[ltp] How important are T61 bios/firmware updates ?

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh]

On Thu, 24 Jul 2008, Markus Grunwald wrote:
> How important is it to keep up to date with bios or firmware updates when
> running a T61 with linux ?

Well, that depends.  But the safe thing *ON THINKPADS* is to always keep
your BIOS and EC firmware up-to-date, possibly with a one or two-month lag
(i.e. wait for that much before you apply an update.  If there are any
issues with it, Lenovo will have issued a update for the update already and
you won't be bitten by it).

> I bought mine in september 2007 and have never updated the bios or the DVD
> firmware. I dont't have my T61 here now, so I don't know the actual

DVD firmware you should update only if you have trouble reading/writing some
media.  It is the one kind of firmware update I know to be often
detrimental.  Read the changelog to figure out why an update was issued.

HDD firmware YOU MUST ALWAYS UPDATE, ASAP!  It is not common on the new
thinkpads, but users of the older ones with IBM-provided firmware are not
strangers to HDD firmware updates.  They are *critical* if you use HDAPS or
any of the HDD security functionality.

BIOS and EC firmware you should update, or you will end up get told to
update anyway if you ever complain about anything related to screen
brightness, ACPI, Intel IGD video, or hot keys of any sort (including the
audio buttons).

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh