Thinkpad L570 UEFI destroyed after BIOS update

[Josef Raschen]

A BIOS/UEFI update was offered via notification on a ThinkPad L570. In the "Ubuntu Software" tool clicking to start update first seems not to work as the update always reappeared when clicking the reload button in the menu bar. After trying this several times, a popup window was shown and asks to reboot to finish the update. In parallel I was running the normal "Software Updater" tool so maybe the popup window came from there. I triggered the reboot, during reboot, on top of the Lenovo-Logo, some lines of text appeared (I do not remember the content), then the display went black and the System starts to beep short every 2 or 3 seconds. After about one minute I manually switched off the system via a 5 second press on the power button. Since then the system is dead: Only the cooling fan is running, the display stays black (no Lenovo logo etc.), no beep, nothing. So, I think the UEFI was not flashed correctly.

Release: 18.04
System: Lenovo ThinkPad L570 (Model 20J8)

Sorry, in this state of the system I cannot give any more details about the system (I am not even sure if the fwupd package is involved in this), but I just wanted to warn so that others do not run into the same trap.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Richard Hughes (richard-hughes)]

I've disabled this firmware on the LVFS and have asked Lenovo what happened.

[Federico Foschini (undicizeri)]

I've bricked two laptops (a L560 and a L570) due to this update.
We have others L570 in the office and we've disinstalled fwupd (apt remove fwupd) to not accidentally brick those

[Federico Foschini (undicizeri)]

Sorry for the double comment.
I'm not sure if this is a fault of fwupd or the fact that lenovo released a fault firmware; anyway I think Ubuntu should not push firmware updates along normal system updates.

Bios updates are very dangerous (as shown in this bug-report) and even Lenovo says on their official documentation to NOT update the bios unless your system isn't working as expected.

[Richard Hughes (richard-hughes)]

> I've bricked two laptops (a L560 and a L570) due to this update.

Ohh dear, this really shouldn't have happened. I'm sorry for this experience you've had.

> or the fact that lenovo released a fault firmware

Lenovo are the ones that upload, test and certify firmware releases. The LVFS doesn't test anything and all the onus is on the OEM to test on actual hardware before moving to stable.

> to NOT update the bios unless your system isn't working as expected

1.35 also fixes an unspecified security issue, so I assume that's why it was uploaded.

[Richard Hughes (richard-hughes)]

> Lenovo are the ones that upload, test and certify firmware releases.

Lenovo are currently investigating what went wrong, I'll update this bug when I have more information myself. I'll ask them for some kind of recovery guide, fingers crossed we can just use something like a USB drive with the firmware on, for instance like https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-U-and-S-Series-Notebooks/LENOVO-BIOS-RECOVERY/td-p/332989

[Federico Foschini (undicizeri)]

> fingers crossed we can just use something like a USB drive with the firmware on,

I've already tried using WINCRIS but without luck. I hope (for other people affected) lenovo could came up with something like that.

We had on-site warranty so we got both motherboards replaced this morning

[Richard Hughes (richard-hughes)]

> Lenovo are currently investigating what went wrong

I've just heard back from them. The bricking should only only occur on these selected models when you upgrade from a very old firmware version to a very new firmware version. This is because the old (as in the version you're upgrading from) firmware had a bug that meant the screen was not initialized correctly and the update progress bar was not being shown. The beeps actually mean "flashing, don't turn off" rather than "system error".

> After about one minute I manually switched off the system via a 5 second press on the power button

This is when the firmware was actually being flashed -- but of course you didn't know that :(

Lenovo are preparing a new update that checks the previous firmware version before being scheduled. This should be on the LVFS in the next few hours.

They also shared some guidance about how to recover a bricked machines:

* Remove all power supplies, which includes the AC adapter, the main battery, *and* the coin battery.

* Press and hold the power button for 30s.

* Attach all of power supplies and press the power button to power on the computer.

Depending on when the firmware update was interrupted this may or may not recover the laptop.

[David BEAL (ak) (davidbeal)]

Thanks for your guidance.

Is there a risk to loose ssd data with this unbricked procedure ?

To prevent loosing data, is it possible to remove ssd to execute the procedure ?

Thanks for your informations

[David BEAL (ak) (davidbeal)]

Guidance doesn't allow me to unbrick my computer

Sad news

[Josef Raschen (josef-z)]

The same for me. I guess the only way to repair it is to flash the chip from external using SPI (via Raspberry Pi etc.). Unfortunately there are no images available on the Lenovo website. I would really be great if Lenovo could release such images. Extracting the image from the UEFI package also seems not to work with recent Thinkpad UEFI.