I subscribe to the idea that in many cases, people don’t need new laptops. In fact, in the spirit of refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle as a means to help the world, one might argue that people not only do not need new laptops, they should not buy new laptops. I think this is particularly true in cases like mine, where most of my development work is done via a shell on a remote server.
Many other people have great blog posts about this movement, and I encourage you to check those out.
The Problem: Windows-only BIOS Updates
With this context in mind, a popular choice for many people are old corporate laptops, such as the venerable Thinkpad. I’ve refurbished many of these over the years for a variety of uses, the older models like the X230 are second only to modern Framework laptops in terms of easy of repair.
However, one thing that is often a hassle is updating the BIOS. BIOS updates are important: they often improve system stability, performance, and security. But, for these older corporate laptops, they almost are always updated via a Windows executable. This, combined with the fact that Linux is typically a far better choice of operating system for older hardware, means it’s not obvious what the best way to update the BIOS is.
The Solution
First, let me point you to Arch Wiki’s page on this topic, as it is a far more exhaustive set of solutions for a variety of manufacturers.
Then, I’ll tell you what has typically worked for me in the world of old Thinkpads, specifically.
In some cases, like the Thinkpad X230, the manufacturer also offers an ISO for a CD/DVD-based install in addition to a Windows installer.
But, if you don’t have USB optical drives sitting around, then you’re left to use tools like geteltorito like these people did.
That works, but you need to wipe a flash drive for the purpose, etc.
Although there are scenarios this doesn’t work (as mentioned in the Arch Wiki), I’ve almost always been successful just using Windows via a USB drive.
Specifically, I always have a USB drive with Ventoy. Ventoy allows you to simply copy a bunch of ISOs onto the drive and boot off any of them. Rather than reformatting your USB drive every time you want a particular ISO, just carry them all! In this case, I specifically use Hiren’s BootCD PE ISO, boot into the Preinstallation Environment (PE) of Windows, download the Windows updater for the BIOS, and run it. I haven’t personally run into a case where this didn’t work.
That’s the tech tip: check out Ventoy and Hiren’s. That way, when refurbishing an old computer, you can have a single USB drive you use to install your favorite Linux distro, then boot into Windows to update the BIOS, all without having to reformat the drive.