Enabling software longevity

Framework Team Blog
1

image
image1920×1400 253 KB

When building products to last, it’s not enough to design the hardware to be repairable, upgradeable, and customizable. The overall longevity of devices as complex as modern notebooks also depends on how long the software and firmware continues to be useful. That includes compatibility updates to support newer generations hardware modules, fixes for bugs or compatibility issues found by end users, and especially patches for security vulnerabilities. We recognize that we have fallen short of where we need to be on software updates, and we are making the needed investments to resolve this.

We now have a dedicated team of engineers at our manufacturing partner and a set of internal stakeholders focused on ongoing software updates for all of our products, going back to our original Framework Laptop with 11th Gen Intel Core. In the past, we were reliant on ad-hoc availability of engineering time from our suppliers (basically borrowing staffing from whichever new product development we had ongoing). This was inconsistent and resulted in slow progress. With a dedicated team, there is no longer resource contention, and we are able deliver shorter turnaround times from discovering issues to resolving them.

We are rotating the team between each of our previously launched platforms based on the updates we need to make, like security fixes from upstream suppliers, community-reported bugs, and in some cases, new features and functionality. Our overall software release process for firmware and drivers is now as follows:

  1. Identifying and prioritizing the issues and updates the sustaining engineering team will work on for a release for a specific platform.
  2. A multi-week development and validation cycle.
  3. Internal testing by additional Framework team members of a candidate release.
  4. A Community Beta release, which we announce in the relevant sub-forum in the Community.
  5. After a one to two week period of beta testing, if no substantial regressions are identified, public release onto our BIOS and Drivers download page.

We’d love to provide a specific length of time we can commit to for ongoing BIOS updates for each generation, but we’re dependent on the support lifetimes of our upstream silicon vendors who in some cases haven’t shared public end of support dates. Instead, we can state that our intent is to provide security updates for at least as long as our silicon vendors are able to. Note that this specifically applies to the UEFI firmware and drivers that are provided to us as binaries. For the embedded controllers in our laptops and for Framework Laptop 16 Input Modules, our firmware is fully open source. This means we have full access to make updates as needed, and the broader community can contribute as well. You can access the source for these on GitHub.
If you currently have a Framework Laptop, here’s the latest firmware you can pick up. We have updaters available for both Windows and Linux. We strongly recommend always running the latest released BIOS and drivers, as there are both security and bug fixes incorporated:

With each of these complete, we’ve resolved both infrastructure and process issues that now make it faster for us to iterate on BIOS and driver updates on each platform. Obviously, our words here are not enough. We need to and commit to demonstrating this by actually improving both our iteration speed on software updates and our communication processes around them. We’re also continuing to grow our team’s capabilities to support our products and customers. We currently have several team members we’re actively recruiting for who will join this effort:

Finally, we have one last, completely unrelated update to share today: our products are now available for shipment to Poland. We had originally planned to share this today as part of a different newsletter topic, but rather than making our Polish customers wait, we’re launching on schedule. We have a bigger update that we’re looking forward to sharing with all of you next week.

25 Likes
2

Please put the date of each release (not just the page date) on the Firmware page so we can tell if we are up to date.

15 Likes
3

What about opening up the BIOS to open source alternatives like coreboot?

2 Likes
4

Shipping to Poland is absolutely amazing!!!

5 Likes
5

Great news !

But it seems not (yet?) in non-testing fwupdmgr for Linux users ? Is that on the plan ?

2 Likes
6

Yes please! Definitely this. Simple and easy, but so helpful.

Also a link or something to a full changelog and a list of past updates and their information. Occasionally one does need to revert to a previous version.

5 Likes
7

Ok, now just explain what went wrong in messing up the 12th gen 3.08 release, such that a known broken version of the installer was released (and is still released, with known out-of-date release notes), which we have been notifying you about, basically since the beta process started in January.

Then package the contents of the table of ongoing, expected and released things as a knowledge-base article that will be kept up to date.

And add more details with issues, especially across the lineup. For example the 3.05 AMD version lists known vulnerabilities in the UEFI network stack. Are any of the previously released Intel builds also affected by the same thing and you are just not keeping known issues and known vulnerabilities up to date as usual, or are they not affected at all (great if the case. And yes I know it is a low priority vuln, because FW has no use for that network stack and it is off by default. But same as with LogoFAIL, if all 4 image format parsers are in there, even if you are not using them, it still might be exploitable and shows awareness to list stuff like that.).
Similar for stuff like the PD fixes for the FW13 AMD. Is that sth. that could also be coming to the Intel Frameworks and might be affecting them, or do they run different chips & firmware and do not have those problems at all.
Same with for example the fingerprint sensor and its vulnerable firmware. That looks to be the same across the FW13 lineup.
An overview like that would inspire much more confidence, show progress better and also be a good entry point for users interested in the level of firmware support that can currently be had.

With all of that, this is a good start and we just need to observe the follow-through.

2 Likes
8

As of 16.04.2024 19:22 the links are not updated for the W11 Ryzen 7040 BIOS:
image

If you update the URL from “…3.03.exe” to “…3.05.exe” you can download it. :slight_smile:

3.05 W11 Ryzen 7040 driver

9

Hey, would be cool when the Driver bundles could also bei Split Up, so you can Download each driver on its own

1 Like
10

Thank you for addressing the concerns that were brought up recently. This is a great response. I look forward to benefiting from the improvements that are being made.

11

Is this legally binding? If not, I’d like to see some kind of support page that restates this or place it in the warranty. This isn’t ideal like a commitment to 10 years of updates like for the Chromebook edition but it is realistic and that’s good enough for me and should be for anybody. Just make it legally binding please. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

EDIT: I’m visualizing 3 tiers to support. Additionally, I’m reading the statement again and I’d like a firm commitment to support a product for as along as possible, irregardless of Framework’s current or future “intentions”. As in “we will support our product for X years as long as we also receive support for components by our vendors” kinda thing. That leaves you an out if your vendor no longer supports a component, you don’t need to support it either.

Tier 1: Framework actively is sinking money and labor into supporting the product

Tier 2: Framework has EOL the product but it might still be supported by Intel or other vendors for major security updates and if those are given to you, you will maintain the infrastructure needed to push those updates to users

Tier 3: Nobody is supporting any chip or part in the product and you are on your own.

2 Likes
12

Hey, I see 3.05 on my end, can you please confirm in which page you got this screenshot from?

14

I see 3.03 if I follow the link in your post.

image
image2560×1600 452 KB

1 Like
15

It’s a translation issue. The German language KB pages have not updated to the 3.05 link (same for Spanish, French, etc). Only the EN KB is updated with the 3.05 links.

https://knowledgebase.frame.work/de/categories/framework-laptop-13-amd-ryzen-7040-series_de-r1GBOV3c3

5 Likes
16

Even funnier, the 12th gen “release” has been out since April 9th. And they are still not translated. Or removed the outdated translated pages, if they do not have the time and resources to keep their update pages in sync.

And to think how this looked coordinated as hell, to burry the justified and even moderated criticism. And they are just making it a “greatest hits” of showing that they have problems being attentive to what they write and do…

1 Like
17

Thank you for letting me know @Ekkehard_F and @lbohn . The translated versions should be updated soon.

Meanwhile, if you are not seeing the final version in your own language, please switch to English temporarily to download the BIOS update.

thank you!

3 Likes
18

Good catch renaming those Beta threads to release.
But also, please consult a developer on the problems with the 12th gen 3.08 “release”.

The 3.08.exe version has known problems (known by Kieran, that posted the fixed updater named “3.08b” in post #21. You only need to read the first 21 posts to understand that this bug is still in there. And in the meantime at least 4 other people have hit the same bug in the version you “released”. 3 of them since january in the beta thread. At least one on reddit from the release page).

And I also commented at length on typos, contradictory things in the release notes and the release page and that fix number 6. has been proven to not actually be fixed (that would be post #195, also mine) and very much needs to be a known issue, if you are not changing your mind to fully “unrelease” that update, because users not familiar with the 3.06 beta might be VERY surprised if the update silently crashes and the left side of USB-C ports ceases to function until you apply the workarounds Framework listed in the 3.06 beta thread for the same problem now over a year ago.

Edit:
I have been commenting that these things are broken, since April 9th, when Framework decided to release that update without carefully going through all of the beta feedback and apparently proper testing.
I have been answering this to Nirav’s “we are reading and taking all the feedback seriously” posts since yesterday. It is time, someone in the company notices that very embarrassing mistake just when you want to prove that you can release updates. It undermines you whole point. Take it seriously.

1 Like
19

Congratulations to the people in Poland!

This is an interesting case. Because I have never seen that Framework asked people for their localization of the keyboard to the Polish language on this forum. But Framework still started to support their products in Poland. The case is not like other countries that Framework is supporting.

2 Likes
20

I have somewhat mixed feelings reading this post. The mea culpa is appreciated, the changes outlined have a glimmer of hope in them, but words are easy to say. However, actual change via concrete actions count far far far more.

I’ve already said my piece over the in 11th Gen 3.19 thread about the lack of a UEFI shell update method (it’s been “coming soon” since last September), so I shan’t regurgitate that here.

I sincerely hope, for the sake of the users/buyers, the Framework community, and Framework the company, that the future actions of all those responsible for support, especially on critical security vulnerabilities, meet or exceed the words in this post. We’ll be watching, and grading your success with our future orders and recommendations to others, or not.

I have typen.

3 Likes
21

It’s nice to read that Framework anticipates that their firmware support/update process will improve, but I hope they realize that the update releases are one thing, but the delivery mechanisms are essential too!

For 11th gen, BIOS 3.19 is proudly listed as the latest release, but as Framework Laptop BIOS and Driver Releases (11th Gen Intel® Core™) shows it’s not quite done yet: “BIOS 3.19 EFI Shell update (coming soon)”. I hope they don’t forget that one in their task rotation schedule.

1 Like