LVFS(Linux Vendor Firmware Service) is a way to update firmware (e.g. BIOS, host TBT firmware, device TBT firmware … etc.) And the tool to do that is fwupdmgr which came from fwupd, so this post is to share the experience on using fwupdmgr.

let’s take xps13 with fwupd 1.0.9-0ubuntu2 as example,

$ fwupdmgr get-remotes 
http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/njkmfmcCdQ/

$ fwupdmgr refresh ; #get latest meta
Fetching metadata https://cdn.fwupd.org/downloads/firmware.xml.gz
Downloading…           [***************************************]
Fetching signature https://cdn.fwupd.org/downloads/firmware.xml.gz.asc

# then you can get /var/lib/fwupd/remotes.d/lvfs/metadata.xml.gz
e.g. http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/Ycg6RTWxjd/

$ fwupdmgr get-devices
http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/QS2MKC9cjk/

$ fwupdmgr get-updates
http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/VNXQtQMpbw/

In this case,fwupdmgr get-updates get an availiable update “ID: com.dell.tbt4eeb9d07.firmware”, which just match “Guid: 4eeb9d07” in fwupdmgr get-devices. And fwupdmgr get-updates refer to /var/lib/fwupd/remotes.d/lvfs/metadata.xml.gz which downloaded by fwupdmgr refresh

So, here are 2 check points.

1. the device which is targeted to update firmware must present in fwupdmgr get-devices
2. the target firmware should preset in metadata.xml.gz if vendor uploaded it correctly.

Tips:

• the firmware indexed by metadata.xml.gz can be downloaded manually, then flash it by fwupdmgr.
• you can put private configuration in /etc/fwupd/remotes.d/ to get private firmware.(might need reboot let daemon include new configuration)
  • remember to check if the associated metadata.xml.gz get from the url in private configuration.
• current using firmware version can be get by fwupdmgr get-devices as well.
• thunderbolt device might can also be update by this way if it shows in fwupdmgr get-devices after plug it to thunderbolt slot.

1 https://github.com/hughsie/fwupd/wiki/LVFS-Testing-remote