ThinkLMI - Lenovo BIOS Setup using Linux WMI Deployment Guide First Edition (January 2023) © Copyright Lenovo LIMITED AND RESTRICTED RIGHTS NOTICE: If data or software is delivered pursuant a General Services Administration “GSA” contract, use, reproduction, or disclosure is subject to restrictions set forth in Contract No.
Table of Contents Preface ............................................................................................................................................................... 3 Overview ............................................................................................................................................................ 4 Using ThinkLMI .............................................................................................................................................
Preface The purpose of this guide is to explain how to modify BIOS settings, and boot order using Linux Management Instrumentation (LMI) through the Lenovo user space interface (ThinkLMI). This guide is intended for skilled IT administrators who are familiar with configuring BIOS settings on computers in their organizations.
Overview IT administrators are always looking for easier ways to manage client computer BIOS settings, which include passwords, hardware settings, and the boot order. The Lenovo BIOS LMI interface provides a simplified way to change these settings. Lenovo has developed a BIOS interface that can be manipulated through Linux WMI.
Key Benefits The Lenovo BIOS Linux WMI interface provides the following benefits: • Flexible BIOS configuration, including the ability to change a single BIOS setting or all BIOS settings • BIOS password management, including updating supervisor passwords and power-on passwords Supported computers BIOS setup through ThinkLMI is supported on all Lenovo Linux certified platforms from 2020 onwards. Whilst we expect it to work on older platforms it is unsupported there.
Changing BIOS settings To change a BIOS setting, use the following command: echo [value] > /sys/class/firmware-attributes/thinklmi/attributes/ [BIOS Setting] /current_value For example - to change the current value for WakeOnLANDock: echo Enable > /sys/class/firmware-attributes/thinklmi/attributes/WakeOnLANDock /current_value Sample terminal input Note: BIOS settings and values are case sensitive. To find the permitted [value] for a [BIOS Setting] use the following command.
Changing the Boot Order To change the boot order, use the following steps: 1. Determine the current setting for “BootOrder” by using the following command. cat /sys/class/firmware-attributes/thinklmi/attributes/BootOrder/current_value 2. Set a new boot order, use the following command echo [Boot Order String] > /sys/class/firmware-attributes/ thinklmi/attributes/BootOrder/current_value Specify a new boot order by listing the boot devices in order, separated by colons.
Password Authentication If a Supervisor password has been set, authentication needs to be performed before a BIOS setting can be changed. The following commands performs password authentication.
Changing an existing BIOS password To update a password, use the following commands echo [Password String] > /sys/class/firmware-attributes/thinklmi/authentication /[Password Type]/current_password echo [Encoding] > /sys/class/firmware-attributes/thinklmi/authentication /[Password Type]/encoding echo [Keyboard Language] > /sys/class/firmware-attributes/thinklmi/authentication /[Password Type]/kbdlang echo [Password String] > /sys/class/firmware-attributes/thinklmi/authentication /[Password Type]/new_passwor
If the supervisor password is set as “hello”, the new password is “hello123”, password type is supervisor (i.e. “Admin”), with ascii encoding and the keyboard type is US, the below commands will change the supervisor password. Once authenticated, it remains valid till the next restart.
Trademarks The following terms are trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both: Lenovo The Lenovo logo ThinkPad Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
