Firmware

Many USB-C problems are fixed by firmware: the BIOS, the embedded controller, the PD controller. --firmware adds a Firmware section to the report and its findings to Health:

plugii --firmware            # report with a Firmware section
plugii -H --firmware         # health only
plugii --json --firmware     # the snapshot's "firmware" object too
plugii --firmware --refresh  # ignore the cached catalog

It is opt-in because it uses the network. The firmware checks run in a thread alongside the scan, so the report waits only for the slower of the two.

Firmware
  BIOS: R2KET40W (1.29)  05/19/2026  EC: 1.29
  latest BIOS in Lenovo's catalog: build 40 — up to date
  USB-C PD firmware: 261 (0x105)
  fwupd: no pending updates (cached metadata; fwupdmgr refresh to re-check)

Firmware
  BIOS: 2.30.0 (2.30)  04/23/2026  EC: 1.19
  Dell has BIOS 2.32.0 (Recommended, October 07, 2026) https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=94TXT
  fwupd: no pending updates (cached metadata; fwupdmgr refresh to re-check)

What it checks

BIOS and EC

From DMI (/sys/class/dmi/id): the BIOS version, release and date, and the EC firmware release. Always shown, on any machine.

The vendor’s catalog

Picked by DMI sys_vendor:

• Lenovo (LENOVO): the per-model update catalog, https://download.lenovo.com/catalog/<MTM>_Win11.xml, where the machine type (MTM) is the first four characters of the product name (21M4 for a 21M4000RBO). It gives the newest BIOS build and USB-C PD firmware. LVFS doesn’t carry these for many ThinkPads, so this is the only source.
  • The BIOS is compared by build number within its family (R2KET40W is build 40 of R2K); a catalog BIOS of another family isn’t compared.
  • The PD firmware is compared with each esrt: labelled firmware whose label contains PD: the ESRT version is a plain number, the catalog’s is hex (261 is 0x105).
  • Updates install from Windows: the BIOS from its .exe (Lenovo’s bootable ISO flasher doesn’t work on every model), the PD firmware only with a Windows installer.
• Dell (Dell Inc.): CatalogIndexPC.cab, then the per-model catalog for the system ID (DMI product_sku), for the newest BIOS with its criticality and date. Dell’s catalog gets BIOS releases before LVFS does, so the advice depends on whether fwupd has the update yet: fwupdmgr update if it does, else F12 → BIOS Flash Update with the .exe on the EFI system partition, or wait.

Other vendors get the DMI and fwupd parts. Adding one is a module under src/vendor/.

fwupd and LVFS

When fwupdmgr is installed, plugii runs fwupdmgr get-devices --json and fwupdmgr get-updates --json (fwupd’s cached metadata; this doesn’t download anything):

• the version of each device an esrt: label names (shown as USB-C PD firmware: 261 (0x105)),
• updates that failed (✗),
• pending updates (⚠, fwupdmgr update). The list is as new as the last fwupdmgr refresh.

Without fwupd

Without fwupdmgr the section says fwupd not installed — skipping capsule firmware checks; the BIOS, EC and vendor catalog checks still run. Install fwupd for the versions of the firmware your esrt: labels name, and for failed and pending updates from LVFS.

Naming fwupd’s firmware with esrt:

fwupd lists some capsule firmware only as “UEFI Device Firmware”. Find its GUID in fwupdmgr get-devices, then name it:

# 0x105 = Lenovo PD firmware 1.0.1.5
esrt:a77b326c-bbf9-4867-af3b-a01f96f274f5  USB-C PD firmware

The name is what the Firmware section and the findings show, and on Lenovo machines a name containing PD is compared with the catalog’s PD firmware.

The cache

Catalog answers are cached for a day, one JSON file per vendor and model, in $XDG_CACHE_HOME/plugii/ (default ~/.cache/plugii/): lenovo-21M4.json, dell-0AF3.json. Within the day, --firmware needs no network for the catalog. --refresh fetches again (and stores the new answer); it requires --firmware.

Offline

Offline isn’t an error. The report says so and goes on, and the verdict doesn’t change because of it:

Firmware
  BIOS: R2KET40W (1.29)  05/19/2026  EC: 1.29
  Lenovo catalog for 21M4 unreachable (offline?) — latest versions not checked
  USB-C PD firmware: 261 (0x105)
  fwupd: no pending updates (cached metadata; fwupdmgr refresh to re-check)

A catalog that downloads but can’t be read says can't read Lenovo's catalog for 21M4 (…); a model the catalog doesn’t list says Lenovo's catalog lists nothing for 21M4. Requests time out after 8 s (Lenovo) or 15 s (Dell); fwupdmgr gets 20 s, and a fwupdmgr that fails reads as no devices and no updates.

The findings are listed under Health checks.