Introduction
Hardware IDs are used by fwupd to identify specific hardware. This is useful as the device-specific identifiers may be the same for different firmware streams. Each hardware ID has varying levels of specificity for the hardware, for instance matching only the system OEM, or matching up to 8 fields including the system BIOS version.
For instance, Dell and Lenovo might ship a wireless broadband modem with the same chip vendor and
product IDs of USB\VID_0BDA&PID_5850 and although the two OEMs share the same internal device,
the firmware may be different.
To cover this case fwupd allows adding hardware requirements that mean we can deploy firmware that
targets USB\VID_0BDA&PID_5850, but only for Dell or only for Lenovo systems.
Microsoft calls these values “CHIDs” and they are generated on Windows from the SBMIOS tables using ComputerHardwareIds.exe
binary which can be found here.
The list of CHIDs used in Microsoft Windows is:
HardwareID-0 ← Manufacturer + Family + Product Name + SKU Number + BIOS Vendor + BIOS Version + BIOS Major Release + BIOS Minor Release
HardwareID-1 ← Manufacturer + Family + Product Name + BIOS Vendor + BIOS Version + BIOS Major Release + BIOS Minor Release
HardwareID-2 ← Manufacturer + Product Name + BIOS Vendor + BIOS Version + BIOS Major Release + BIOS Minor Release
HardwareID-3 ← Manufacturer + Family + ProductName + SKU Number + Baseboard_Manufacturer + Baseboard_Product
HardwareID-4 ← Manufacturer + Family + ProductName + SKU Number
HardwareID-5 ← Manufacturer + Family + ProductName
HardwareID-6 ← Manufacturer + SKU Number + Baseboard_Manufacturer + Baseboard_Product
HardwareID-7 ← Manufacturer + SKU Number
HardwareID-8 ← Manufacturer + ProductName + Baseboard_Manufacturer + Baseboard_Product
HardwareID-9 ← Manufacturer + ProductName
HardwareID-10 ← Manufacturer + Family + Baseboard_Manufacturer + Baseboard_Product
HardwareID-11 ← Manufacturer + Family
HardwareID-12 ← Manufacturer + Enclosure Type
HardwareID-13 ← Manufacturer + Baseboard_Manufacturer + Baseboard_Product
HardwareID-14 ← Manufacturer
On Windows, CHIDs are generated from the ASCII representation of SMBIOS strings, and on Linux the same
mechanism is used. Additionally, on Linux, the Device Tree, DMI and kenv data sources
are used to construct emulations of the Microsoft CHIDs.
When installing firmware and drivers in Windows vendors already use the generated HardwareID GUIDs that match SMBIOS keys like the BIOS vendor and the product SKU.
Both fwupdtool hwids and ComputerHardwareIds.exe only compute results that have the necessary
data values available.
If a data field is missing, then any related CHIDs are not generated.
For example, if the SKU field is missing, then HardwareID 0, 3, 4 6 and 7 will not be available for
that particular system.
Implementation
Users with versions of fwupd newer than 1.1.1 can run sudo fwupdtool hwids. For example:
Computer Information
--------------------
BiosVendor: LENOVO
BiosVersion: GJET75WW (2.25 )
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Family: ThinkPad T440s
ProductName: 20ARS19C0C
ProductSku: LENOVO_MT_20AR_BU_Think_FM_ThinkPad T440s
EnclosureKind: 10
BaseboardManufacturer: LENOVO
BaseboardProduct: 20ARS19C0C
Hardware IDs
------------
{c4159f74-3d2c-526f-b6d1-fe24a2fbc881} <- Manufacturer + Family + ProductName + ProductSku + BiosVendor + BiosVersion + BiosMajorRelease + BiosMinorRelease
{ff66cb74-5f5d-5669-875a-8a8f97be22c1} <- Manufacturer + Family + ProductName + BiosVendor + BiosVersion + BiosMajorRelease + BiosMinorRelease
{2e4dad4e-27a0-5de0-8e92-f395fc3fa5ba} <- Manufacturer + ProductName + BiosVendor + BiosVersion + BiosMajorRelease + BiosMinorRelease
{3faec92a-3ae3-5744-be88-495e90a7d541} <- Manufacturer + Family + ProductName + ProductSku + BaseboardManufacturer + BaseboardProduct
{660ccba8-1b78-5a33-80e6-9fb8354ee873} <- Manufacturer + Family + ProductName + ProductSku
{8dc9b7c5-f5d5-5850-9ab3-bd6f0549d814} <- Manufacturer + Family + ProductName
{178cd22d-ad9f-562d-ae0a-34009822cdbe} <- Manufacturer + ProductSku + BaseboardManufacturer + BaseboardProduct
{da1da9b6-62f5-5f22-8aaa-14db7eeda2a4} <- Manufacturer + ProductSku
{059eb22d-6dc7-59af-abd3-94bbe017f67c} <- Manufacturer + ProductName + BaseboardManufacturer + BaseboardProduct
{0cf8618d-9eff-537c-9f35-46861406eb9c} <- Manufacturer + ProductName
{f4275c1f-6130-5191-845c-3426247eb6a1} <- Manufacturer + Family + BaseboardManufacturer + BaseboardProduct
{db73af4c-4612-50f7-b8a7-787cf4871847} <- Manufacturer + Family
{5e820764-888e-529d-a6f9-dfd12bacb160} <- Manufacturer + EnclosureKind
{f8e1de5f-b68c-5f52-9d1a-f1ba52f1f773} <- Manufacturer + BaseboardManufacturer + BaseboardProduct
{6de5d951-d755-576b-bd09-c5cf66b27234} <- Manufacturer
Which matches the output of ComputerHardwareIds.exe on the same hardware.