Framework 13'' 11th gen Intel Linux BIOS status

Framework Laptop 13
1

Premise: I tried to look for a solution on this forum and on knowledgebase.frame.work, but got lost because of contradictory information and unclear documentation structure.

I would like to know the state of the art related to the latest BIOS upgrade available for Framework 13’', 11th gen Intel on LINUX

I found three different stories:

  1. in the first post on this topic there seem to be clear and certain instructions about how to upgrade on Linux
  2. in the same post, there is another reply by the same author, stating that the EFI script does not work, and a workaround is suggested
  3. on this other page they say that the Linux update script is under development

So, i guess, my questions are the followings:

  • is 3.19 the latest firmware version available today?
  • does the efi script for linux work? i.e. can i simply unzip the archive to a fat32 usb stick, and boot into it?
  • if not so, can you please edit the forum post (link nr.1) to make it clear that this is NOT going to work?
  • can I upgrade from 3.9 straight to 3.19?
  • if the linux upgrade script is under development, which is the recommended firmware version that I have to install right now, currently being on 3.9? can i install 3.17?

Thanks in advance

2

There is an official .EFI updater available for 3.19 (Link: 11th Gen Intel Core BIOS 3.19 release). You can find the appropriate instructions in the post. Note that the .EFI updater is in BETA so you use it at your own risk. The .EFI updater wasn’t initially available and in the comments, some individuals were trying a workaround which seems to work but has its associated risks. However, that isn’t necessary anymore. You should be able to directly upgrade to 3.19 from 3.9. If it doesn’t work, you may need to go to 3.17 then 3.19.

3

I updated my Framework 13 11gen Intel on Fedora 14 to version 3.19 firmware today using a slightly modified version of the EFI updater script at the aforementioned link. I unzipped the archive to a fat32 usb drive and booted into it but got this failure:
Error 331: Full FW Update using same version is not allowed. Include -allowsv in command line to allow it.
The error didn’t make a lot of sense as I was running 3.17 which is not the same version as 3.19. But I edited efi/boot/startup.nsh so that the main command line there read:
fwupdlcl.efi -F fwupdate.bin -y -allowsv
as suggested in the error message and booted from the thumb drive again and this time the firmware updated properly to 3.19. No windows required at any point.

4

Hi.
I’ve encounter the same situation like you and applied the same fix. aka “edited efi/boot/startup.nsh”. The installer did run. But I still see version 3.17 of “dmidecode -s bio-version”.
Runnin on Framework 11th gen Intel using a Coller Master case.

5

I just double-checked my ‘dmidecode -s bios-version’ output and it’s ‘03.19’ so I wonder if you have some new error output. The script output goes by quickly. I had to use my phone to take a movie of it and then view the movie enlarged, then discovered my actual error message (but not the normal output) was saved in a file on the usb drive.

6

I also had to tweak the next line of startup.nsh removing -OD option as per this reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/1d31v2v/updated_to_bios_319_system_still_shows_310/

So startup.nsh final lines looks like this:

fwupdlcl.efi -F fwupdate.bin -y -allowsv

CapsuleApp.efi winux.bin firmware_hdr.cap

Then BIOS update passed fine and didn’t even break my OS loading.

2 Likes
7

You saved me after much confusion.

It seems to me that Framework should fix this.