Is it true that the firmware upgrade for a Lenovo 40b0 docking station breaks it? I found a replacement docking station (from a collegue, don´t tell anyone) that still works. Fedora was doing upgrades in the background when the docking station stopped working all of a sudden. The power light is either red or red flashing. Powercycle has on effect.
I’m talking about this update:
Before continuing, ensure the following:
* Your computer battery life if over 25%.
* Do not unplug the dock during update.
* Do not put your computer into sleep or hibernate mode during update.
* This update typically may take up to 15 minutes depending on your notebook and dock firmware version.
Release Notes:
* Fixed an issue where dock power button indication behavior during dock firmware update
* Fixed an issue where external 8K monitor can't be recognized when system resume from hibernation/power-off status
* Fixed an issue where external monitor can be detected but not lighted when resolution change to 6144*3456@30HZ
* Fixed an issue where external monitor no display when system boot UEFI(Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) period
* Fixed an issue where DP_U port can not display when system resume from sleep mode for more than 24 hours
* Fixed an issue where HP Z32K monitor can be detected but not lighted when monitor connected dock DP_D port
* Fixed an issue where firmware update can't continue with dock power button indication off after cable removal from system
* Fixed an issue where firmware update can't continue with dock power button indication always blinking
* Fixed an issue where it must have power cycle in firmware update from TBT4 dock FW v1018
Last night I did a update and shutdown. this morning the laptop was up and apparently rebooted. I’m not sure but it could be this unatended upgrade that commenced and, without warning, attempted an upgrade. There were no visible user interactions.
To avoid unintended upgrades I always disable the automatic upgrade within the packagekit gui (gnome software) and manually use dnf, flatpak, and fwupd to perform my upgrades. This way I can easily tell exactly when changes occur and can easily identify what may have happened.
To improve cybersecurity it is always best to keep software include OS and Firmware up to date. So that it will be always up to date. The update process should be good enough (see Microsoft) to prevent potential dangerous upgrades to be performed automaticlly.
there is a BIG difference in automatic updates, esp when involving FW updates and applying updates in a controlled manner manually via CLI commands.
Allowing automatic updates is a recipe for desaster! Don’t do that. Configure notifications instead and perform fw updates manually with fwupdmgr. The Lenovo docks are awful, they brick very easily every other FW upgrade. We stopped using Lenovo gear many years ago.
Automatic updates are great when they work. Some things are not anticipated and the gui (especially when doing automatic updates) hides the details and does not provide any messages to the user.
It is very easy to start a routine where the user has a set schedule to perform updates using the cli that would ensure they did not miss any updates. The cli interface provides details about what is intended and what the results are so details are not hidden as is done in the gui.
For five months now automatic updates have resulted in zero problems. But past experiences obviously are no garantuee for the future, certainly in the relative unstable world of open soruce software. Nevertheless I don´t think it a good idea to rely on humans—including me— to keep there software up to date an thwart dangers from external sources. I know this puts pressure on package managers but they are well aware of this.
