BIOS 3.09 to replace Incomplete BIOS 3.08

Not even sure if it’ll ever come to the 11th gen…there’s no additional message from Framework on this since last year. Is TB4 for the 11th gen mainboard still being pursued? We don’t know. (Not being the dark cloud. Just saying we don’t even know the progress, the end goal, the dates…nada)

Other brands already have their 12th gen systems certified with TB4…being sold. (Forming a comparison)

I was going to go that direction, still hoping for 3.08… I did download the beta for 3.08, perhaps use that as it appears to be OK except for the Insyde issue.

Tks

Our release process for BIOS updates that involve upstream security fixes is:

  1. The upstream vendor has to complete their fix and validate that it is correctly fixed.
  2. The engineering team at our manufacturing partner and our internal engineering team integrate the upstream fix with our Framework Laptop-specific BIOS.
  3. Our manufacturing partner and internal team validate the BIOS.
  4. We release to the Community for a public beta test.
  5. We release the final version publicly.

Unfortunately in this case, step 1 has taken much longer than we’d like.

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Thinking along the same line: Framework being a customer to the upstream vendor, Framework should have leverage on the SLA.

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Thank you for clarifying the process! This is what I wanted to see. I actually contacted the ‘upstream vendor’ by emailing their US office email address, and tried to understand why they take longer for their patch to the Framework Laptop. They explained me their general workflow to sell their BIOS firmware and to fix security issues, but unfortunately they didn’t answer me for Framework’s specific case so far.

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@Insyde (if anyone from there is reading…): Chop chop.

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I introduced this thread to a person at the ‘upstream vendor’ 2 days ago. So, I assume they may read it.

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Any chance we can get a rundown of what the update addresses? Specifically hoping for some movement on the drain during sleep (not off) issues. I’ve got a batch 1 unit that I’m really fond of, but now that the world is opening back up a bit and it’s not sitting plugged in all the time, this is the kind of deal breaker that’d lead me to sell. (Which sucks because FW is exactly the direction I’d like to see HW vendors move!)

@Matt_Simmons Did you try the kernel parameter nvme.noacpi=1? This improves your battery life with the sleep mode: s2idle remarkably. You can see Linux battery life tuning - #202 by junaruga for detail.

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I’m on Fedora Linux but tempted to try the beta myself, mainly because I so frickin’ tired of having to reboot and go into bios to enable battery disconnect every time I want to shut it down.

Honestly, after being frustrated and waiting for months at this point for power related fixes, I bit the bullet and installed the unlisted 3.08 bios. At least for me, I’m no longer seeing huge power drain when hibernating or powering off the laptop.

Caveats being obviously it’s an unlisted BIOS, there’s no changelog or guarantee of anything actually being fixed, but anecdotally in limited testing it’s an improvement on the power drain.

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I decided to give this a try, and this bios absolutely ate my battery up. It drains a LOT when I am literally just looking at outlook online. This is a report of this just happening.

Windows 10 I71165 32 GB Ram, 2 TB Sabrent Rocket.

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That looks like the sleep study that you can use powercfg to attain:

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Update: I had the opportunity to not use my laptop for 5 whole days (it was tough but I did it)… I put it in my backpack at 65% battery with BIOS 3.08 installed. After the five days i pulled it out of my bag and turned it on… still says 65% battery, running Windows 11 as primary OS. QAPLA!

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We’re now on the “The engineering team at our manufacturing partner and our internal engineering team integrate the upstream fix with our Framework Laptop-specific BIOS.” and “Our manufacturing partner and internal team validate the BIOS.” steps. Since there are changes from 3.08, this will formally be released as 3.09.

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Yay, moving forward!

Any chance we can know what fixes are upcoming / included? A release note preview?

Absolutely great to hear! :smiley: Sorry to be that person, but is there a ETA timeframe of arrival? If there isn’t that’s completely fine, it’s just a nice-to-know. :slight_smile:

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And … any chance it will be rolled out through fwupd as well? The boot-from-USB procedure for 3.07 was sort-of OK, but the fact it messed up to BIOS boot preferences was less than ideal. Firmware updates through fwupd for Dell XPS-13 were an absolute delight.

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So far I still only have hit or miss trackpad issues. 3.08 has fixed almost everything for me outside of that. in fact I can now idle for about 13 hours under Arch. normal usage 6 to 10 hours depending on what I am doing. So its pretty close to what I expect. I am starting to think my main board or track-pad are defective though. shrugs at least I can easily fix a mechanical issue. Hope the firmware and stuff goes open too so the community can help and spot check that side too.

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Finally a big step forward! Congrats! Releasing the firmware as 3.09 is the right choice rather than overriding the 3.08, as some people already use the 3.08.

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