Thinkpads Forum

Hi everyone,

How do you update the BIOS from Linux on the Thinkpad S1 Yoga?

This is a pretty important matter. I'm quite confident it can be done, but since it's not documented anywhere, I can't figure out Exactly how to do it.

How do you do this? Or, what's your best idea of how this should be done?


The BIOS update CD ISO is at http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/product ... s/DS038335
And the Windows EXE file is at http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/product ... s/DS038334 .

(Could you just write that ISO to an USB stick and boot it.. hmm! I think I tried and failed.)

Thanks!

Why would you want to upgrade the BIOS from any OS? Better to use the CD ISO link you posted. The instructions seems pretty clear to me, read and follow it for either CD or USB. If you're not comfortable with it and don't really need to update the BIOS then don't bother. If it's not broken don't fix it until it's broken.

Ah - I have laptop and USB memory stick only!

So my clarified Q is: How do I write the ISO to an USB stick so that it's bootable and all works, from Linux?


(If I recall right, I tried a Bunch of tools on Windows to make a bootable USB disk based on the ISO, and they all failed, maybe like 4 tools.)

(Going buying an USB CD writer and a writable CD seems overkill to me, if I can't take the USB writer with me afterwards anyhow!)

Your help here would be much appreciated, thanks!!

Cigarguy wrote:Why would you want to upgrade the BIOS from any OS? Better to use the CD ISO link you posted. The instructions seems pretty clear to me, read and follow it for either CD or USB. If you're not comfortable with it and don't really need to update the BIOS then don't bother. If it's not broken don't fix it until it's broken.

Pretty simple really, take a USB drive and make it bootable. Then extract the ISO onto the USB drive. It would help to know what flavour of Linux you are running as then I could point to instructions specifically for that distribution.

Anyhow, Googling "how to make usb bootable linux", third link down leads to UNetbootin. I've used UNetbootin a few times to make bootable USB keys for booting Linux, BIOS and Windows from an ISO. Read that website and follow the instructions. UNetbootin is for making a Linux distro USB bootable. Instead of selecting a Linux distro, simply use the BIOS ISO from Lenovo's website.

Again, read the instructions carefully otherwise you stand a good chance of bricking your machine.

Ok I'll try it later just to check. What I remember is that it seemed like this is an Ultra Special packing of the ISO contents, so that the usual range of USB boot tools wouldn't work..!

Just in case someone else stumbles upon it in the future. Had a same question with my L390Y just week ago. Lenovo provides bios update for windows. Or iso image. ISO was fetched, copied to usb flash with dd if=/some/path/to.iso of=/dev/<my usbflash>, like I usually do with all bootable isos. No booting. Choosing temporary boot device -menu shows my usb flash but choosing it and pressing enter brings me right back to same menu. No booting. Same flash was used just hours ago with debian iso to install linux on same laptop. Booted fine from same menu.

After few retries and checks that iso was downloaded fine and written ok to flash... Read a some lenovo forum post, where lenovo guy explained someone how to update their bios from iso... Among these explained steps was a mention of disabling secure boot.

After disabling secure boot in my L390Y it booted just nicely with that same usb flash with lenovo bios update iso on it.

Nice for lenovo not to mention it in readme along with that darn iso.

ADMIN EDIT:
seems this USER has an issue with my rules, here is his (or her) reply when i asked for a location correction:

Re: **LOCATION ERROR**
Sent: Wed Dec 25, 2024 4:07 am
From: tper
Recipient: BillMorrow

IP is from TOR relay, physically perhaps located in Tallinn. What business is user's exact location for forum anyhow? Want to complain next that tper is not my real name either?