[solved] bios update advice [was reenabling bluetooth]

When I first installed Arch, I couldn't for the life of me get it to recognise bluetooth. More specifically, I couldn't get it to see my bluetooth as not hard blocked despite having it enabled in the (uefi) bios.
Eventually, I got it to work. However, I don't think I really understood what I'd done. Perhaps it was simply a fortuitous update. All seemed OK.
Recently, it stopped working again. I'm not sure exactly when as I don't use it that often. Also, I am not sure if it was working immediately prior to my machine going insane two days ago. I've just restored from backup. However, I idiotically ran fsck on the root fs of my backup drive once and this caused minor corruption. As far as I could tell, the only issue was an inode moved to lost+found and I've identified and reinstated that. Everything seems OK and I've updated to the latest kernel this evening without problems. Also, since this is a problem I had earlier, I'm more inclined to think it due to user error (configuration) rather than corruption.
Bluetooth is definitely enabled in the (uefi) bios. I've rebooted to double-check this at least twice.
$ rfkill list
1: tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
ps ax | grep blue
684 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/bluetoothd
$ lsmod | grep blue
bluetooth 151999 11 btusb,bnep,rfcomm
rfkill 15498 4 bluetooth,cfg80211,thinkpad_acpi
crc16 1359 2 ext4,bluetooth
$ grep DAEMONS /etc/rc.conf
# DAEMONS
#DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network crond)
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng iptables ip6tables !network @crond dbus rfkill wicd bluetooth @smartd avahi-daemon @avahi-dnsconfd @cupsd !@monitd @ntpd @sensors !@cpufreq @acpid @laptop-mode @alsa !@esd @clamav)
$ pacman -Qs blue
local/bluedevil 1.2.2-1
KDE bluetooth framework
local/bluez 4.99-1
Libraries and tools for the Bluetooth protocol stack
local/libbluedevil 1.9.1-1
A Qt wrapper for bluez used in the new KDE bluetooth stack
A relevant line from dmesg:
[ 18.920885] thinkpad_acpi: rfkill switch tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: radio is blocked
/etc/conf.d/rfkill
# /etc/conf.d/rfkill
# Configuration for the rfkill startup script
# List of devices to block on startup (space-separated)
RFKILL_BLOCK=""
# List of devices to unblock on startup (space-separated)
RFKILL_UNBLOCK="all"
# Supported device names are: all, wifi, bluetooth, umb, wimax, wwan, gps and specific device names like phy0, hci0, ...
# See "rfkill list" for available devices
# Examples:
# Block all bluetooth devices:
# RFKILL_BLOCK="bluetooth"
# Unblock the phy0 wifi device and all wwan devices:
# RFKILL_UNBLOCK="phy0 wwan"
/etc/conf.d/bluetooth
# Bluetooth configuraton file
# Bluetooth services (allowed values are "true" and "false")
# Run the bluetoothd daemon (default: true)
#DAEMON_ENABLE="false"
# Run the sdp daemon (default: false)
# If this is disabled, hcid's internal sdp daemon will be used
#SDPD_ENABLE="true"
# Run the bluetooth HID daemon (default: false)
#HIDD_ENABLE="true"
# Activate rfcomm ports (default: false)
#RFCOMM_ENABLE="true"
# Run bluetooth dial-up networking daemon (default: false)
#DUND_ENABLE="true"
# Run bluetooth PAN daemon (default: false)
#PAND_ENABLE="true"
# rfcomm configuration file (default: /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf)
#RFCOMM_CONFIG="/etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf"
# Options for hidd, dund and pand (default: none)
HIDD_OPTIONS="--server"
#DUND_OPTIONS=""
#PAND_OPTIONS=""
I tried following the wiki but I cannot get past the first step because no device shows up. I looked at gentoo's wiki but the instructions refer to files under /proc and I couldn't translate them for /sys which is where I think the equivalent files would be. (files seem to be directories instead.)
I also tried the instructions at http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_setup_Bluetooth:
echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/bluetooth_enable
I do have the required module (thinkpad_acpi) loaded but even when I try this as root having remembered to unset noclobber, I get "Operation no permitted". I'm not sure why - the file permissions are -rw-r--r-- and the file is owned by root:root. I know some of the files under /sys etc. are not regular files and cannot be written to but this is the method the think wiki suggests for enabling the hotkeys so I'd assumed this file should be writeable.
However, dmesg suggests this method is deprecated:
[ 3129.610450] thinkpad_acpi: deprecated sysfs attribute: access by process with PID 7749
[ 3129.610458] thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: sysfs attribute bluetooth_enable is deprecated and will be removed. Please switch to generic rfkill before year 2010
So I guess that's equivalent to the rfkill thing anyway which only affects soft blocking?
dmesg also includes:
[ 18.545243] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.16
[ 18.545268] NET: Registered protocol family 31
[ 18.545271] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[ 18.545275] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[ 18.545277] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[ 18.545284] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[ 18.546495] i801_smbus 0000:00:1f.3: PCI INT C -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[ 18.546504] ACPI: resource 0000:00:1f.3 [io 0xefa0-0xefbf] conflicts with ACPI region SMBI [io 0xefa0-0xefaf]
[ 18.546509] ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver
[ 18.557856] ACPI: AC Adapter [ACAD] (on-line)
[ 18.558655] wmi: Mapper loaded
[ 18.585906] Bluetooth: Generic Bluetooth USB driver ver 0.6
[ 18.586433] usbcore: registered new interface driver btusb
[ 18.592328] atl1c 0000:08:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[ 18.592344] atl1c 0000:08:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
I'd really appreciate any advice or information. I'm really hoping to not only get this working again but to understand (and remember) how it is done so I can repeat as necessary!
Last edited by cfr (2012-03-13 17:56:43)

In case this is useful to others:
I borrowed a USB optical drive from the IT department at work. I installed cdrkit using pacaman and burnt the iso image using wodim following the instructions for burning isos on the wiki.
I got somewhat confused at this point. The wiki explains how to check a created iso is good by mounting it. Although I hadn't created it, I tried to do this. (Not having checksums for comparison makes me nervous!) I mounted an entirely empty directory. When I tried to unmount, it said it couldn't find the loop device although I used that when mounting. I then used fuse to mount it and again got an empty directory. So I tried mounting the actual cd I'd burnt. Same result. I next downloaded another copy of the iso and diffed it just to try to rule out corruption on download. Diff checked out.
I decided maybe bios updates were weird. wodim had definitely done *something* and it seemed to have burnt it. It reported success... In any case, I figured if I'd really burnt an entirely blank cd, the worst that would happen is it wouldn't boot and that wouldn't be the end of the world.
So I rebooted the machine and went into bios mode, following Lenovo's instructions (I printed these just in case). Before I followed those, I reset all settings to their defaults. I don't know if this was necessary but it seemed it couldn't hurt. I think this wiped the grub2 boot entry. I then made sure the cd drive was above the hard drive in the boot order. I disconnected everything except power and the optical drive. Again, don't know if this was necessary but Macs are sometimes funny about having things connected when booted from test/rescue etc. cds and I thought PCs might be the same. In any case, I didn't think a printer, mouse or ethernet would be much use in bios.
I rebooted and booted from the cd. I read the instructions. I chose the update-system option and followed the instructions. I then sat and stared at it nervously while it seemed to take forever to update. (I don't think it was really very long - I was just worried.) It then said that it might continue to update as it rebooted and that I should leave the cd in until "this screen" showed again. I should then either not remove the cd and reboot to the same screen or I should remove the cd and reboot to something else. (I didn't really get this bit.) I rebooted. I guess "same screen" means "bios update" rather than "system program update". I could not, however, remove the cd. In the end I think I rebooted and went into bios mode. I first reset everything to defaults as I'd read this was necessary to get bluetooth etc. all working properly. I then checked/changed the boot order and everything else and rebooted again. Once I was back at the desktop I managed to unmount the disk (couldn't do this through the gui but worked OK in cli). I then unplugged the drive. I then switched the drive off and on again and was finally able to extract the cd. (I didn't think IT would be too pleased if I returned the drive with a stuck bios updater in it though they'd probably have known better how to extract it.)
And my bluetooth is enabled! (I hope it lasts: I have been here before although it isn't clear how I got there before.)
$ rfkill list
1: tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
3: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
I ignored the renaming option in the bios updater. I don't know if this was correct but I didn't understand what it was meant to be for so I decided to not touch it.
I am somewhat surprised the machine booted. I thought if it had wiped the grub2 entry from the uefi menu that it wouldn't boot. However, it booted OK. I'd like to put the entry back if I can figure out how, though. Having said that, I'm not entirely sure what the entry does if it isn't necessary to boot.
Adapting the wiki instructions a bit (They must have changed - I followed the wiki in November and now all the names and places are different!):
modprobe efivars
efibootmgr --create --gpt --disk /dev/sda --part 1 --write-signature --label "Arch Linux (GRUB2)" --loader '\EFI\grub\grub.efi'
I used '\EFI\grub\grub.efi' because I don't have arch_grub but only grub and boot. I used grub.efi in place of grubx64.efi because I don't have the latter. I have core.efi and grub.efi. These are identical and also identical to boot/bootx64.efi. I figured grub/grub.efi was the closest match. I used the above even though it is efi/grub/grub.efi because I guess case doesn't matter on a fat 16 partition any more than it would on a fat 32 one?
Last edited by cfr (2012-03-13 00:41:55)

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  • Re: E540 bios update to 2.17 fails, the system program file was not found

    Unfortunately all versions of the BIOS available from Lenovo's site have a bug that doesn't play well with linux. The workaround is to turn OFF USB 3.0 in the BIOS settings. (You can still use the USB ports, just not as USB 3.0.)
    Here's a posting with more links if you would like to learn more. 
    As for updating the BIOS, maybe one could get the updater to work using FreeDOS bootable image, or more likely a linux image with WINE on it... ?
    On my new E540 I "cheated" by keeping Windows 7 cluttering up my hard drive for awhile. I have booted Windows only twice, and I NEVER let it connect to the Internet, but I downloaded the .exe version of the BIOS updater and ran it from a USB stick. (It runs as a Windows software installer, which is odd to me.)
    2/23/15 EDIT: Message moved to front of discussion for escalation purposes. Amy_Lenovo
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    joonasr wrote:
    I bought this laptop without any system and now the Bootable CD fails to update terribly buggy BIOS. Well done Lenovo. Could be my last Lenovo comp
    @conwaytwt How could FreeDOS be used for updating BIOS? I don't think wine will work.
    By the way, I tried extracting bios files from the .exe according to different advice in http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/BIOS_Upgrade but they failed.
    @joonsar, I made that comment without thinking too much ... I have other (older) systems where the BIOS upgrades were always released as DOS executables... because they would run in Windows but also if your system had a floppy disk drive... :-) (obviously very old information nowadays).
    Here is a link describing what I was imagining -- a bootable FreeDOS image: http://pingtool.org/bootable-dos-iso-bios-upgrade/ -- note this person combined FreeDOS and some Windows utility to make a bootable disc image. I suspect you could cobble together something similar using linux utilities, too.
    --> HOWEVER I do not know if the bios upgrade .exe provided by Lenovo can run in DOS mode... I haven't tried it. 
    ANOTHER option (I haven't tried!!!) would be to create a bootable Windows PE image. I believe there are some around, but now that I look, all the procedures involve creating the image from within a Windows environment (a Google search points to several options). Oh and of course Windows PE technically requires an existing Windows license, though I don't think it checks. 
    Making a DOS image...
    Today I realized the Ubuntu USB "Startup Disc Creator" only seems to work with linux images (maybe only Ubuntu). To create a FreeDOS USB you'll need to install unetbootin and use that utility. As it turns out it can make a bootable USB from (an older version of) FreeDOS on its own, but I just used it to create a FreeDOS 1.1 image. (just to see if I could)
    UPDATE: I installed FreeDOS 1.1 to the USB stick with unetbootin. I couldn't get it to boot. SO I had unetbootin create a FreeDOS 1.0 image. It booted, but I didn't play with it long. The next step would be to try copying the Lenovo BIOS update .exe to it to see if it runs, but I don't want to run it again on MY system....
    I did notice unetbootin knows how to create all sorts of images on its own, including some other kinds of rescue images, but I haven't read about them.... you might have a look?
    Here's what I did (a week or two ago) to update my BIOS:
    I still have Windows cluttering my hard drive for just this reason (based on sad experience with a Dell). I downloaded the .exe file and copied it to a USB stick, booted into Windows, and opened the .exe file. The software ran as a Windows installer. It asked me to approve it, installed something somewhere, and then asked me to reboot Windows to do the actual install. BY THE WAY, the actual install looked sortof like a DOS installer, so it's POSSIBLE the .exe might run under FreeDOS.
    P.S.: Lenovo seems to have done something odd to their own bootable disc image to make it look "empty" to some linux  software -- I confirmed there IS an image in the file (you can dump it and see things in it) but the Image Mounter and other linux utilities think it's an "empty" file. I suspect you could modify a character or two somewhere and make it easier to burn or make a USB stick in linux.

  • Crashing Techra TE2000 Needs Bios Update, Using Windows XP. Any Advice?

    I have an older Toshiba TE2000 that has been crashing lately due to an insufficient BIOS update. It also states there is a problem with the RAM. Each time the computer crashes and reboots, it sends me to a Windows supports site that has diagnosed the problem, referring me to a BIOS update.
    I have been doing my homework and know that a BIOS update is very tricky and can lead to permanent damage. It may be necessary.. however I don't want to have to buy a new laptop.
    Can anyone offer any advice or support?
    It started crashing a few weeks ago, and crashed three times the other day. Are the crashes affecting my computer and what will happen if I don't update soon?
    Thanks for all your help
    Chelios
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    Go to the Product Support Link at the top of this page, enter in your model, then clik on the Download Tab to find the available bios files for that model.  DO NOT update the bios from within Windows.  Don't do it, don't even think about doing it if you want to use your computer again.  When you double click on the download you will be presented with the choice of creating a CD to flash the bios from.  USE THIS METHOD.  You can use a CD-RW so you don't waste a blank, but even the cost of a regular blank CD is cheap compared to the $100 that most places will charge you to fix a botched bios flash.  Be sure to burn the CD at the slowest possible speed to ensure the best possible quality.  Make sure that your battery is fully charged, installed, and the AC Adapter is plugged in just in case. 
    And don't forget to go into the bios and hit the F9 key to load Bios/Setup Defaults then F10 to exit and save just prior to and immediately after updating the bios.
    If you don't post your COMPLETE model number it's very difficult to assist you. Please try to post in complete sentences with punctuation, capitals, and correct spelling. Toshiba does NOT provide any direct support in these forums. All support is User to User in their spare time.

  • [Solved] Mouse and Keyboard Dont Work After BIOS Update

    I spent the last few hours in windows 7 trying to prove to the guys over at MSFN that my problem wasn't driver or bios related by updating to the latest drivers and upgrading my bios to the most recent version. After I was finished I decided to boot back into arch to work some more on my custom kernel (since oddly it had the same problem before the bios update, the mouse and keyboard worked on one boot but once i rebooted into it again they no longer worked) and found that the keyboard and mouse no longer worked, thinking I had rebooted into the custom kernel by accident I rebooted and selected the default kernel once again only to find that the mouse and keyboard still didn't work.
    Any ideas on how to fix this? I really don't want to reinstall since I just installed it last night.
    Edit: Another silly mistake, i had renamed the original xorg.conf and never put back when I was finished. This makes me wonder why KDM even started up at all though.
    Last edited by brando56894 (2010-01-08 08:04:21)

    Hello base76, welcome to the HP Forums.
    It appears that the mouse and keyboard aren't working correctly. I will try to assist you with this.
    To start could you please provide the following:
    Model and product numbers for you notebook.
    Currently install operating system.
    Were these working previously? If yes, were any changes made prior to them not working?
    Have you attempted any troubleshooting? If yes, what have you tried so far?
    I look forward to your reply.
    Thank you for posting on the HP Forums.
    I worked on behalf of HP.

  • [SOLVED] MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC - Bios Update Fail

    Hi,
    today i decided to do a bios update of my board.
    A friend of me told me NOT to use the Windows-Flash tool cause he killed two borads with it.
    Ok so i used the flash utility from the bios/uefi menu with a usb-stick (M-Flash).
    Everything looked ok - flash tool was running and told me success/complete and it will now reboot/reset.
    At this time i wasn't able to boot anymore 
    It was like the board tried to read the flash but failed, reset, failed ...
    Lucky for me there is this little switch for the bios chip.
    Everything worked with the backup chip and i tried to reflash the broken master chip.
    -> Using the MSI E-Setup with Mode "In DOS Mode. (USB)".
    Booting up the usb stick and switched to master bios chip when i was seeing the "alert - only continue when you know what you are doing bla bla"-message.
    Wasn't able to flash anything cause of error:
    Quote
    ROMID is not compatible with existing BIOS ROMID
    Asking google i should use the /X option (/X - Don't Check ROM ID).
    Now i got a new error 
    Quote
    Rom image layout detected RomHole is redesigned
    With this message i should use the /K option (/K - Program all non-critical blocks) i was told ... now a was able to flash the chip 
    And the result was: fail 
    I found the "HQ USB flashing tool" here and tried to flash the broken chip again (switching the bios switch from backup to master after booting), but also no luck for me ...
    After a break i had an idea - at which time i can switch from the backup chip to the master chip?
    The bootcode "A2" was the right for me
    At the bios/uefi setup all my fans were running at full speed and i was sure this is because of the broken master chip.
    So again i tried the M-Flash tool from the setup - f**k it will reset/reboot before the flash progress will start - but now i know the time to switch from backup to master chip 
    The tool started and i saw the same messages (everything ok, reset/reboot) as i tried it the first time.
    Reboot - SUCCESS! 
    I wasted about three hours of my live to brick and unbrick the master chip, but i don't know why this happend 
    Maybe this post will help someone to fix a failed bios update.
    YourName

    Thanks for sharing 
    I used M-Flash a couple of times, just remember DON'T remove usb-stick until it reboot successfully to os....

  • Hello, I come to update the iTunes software it shows me an error 20 How do I solve this After I was once an error 13 appears. And that's just Mac Air. I would like to get an answer because it annoys me that it happens ...!  Nimrod

    Hello,
    I come to update the iTunes software it shows me an error 20 How do I solve this After I was once an error 13 appears.
    And that's just Mac Air. I would like to get an answer because it annoys me that it happens ...!
    Nimrod

    Thanks for that information!
    I'm sure I will be calling AppleCare, but the problem is, they charge for the phone calls don't they? Because I don't have money to be spending to be on the phone with a support service.
    In other things, it seemed like the only time my MacBook was working was when I had Snow Leopard without the 10.6.8 update download that was supposed to be done to prepare for OS X Lion.
    When I look at the information of my HD it says that I have 10.6.8 but that was the install that it claimed to have failed and caused me to restart resulting in all of the repeated problems.
    Also, because my computer is currently down, and I've lost all files how would that effect the use of my iPhone? Because if it doesn't get fixed by the time OS 5 is released, how would I be able to upgrade?!

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