Ubuntu 18.04 and Centos 7.6 both run the fwupd service. This polls for updates on supported hardware. Support arrived in 16.04 and 7.4 respectively (from the docs.)

hat tip

• Check the daemon’s status with the following; problems with any plugins are noted in the logs.

systemctl status fwupd

• On ubuntu 18.04 updates are via the following (Updates tab) which is the orange shopping bag icon.

/usr/bin/gnome-software

• The software updater that pops up with Ubuntu Linux updates (icon is an ‘A’ inside two arrows) is different again:

/usr/bin/update-manager

• gnome-software is also installed on a typical Centos 7 gnome build. It’s a white shopping bag with a round blue icon there.  I ran it from terminal. I don’t think I’ve got a supported machine running Centos 7, but the docs suggest it’ll behave the same way.

supported hardware

The daemon’s website provides a really useful clue about hardware that’s likely to have some Linux support: https://fwupd.org/lvfs/devicelist

Definitely quicker than ploughing through all of Lenovo’s or Dell’s ranges to track something down.

One surprise from the list is Logitech Unifying; wireless devices that can share the same USB dongle. It’s a limited set of devices. but it does include the dongle. I currently dual-boot to windows on a sluggish machine to manage this. Not many devices supported, but I’ll check this list if I need to replace anything.

command line

There’s a command line tool as well! Woo hoo!

For example:

fwupdmgr get-updates