To update the BIOS/UEFI firmware requires HP-specific files in the EFI System Partition, also referred to as ESP.
On a Linux system, the ESP is typically mounted on /boot/efi
or /efi
. Whithin you should also find a EFI
directory, e.g. /boot/efi/EFI
or /efi/EFI
. This article assumes that the ESP is mounted on /efi
and that the /efi/EFI
directory exists. You can replace that with the mount point your system uses.
The HP-specific files are located in /efi/EFI/HP
or /efi/EFI/Hewlet-Packard
. These files typically come preinstalled in HP Windows PCs. If you have these files you could skip Install HP-specific files.
We can obtain the HP-specific files using HP's HP PC Hardware Diagnostics 4-IN-1 USB KEY installer. This installer contains the needed files. We can simply extract this installer and copy the needed files to the ESP
HP's installer only runs on Windows, but it is possible to extract it by running the self-extracting executable on Wine. You cannot simply extract the executable using 7-zip because the executable needs to do some file generation.
Download the executable. You can get the URL to the latest executable from HP's website.
$ wget https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp112501-113000/sp112853.exe
Run the executable using wine. This will extract its contents to ./sp112853
.
$ wine sp112853.exe /s /e /f sp112853
Copy the HP-specific files to the the ESP.
# cp -r sp142721/field/{Hewlett-Packard,HP} /efi/EFI/
According to HP, this works for most hardware. For some cases you may need additional files. I have tired this with an HP Pavilion 13-an0008ne Laptop only, which required no additional steps.
You'll need to find you updated BIOS image. You can find one by going to HP's Software and Drivers page, and input your serial number. Make sure you select Windows as your Operating System, otherwise it may not show the updates.
These drivers often also come in Windows executables, you should run them in wine. The executable will first fail to install automatically. Then it will display different options on how to procede. Select the Copy option and select a directory where the BIOS image and the key file should be copied to.
$ wget https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp112501-113000/sp112516.exe
$ wine sp112516.exe /s /f sp112516 # extract and execute
There should be a .bin
and an .s12
file. Copy these files to the ESP to the directory /efi/EFI/Hewlett-Packard/BIOS/New
and /efi/EFI/HP/BIOS/New
. Here I am using 084C5
as an example.
# mkdir /efi/EFI/Hewlett-Packard/BIOS/New
# cp sp112516/084C5{.bin,.s12} /efi/EFI/Hewlett-Packard/BIOS/New
# mkdir /efi/EFI/HP/BIOS/New
# cp sp112516/084C5{.bin,.s12} /efi/EFI/HP/BIOS/New
At this point you should have the needed HP-specific files and the BIOS update installed in the ESP. Now, you can actually complete the update.
Boot into firmware settings and press F2 to enter HP Hardware Diagnostics. You should be presented a menu and there should a menu entry named BIOS Management. Navigate to BIOS Management > Update BIOS. Your BIOS should start updating.
If you have enabled Secure Boot with custom keys, you will first need to sign the HP-specific .efi
files.
Sometimes the previous method does not work, and the BIOS Management option does not show up. You can alternatively copy the .bin
and .s12
file to /efi/EFI/Hewlett-Packard/BIOS/Current
or /efi/EFI/HP/BIOS/Current
, and press Win-B while the PC is booting up. This key combination should cause a BIOS firmware recovery using the files you copied.
Also note that updating will re-enable Secure Boot if had it disabled. If so, you might want to disable it again. Your custom Secure Boot keys will be preserved.
Hi eNV25:
I tried sp142721.exe . Following your instructions carefully, I got a USB key that would not boot and did not show any BIOS management option in F2 System Diagnostics. Looking at the files on the USB key, they are quite different from those from the older .exe and do not seem to present files needed for booting (boot or efi folder, grub file). I figured I should try running sp142721.exe in wine without command line options. That didn't work well for me--I got a terminating error messages about the unavailability of the Wine Mono framework. I installed Mono, but I think it'd need a reboot to perhaps work, and I can't reboot at the moment.
So, finally, I ran sp142721.exe on the Windows laptop--to create the USB. Some headaches there (wouldn't run a key part of the setup without running as Administrator, but I had run as Administrator--had to go and run the batch file being executed at that point directly in PowerShell). Anyway, the USB stick seemed to get a proper setup, I copied over the BIOS files, and ran it on my laptop. Again, it won't boot. As Samweis2111 says, booting from any EFI file on the drive fails. However, when I press F2 to do system diagnostics, the USB drive kicks in rather than what's on my computer--so I'm seeing the latest version of the diagnostics (8.8 I believe). However, there is no BIOS management option. Again, I suspect that whatever is needed for a UEFI BIOS update may simply not be on my laptop. Have tried or ignored as too dangerous every solution here on the archlinux page devoted to BIOS updates in linux as well. Bottom line: this may not be possible. Still, thanks for all the help!
Samweis2111: Where could I find the BIOSCopy.csv?