
Had something similar with ASUS…never again
reminder to myself to remove the ssd next time i need warranty repair
A 128 or 256 GB SSD or NVME drive costs £10 to £15 on eBay used. I would buy one and put Windows on it when sending back for warranty repair. OP should actually just do this for the BIOS update and then swap out the SSD back to the Linux one after.
Sorry, but in your case the only way is to install Windows. Make a dual boot.
Thank you.
I think it’s stupid to provide something hardware related like BIOS exclusively through a particular proprietary software like Windows.
