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#1 2021-05-04 09:36:57

Equiphract
Member
Registered: 2021-05-04
Posts: 11

[SOLVED] Black screen after firmware update with "fwupdmgr update"

I recently wiped my Lenovo ThinkPad T470 completely and installed ArchLinux with UEFI boot.
Today I decided to run firmware updates using

fwupdmgr update

after ensuring there are some updates available by first running

fwupdmgr refresh

and then

fwupdmgr get-updates

At the end of the installation it asked me to reboot my system to wrap things up, so I did. After the
machine had booted up again I saw some Lenovo splash screen telling me it was installing some
updates displaying a progress bar at the bottom. After that process had ended the splash screen
went away leaving a black screen behind.

This happened 30 minutes ago as of writing this post. The power button is showing a green light
and I can hear a fan spinning. I didn't dare shutting down the machine because of fear of
hardware/system damage.

What can I do?

Last edited by Equiphract (2021-05-07 11:21:11)

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#2 2021-05-04 11:44:19

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,410

Re: [SOLVED] Black screen after firmware update with "fwupdmgr update"

Firmware/UEFI updates have a tendency to wipe NVRAM entries, which would mandate that you reinstall your bootloader, from e.g. a live disk, and potentially populating the fallback esp/EFI/BOOTx64.EFI path so that "something" remains that can be booted, however I'd expect the system to at least pop up a message saying it cand find an operating system.

In any case I doubt you can do much here other than taking the plunge and checking what's going on by doing a reboot/reset. What was/is supposed to start after the firmware is done?

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#3 2021-05-04 12:10:19

Equiphract
Member
Registered: 2021-05-04
Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Black screen after firmware update with "fwupdmgr update"

V1del wrote:

What was/is supposed to start after the firmware is done?

Not sure, I was under the impression it would boot the system normally after finishing.

Anyways, seems like I can't shut down the machine by pressing the power button.
I tried multiple times, even holding the button for about 15 seconds once, no reaction.

The only thing I can do now is letting the battery deplete, I guess.

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#4 2021-05-04 15:15:42

Equiphract
Member
Registered: 2021-05-04
Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Black screen after firmware update with "fwupdmgr update"

Alright the battery depleted and the device shut down. After that it booted normally.

I immediately ran the command

fwupdmgr get-updates

to check if the firmware update was successful. This was the output:

$ fwupdmgr get-updates

Devices with no available firmware updates:
...
Devices with the latest available firmware version:
...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Devices that were not updated correctly:

  • Embedded Controller (0.1.34 → 0.1.35)
  • System Firmware (0.1.62 → 0.1.66)

Devices that have been updated successfully:

  • Intel Management Engine (182.10.1196 → 184.83.3874)

Uploading firmware reports helps hardware vendors...
...

How should I proceed from here on out? It seems like it was caught in a loop during the update process which prevented the machine to boot.

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#5 2021-05-06 21:29:56

Equiphract
Member
Registered: 2021-05-04
Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Black screen after firmware update with "fwupdmgr update"

My latest "pacman -Syu (the first one after this failed firmware upgrade) printed the following:

==> Starting build: 5.12.1-arch1-1
  -> Running build hook: [base]
  -> Running build hook: [udev]
  -> Running build hook: [modconf]
  -> Running build hook: [block]
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: wd719x
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: aic94xx
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: xhci_pci
  -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
  -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
  -> Running build hook: [fsck]

Something is not right... does anyone have a clue what is wrong and how to fix it?

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#6 2021-05-07 07:56:17

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,410

Re: [SOLVED] Black screen after firmware update with "fwupdmgr update"

All of this is normal and expected. Of these three, the only thing you might actively notice on consumer hardware is the xhci_pci firmware, which will only be an issue if you have a renesas USB controller in which case your USB wouldn't work and you'd need to install: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/upd72020x-fw/

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#7 2021-05-07 11:18:58

Equiphract
Member
Registered: 2021-05-04
Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Black screen after firmware update with "fwupdmgr update"

I see, thanks for your help and time smile. Marking as solved.

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