Dell is taking the first steps towards firmware upgrades

Feb 9, 2016 20:54 GMT  ·  By

The ability to upgrade the firmware on a system from a Linux OS is something that Dell and Red Hat are going to implement, and the first steps have been taken already.

We all know that upgrading the firmware for most of the hardware out there can only be done on Windows systems or with specific tools. It's possible to upgrade the BIOS, for example, from Linux, but this is a feature that must be worked on by hardware makers as well.

A new service called Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS) has been put together by Red Hat, which is essentially a repository for firmware updates and Dell will be the first company to take advantage of it. This is concentrated efforts from a number of key players, and it has a good chance of becoming mainstream.

"Red Hat has developed the tools that enable this functionality: fwupd, fwupdate, & ESRT support in the Linux kernel. For the past year, we have been working closely with Red Hat, Intel, & Canonical to jointly fix hundreds of issues related to the architecture, tools, process, and metadata on real hardware," a Dell developer explained.

The upcoming Dell Edge Gateway 5000 is the first device that will be equipped with the tools for Linux upgrades, and it all goes well, and the initiative doesn't die down, we'll soon see Dell laptops that can do the same thing.