Re: Installing a new BIOS on a Dell Computer

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On Thu, 2009-12-17 at 09:07 -0600, Aaron Konstam wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-12-16 at 21:00 -0500, Gene Heskett wrote: 
> > On Wednesday 16 December 2009, Aaron Konstam wrote:
> > >The last time I installed a new BIOS on a Dell Computer I used a floppy
> > >disk. That is no longer an option. Could anyone explain how I can
> > >accomplish this? Please be as detailed as you can describing the
> > >procedure.
> > 
> > Most bios these days are equipt to do that themselves from one of the more 
> > right hand option menu's.  I have updated the bios on this asus motherboard 
> > several times now, by putting the new bios file on a usbkey & plugging it in.
> > 
> > It will muddle along looking the system over for a while but its never failed 
> > to find it.  It is also capable of saving the old bios back to that same key 
> > before you install the new one too.
> > 
> > -- 
> 
> I don't understand you procedure. The BIOS file I downloaded is an .EXE
> file. When I put on a usb drive and i insert it. It just sits there. If
> I try to execute it it says it is looking for a zip file and can't find
> it. What am I missing? What right hand menus are you talking about 

If all you have is an EXE file then grab yourself a freedos ISO (Dell
used to provide them at least with N-series machines, if not it's under
the GPL & a free download) and drop the EXE into the image and burn.
Then you can boot freedos and run the update from there. I've done this
for Dell, HP and IBM/Lenovo systems in the past.

Dell also has a tool called biosdisk that appears to automate this
process:

http://linux.dell.com/biosdisk/

Dell also has a project called firmware tools to allow updating of BIOS
and firmware images from within a booted Linux kernel:

http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Oss/Firmware_Tools

Seems to have been a bit quiet in the last few years so not sure what
current status is.

That page also has a link to:

http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Tech/libsmbios_livecd

Which gives another option - building a fedora liveCD to do the updates
from (this uses the Firmware Tools stuff to do the update).

Regards,
Bryn.


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