The challenge of updating InsydeH2O UEFI with Linux

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2024-09-29 23:00:03

Fun fact about me: I am the weirdo who always updates the UEFI even though it is not technically necessary. It just makes me feel better to know everything is up to date. Particularly because every update’s changelog always lists an impressive collection of security bug fixes.

The problem is that my laptop does not support updating the UEFI from within Linux. Lenovo does not submit updates to LVFS for my laptop. Additionally, they do not release a Linux version of the update tool or a generic UEFI shell version.

This is especially annoying because Lenovo does all of that for other laptops. Unfortunately, my laptop uses InsydeH2O UEFI, and it seems that Lenovo laptops with this firmware do not support updates without Windows.

Sadly, because the InsydeH2O update tool does not support running in Windows PE, I had to create a full-blown Windows installation. This was a lengthy process that involved setting up a Windows VM and then using Rufus (a Windows-only tool) to create a Windows To Go USB.

Then, an update broke my Windows To Go USB and I was not willing to go through that whole process again. So, I began to search for a better solution.