in the latest update fwupd gained support for reading and writing bios settings. This would allow us to backup settings and reset them for cases like the 3.10 update that deleted all user settings.
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Awsome news!
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title: BIOS Settings API
---
fwupd 1.8.4 and later include the ability to modify BIOS settings on systems that support the Linux kernel's [firmware-attributes API](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-firmware-attributes).
Drivers included with the Linux kernel on supported machines will advertise all BIOS settings that the OS can change. The fwupd daemon uses this API create an abstraction that fwupd clients can use to offer BIOS settings to change to end users.
## Interactive command line usage
Both `fwupdmgr` and `fwupdtool` have support for the fwupd BIOS settings API both for interactive use.
Using `fwupdgmr` will require PolicyKit authentication as only authorized users can view the current BIOS settings.
Using `fwupdtool` will require running the tool as root, as `fwupdtool` only works as root.
### Getting available BIOS settings
To fetch available BIOS settings for a machine:
```shell
# fwupdmgr get-bios-setting
show original