Hi Zorin team,
I'm writing to report a serious issue that left my Thinkpad completely unbootable after installing Zorin OS and applying system updates.
After accepting what appeared to be a routine update, fwupd silently applied an Intel Management Engine firmware update in the background. The update failed mid-process, corrupting the ME firmware chip. The result: the laptop now shuts itself down every ~60 seconds — even inside the BIOS — due to the ME's built-in safety mechanism triggering on corrupt firmware. The machine is currently unrecoverable without a hardware SPI programmer.
This is a known bug (documented on GitHub since 2022: fwupd/firmware-lenovo issue #199), affecting ThinkPad T/L/X series laptops. The root cause is that Lenovo's ME firmware on the LVFS repository is tagged as compatible with Linux, but it only applies correctly on Windows. When fwupd applies it on Linux, it bricks the machine.
My suggestion: please either disable fwupd by default on Zorin OS, or at minimum add a clear warning before applying any Intel ME or BIOS firmware updates, explaining the risk and recommending users use Lenovo's official bootable ISO instead.
No average user should be able to permanently brick their hardware by clicking "Update" in the software manager.
Thank you for your work on Zorin OS.
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Hi and welcome.
Can you try booting off live media (Try Zorin) and see if Boot Repair can help? Ironically I get Intel fwupdate installed on my desktop on a different OS and DE as I have an AMD Ryzen processor. I used Synaptic Package Manager to remove it and install the AMD fwupdate. I wonder if it is possible to remove the fwupdate from live mode. Back in a bit.
Brave A.I.:
" To recover a Lenovo ThinkPad bricked by an Intel firmware update on Ubuntu 24.04 using live media, boot into a Live USB session and attempt to remove the fwupd service and related packages via the terminal to prevent automatic firmware updates from interfering with the boot process.
Use the following steps in the Live session terminal:
- Identify and stop the fwupd service to prevent it from running during boot:
sudo systemctl stop fwupd
sudo systemctl disable fwupd
- Remove the fwupd package (if not needed for other hardware):
sudo apt purge fwupd
sudo apt autoremove
- Disable Intel Management Engine (IME) firmware updates in the BIOS if possible, as some users report success by disabling the "UEFI Firmware Update" option in BIOS settings to block IME updates while allowing BIOS updates.
- Reinstall the bootloader if GRUB was overwritten or corrupted during the update:
sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt # Replace with your root partition
sudo mount /dev/sdXZ /mnt/boot/efi # Replace with EFI partition
sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
sudo chroot /mnt
sudo grub-install /dev/sdX # Replace X with your disk (e.g., sda)
sudo update-grub
exit
If the system still fails to boot, reset the BIOS to default settings by powering off, then pressing F1 or F2 repeatedly to enter BIOS and selecting "Load Setup Defaults" .
Note: In some cases, bricking occurs during the update process itself , and removal of fwupd may not reverse hardware-level damage. If the laptop still does not boot after these steps, the issue may require professional repair or motherboard replacement , as firmware corruption can sometimes render the device inoperable without specialized tools.
AI-generated answer. Please verify critical facts."
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