fwupd/docs/website/index.html
2015-07-20 15:07:24 +01:00

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<title>fwupd: Updating Firmware in Linux</title>
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<h1 class="banner">fwupd: Updating<br>Firmware in Linux</h1>
<h1>Introduction</h1>
<p>
This project aims to make updating firmware on Linux automatic, safe and reliable.
</p>
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<a id="users" href="users.html">For end users</a>
<a id="devs" href="developers.html">For developers</a>
<a id="hw" href="vendors.html">For hardware vendors</a>
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<h2>About</h2>
<p>
To update a BIOS or network card firmware in Linux traditionally meant rebooting into Microsoft Windows, or
preparing a MSDOS floppy disk (!) and hoping that everything would
work after the update.
</p>
<p>
Now that we have UEFI as a boot mechanism it's much more important to
update firmware on devices, as these updates can fix serious security bugs.
Periodically searching a vendor website for updates is a manual and
error-prone task and not something we should ask users to do.
</p>
<p>
Providing a firmware update service actually requires two things:
<ol>
<li>Vendors providing information about what updates are available for specific hardware</li>
<li>A mechanism to actually deploy the firmware onto the hardware itself</li>
</ol>
<p>
Traditionally firmware is packaged up in a <code>cab</code> file which includes
an <code>inf</code> file that describes the update in more detail.
We can also add extra metadata so we can have fully localized update descriptions,
along with all the usual things you'd expect from an update, for example,
security classification and licensing information.
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Copyright <a href="mailto:richard@hughsie.com">Richard Hughes 2015</a>
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