flash bios dos usb stick

[koder]

My 530 is running BIOS 1.0.10, halfway between what you have and where
you are trying to go. 

I too was having difficulty with the upgrade from Ubuntu 7.10 to 8.04.

After much hair pulling a tech noted that the memory chips on my 530
desktop were installed in the incorrect slots on the motherboard. After
relocating them, the installation of 8.04 went flawlessly.

When I tried to go from 7.10 to 8.04 on my Dell laptop, it would die
every time (at least three). I poked on the Ubunty site and found out
that I needed to revert to an earlier kernel upgrade. I had that version
still sitting on my system. I booted to it and the upgrade went
flawlessly.

Those experiences are what led me to question your process.

I have heard stories of BIOS upgrades gone awry and trashing the MoBo.
The whole process gives me great trepidation.

If you want to proceed, would an installation of an old Windows or DOS
OS in your computer permit the flashing you are desiring?


-----Original Message-----
From: Trent Shipley <tshipley at deru.com>
Reply-To: tshipley at deru.com, Main PLUG discussion list
<plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
To: plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
Subject: Re: flash bios dos usb stick
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:54:08 -0700

I think it is unlikely that updating the BIOS from Dell 1.0.5 to 1.0.16 will 
solve the problem.  However, I figure I can't go blaming Ubuntu until I have 
ruled out a BIOS upgrade.

The system actually gets up and running but crashes somewhere in the start up 
sequence.  It would be handy to have some sort of init log.

It did this with a lot of 8.04 kernels but adding all_generic_ide to a line in 
grub's menu.lst would cure the problem.  That doesn't solve the problem in 
8.10.  The printer also abruptly quit working.  I checked the IP address in 
cups and on the printer.  That's not it.  Native Nvidia support also doesn't 
work and won't until (unless) Nvidia writes support for the old graphics card 
in my computer.

I was really annoyed with the 7.x to 8.04 upgrade.  A lot of stuff broke.  
Nvidia broke, but eventually got fixed.  Also, the computer won't go to sleep.  
The screen saver NEVER comes on (except in test mode).  It worked fine with 
Dell's 7.x system.

I use Linux as my desktop because I want a hobby.  It's like driving a classic 
car.

On Thursday 2009-02-26, koder wrote:
> Are you absolutely certain that you need to flash your BIOS to get your
> system to run?
>
> I am running a Dell 530 with Ubuntu 8.04.
> I can't believe that all of us are going to have to flash a BIOS update
> to upgrade to 8.10.
>
> What so you know that I don't?
> What problems did you encounter that have brought you to this point?
>
> HM
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen <cryptworks at gmail.com>
> Reply-To: Main PLUG discussion list
> <plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
> To: tshipley at deru.com, Main PLUG discussion list
> <plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
> Subject: Re: flash bios dos usb stick
> Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:58:37 -0700
>
> His issue is the bios update util is a dos based application so it
> needs to run in dos/windows/freedos.
>
> i know there are some tools that will take floppy boot images and
> reproduce them to usb devices turning it into a usb disk.. then you
> cna get a freedos boot image from bootdisk.com and move from there.
>
> On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 4:51 PM, Trent Shipley <tshipley at deru.com> wrote:
> > I am running Ubuntu 8.10 on a Dell Inspiron 530.
> >
> > Something in the last kernel upgrade really hosed the boot sequence.  I
> > figure I can't start complaining until I have an up-to-date BIOS.
> >
> > On Wednesday 2009-02-25, Lisa Kachold wrote:
> >> Are you set on Gentoo?  [Other's are a bit more powerful?]
> >> (Don't flame me, I have hand scripted gentoo builds [For AZWSX.COM] but
> >> it's not the most secure distro or best for a pendrive)!
> >>
> >> Here's a fast Ubuntu (I have used):
> >> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveUsbPendrivePersistent
> >>
> >> Here's a nice Knoppix USB:
> >> http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-knoppix-510/
> >>
> >>
> >> obnosis.com | wiki.obnosis.com| (503)754-4452
> >> PLUG HACKFESTS 2nd Saturday Each Month at Noon - 3PM
> >> Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:41:35 -0800
> >> From: trent_shipley at yahoo.com
> >> Subject: Re: flash bios dos usb stick
> >> To: plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I haven't even gotten to the moment of truth where I try to boot from
> >> the usb stick.  I still need to get MBR, vfat-16, Grub, and FreeDOS all
> >> loaded correctly.
> >>
> >> I actually did burn a CD, boot successfully into FreeDOS, and launch the
> >> Dell BIOS flash package.  Then the BIOS flasher crapped out complaining
> >> that it couldn't write back to a drive.  So I need to flash from a
> >> read-write medium.
> >>
> >> From: Stephen <cryptworks at gmail.com>
> >> To: tshipley at deru.com; Main PLUG
> >>  discussion list <plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
> >> Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 3:32:07 PM
> >> Subject: Re: flash bios dos usb stick
> >>
> >> I know this will depend on the bios i think and what order it places
> >> yoru USB devices compared to your Hard disk device.
> >>
> >> On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 9:56 PM, Trent Shipley <tshipley at deru.com> wrote:
> >> > I am trying to build a bootable DOS memory stick so that I can flash
> >> > my BIOS.
> >> >
> >> > The instructions (http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/FreeDOS_Flash_Drive)
> >> > say:
> >> >
> >> > And finally, you can install GRUB :
> >> > grub
> >> > grub> device (hd5) /dev/sdb
> >> > grub> root (hd5,0)
> >> > grub> setup
> >>
> >>  (hd5)
> >>
> >> > grub> quit
> >> > --------------------------
> >> > The line:  grub> device (hd5) /dev/sdb
> >> > is giving me trouble.
> >> >
> >> > I know that the stick is mounted at /dev/sdd  but I don't know how to
> >> > find the value that goes in the (hd5) part of the command.
> >> >
> >> > http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/grub_intro/
> >> > suggests
> >> >
> >> > # grub
> >> > grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
> >> >  (hd0,1)
> >> >  (hd2,0)
> >> >
> >> > followed by
> >> >
> >> > grub> find (hd2,0)/boot/im<TAB>
> >> > grub> find (hd2,0)/boot/images/
> >> >
> >> > but this has been decidedly unsuccessful.
> >> >
> >> >
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