https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/EnableFwupdRefreshByDefault
This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes
process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive
community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved
by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.
== Summary ==
fwupd-refresh systemd service unit & timer are designed to regularly
refresh the fwupd metadata and update the MOTD when new firmware
updates can be applied on a system. We want to enable the
fwupd-refresh.timer by default on IoT, CoreOS & Server editions so
that users get reminded about firmware updates.
On desktops, firmware updates are generally coordinated by graphical
applications such as GNOME Software or Plasma Discover so we will not
enable it on those editions.
== Owner ==
* Name:[[User:Siosm| Timothée Ravier]], [[User:ravanelli| Renata Ravanelli]]
* Email: travier(a)redhat.com, rravanel(a)redhat.com
== Detailed Description ==
Firmware for hardware devices can have bugs and firmware updates
generally help address those. Firmware updates might however need
manual interaction, a reboot or device unplug/re-plug so we can not
enable firmware update by default.
This change thus only enable notifying about new firmware updates, not
installing them.
With this change, Fedora installations will contact the Linux Vendor
Firmware Service CDN (LVFS,
https://cdn.fwupd.org/) to get the updated
metadata but will not send any information about the hardware without
user interaction.
See the LVFS privacy policy at
https://lvfs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/privacy.html.
== Feedback ==
Discussion for each impacted edition:
* CoreOS:
https://github.com/coreos/fedora-coreos-tracker/issues/1512 (Accepted)
* IoT:
https://pagure.io/fedora-iot/issue/52 (Accepted)
* Server:
https://pagure.io/fedora-server/issue/115 (Accepted)
== Benefit to Fedora ==
Knowing when firmware updates can be applied on a system would make
systems more reliable.
== Scope ==
* Proposal owners: Do the change required to enable
fwupd-refresh.timer by default
* Other developers: N/A
* Release engineering: N/A [
https://pagure.io/releng/issues #Releng
issue number]
* Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)
* Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
* Alignment with Community Initiatives: N/A
== Upgrade/compatibility impact ==
No impact, it is just a refresh to check about new firmware updates.
It will be enabled for existing and new systems.
== How To Test ==
Install a system on hardware that has an old firmware and check if you
get a notification about a new firmware update on login in the MOTD.
== User Experience ==
User will still have to manually update their firmware.
== Dependencies ==
There are no dependencies
== Contingency Plan ==
* Contingency mechanism: Continue to ship things the way we ship them today
* Contingency deadline: N/A
* Blocks release? N/A
== Documentation ==
N/A (not a System Wide Change)
== Release Notes ==
--
Aoife Moloney
Product Owner
Community Platform Engineering Team
Red Hat EMEA
Communications House
Cork Road
Waterford