How to Upgrade the Thinkpad x61 BIOS

[rocksockdoc]

sudo mkdir /mnt/usb
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
sudo cp -af [ISO mount point]/* /mnt/usb/

Hi Mike,
Thanks for taking the time to help me out. (I was worried you were on vacation or something more fun than helping me!)

I'm ready to reboot the Lenovo X61 tablet PC to flash... just had one (maybe minor?) glitch in the instructions where it asked me to specify the file system type (but I didn't do it 'cuz I didn't know what it wanted).

Here's what I did:

I placed the previously created 4GB USB flash drive in the Lenovo X61 left USB slot.

$ script /tmp/flashbios.log
$ sudo fdisk -l

Reported:
... stuff about unrelated disks ...
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 490 3928032 e W95 FAT16 (LBA)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(488, 254, 63) logical=(489, 5, 27)

This merely proved that the USB stick was still in /dev/sdb1 so I then ran:

sudo mkdir /mnt/usb
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
sudo cp -af /cdrom/* /mnt/usb/

Reported:
mount: you must specify the filesystem type

Even with that warning?/error?, the command seemed to have mounted it nonetheless:

ls -l  /mnt/usb/COMMAND.COM

Reported:
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 7376 2008-01-30 07:00 /mnt/usb/COMMAND.COM

So, I'll move forward from here and let you all know how it works out!
Thanks for caring about others!

[rocksockdoc]

Drat.

Same result. A permanent blinking top-left-corner white cursor on a black screen.
I tried multiple times from multiple USB ports (both left and right) on the Lenovo X61 tablet PC and with the "+USB HDD" listed first in the boot order in the BIOS.

I even changed the boot order in the BIOS to JUST the USB hard drive (i.e., +USB HDD).

I wonder what is going on. I noticed one other person in this thread had the same problem which doesn't seem to have been resolved but that was long ago so we won't know how he solved it.

I wonder if there is some "other" software, unbeknownst to me, running that somehow prevents a boot from the USB HDD flash drive???

Any suggestions? (one thing I'll try is the whole procedure all over again).

Here, by the way, is a listing of what's on the USB flash drive.

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb

Reported:
mount: you must specify the file system type

 ls -alsF /mnt/usb

Reported the files are all there on the USB flash drive:

total 4768
4 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-08-16 17:28 ./
4 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2010-08-16 17:26 ../
2264 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 2317654 2009-10-13 02:46 $01B6200.FL1*
2056 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 2103350 2007-07-02 23:24 $01B6200.FL2*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 163 2006-10-24 22:19 06f1.hsh*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 2008-01-30 07:00 06F1.PAT*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 163 2006-10-24 22:19 06f4.hsh*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 2008-01-30 07:00 06F4.PAT*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 163 2006-10-24 22:19 06f5.hsh*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 2008-01-30 07:00 06F5.PAT*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 163 2006-10-24 22:19 06f9.hsh*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 2008-01-30 07:00 06F9.PAT*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 163 2007-04-02 01:06 06fa.hsh*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 2008-01-30 07:00 06FA.PAT*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 163 2008-01-15 19:02 06fb.hsh*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 2008-01-30 07:00 06FB.PAT*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 163 2008-01-15 19:02 06fd.hsh*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 2008-01-30 07:00 06FD.PAT*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 163 2007-04-25 02:38 10661.hsh*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 2008-01-30 07:00 10661.PAT*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 697 2008-01-30 07:00 CHKBMP.EXE*
8 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 7376 2008-01-30 07:00 COMMAND.COM*
28 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 26028 2008-01-30 07:00 FLASH2.EXE*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 26 2008-01-30 07:00 lcreflsh.bat*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 170 2008-01-30 07:00 LOGO.BAT*
4 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 330 2008-01-30 07:00 LOGO.SCR*
136 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 135275 2008-01-30 07:00 PHLASH16.EXE*
92 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 91648 2008-01-30 07:00 PREPARE.EXE*
8 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 7059 2008-01-30 07:00 README.TXT*
8 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 4550 2008-01-30 07:00 TPCHKS.EXE*
40 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 37836 2008-01-30 07:00 UPDTFLSH.EXE*
8 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 7230 2008-01-30 07:00 UPDTMN.EXE*
16 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 12501 2008-01-30 07:00 USERINT.EXE*
16 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 15274 2008-01-30 07:00 UTILINFO.EXE*

BTW, when I switched the BIOS back to boot off the hard drive (only), I noticed that blinking cursor for a split second, and then ubuntu came up. So maybe it's a hardware thing? Maybe it doesn't like my flash drive. I don't have anything smaller than 4GB (even that was hard to find as all mine are way larger). I might go to the store and buy an el cheapo 32MB flash drive if they still sell 'em.

I know this is a hard question w/o the Lenovo X61 tablet in front of you ... but ... may I ask ...
Any suggestions as to what the next step of the debug procedure might be?

[rocksockdoc]

Googling I find that it appears to be extremely common to get a black screen with a blinking cursor when attempting to flash the IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad X61 BIOS ...

-
- Tablet PC Review (X61 blank screen with blinking cursor)
- Lenovo Forums X61 black screen w/ flashing underscore cursor
- Checkpoint forums: fixboot for X61 Blank screen/blinking cursor
etc.

Here is one explanation from the Lenovo ThinkPad forums:
"Flashing cursor in upper left corner indicates the drive does not have a boot sector, or it is truncated. Same thing happens when you use drive cloning software such as Ghost and don’t set the switch to copy the entire boot sector, not just the default size. ThinkPads use a larger boot sector. "

I wonder why, if this is the case, others didn't report this in this thread (other than one other person)?

[mbsullivan]

mount: you must specify the filesystem type

Oh, that's because it's FAT16. Try with -t vfat, like so:

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb

I think that it still should have done it right, it's just whining.

Same result. A permanent blinking top-left-corner white cursor on a black screen.

Yeah, that's a very common boot problem.

I don't think the problem is because you're using a tablet... A quick scan through the previous responses shows 2-4 people who have successfully installed on a tablet, including ones who explicitly used the windows method and linux method.

I don't know what could be up. I wish we could debug it more thoroughly, but it's kind of tough from here.

Here is one explanation from the Lenovo ThinkPad forums:
"Flashing cursor in upper left corner indicates the drive does not have a boot sector, or it is truncated. Same thing happens when you use drive cloning software such as Ghost and don’t set the switch to copy the entire boot sector, not just the default size. ThinkPads use a larger boot sector. "

Hmmm... I'm familiar with how to move around the boot sector for Western Digital EARS drives, which are strange. If you can get more information about this (and it proves to be accurate) we MIGHT be able to work with it. Do you have a link to where you found it? I've never heard this before, though.

BTW, when I switched the BIOS back to boot off the hard drive (only), I noticed that blinking cursor for a split second, and then ubuntu came up. So maybe it's a hardware thing? Maybe it doesn't like my flash drive. I don't have anything smaller than 4GB (even that was hard to find as all mine are way larger). I might go to the store and buy an el cheapo 32MB flash drive if they still sell 'em.

I know this is a hard question w/o the Lenovo X61 tablet in front of you ... but ... may I ask ...
Any suggestions as to what the next step of the debug procedure might be?

I'm not sure if a different flash drive may help. If you find one, let me know?

Another thing you could try if you're feeling up to it is to try an alternative approach that doesn't require a flash drive. There are several, and the list has been growing since I've written this tutorial. They vary in complexity, and I haven't felt compelled to update or complicate the tutorial, since my aim was to make something that people could actually USE on both Windows and Linux.

One alternate approach which would only work under Linux would be to mount the ISO directly on your harddrive as you boot up. We could always try this in your case, though I'm reluctant to put something like it in the tutorial since it doesn't work in the Windows case, and may also differ slightly depending on how the Lenovo ISOs were made bootable (CD mode or floppy emulation mode). If you want to try something like this, I could try and figure out the simplest way from A -> B... I haven't seen anybody actually say they've gotten it to work for an x61(s/T), but it's worked for other Thinkpads.

Mike

[rocksockdoc]

Do you have a link to where you found it? I've never heard this before, though.

Hi Mike,
Thanks for the help. I know you don't have to volunteer to help others and I'll understand if you drop off before I get this resolved. As for that link, here it is (the text is by "steves" on "Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:26 pm" and it's about midway down the page as they don't give me a link directly to just his post).

There is apparently a well known blinking cursor "hanging" that happens with Thinkpads due, apparently, to a hidden "IBM Predesktop Area" as explained in this PDF and in this IBM white paper (both referenced here).

BTW, I agree that it should be doable but that lots of people have problems with the blinking cursor trying to boot off of devices hanging on a Thinkpad. I'm reading this Thinkpad boot wiki to see if I can get a clue to the mystery. Notice the section titled "Installation from USB drive" which says:

Not all ThinkPads have a BIOS that supports USB booting.
This is probably the easiest approach:

1. Connect the USB drive2 to the host and format it.
2. Get a bootable system and all needed installation files onto the USB drive, i.e. by copying the complete filesystem from your installation CD-ROM to the USB drive. Of course if your USB drive is not big enough for that you'll have to make more sophisticated choices about what to copy and what to leave behind. Here are some instructions (and instructions for ubuntu, instructions for Debian 5.0 (Lenny)) for converting a LiveCD ISO image onto a pen drive, and making it bootable.3

1. Insert the USB drive into the USB port of your ThinkPad.
2. Power on the ThinkPad and press F12 to get to the boot menu. For some models (X24 comes to mind) you need to go into the BIOS and change the boot sequence before USB devices are shown in the boot menu.
3. Select the USB drive as boot media and boot.
4. Follow the normal installation process.

It seems some ThinkPad BIOSes don't use the code on the master boot record (MBR), or at least skip it when it is blank. These systems will need an Extended-IPL boot loader. Putting this Extended-IPL boot loader onto the disk (such as sda) goes something like this:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1 count=446
dd if=/usr/lib/extipl/aldebaran.bin of=/dev/sda

However, if all this is true (that we need an extended IPL boot loader for example), then I wonder why I'm only running into this now. It can't be but I'll keep looking for the solution for this mystery.

I even changed the boot order in the BIOS to JUST the USB hard drive (i.e., +USB HDD).

I found a description of the supported boot devices for all Thinkpads here; unfortunately, the information on the X61 is sketchy at best in this reference. Specifically, it defines:

• USB HD = any hard drive/flash drive/pen drive connected via the USB port
• USB FDD = Diskette ("Floppy") drive connected via the USB port
• USB CD = CD/DVD(-R/-RW/-RAM) drive connected via the USB port

So, it "should" have been correct when I set the "USB HDD" as the only boot device (although note the extra "D" in what I saw in my BIOS versus the reference above).

Try with -t vfat, like so:

Thanks for the "-t" option. It didn't do any better but as you said, I think it's just whining so I don't think that's the problem either.

$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
Reported:
mount: you must specify the filesystem type

$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
Reported:
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

$ dmesg | tail
Reported:
[64645.081765] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 7856127 512-byte logical blocks: (4.02 GB/3.74 GiB)
[64645.082213] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[64645.082217] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 45 00 00 08
[64645.082221] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[64645.086470] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[64645.086477]  sdb: sdb1
[64645.090713] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[64645.090719] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[64716.532120] FAT: invalid media value (0xb9)
[64716.532126] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb1.

try an alternative approach that doesn't require a flash drive.

Ah, I see you're looking at the same thinkwiki I referenced above (different pages though). I will investigate alternative approaches if I can't get the USB device to work after deleting the hidden boot stuff explained above and changing the USB drive itself.

I like the way you work (writing a nice succinct tutorial and updating it as new information comes up) and I will try to report back what I find out so others can always benefit from both our efforts.

[rocksockdoc]

Hi Mike,
I tried it with a 256 MB flash drive with similar results (weirdly, instead of a flashing dash cursor (_), I repeatedly get a lower-case "j" with the flashing dash cursor (j_) with the smaller USB stick. I'm beginning to wonder if this Thinkpad X61 tablet BIOS is capable of booting off the USB memory stick.

This begs the obvious question whose answer should be of general interest to X61 tablet owners:
Q1: My Lenovo X61 BIOS (version 1.04 for the BIOS; version 1.02 for the Embedded Controller ) has "USB HDD" as an option but not "USB HD"; so is "USB HDD" the same as a USB stick (or is it only for a physical hard disk drive)?

In addition, a tactical question popped up because the dd seems to work whether or not I unmount the USB flash drive just before running dd ... so that begs the question:
Q2: Why do we unmount the USB flash drive before running "dd" to copy over the Win98 files?

The reason it might matter is that the USB sticks show up as disk drives in Ubuntu 10.04 until I perform that dd step; and then they no longer show up in the Ubuntu desktop after I perform the dd step (even after rebooting). Why do we unmount the USB drives before running dd?

I'll keep trying (and will post a log separately) but the answer to these two questions should be of general interest to all.

[mbsullivan]

so is "USB HDD" the same as a USB stick (or is it only for a physical hard disk drive)?

I believe that "USB HDD" is the same as any USB device with a bootable filesystem. So it could be either.

Why do we unmount the USB flash drive before running "dd" to copy over the Win98 files?

We unmount the USB drive, because "dd" is copying a new filesystem and files to the USB drive as a block device. It overwrites all previous contents, and doesn't interact with the mounted filesystem at all.

We keep the drive unmounted since we're about to thrash it, and having a mounted non-existent filesystem wouldn't turn out so well. Also, I'm not sure if this is a concern, but unmounting the drive avoids any write conflicts due to currently accessed files or file locks.

Thanks for the "-t" option. It didn't do any better but as you said, I think it's just whining so I don't think that's the problem either

That's really strange. From your previous post, "fdisk -l" is obviously detecting it correctly as a Win95 Fat16 formatted partition (LBA = "logical block addressing", it should be fine).

I'm beginning to wonder if this Thinkpad X61 tablet BIOS is capable of booting off the USB memory stick.

I'm not sure why yours wouldn't be... Other people have had success with it. You could always make a Ubuntu LiveUSB and boot from that if you have a doubt.

The question is whether we want to keep trying to debug this, or try an alternate route.

Mike

[rocksockdoc]

make a Ubuntu LiveUSB and boot from that if you have a doubt.

Hi Mike,
Thanks for sticking with me. I think I found WHERE the problem lies (but I don't know enough about Linux to actually debug WHY the problem exists).

If you look at the log below, notice that the win98 image does NOT seem to be copied onto either of the two USB flash drives. I think that's WHERE the problem lies. I'm not sure WHY that problem occurs as I followed your instructions exactly (I think).

Can you suggest a debug sequence for me to understand WHY the win98 image did not transfer over to the USB sticks. The command to transfer it appears to have worked. But not the transfer itself???

I'm sure I made a mistake somewhere ... can someone help me spot the mistake or at least supply debugging hints at the appropriate point?

Thanks,
Rock

---
GOAL: Flash Lenovo X61 tablet PC using only Linux and a USB stick following
the Linux-only instructions at: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=817897
---
Placed a WinXP formatted 4GB SanDisk USB stick (FAT32) in the Lenovo X61 tablet
left-side USB slot and a WinXP formatted 250MB IBM USB stick (FAT16) in the
Lenovo X61 tablet right-side front USB slot.

The USB icon for each automatically showed up on the Ubuntu 10.04 desktop.
---
Confirm the two USB sticks are /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdc1 respectively:

$ sudo fdisk -l
Reported:
 Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
 (blah blah blah)

 Disk /dev/sdb: 4022 MB, 4022337024 bytes
 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 489 cylinders
 Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
 Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
 I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
 Disk identifier: 0x0502fe69

 Device    Boot Start End Blocks  Id System
 /dev/sdb1 *    1     490 3928032 b  W95 FAT32
 Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
   phys=(488, 254, 63) logical=(489, 5, 27)

 Disk /dev/sdc: 255 MB, 255852544 bytes
 128 heads, 4 sectors/track, 976 cylinders
 Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes
 Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
 I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
 Disk identifier: 0x04d704d6

 Device    Boot Start End Blocks Id System
 /dev/sdc1 *    1     976 249854 6  FAT16

QUESTION: What's /dev/sdb versus /dev/sdb1 & /dev/sdc versus /dev/sdc1?
---
Obtained win98usb.tar from:
http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=115376&d=1243462998

$ tar -xf ./win98usb.tar
$ ls -a win98usb.img
Reported:
-rw-r--r-- 1 x x 621568 2009-05-27 14:14 win98usb.img
---
$ sudo umount -f /dev/sdb1
$ sudo umount -f /dev/sdc1

This removed the USB stick icons from the desktop
---
$ sudo dd if=win98usb.img of=/dev/sdb1 conv=notrunc
$ sudo dd if=win98usb.img of=/dev/sdc1 conv=notrunc
Reported:
1214+0 records in
1214+0 records out
621568 bytes (622 kB) copied, 0.858151 s, 724 kB/s

1214+0 records in
1214+0 records out
621568 bytes (622 kB) copied, 1.86486 s, 333 kB/s
---
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/usb1
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/usb2
---
$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb1
$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb2
Both reported:
  mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
  missing codepage or helper program, or other error
  In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
  dmesg | tail  or so

$ dmesg | tail
Reported:
[190037.547196] FAT: invalid media value (0xb9)
[190037.547201] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb1.
[190163.630243] FAT: invalid media value (0xb9)
[190163.630249] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdc1.
---
$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb1
$ sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb2
Reported in both commands:
 mount: you must specify the filesystem type

QUESTION: How can I prove whether this mounted properly or not?
---
$ ls -alsF /mnt/usb1
$ ls -alsF /mnt/usb2

Both reported:
total 8
4 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-08-20 22:30 ./
4 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2010-08-20 22:30 ../

QUESTION: Where did the files copied over by dd go?
---
$ mount -l | grep sd[b,c]1
Reported:
 Nothing

QUESTION: Why /dev/sdb1 & /dev/sdc1 not show up in the mount list command?
---
$ sudo mount -o loop `pwd`/7suj18uc.iso /cdrom/

$ ls /cdrom/
Reports:
$01B6200.FL1  06f5.hsh  06fb.hsh   CHKBMP.EXE    PHLASH16.EXE  USERINT.EXE
$01B6200.FL2  06F5.PAT  06FB.PAT   COMMAND.COM   PREPARE.EXE   UTILINFO.EXE
06f1.hsh      06f9.hsh  06fd.hsh   FLASH2.EXE    README.TXT
06F1.PAT      06F9.PAT  06FD.PAT   lcreflsh.bat  TPCHKS.EXE
06f4.hsh      06fa.hsh  10661.hsh  LOGO.BAT      UPDTFLSH.EXE
06F4.PAT      06FA.PAT  10661.PAT  LOGO.SCR      UPDTMN.EXE
---
$ sudo cp -af /cdrom/* /mnt/usb1/
$ sudo cp -af /cdrom/* /mnt/usb2/
[190037.547201] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb1.
[190163.630243] FAT: invalid media value (0xb9)
[190163.630249] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdc1.
---
$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb1
$ sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb2
Reported in both commands:
 mount: you must specify the filesystem type

QUESTION: How can I prove whether this mounted properly or not?
---
$ ls -alsF /mnt/usb1
$ ls -alsF /mnt/usb2

Both reported:
total 8
4 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-08-20 22:30 ./
4 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2010-08-20 22:30 ../

QUESTION: Where did the files copied over by dd go?
---
$ mount -l | grep sd[b,c]1
Reported:
 Nothing

QUESTION: Why /dev/sdb1 & /dev/sdc1 not show up in the mount list command?
---
$ sudo mount -o loop `pwd`/7suj18uc.iso /cdrom/

$ ls /cdrom/
Reports:
$01B6200.FL1  06f5.hsh  06fb.hsh   CHKBMP.EXE    PHLASH16.EXE  USERINT.EXE
$01B6200.FL2  06F5.PAT  06FB.PAT   COMMAND.COM   PREPARE.EXE   UTILINFO.EXE
06f1.hsh      06f9.hsh  06fd.hsh   FLASH2.EXE    README.TXT
06F1.PAT      06F9.PAT  06FD.PAT   lcreflsh.bat  TPCHKS.EXE
06f4.hsh      06fa.hsh  10661.hsh  LOGO.BAT      UPDTFLSH.EXE
06F4.PAT      06FA.PAT  10661.PAT  LOGO.SCR      UPDTMN.EXE
---
$ sudo cp -af /cdrom/* /mnt/usb1/
$ sudo cp -af /cdrom/* /mnt/usb2/
[190037.547201] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb1.
[190163.630243] FAT: invalid media value (0xb9)
[190163.630249] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdc1.
---
$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb1
$ sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb2
Reported in both commands:
 mount: you must specify the filesystem type

QUESTION: How can I prove whether this mounted properly or not?
---
$ ls -alsF /mnt/usb1
$ ls -alsF /mnt/usb2

Both reported:
total 8
4 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-08-20 22:30 ./
4 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2010-08-20 22:30 ../

QUESTION: Where did the files copied over by dd go?
---
$ mount -l | grep sd[b,c]1
Reported:
 Nothing

QUESTION: Why /dev/sdb1 & /dev/sdc1 not show up in the mount list command?
---
$ sudo mount -o loop `pwd`/7suj18uc.iso /cdrom/

$ ls /cdrom/
Reports:
$01B6200.FL1  06f5.hsh  06fb.hsh   CHKBMP.EXE    PHLASH16.EXE  USERINT.EXE
$01B6200.FL2  06F5.PAT  06FB.PAT   COMMAND.COM   PREPARE.EXE   UTILINFO.EXE
06f1.hsh      06f9.hsh  06fd.hsh   FLASH2.EXE    README.TXT
06F1.PAT      06F9.PAT  06FD.PAT   lcreflsh.bat  TPCHKS.EXE
06f4.hsh      06fa.hsh  10661.hsh  LOGO.BAT      UPDTFLSH.EXE
06F4.PAT      06FA.PAT  10661.PAT  LOGO.SCR      UPDTMN.EXE
---
$ sudo cp -af /cdrom/* /mnt/usb1/
$ sudo cp -af /cdrom/* /mnt/usb2/
[190037.547201] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb1.
[190163.630243] FAT: invalid media value (0xb9)
[190163.630249] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdc1.
---
$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb1
$ sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb2
Reported in both commands:
 mount: you must specify the filesystem type

QUESTION: How can I prove whether this mounted properly or not?
---
$ ls -alsF /mnt/usb1
$ ls -alsF /mnt/usb2

Both reported:
total 8
4 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-08-20 22:30 ./
4 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2010-08-20 22:30 ../

QUESTION: Where did the files copied over by dd go?
---
$ mount -l | grep sd[b,c]1
Reported:
 Nothing

QUESTION: Why /dev/sdb1 & /dev/sdc1 not show up in the mount list command?
---
$ sudo mount -o loop `pwd`/7suj18uc.iso /cdrom/

$ ls /cdrom/
Reports:
$01B6200.FL1  06f5.hsh  06fb.hsh   CHKBMP.EXE    PHLASH16.EXE  USERINT.EXE
$01B6200.FL2  06F5.PAT  06FB.PAT   COMMAND.COM   PREPARE.EXE   UTILINFO.EXE
06f1.hsh      06f9.hsh  06fd.hsh   FLASH2.EXE    README.TXT
06F1.PAT      06F9.PAT  06FD.PAT   lcreflsh.bat  TPCHKS.EXE
06f4.hsh      06fa.hsh  10661.hsh  LOGO.BAT      UPDTFLSH.EXE
06F4.PAT      06FA.PAT  10661.PAT  LOGO.SCR      UPDTMN.EXE
---
$ sudo cp -af /cdrom/* /mnt/usb1/
$ sudo cp -af /cdrom/* /mnt/usb2/
$ ls -l  /mnt/usb[1,2]/COMMAND.COM

Reported:
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 7376 2008-01-30 07:00 /mnt/usb1/COMMAND.COM
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 7376 2008-01-30 07:00 /mnt/usb2/COMMAND.COM
---
---

[mbsullivan]

Thanks for sticking with me.

You're welcome.

If you look at the log below, notice that the win98 image does NOT seem to be copied onto either of the two USB flash drives. I think that's WHERE the problem lies. I'm not sure WHY that problem occurs as I followed your instructions exactly (I think).

Oh, okay! I think we can fix that problem.

QUESTION: What's /dev/sdb versus /dev/sdb1 & /dev/sdc versus /dev/sdc1?

/dev/sdb is the identifier for the device (the whole drive), /dev/sdb1 is the identifier for the partition. In these cases, you happen to only have one partition to each drive, but you could have more, and then you'd have /dev/sdb2, /dev/sdb3, etc.

$ sudo dd if=win98usb.img of=/dev/sdb1 conv=notrunc
$ sudo dd if=win98usb.img of=/dev/sdc1 conv=notrunc

These should be:

$ sudo dd if=win98usb.img of=/dev/sdb conv=notrunc
$ sudo dd if=win98usb.img of=/dev/sdc conv=notrunc

Because you're overwriting the ENTIRE drive, including the partition table, etc. You're not just affecting a single partition (/dev/sdb1, for instance).

If I'm not mistaken, that's your problem right there. A tiny thing, but it makes all the difference.

Lemme know if changing that fixes anything?
Mike

[rocksockdoc]

If I'm not mistaken, that's your problem right there. A tiny thing, but it makes all the difference.

Hi Mike,
Again, thanks for sticking with me. I'm not new to computers but I'm wholly new to Linux operating systems. So I'm mostly following the commands like a recipe. The results were more predictable with that simple change of the dd 'data description' command:

FROM: $ sudo dd if=win98usb.img of=/dev/sdb1 conv=notrunc
TO: $ sudo dd if=win98usb.img of=/dev/sdb conv=notrunc

Here is the results log showing we're ready to flash that bios!
(I'll let you know how it goes once I run a few more tests and back up some data.)

---
GOAL: Flash Lenovo X61 tablet PC using only Linux and a USB stick following
the Linux-only instructions at: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=817897
---
Placed a WinXP formatted 4GB SanDisk USB stick (FAT32) in the Lenovo X61 tablet
left-side USB slot and a WinXP formatted 250MB IBM USB stick (FAT16) in the
Lenovo X61 tablet right-side front USB slot.

The USB icon for each automatically showed up on the Ubuntu 10.04 desktop.
---
Confirm the two USB sticks are /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdc1 respectively:

$ sudo fdisk -l
Reported:
Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
(blah blah blah)

Disk /dev/sdb: 4022 MB, 4022337024 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 489 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0502fe69

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 490 3928032 b W95 FAT32
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(488, 254, 63) logical=(489, 5, 27)

Disk /dev/sdc: 255 MB, 255852544 bytes
128 heads, 4 sectors/track, 976 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x04d704d6

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 976 249854 6 FAT16

QUESTION: What's /dev/sdb versus /dev/sdb1 & /dev/sdc versus /dev/sdc1?
ANSWER: /dev/sdb is the identifier for the device (the whole drive), while
/dev/sdb1 is the identifier for the partition. We happen to have
one partition on each drive, but we could have had more partitions.
If we did have more partitions, we'd have /dev/sdb2, /dev/sdb3, etc.
---
Obtained win98usb.tar from:
http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.p...6&d=1243462998

$ tar -xf ./win98usb.tar
$ ls -a win98usb.img
Reported:
-rw-r--r-- 1 x x 621568 2009-05-27 14:14 win98usb.img
---
$ sudo umount -f /dev/sdb1
$ sudo umount -f /dev/sdc1

Note: This removed both USB stick icons from the Ubuntu desktop.
---
$ sudo dd if=win98usb.img of=/dev/sdb conv=notrunc
$ sudo dd if=win98usb.img of=/dev/sdc conv=notrunc
Reported:
1214+0 records in
1214+0 records out
621568 bytes (622 kB) copied, 0.858151 s, 724 kB/s

1214+0 records in
1214+0 records out
621568 bytes (622 kB) copied, 1.86486 s, 333 kB/s
---
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/usb1
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/usb2
---
$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb1
$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb2
Both no longer reported:
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

$ dmesg | tail
No longer reported:
[190037.547196] FAT: invalid media value (0xb9)
[190037.547201] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb1.
[190163.630243] FAT: invalid media value (0xb9)
[190163.630249] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdc1.
---
$ ls -alsF /mnt/usb[1,2]
Now reported for both USB sticks:
total 356
32 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 16384 1969-12-31 16:00 ./
4 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2010-08-20 22:30 ../
96 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 93880 1998-05-11 19:01 COMMAND.COM*
224 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 222390 1998-05-11 19:01 IO.SYS*
0 -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 0 1998-05-11 19:01 MSDOS.SYS*
---
$ mount -l | grep sd[b,c]1
No longer reported:
Nothing
It now reported:
/dev/sdb1 on /mnt/usb1 type vfat (rw)
/dev/sdc1 on /mnt/usb2 type vfat (rw)

QUESTION: Why /dev/sdb1 & /dev/sdc1 not show up in the mount list command?
ANSWER: It does now that we fixed the dd command!
---
$ sudo mount -o loop `pwd`/7suj18uc.iso /cdrom/

$ ls /cdrom/
Reports:
$01B6200.FL1 06f5.hsh 06fb.hsh CHKBMP.EXE PHLASH16.EXE USERINT.EXE
$01B6200.FL2 06F5.PAT 06FB.PAT COMMAND.COM PREPARE.EXE UTILINFO.EXE
06f1.hsh 06f9.hsh 06fd.hsh FLASH2.EXE README.TXT
06F1.PAT 06F9.PAT 06FD.PAT lcreflsh.bat TPCHKS.EXE
06f4.hsh 06fa.hsh 10661.hsh LOGO.BAT UPDTFLSH.EXE
06F4.PAT 06FA.PAT 10661.PAT LOGO.SCR UPDTMN.EXE
---
$ sudo cp -af /cdrom/* /mnt/usb1/
$ sudo cp -af /cdrom/* /mnt/usb2/
$ ls -l /mnt/usb[1,2]/COMMAND.COM

Reported:
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 7376 2008-01-30 07:00 /mnt/usb1/COMMAND.COM
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 7376 2008-01-30 07:00 /mnt/usb2/COMMAND.COM
---
We're now ready to flash that BIOS!
---

I wonder which USB stick is booted from if I leave BOTH in the respective left and right USB slots?