Introduction
This guide allows owners of 1st Generation DisplayPort Expansion Cards to update to the 2nd Generation Firmware.
After over a year of prototyping and experiments, we've been able to come up with a way to reduce system power consumption when a DisplayPort Expansion Card is present, by making the card pretend that it is not a display output when there is no monitor connected.
The tools provided by our vendor for this update process are Windows only.
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First you will need to download the Windows Executables from here and unzip them.
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There should be two files Framework_ReadVersion.exe and Framework_DP_Card_3.0.17.101.exe
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In order to run the updater the Expansion Card must be installed in your Framework Laptop
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Run Framework_ReadVersion.exe to check that is not already on the 101 firmware.
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Once this runs you can check the Image 1 Version and Image 2 Version. In this image the build version is 101.
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Run Framework_DP_Card_3.0.17.101.exe
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The Flash process will be started automatically.
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Hit any key after it tells you to.
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Run Framework_ReadVersion.exe again to confirm that both flash regions state 101.
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9 Comments
I run only Linux (KDE Neon) on my Framework 13, with no Windows partition or VM. Is a Linux firmware update coming, or failing that, can I update the card from any generic Windows machine, ideally without administrator privileges?
A Linux firmware update tool is coming, we're working on it now. I have been actively testing it. No ETA, but as a full time Linux user myself, I have been testing it with great interest. Appreciate your patience.
Matt Hartley
Framework Support Linux Lead
Hi, I had a similar issue. I only run Fedora Linux on my framework. I managed to update my card by spinning up a fresh Windows 10 install in a virtual machine. My VM software allowed me to pass the USB display port card into the Windows VM. From there I was able to use both tools provided in the download just fine.
If they give you an error when you first try and run them, install the latest Visual Studio C++ redistributable from Microsoft's website. It should work fine after that is installed.
You can update from any computer, as long as it has an USB-C port. I think administrator privilege is needed, though.
A Framework team member has explained on Reddit why there is no Linux way to update the firmware:
The tool provided by our Expansion Card manufacturing partner is unfortunately only built for Windows and we had to obtain permission to release it publicly for firmware flashing purposes. We know this is not ideal for our Linux Community, but there was no other available option given it is their software.
Silejonu -
@raphha would you mind explaining how you did it exactly?
I've been trying for an hour to pass the DisplayPort module to the Windows guest in virt-manager for an hour, but no matter what I did, the Framework executables would refuse to recognise it. My USB-A modules are getting passed correctly, it's just the DisplayPort that's problematic.
