How do I update the BIOS in Linux?

[pjc123]

A bunch of stream laptops were just added to the meltdown/spectre document in my previous post, including my model number.  I updated to BIOS F.19 yesterday.  Keep in mind that the BIOS update resets various critical Linux related BIOS settings such as "secure boot" to their original state, so jot down any important settings before you do the update and set them back to their previous state after the update (I already made notes of their settings a few months back).

[kyle_b]

Thanks for the update @pjc123, I did notice some BIOS updates were issued for the Stream laptops, I will check if mine is covered.

[pjc123]

Sure.  Mine is still running good with Mint 18.3.  I have since bought a Lenovo T470 that I run Centos 7 and Mint 18.3 on a second hard drive, Win 10 on the main drive, which really works out fantastic.  I just keep the HP Stream around to read tech documents, while I make OS or software changes on my T470.

[kazakore]

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@WAWood wrote:

@pjc123

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

Forget about using Wine.  The folks that recommended that are only guessing -- and their suggestion will not work because Wine only runs SOME Windows apps, and can not be used to do BIOS updates.

Sorry, but if you checked this problem on several Linux forums, they would tell you this is one of the main reasons so many Linux users retain their Windows installs -- to run utilities like this.

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This is not an acceptable answer! Especially when there are quite a high number of HP notebooks which are marketted as 100% Linux compatible by Canonical and Rat Hat!! Even these do not advertise the method for installing via Linux despite having supposed certificates of 100% compatibility! Even if you try selecting Other OS and Linux then it just tells you the kernel should provide everything you need and doesn't want to ever offer you a BIOS at all!!

Why do they really not want to tell you that the .exe files are basically compressed archives and can be extracted with the basic Archive Manager? Install notes saying this and the files still provided when the user selects Linux would go a long way to addressing questions asked here!

One you have the files extracted there are two ways you can update if runnin a UEFI BIOS. I was just trying to seaerch for the articles to refresh myself on exactly how. I know one is putting the file on an external USB, similar to the Windows method, but you can also place them somewhere on the EFI drive and then it will do the update from there. Came across this in my search before anything wanting to remind me how to though.....

And maybe one day you will fix your fault EFI implementation in one of the updates too....... Somehow I doubt it as clearly HP don't care about Linux users despite what face they like to try and gives themselves!!

[Distrovalk]

Friend in this situation you'll need the same brand backup computer. Otherwise it will ask you to ad vendor related program files.

In my case it didn't work. My backup is not a HP.