HOWTO: Flash BIOS, The Ubuntu Way

[thomasaaron]

Hi, Alanholt.

We don't do any testing or work with your computer model, so I'm not sure where to point you.
Flashing the BIOS on our computers requires no jumpers.

Try going into your BIOS menu and seeing if there is a setting anywhere that removes the BIOS write-protection.

Best,
Tom

[Apostata]

I'm a little confused - when I run the command to create an ISO, I get the following:

~/Desktop$ sudo mkisofs -o Bootable-CD-BIOS-Image.iso -b FDOEM.144 FDOEM.144
I: -input-charset not specified, using utf-8 (detected in locale settings)
genisoimage: No such file or directory. Invalid node - 'FDOEM.144'.

I'm not clear on how mkisofs is supposed to know where FDOEM is if I've unmounted /mnt/temp.

[aparigraha]

I can't move my BIOS exe file into the mounted directory. Write access is denied, and impossible to change once FDOEM.144 is mounted. I can move it there before it is mounted but it disappears once I mount.
I got the APIC error 40(40) and this is my last resort. Windows is NOT an option.

Please help.

EDIT: After extracting the .exe using cabextract to get a lot of files I realized that the image would be too big to fit the mount. I found a 12-year-old 2 gig HD, unplugged all other HDDs, installed XP-StrippedToTheBone and updated the BIOS through there instead. Solved!

[maikunari]

I've done everything as per instructions, but when I boot into Freedos and type the command AFLASH.EXE or AFLASH i get an error saying the system cannot find the Bios' hook.

Any clue as to what I should do?

[reacocard]

When I try to extract the exe, it gives me this:

aren@aren-laptop:~/Installs/bios junk$ unzip sp32790.exe 
Archive:  sp32790.exe
  End-of-central-directory signature not found.  Either this file is not
  a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive.  In the
  latter case the central directory and zipfile comment will be found on
  the last disk(s) of this archive.
unzip:  cannot find zipfile directory in one of sp32790.exe or
        sp32790.exe.zip, and cannot find sp32790.exe.ZIP, period.

Any ideas?

EDIT: I think I got it, I had to extract the main one with cabextract first, then unzip the exe that produced. Now to see if it works.

EDIT2: another snag: the extracted files are too big for the image. I'm using a cd, so is there any way to increase the space?

[Tumpster]

I'm running a bootable cd and i get the flash utility up and running it gives me "source file not found" when I attempt to flash it. I only have so many files and I've tried to get it to work. What could I be doing wrong?

[fugative]

got the same problem as thomasaaron
freedos 1.4m
sp30341.exe DON'T fit
help!!

otherwise howdo i make ados bootable cdrom

cheers

[Tristan Schmelcher]

I used the CD approach here on Debian to upgrade the BIOS of my Dell XPS M1710 laptop, and it worked perfectly. Thanks for the guide!

[dayd]

Hi!

Great post!

It does not work for me, though!

I've tried the steps many times with no luck.

I'm using the bios from Gigabytes webpage. I go through the steps with out any errors. However, when I run the flash.exe I always get the following error. And nothing happens.

Error 10 : Bus ID error

Ive also tried using AwardBios. That utility complained about the Program File's part number does not match your system! And it did nothing.

So, has anyone seen this error, and then was able to get around it? Any suggestions about a possible work around? I've been searching for hours with no good leads!

Thanks a million!

-DD

OS: Debian etch
MotherBoard: GA-K8NSC-939 nForce3 250Gb chipset
CPU: AMD64 x2 4200+
Floppy: NONE!!!!!!!!!

[tech9]

sweet, I will have to try this.... of course on a test workstation - you can never be too cautious.