Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update

[Obsolesce]

First of all, is that fwupdate-efi or fwupdate-libs package responsible for my surprise BIOS update without any intervention from me?

That's what I want to know.

But anyways...

Somehow one of these packages got onto my system, and I'm not sure how:

• fwupdate-efi
• fwupdate-libs

I used Fedora 27 Net Install iso to install straight Fedora Workstation, no optional software.

Using dnf provides, dnf deplist, and rpm -q --whatrequires are not helping me.

So either this was installed by default, installed by something else, or I don't remember doing it.

[momurda]

I have been reading about this
If the fwupdate package is installed it is enabled by default
However i cant find a way to make it check for updates, download and install them automatically

[momurda]

I just wiped one of my r220 test servers, installed fedora minimal.
Installed this fwupdate package. Now i am going to go get the new r220 uefi/bios package from dell put it on a usb drive and install it with this package.

[stacksofplates]

@tim_g said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@aidan_walsh said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

I had a microcode update applied by Korora 26 during the week, perhaps that?

Check dnf history?

Yeah dnf history shows my command/install history. But I don't know how to get it to show everything that was updated.

You can do

dnf history info <history number>

[stacksofplates]

@tim_g said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@momurda said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

dnf list installed | grep micro*
The package is named microcode_ctl i think.
Just checking a fedora 27 vm.

Yes I have that, but that was on before the BIOS update.

Here's what it did:

The microcode_ctl package is what updates the firmware. I'm 99% sure you just update microcode_ctl and it will patch the firmware.

[Obsolesce]

@stacksofplates said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@tim_g said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@aidan_walsh said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

I had a microcode update applied by Korora 26 during the week, perhaps that?

Check dnf history?

Yeah dnf history shows my command/install history. But I don't know how to get it to show everything that was updated.

You can do

dnf history info <history number>

I've tried that but it doesn't show the whole line... it gets cut off so it doesn't help at all.

[stacksofplates]

@tim_g said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@stacksofplates said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@tim_g said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@aidan_walsh said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

I had a microcode update applied by Korora 26 during the week, perhaps that?

Check dnf history?

Yeah dnf history shows my command/install history. But I don't know how to get it to show everything that was updated.

You can do

dnf history info <history number>

I've tried that but it doesn't show the whole line... it gets cut off so it doesn't help at all.

huh? There should be a lot more than one line.

[zachary715]

@jaredbusch said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@zachary715 said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@tim_g said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@jaredbusch said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

My Fedora 27 system does not have that installed.
But as usual, I did not click any extra packages on the right side menu during setup when I chose the Cinnamon desktop experience on the left hand menu.

I never install extra packages either... I just select Fedora Workstation on the left, and that's it. Defaults.

I'm looking through my history to see if anything could have installed that fwupdate-efi thing...

Nothing.

The only thing I've run relating to all of this is:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/speed47/spectre-meltdown-checker/master/spectre-meltdown-checker.sh

and then...

sh spectre-meltdown-checker.sh

So I just checked my VM of Fedora Workstation and fwupdate-efi is installed by default it seems. I've installed nothing on this VM except gnome-tweak-tool as I was playing with Gnome configuration to see if I might like it more than Cinnamon. I use the Cinnamon desktop on my laptop at home. So apparently if you select the Workstation install option this gets installed automatically. Whether this is where your problem is or not I don't know

I can assure you that it is not part of a default install if you select the Workstation Cinnamon Desktop option from the NetInstall disk.

It is not on either my deskop or my laptop.

Yeah when I said Workstation, I was referring to the default Workstation installation option being Gnome. That's how it's labeled is Workstation vs Cinnamon Desktop on the installation options.

Currently installing a new VM with default Fedora Workstation as @Tim_G has done and going to see what all packages are included. Fedora 27 netinstall image.

[momurda]

@stacksofplates said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@tim_g said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@momurda said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

dnf list installed | grep micro*
The package is named microcode_ctl i think.
Just checking a fedora 27 vm.

Yes I have that, but that was on before the BIOS update.

Here's what it did:

The microcode_ctl package is what updates the firmware. I'm 99% sure you just update microcode_ctl and it will patch the firmware.

If i have a dual boot system, one linux install, one Windows install
I install this microcode_ctl package for spectre mitigation on my linux install.
This makes the hardware immune now, so my windows and linux system on this hardware are ok against spectre? Nothing I find is clear on this point.

[zachary715]

Output after a fresh install...

[zmagee@fedoratest ~]$ sudo dnf install fwupdate-efi microcode_ctl
Last metadata expiration check: 0:10:54 ago on Fri 19 Jan 2018 04:17:13 PM CST.
Package fwupdate-efi-10-1.fc27.x86_64 is already installed, skipping.
Package microcode_ctl-2:2.1-20.fc27.x86_64 is already installed, skipping.
Dependencies resolved.
Nothing to do.
Complete!
[zmagee@fedoratest ~]$

[Obsolesce]

@stacksofplates said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@tim_g said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@stacksofplates said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@tim_g said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

@aidan_walsh said in Fedora 27 Update History; surprise BIOS update:

I had a microcode update applied by Korora 26 during the week, perhaps that?

Check dnf history?

Yeah dnf history shows my command/install history. But I don't know how to get it to show everything that was updated.

You can do

dnf history info <history number>

I've tried that but it doesn't show the whole line... it gets cut off so it doesn't help at all.

huh? There should be a lot more than one line.

OH! I had it in the wrong order. I had the number and info switched around.