AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs

Re:AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs by bubblethink on Monday January 06, 2020 @08:59PM (#21975968)

Can't blame just the manufacturers. AMD seems to do no QA with its BIOS before handing it to OEMS. Most of the previous generation's AMD laptops had issues with linux. AMD bios updates are still not supported under linux. If AMD doesn't care about the core enthusiast crowd, why should people care ?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs by zozbot234 on Monday January 06, 2020 @09:02PM (#21975990)

Most bioses can update themselves from the system setup menu. Just download the bios update in an appropriate format, put it somewhere that's accessible to the bios, and you're set.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs by hug on Monday January 06, 2020 @09:16PM (#21976094)

Linux users are not the core enthusiast crowd for laptops.

Even among my extremely tech savvy crowd of friends, I only know one guy who runs linux as their desktop environment.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs by beatgammit on Monday January 06, 2020 @10:07PM (#21976421)

Updating the BIOS is so rare that I really don't mind going into the BIOS to do an upgrade, especially since an unexpected reboot/freeze can brick your BIOS. I update it maybe once a year, and only if there's some feature that I need.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs by basilgohar on Monday January 06, 2020 @09:06PM (#21976020)

Can you provide some examples? I own two AMD-powered laptops and neither had BIOS issues.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs by bubblethink on Monday January 06, 2020 @09:16PM (#21976095)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Laptop/Lenovo#E_series

And note that https://fwupd.org/lvfs/firmware/new does not list any AMD laptops. So even if you get a functional laptop, you won't be able to update the bios easily.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs by basilgohar on Monday January 06, 2020 @09:49PM (#21976312)

That's really unfortunate. I appreciate you sharing that with me. I hope this gets more attention.

But is the BIOS something controlled by AMD or the OEMs? My whole point in this and other threads it that OEMs are handling things poorly, and that's what's affecting AMDs prospects in the mobile market. The BIOS is a highly device-specific firmware, so that's why I'm asking.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs by bubblethink on Monday January 06, 2020 @10:05PM (#21976404)

The development of the BIOS is (typically) done by a company like AMI that interfaces with silicon manufacturers like AMD/Intel and laptop manufacturers like Lenovo/Dell. All of them are to blame for BIOS bugs since almost all laptop platforms (barring Chromebooks and a few others) are locked down in a way that nobody other than them can fix the issues.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs by blattimwind on Monday January 06, 2020 @10:39PM (#21976608)

> So even if you get a functional laptop, you won't be able to update the bios easily.

Extracting a ZIP on a FAT/NTFS USB key is difficult?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs by bubblethink on Tuesday January 07, 2020 @01:40AM (#21977564)

Nothing is difficult. The point is that there is no excuse for using a) windows, b) freedos, c) geteltorito, or any hacks and workarounds in 2020 for updating the bios of your laptop.

To your point, the method of putting the bios file on a usb stick is also not universal. I don't think any lenovo laptops support that. And while passable, that's also kludgy.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs by lllauri on Tuesday January 07, 2020 @04:56AM (#21978503)

I updated my A485 bios recently using fwupd, was much easier than on windows, just run a command and restart. To me the year of the Linux desktop is already here :)

But yea seems that not all machines are supported, you either get lucky or have to do research beforehand.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs by bubblethink on Tuesday January 07, 2020 @01:50AM (#21977619)

Replying to self for an edit. T495 has bios updates on fwupd but the E series does not. So it's a case of price differentiation by lenovo.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs by basilgohar on Tuesday January 07, 2020 @09:40AM (#21980277)

Appreciate the update. I'm glad that you brought this issue up. It's an important one to me and one I think needs more attention.

[ Parent | on HN ]