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If boot firmware implemented it, I wouldn't count on it being updated very often. Every OS these days has a pretty good update process that patches things freq

If boot firmware implemented it, I wouldn't count on it being updated very often. Every OS these days has a pretty good update process that patches things frequently. Doing it there means most users actually have a chance of seeing the patches.

snvzz 3y ago
>If boot firmware implemented it, I wouldn't count on it being updated very often. That's precisely the problem when it's not possible to upgrade that boot firmware without the vendor's help. Or why x86 firmware contains microcode, yet we still have to update it later.
KennyBlanken 3y ago
AGESA is updated every few months and a number of motherboard vendors track those changes with BIOS updates. The updates can often contain pretty substantial changes, like resizable BAR support. Further: I'm typing this on a Macbook Pro which is running right now only because I was able to pull the bootrom (which is UEFI), add a NVME driver from a newer Macbook Pro, package it back up, and flash it back to the older Macbook Pro. This let me use an NVME drive in a machine released before they added NVME support to that system's bootrom. The only side effect was that the OS didn't fully support NVME standby modes so power consumption was slightly higher, but even that was fixed in a later OS update which was released after NVME drives were in several models.
- asveikau 3y ago
  > AGESA is updated every few months and a number of motherboard vendors track those changes with BIOS updates. And very few people update their BIOS with any frequency. But most people update their OS.
cesarb 3y ago
> If boot firmware implemented it, I wouldn't count on it being updated very often. Every OS these days has a pretty good update process that patches things frequently. Not only that, but updating firmware is always riskier than updating the OS. If an OS update is broken, you can easily use the firmware to recover (booting from the OS install media and working from there); recovering from a failed firmware update can be much harder and/or obscure.
- SoftTalker 3y ago
  In some cases nearly impossible for the owner of the hardware. Supermicro BIOS updates advise that in case of failed updates, it may be necessary to send the board back to be reflashed, presumably via some sort of direct hardware connection.

snvzz 3y ago

>If boot firmware implemented it, I wouldn't count on it being updated very often. That's precisely the problem when it's not possible to upgrade that boot firmware without the vendor's help. Or why x86 firmware contains microcode, yet we still have to update it later.

KennyBlanken 3y ago

AGESA is updated every few months and a number of motherboard vendors track those changes with BIOS updates. The updates can often contain pretty substantial changes, like resizable BAR support. Further: I'm typing this on a Macbook Pro which is running right now only because I was able to pull the bootrom (which is UEFI), add a NVME driver from a newer Macbook Pro, package it back up, and flash it back to the older Macbook Pro. This let me use an NVME drive in a machine released before they added NVME support to that system's bootrom. The only side effect was that the OS didn't fully support NVME standby modes so power consumption was slightly higher, but even that was fixed in a later OS update which was released after NVME drives were in several models.

asveikau 3y ago
> AGESA is updated every few months and a number of motherboard vendors track those changes with BIOS updates. And very few people update their BIOS with any frequency. But most people update their OS.

cesarb 3y ago

> If boot firmware implemented it, I wouldn't count on it being updated very often. Every OS these days has a pretty good update process that patches things frequently. Not only that, but updating firmware is always riskier than updating the OS. If an OS update is broken, you can easily use the firmware to recover (booting from the OS install media and working from there); recovering from a failed firmware update can be much harder and/or obscure.

SoftTalker 3y ago
In some cases nearly impossible for the owner of the hardware. Supermicro BIOS updates advise that in case of failed updates, it may be necessary to send the board back to be reflashed, presumably via some sort of direct hardware connection.