Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@eNV25
Last active October 16, 2023 08:11
  • Star 22 You must be signed in to star a gist
  • Fork 1 You must be signed in to fork a gist
Star You must be signed in to star a gist
Embed
What would you like to do?
Instructions to Update the BIOS/UEFI for an HP Laptop on Linux

Instructions to Update the BIOS/UEFI for an HP Laptop on Linux

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.

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.

Install BIOS update

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

Complete BIOS update using HP Hardware Diagnostics

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/ESP/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.

Complete BIOS update using Win+B key combination

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.

@eNV25
Copy link
Author

eNV25 commented Jan 24, 2023

I have updated the gist so that it doesn't use a separate USB drive.

@dmitrmax
Copy link

dmitrmax commented Jan 24, 2023

@eNV25 nice! But I'm not sure whether it should be /efi/HP/BIOS/Current or /efi/HP/BIOS/New. I saw different variants around the internet. So I just did both before I attemped and it succeeded )

Also mine worked when Win-B was pressed and held before power on button was pressed. May be it is also important.

@TicTac7x
Copy link

TicTac7x commented May 22, 2023

I updated my omen 15 ek-1000 to F.32 and now I can't downgrade it any longer. The bios updater from windows doesn't allow selecting the update option to be selected.

Trying to flash old bios from usb also fails (Failed to find bios signature file).

Also tried with this method, where i manually copy old bios files to efi partition, then running bios managememt efi from bios update folder (same error about signature failure)

And Win + B only shows that bios recovery files are not found or corrupted (i copied them both to HP folders including Current and New folders).

Any ideas?

@eNV25
Copy link
Author

eNV25 commented May 22, 2023

@TicTac7x Did you copy the signature file (.s12, or similar) too?

@TicTac7x
Copy link

TicTac7x commented May 22, 2023

Yes, mine is .sig file, i also tried to make duplicate of it and rename it to .s12, still fails with the signature check.

If i use the latest bios version, the .sig file is in same place and there is no error about the sig file. I have no idea how to downgrade the bios now...

Feel free to add me on discord to discuss it, willing to pay money if someone helps me get it resolved.

TicTac7x#5352

@eNV25
Copy link
Author

eNV25 commented May 23, 2023

Why do you want to downgrade? Just curious.

@TicTac7x
Copy link

TicTac7x commented May 23, 2023 via email

@TicTac7x
Copy link

Found following tool to flash bios from linux without verification: https://ftp.hp.com/pub/caps-softpaq/cmit/linuxtools/HP_LinuxTools.html

Has anyone tried using it or is this something better not to use?

@dmitrmax
Copy link

Found following tool to flash bios from linux without verification: https://ftp.hp.com/pub/caps-softpaq/cmit/linuxtools/HP_LinuxTools.html

Has anyone tried using it or is this something better not to use?

Nope. I see it for the first time in my life. If I didn't find out how to deal with EFI way of flashing (above) I would definitely give it a try.

@TicTac7x
Copy link

EFI way of flashing is easier than compiling this thing tho... But i'm not sure if I have the guts to try this out, wouldn't want to turn my laptop to a paperweight :)

@dmitrmax
Copy link

EFI way of flashing is easier than compiling this thing tho... But i'm not sure if I have the guts to try this out, wouldn't want to turn my laptop to a paperweight :)

Well, you know, the most nervous flash was the one described above. Because it was rebooting several times with intervals of being off for quite a time with no indication that everything is going fine. I'd expect that this tool you've found is more user friendly and will check for compatibility of firmware file and will explain you further steps and what to expect.

So, next time I'll give it a try because I don't expect to get a brick at the end with it )

@TicTac7x
Copy link

TicTac7x commented May 24, 2023 via email

@supertin
Copy link

@Samweis2111
Thank you so much... The Win+B thing was what I needed. I wish HP would just let you download a bootable disk image with the flash toop and a binary file for the BIOS like many other vendors do... Never have this issue with Asus systems for example.

@ant9000
Copy link

ant9000 commented Sep 18, 2023

Since this version im getting BIOS reset errors, fan curve is different, laptop is running hotter, resume from sleep no longer works (screen stays black, i need to force poweroff from button and then again i get BIOS RESET error). So yeah, this version is really bad compared to previous ones... Looking for any way to downgrade this.

Hello, same problem here: latest version from HP resets the laptop after 15-30 seconds, on and on forever, and downgrading does not work.
Have you ever found a solution?

Thx in advance!

@ant9000
Copy link

ant9000 commented Sep 19, 2023

In answer to my own question: I did a BIOS recovery again with the same version (the latest). No errors (as before), and this time my laptop works correctly. Likely, I borked something on the first attempt.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment