Add support for fwupd

[ma1onso]

Example:

https://fwupd.org/

[cassidyjames]

@fabianthoma are you still planning on tackling this?

[danirabbit]

Gonna punt this feature since we're already end of April

[cassidyjames]

Thinking about this again design-wise and consent-wise. I don't know that we want to put anything in onboarding (it's not relevant to the whole OS, just AppCenter). Instead, would an infobar in the Installed pane be okay? Something like:

AppCenter can use a secure web service to update device and component firmware Privacy Policy Enable

var fwupd_info_label = new Gtk.Label (_("AppCenter can use a secure web service to update device and component firmware"));
fwupd_info_label.show ();

var fwupd_infobar = new Gtk.InfoBar ();
fwupd_infobar.message_type = Gtk.MessageType.INFO;
fwupd_infobar.visible = true;

fwupd_infobar.get_content_area ().add (fwupd_info_label);

var fwupd_privacy_button = new Gtk.LinkButton.with_label ("https://fwupd.org/privacy", _("Privacy Policy"));
fwupd_infobar.add_action_widget (fwupd_privacy_button, 0);

var fwupd_enable_button = fwupd_infobar.add_button (_("Enable"), 0);
action_button_group.add_widget (fwupd_enable_button);

Then enabling that would enable fwupd to check for updates and whatnot. @danrabbit thoughts on the design, and @elementary/desktop-developers do you know how feasible that would be?

[cassidyjames]

I guess something we need to consider: dismissing/declining to use fwupd. 😛

[mmstick]

For what it's worth, the plan for Pop!_OS is to integrate fwupd support via a new firmware panel in GNOME Settings > Devices.

[hughsie]

If it helps, Andrew is a Dell intern who's building a standalone power-user firmware install application: https://gitlab.gnome.org/hughsie/gnome-firmware-updater

[jackpot51]

To add to @mmstick, I don't think our plan for fwupd in Pop!_OS conflicts with the plan to add fwupd to AppCenter. We would just not enable fwupd in AppCenter and have our GNOME Settings panel handle it.

[jackpot51]

@hughsie I think elementary will need a Vala wrapper for libfwupd to accomplish this - or they would use the org.freedesktop.fwupd DBUS API directly.

[hughsie]

I think in GUI apps using the D-Bus interface async is the correct thing to use; libfwupd is really a very thin wrapper around that. If Vala bindings for any of the convenience API (like for instance fwupd/fwupd#1232 ) then we can easily add that.

[danirabbit]

@cassidyjames I think opt-in makes sense here.

I wonder if we should make it more clear in the messaging that the service is "3rd party" or "non-curated"? Would it be inaccurate to say something to the effect of "manufacturer provided firmware updates"? I think that what we want to inform the user of here is probably two things:

1. There is some data collection that happens when you opt in here
2. These updates are provided by some other entity than elementary.

And yeah adding a button like "Don't Ask Again" or something makes sense to be able to dismiss this permanently

[hughsie]

Would it be inaccurate to say something to the effect of "manufacturer provided firmware updates

I think that's accurate, the firmware itself is being provided by the OEMs but to a central "silo" managed by a shared service supported by the Linux Foundation.

[cassidyjames]

Moving to About plug since that's probably where firmware (and eventually OS upgrades) make more sense to manage. Still wondering about what actually checks for updates in the background (since AppCenter already has a daemon), how we throw notifications i.e. for critical updates, etc.

Something we should figure out, but I do think the UI at least does make sense in Switchboard.