HOWTO do a DOS-based BIOS upgrade without Windows
Wow, I can’t believe I still have to do this in 2007 — Taiwan really needs to discover FreeDOS! Here’s how to run a DOS BIOS update on a PC without using Windows (in my case, it’s a Dell laptop).
Grab the FreeDOS “ripcord” boot floppy image from the FreeDOS RipCord Bootdisk page — the 2.88MB version: FDSTD.288.gz (that link’s a local mirror).
Grab the BIOS updater app from your PC vendor’s site. In my case, I used ME051A10.EXE, a BIOS update from Dell.
Run:
gunzip FDSTD.288.gz
sudo mount -t msdos -o loop pwd/FDSTD.288 /tmp/bootiso
- ensure there’s enough space, and copy the app into the disk image:
df /tmp/bootiso sudo cp ME051A10.EXE /tmp/bootiso
- Then make an ISO, using mkisofs’ “-b” option to ensure it’s bootable:
mkdir /tmp/floppycopy cp -Rp /tmp/bootiso/* /tmp/floppycopy cp -p FDSTD.288 /tmp/floppycopy mkisofs -pad -b FDSTD.288 -R -o /tmp/cd.iso /tmp/floppycopy
- And burn it:
sudo umount /tmp/bootiso sudo cdrecord dev=0,0,0 -pad -v -eject /tmp/cd.iso
- Now, take the burned CDROM, and boot it.
Answer “N” to all questions when booting, otherwise you’re likely to see an error like “Cannot operate in Protected environment” when you run the BIOS update.
Thanks to the Motherboard Flash Boot CD from Linux Mini HOWTO; very helpful. I hope the next time I have to do this, they just issue a bootable ISO image instead…
Tags: bios, bootable, booting, cd, cdrom, dell, dos, floppy, freedos, hardware, iso, msdos
Pádraig Brady said,
April 23, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
You can flash BIOSes from linux also: http://www.linux.ie/lists/pipermail/ilug/2004-August/071921.html See also: http://www.uniflash.org/
Antonio Gallardo said,
April 23, 2007 @ 4:57 pm
For such task, we use System Rescue CD:
http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page
Another Linux distro worth mentioning is Trinity Rescue Kit, but I had not have time to play with it:
http://trinityhome.org/Home/blog.php?blog_cat_id=2&b_node=2
Justin said,
April 23, 2007 @ 6:40 pm
Padraig: that’s simply terrifying. ;) way to brick my laptop!
Antonio: does System Rescue CD offer a way to run DOS applications, such as BIOS reflashers?
Pádraig Brady said,
April 24, 2007 @ 12:19 am
You can’t really brick a system, unless you mess with the jumpers (if even present), to allow writing to the first part of the BIOS
Antonio Gallardo said,
April 24, 2007 @ 12:59 am
Yes. You can create you custom system rescue CD or you can run the reflasher from a floppy once the PC booted from SystemRescue. In the company we also sell PC customer support and we did it a lot of times.
Liam Bedford said,
April 24, 2007 @ 1:22 pm
Some dell desktops have linux bios flashing software now (the precision series are the ones I’ve dealt with). They may extend that to the rest of the dell ranges over time, now that they’re slightly more linux friendly.
Robert Lippmann said,
August 4, 2007 @ 7:29 pm
Thanks for the tip!
Worked like a charm when my Dell laptop BIOS flash was failing under XP. The backup method was to create a boot floppy, except for the fact you can’t get a floppy drive (I don’t think) for the newer Dells.
Rob said,
February 22, 2008 @ 5:05 am
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’ve been going nuts trying to update my Dell BIOS, and this worked like a charm.
Pádraig Brady said,
February 22, 2008 @ 10:42 am
Rob, Dell provide tools to update their BIOS, and there is also the possiblity of flashing directly from linux, as I’ve mentioned in a previous comment. Details on both are here:
http://www.pixelbeat.org/docs/bios/
Shuker said,
August 15, 2010 @ 8:52 pm
i’m trying to flash my dell inspiron 1564 with BIOS A10 which is 6.5 MB and i can’t copy it to my bootiso directory because of : No space left on device Is there a way to increase this directory?
Andy said,
July 5, 2011 @ 4:09 pm
I’ve spent a day and half trying to do this before I found your site, then it was done within 10 minutes.
I have a motherboard you can’t update from linux (zotac ionitx f-e), so I’m stuck with creating a dos disk and doing it that way.