Can't blame just the manufacturers. AMD seems to do no QA with its BIOS before handing it to OEMS. Most of the previous generation's AMD laptops had issues with linux. AMD bios updates are still not supported under linux. If AMD doesn't care about the core enthusiast crowd, why should people care ?
Most bioses can update themselves from the system setup menu. Just download the bios update in an appropriate format, put it somewhere that's accessible to the bios, and you're set.
Updating the BIOS is so rare that I really don't mind going into the BIOS to do an upgrade, especially since an unexpected reboot/freeze can brick your BIOS. I update it maybe once a year, and only if there's some feature that I need.
And note that https://fwupd.org/lvfs/firmware/new does not list any AMD laptops. So even if you get a functional laptop, you won't be able to update the bios easily.
That's really unfortunate. I appreciate you sharing that with me. I hope this gets more attention.
But is the BIOS something controlled by AMD or the OEMs? My whole point in this and other threads it that OEMs are handling things poorly, and that's what's affecting AMDs prospects in the mobile market. The BIOS is a highly device-specific firmware, so that's why I'm asking.
The development of the BIOS is (typically) done by a company like AMI that interfaces with silicon manufacturers like AMD/Intel and laptop manufacturers like Lenovo/Dell. All of them are to blame for BIOS bugs since almost all laptop platforms (barring Chromebooks and a few others) are locked down in a way that nobody other than them can fix the issues.
Nothing is difficult. The point is that there is no excuse for using a) windows, b) freedos, c) geteltorito, or any hacks and workarounds in 2020 for updating the bios of your laptop.
To your point, the method of putting the bios file on a usb stick is also not universal. I don't think any lenovo laptops support that. And while passable, that's also kludgy.
I updated my A485 bios recently using fwupd, was much easier than on windows, just run a command and restart. To me the year of the Linux desktop is already here :)
But yea seems that not all machines are supported, you either get lucky or have to do research beforehand.
