BIOS update via USB fob using KNOPPIX?

[Louis Kowolowski]

On Oct 1, 2010, at 11:23 AM, David Wolfskill wrote:

> * PGP Signed: 10/1/10 at 11:23:31 AM
> 
> While I admit that I prefer to use FreeBSD for a computing environment,
> I'll willingly grant that KNOPPIX is a very useful set of tools.
> 
> Thanks to a colleague, I have replaced my "Frankenlaptop".  The new machine
> is ... well, pretty amazing:
> 
> * It has a screen with a resolution of 1920x1200.
> * It has enough computing resources to build FreeeBSD head (while
>  running stable/8) in about 2 hours, from an empty /usr/obj.
> * Each set of mouse buttons is composed of 3 buttons, and the middle one
>  is detected by X.org as "button 2".
> * It has a metal (vs. plastic) shell.
> * Dell actually supports (some version of) Linux on the thing.
> 
> However, it is running a down-level BIOS -- A19, vs. the current A23.
> 
> And upgrading the BIOS on my work desktop resolved a somewhat-similar
> issue: the machine would sometimes hang on boot during the kernel
> probes.
> 
> There are some notable differences, but I suspect that upgrading the
> BIOS would be a Good Thing.
> 
> I'm wondering if it might be feasible to update the BIOS by placing the
> Linux version of the BIOS updater on (say) a USB flash drive, booting
> the laptop from a KNOPPIX cd, and trying to execute the BIOS updater
> from that environment...?
> 
> I think the flavor of Linux Dell supports is Red Hat.  And I'm pretty
> clueless about potential modes of failure -- and I'd really prefer to
> avoid them, whatever they may be!
> 
> If the above is not feasible or too risky, what other alternatives might
> I have, given that I do not have Microsoft media (nor do I know how to
> actually do anything intentional with such things).
> 
If Dell actually provides a BIOS updater to run in Linux, I suspect it's not any more dangerous than a Windows version.
I think the method you outlined of booting knoppix and providing the BIOS update via flash sounds quite reasonable.

The only modes of failure I think of are that it would fail to properly write the new BIOS and you would end up with an unbootable system (at which point you send it back to Dell and point out that the box doesn't boot properly).


--
Louis Kowolowski                                louisk at cryptomonkeys.org
Cryptomonkeys:                      http://www.cryptomonkeys.org/~louisk

Making life more interesting for people since 1977