Feature Request: Remove fwupd in future versions of Ubuntu

[Youran Sun]

Dear Ledkov,

Thank you for your reply. Now dell-client-linux on Github also blames me
that this is my hardware failure. However, this is a young machine, with
brand new RAM and SSD. I think the chance of a software bug is higher.

I contacted Dell for help. Dell asked me to provide the service number. But
there is no service number on this machine! The only way of getting it is
from BIOS! (Yes, I know this is rare, but for this machine, Optiplex 7070
MFF, this is the case.) This is a deadlock! Finally, I have to turn to some
small workshops for help.

The safest way of updating BIOS is to download in a USB stick and use BIOS
to update BIOS. Either updating using Ubuntu or updating using WIndows has
a much higher possibility of fail. On the other hand, alerting again and
again to the user "you should update" only because there is a fan control
optimization is typical "Windows behavior". It is annoying and arrogant. We
Linux, or we Ubuntu, should not do this. I am not denying the work of
hwupd. I am arguing that not installing it by default is more
user-friendly. And I believe this decision will make other Ubuntu
user's life better. (Maybe we can make a poll somewhere?) Please consider
my suggestion.

Sincerely,
Youran



On Wed, Nov 17, 2021 at 3:17 AM Dimitri John Ledkov <
dimitri.ledkov at canonical.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I sympathize with your experience. The firmware updates delivered via
> fwupd come directly from the OEM of your hardware. In this case Dell. The
> application of dell updates via fwupd, remote management consoles, or via
> manually downloaded firmware updates images from their website are
> identical. It is likely that you are experiencing hardware issue and should
> contact Dell for support. They do test all firmware updates across all of
> their SKUs before publishing. It might be a coincidence that firmware
> update triggered the fault. It is possible hardware was already defective.
>
> I hope that Dell will be able to help you soon.
>
> Regards.
>
> On Tue, 16 Nov 2021, 15:22 Youran Sun, <syouran0508 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear Developers of Ubuntu,
>>
>> I am a several-year Ubuntu user and I install Ubuntu on almost every
>> machine I have. I also keep advertising Ubuntu to my friends. However, some
>> terrible thing happened yesterday.
>>
>> Yesterday when I ssh to my PC, which is a Dell Optiplex 7070, the motd
>> recommends I update the firmware. I checked the details using `fwupd
>> get-updates` as shown in the motd and the outputs seem attractive. So I
>> ran `fwupd update`. The update went smoothly and finished successfully.
>> Then I reboot. And BOOM! No Logo, no bios, nothing!
>>
>> Now I cannot even enter bios. The blink pattern of the power light shows
>> a "bios checksum error". I have tried for the whole night but no process.
>> It seems I have to post my machine to Dell for repair. And the charge may
>> be enough for me to buy a new motherboard for this computer.
>>
>> We know that updating bios is risking and the price of failure is
>> painful. How can Ubuntu seduce me to update it while it cannot guarantee
>> success? From the perspective of user experience, I suggest Ubuntu not
>> install `fwupd` as default, or at least mask `/etc/update-motd.d/85-fwupd`.
>> For users who really need an update in bios, they can either install and
>> run this program or install the bios using a USB stick, as Dell recommended.
>>
>> For updates on my poor machine, see Cannot even enter BIOS after update
>> <https://github.com/fwupd/firmware-dell/issues/94>.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Youran
>> --
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>
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