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Can Linux affect your bios at all? And does having linux on your laptop void your warranty? (self.Ubuntu)

submitted ago by emtdan

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I am having a lot of problems with Lenovo. My hotkeys stopped working - determined to because by a bios bug. They replaced the motherboard and within a week it is back to being broken. It is a well documented issue on the internet - but it seems like many of those having the problem are using dual boot with Ubuntu.

Does Ubuntu affect the bios at all?

Also, I called up Lenovo again and they tried telling me having Ubuntu voided my warranty even though the gladly fixed my laptop (temporarily) last time when I clearly had Ubuntu on it...

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[–]thockin 23 points24 points ago

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Can it? Yes. But it's terribly unlikely.

[–]chadmill3r 9 points10 points ago

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If the BIOS is buggy in one place, it could be buggy in another and do something dumb that just happens to work when it loads Windows. Linux almost certainly isn't to blame.

[–]Observant_Servant 1 point2 points ago

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Sure, but its use in this particular application could set up a bug. The OP isn't trying to blame linux. He/She just wants to know if loading Ubuntu could fuck up the machine. I guess the answer boils down to "possible, not probable".

[–]milktea 3 points4 points ago

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Whenever I run Linux on my Lenovo laptop, and I forget to do an "rfkill unblock all" before I shut down, I end up with some SIOCSIFFLAGS set, and then my wireless won't work if I boot into windows. So I have to boot back into linux and do an rfkill unblock, then boot back into Windows and then I can use my wireless card. So yes, it is possible for Linux to set some non-volatile hardware registers, but it can always be fixed in software.

[–]SamsLembas 8 points9 points ago

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Just put the command in /etc/rc.shutdown (or whatever shutdown scripts your distro uses).

[–]AlecSchueler 1 point2 points ago

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if you run acpid then you could set a handler to run rfkill unblock all automatically before shutting down. I'm sure there's other ways of going about it too. Might be worth looking into for you.

[–]nod51 5 points6 points ago

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Some vendors allow you to flash the BIOS from the OS. The bios as I understand it is just some flash memory that does not have any protection from the OS after boot.

Now just because it CAN doesn't mean it does. This looks interesting but I don't have much time to read it right now so glhf.

I figure if the CPU microcode can be modified by the OS that the BIOS could be...

[–]tok3ninja 0 points1 point ago

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Correct, but Windows flashing scares me sometimes.

[–]joedonut 3 points4 points ago

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Generally no. For your immediate problem, have you looked over Thinkwiki?

[–]tok3ninja 1 point2 points ago

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I think there was this same issue a few weeks ago but with an HP laptop with Ubuntu loaded. Tier 1 tech support tend to be morons. Generally their scripts they go through with the end-user are for Windows only so anything other than Windows installed confuses the crap out of them.

[–]ozhank 0 points1 point ago

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In my experience yes. I have HP Presario C700 now running Ubuntu 10.10. When the CD/DVD drive died in week 2 of ownership, HP wanted me to ship laptop back to them (at my expense) to check and perhaps replace drive. When I told them Ubuntu 9.04 was installed, stated that I had voided the warranty and not to bother sending it in.

[–]emtdan[S] 0 points1 point ago

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Really? How is this legal?

[–]ozhank 0 points1 point ago

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HP support stated that because I had installed Ubuntu in place of Windows XP/Vista that came with the machine, they could not do the testing they needed to do to test the CD drive, and that I had violated the warranty terms by installed a non-supported or authorised operating system, hence no warranty.

[–]emtdan[S] 1 point2 points ago

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I just checked - my lenovo's warranty clearly states having ubuntu does not violate the service agreement. We need more system76 companies

[–]lskatz 1 point2 points ago

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All of my bios still talk about me. Linux hasn't impeded the narratives.

[–]m1ss1ontomars2k4 0 points1 point ago

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It could. One weird thing about dual booting can happen when you have a paired Bluetooth device (it may not reconnect properly in both OSes, and you have to reboot into the other to unpair it and then reboot into the OS you want to use). Never heard of that happening with regular keyboard/mouse though.

[–]InterPunct 0 points1 point ago

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I installed Ubuntu on a Lenovo once and fried the bios. Totally bricked it. It was working before installation and died during installation. I've never known if it was coincidental or not.

[–]Zaphrod 0 points1 point ago

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I would ask them to show you where in the warrenty is says this and also if using linux voids your warranty then why do they offer linux installation instructions on their website without stating that it will void your warranty.

What they may mean is that they do not support linux but if you reinstall windows and the fault still exists then they cannot say you have voided your warranty by using linux.

[–]emtdan[S] 0 points1 point ago

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The guy was getting angry at me because I was stubborn and refusing to go along with the "let's try this, this and this again" even though again was the 3rd time. He clearly wanted me off the phone so I highly suspect stating linux negated the warranty was to get me to piss off.

Since then I have asked another lenovo employee and looked on their forums, both of which clearly state ubuntu is in the clear. Plus it was on it when I sent it in last time. My computer is incredibly fast and structurally sound. It is just unfortunate they believe all buyers to be incompetent and unable to help when in this situation it is doing them and future clients a disservice.

Thank you for your response

[–]trucekill 0 points1 point ago

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Ubunt can affect the bios if you download flashrom and tell flashrom to flash your bios.

[–]savagecabbage 0 points1 point ago

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http://www.coreboot.org would replace your bios only if you install it =). But yeah very bloody unlikely linux would mess up your bios. I would also ask Lenova for a written statement about ubuntu voiding warranty. Post it up here once you get it.

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