[Discuss] Risks of BIOS (actually UEFI) updates

[Daniel AJ Sokolov]

A problem I have heard of is that a BIOS update somehow ruins GRUB or
something like that.

The machine will start, but it won't recognize your encrypted hard drive
as a boot drive. I'm unaware of a fix.

BR
Daniel AJ

On 2018-11-10 10:58 p.m., Drew wrote:
> I would say that updating a modern bios on a PC is far less risk then
> it was back in the day. Modern BIOS implementations typically have a
> built-in backup of sorts so that if the updated bios fails to boot for
> some reason, they can fail back to a known working version. I first
> saw this feature on gaming rigs back in the mid to late 2000's (I was
> a heavy modder back then so bricked more then a couple boards tweaking
> the bios and/or uploading 3rd party bios mods.). The introduction of
> backup copies in the main storage chip and improved flashing
> techniques have eliminated much of the worries about bricking.
> On Sat, Nov 10, 2018 at 3:18 PM Alan W. Irwin
> <Alan.W.Irwin1234 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> From my last post, it turns out I might need to do a BIOS (actually
>> UEFI) update for my "newish" Ryzen 7 1700 computer to solve its random
>> lockup issues.
>>
>> When I bought that custom system from Mother Computers they told me
>> they went out of their way NOT to apply BIOS updates since they felt
>> that was a last resort.  But if after 6 months of instability and if
>> the kernel measures I just discovered to deal with such lockups are
>> not working, then I am sure I could convince them to do a BIOS upgrade
>> now, but likely at my own risk since from my experience with them I
>> think it is a fair to say that Mother Computers are uncomfortable with
>> any Linux-only issue.  So I will definitely ask them their take on
>> such risks before authorizing them to go ahead with it.
>>
>> However, I would also like to ask the same question here.  For
>> example, my experience with much older boxes was it was common for
>> assemblers not to apply BIOS upgrades.  But is that attitude still
>> common for modern PC's?  Or is the consensus here that BIOS upgrades
>> for modern PC's should always be done and reverted back to a previous
>> BIOS version only if the latest version works worse than previous?
>>
>> Finally, I would appreciate comments on the worst-case scenario, where
>> the BIOS update turns the computer into a brick.  What are the
>> chances, and if that scenario happens, does that mean I would have to
>> get Mother Computers (or some other vendor) to reassemble my new
>> computer components around a brand-new motherboard, or are there
>> easier ways for computer shops to deal with a modern PC with
>> non-working BIOS?
>>
>> Alan
>> __________________________
>> Alan W. Irwin
>>
>> Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state
>> implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); the Time
>> Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting
>> software package (plplot.sf.net); the libLASi project
>> (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net);
>> and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net).
>> __________________________
>>
>> Linux-powered Science
>> __________________________
>>
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