What is the projected timeline for the new BIOS, with improved CPU fan control ? Oldest post I can find that mentions an updated BIOS is from May 6th, https://www.udoo.org/forum/threads/fan-speed.27214/ , that is more than 3 months ago. As it currently stands the Bolt V8 is almost unusable due to the fan going on and off every few minutes and even a light workload is enough to keep the fan on constantly. I am kept wondering how the original testing didn't catch this significant issue, were you only focused on getting it ready to ship, no matter the noise issue ?
Ciao Erkki, the BIOS update the guys are working on is huge, and it includes the fan among many other things. They are currently starting to test the BIOS to tweak it and make sure everything starts smoothly before it's published. Thank you for being so involved!
Ciao @evaloverde, do you have an update regarding timeline/ ETA of the "fan speed fix"? Will it be fixed in the non-kickstarter boards? Since it makes the bolt unusable for my use cases it would be good to know what your companies approach and timeline is. Thank you!
I'm sorry guys, I'm not writing because I don't have an ETA yet. Some of the new boards already have the new BIOS installed, we're working on the flash to allow everyone to install it.
You have a fixed bios in place and you ship it in newer boards. You are missing the tool-chain to allow users to flash the bios themselves. That is frustrating. Since the board is (for me) unusable in that state - bios 1.0.4 RC2 (Who releases a release candidate anyway?) I would have been happy to wait just another month or two to get an end to end working product. Waiting for two additional months wouldn't have made a huge difference anyways. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I am also happy to ship the board back to you where you could use your infrastructure to flash a fixed bios. Thanks You!
Besides the annoyingness of the fan going on at rather low temperature already, I also suffer what @marc.d reported where the fan sometimes does not go on. The other day I noticed it was at almost 100°C, when I manually shut it down out of fear of damage. This BIOS update is really required to actually use the board safely. That the BIOS team included "many other things" seems to be a really bad decision. Reading through the threads here really shows that almost all people are waiting for the fan fix only... So why not just make that one fix happen instead of keeping the development team busy with this other stuff too? On another note, from what I understand updating the BIOS on Linux will require a custom kernel module and a closed source binary to actually flash the firmware update? The instructions in the documentation and (https://www.udoo.org/docs-bolt/Advanced_Topics/BIOS-UEFI_firmware.html) looking at the UDOO X86 seems to suggest that. Isn't UDOO also all about open source? From the Kickstarter page: Since the first UDOO, we’ve put being Open Source and Open Hardware at the cornerstone of this community. Why not reuse existing (open source) infrastructure? There is fwupd, which allows UEFI BIOS update from within Linux without additional software even on propitiatory hardware such as Lenovo or Dell laptops.
It would be great to have the bios update as soon as possible. My bolt works fine, but the fan going on and off in short intervals really kills the whole experience. Please keep us up to date!
Ciao guys, I'm aware that a bigger BIOS update is not what many are looking for, but we couldn't predict the issue with some fans. At that point of development, it was difficult to separate the fan from everything else. Personally I can just suggest a course of action, ask and make a case, but that's it, but at the end of the day, I'm not the one making the decision. We're building a flasher to make it easier for everyone to install it. If the fan doesn't run please open a ticket. Itìs a whole other issue. The BIOS we release is not 100% open source, because alternative open source solutions we tested were not performing as we wanted them to. We're currently looking for open source alternatives, so thank you for the suggestion.
BIOS 1.0.5 RC.8 here. The BIOS has support for fan control in the Embedded Controller settings. You can set a lower temperature and a higher one and also some hysteresis and adjustment delays. Only problem is that even at 95% "PWM" above 40C, the fan does not really rotate (it occasionally starts and ends again after a few RPM) -- and then above 75C, it runs 100%, which is very noisy. This all with the fan that came with the kit (inside the case that I ordered as well). Would be great there was a way to have the fan running at a lower speed ...
@evaloverde there are some of us who own external flash programmer, so we can update the BIOS on our own, without any (open or closed-source) software at all. I just double-checked, my cheap CH341A SPI Programmer can read/write Bolt BIOS chip without any problem at all. For us who are capable of flashing BIOS chips on our own, can you please provide link to the latest work-in-progress UEFI binary? I'll be happy to test it out (I'm sure there are other Bolt-er who are capable of and willing doing the same) and report back the results, whether it is just fan or anything else really...
@evaloverde note that fwupdater which I suggested above is not a BIOS itself, its a BIOS updater. There are many closed source vendor using it for updating UEFI BIOS (Lenovo, HP etc.). I do not understand why UDOO BOLT, which claims to be open source friendly, needs to reinvent the wheel when there is a wildly used and open source updater available... Given that there are boards with updated BIOS available, is there an option to send the board back? Again, in its current state it is unusable. It is very frustrating to get a board months late and then I cannot even operate it safely when I have it in my hands :-(
Very true indeed. Come on Udoo, at least share the bios binary for people capable of flashing 'em on their own. Having to wait even longer with an actual board in hand that can't even run within reason is getting ridiculous. Please be more transparent and open about Bolt bios situation, we backers deserve to have better insight. Remember; we can help with testing, there is no reason for this to be some mundane & obscure matter, let's fix this issue.
Sad, very sad. I just ordered a NUC as a replacement. Let us all just hope UDOO gets it done before the next holiday season starts...
Are you saying it is so load it is a safety issue? I agree it is very irritating but not a safety problem. If you have a fan that is not spinning reliably then that is a hardware issue, not the BIOS.
