WARNING!! There is windows in my.. BIOS!!!!
 

From my laptop's Bios download page

Now what the hell does a bios have to do anything with the OS installed??

Anyways ignoring this, I installed win xp, opensuse and all went fine. But since yesterday I have not been able to boot into anything coz the bios is suddenly asking for a password I never set! This happened ever since I attached usb-to-serial thing.

SO while trying to fing a solution for my problem I stumbled upon this 4 year old Article (which explains why such a problem probably arrived)

In short PHOENIX is making its bios specifically for one single OS! in this case its pis-sta :( :(

Avoid phoenix and ofcourse toshiba thats selling such laptops(crippled to work only with one OS).

EDIT: and for linux sake please Digg this

Edit2: Boy this got dugges!! Thanks all

TO clear some points:
1. I did NOT flash my bios. I am not a stupid lonely kid playing around with a 'toy'.
2. I did not set any power-on, super-user or bios password.
3. PROOF : In this thread there is another person with the same problem (who had to send it to toshiba for repair). If you google
around you will find more.
4. I never said ALL-phoenix bios have the problem.

Thats bloody crazy man...I wonder if there's a way out of that mess.

I'll stay away from Phoenix

no point getting on people like them without getting the boss first ...


//ok ... lets go ...

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Indeed that REALLY sucks :scratch: but if you want a suggestion as to what to do, here's two or three:
1 - look up your BIOS all over Google, locate the assortment of default admin passwords used by phoenix BIOS's, and try them all to get in.
2 - Failing that, clear your CMOS memory to reset the BIOS, and install your own password upon reboot.
3 - Flash the BIOS to a previous version for your motherboard & chipset, preferably a version from the 'pre-vista-microsoft-monopoly-B.S.-era' :)

So you chose to ignore the warning, and now you're complaining that it's broken? :rolleyes:

I know that the BIOS shouldn't be able to dictate which OS you use, but apparently this one does. Flash your old BIOS back in and be happy.

Unfortunately, Toshiba and Phoenix can install/sell/write any kind of BIOS they want---noone is required to sell computers with any particular kind of BIOS. This said, there is no harm in contacting Toshiba to voice your concerns.

Will Dell come through on it's promise to sell Linux systems?? This will help.

And there are several vendors selling Linux laptops.

AND--isn't there a Linux BIOS project?

Ouch...

It seems like someone at Microsoft is feeling a little insecure. :D
I think they've realised their future isn't looking to pretty at the moment, IMNSHO.

Edit:
Pixellany: Yes, there is a Linux BIOS project.

link: http://linuxbios.org/index.php/Main_Page

Actually there are tons of articles on the net about this. (Google "phoenix bios" vista). Here's one that explains how proud Phoenix is of this new funtionality. I would contact the Phoenix bios people and ask if that feature can be bypassed by people who wish to run other OSes.

If it does indeed render computers unable to run other OSes, I wonder what the folks who said TPM was no problem in this thread think now.

Yup, there is, but it isn't quite as "widely compatible" with machines in general as are the standard BIOSes. By Googling 'Linux BIOS Project' one can read all about it, and see the motherboards and chipsets it is available for. The selection is a relatively small portion of what's out there.

well you have a point there, but tell me is it possible to 'tolerate' vista for long?. Besides there are plenty of ppl on notebook forums who have and use xp on this.
And most importantly I am not complaining (that I will do in grand fashion) but informing ;).

I tried to read this article but my eyes hurt too much.

However, I can just imagine Phoenix's response to Linux users: 'w3 pwnd j00!'

Hmmm this is Evil but not surprising. Microsoft is famous for playing Dirty.

We recently bought 6 Dell servers w/ the RHEL AS4.x license. The OS was not pre-loaded, but that is how we asked for it, so no complaints about that.

Why create Bios that will only support one OS. Sure seems like backward thinking to me. :confused:

This is interesting. My notebook is an HP, and the bios is a Phoenix bios, and on the notebook it is marked as Vista capable, however I am happily dual booting XP and Slackware with it, and I have not encountered such problems about suddenly being locked out, and so far the only issues I have under Linux with this particular bios right now is just getting ACPI and APM to work correctly, but other than that, no problems.

[edit]

I should also point out that LILO is the default loader as well.

@ Jeebiz, :) For the time being at least, I guess 'Vista Capable' and 'Vista Limited' are still two different things :)

A suggestion, regarding your ACPI/APM : I believe (not 100% certain) you only need one of them. They work to the same end, but ACPI is the newer way of doing things.

I think that, at the moment, you have to actually flash the bios to get the functionality described.

Well I have flashed my bios to the latest version, F.28 see this link http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...842155&lang=en
and scroll down to the bios part. I could already shutdown the notebook with even the original version, my only problem is trying to get linux to know when I am on battery vs. being plugged in, plus trying to get gkrellm to correctly display the status of the battery when I am running on battery, plus having the processor being toggled (using AMD PowerNow!) which I have compiled as a module.

They can't write a secure OS so now they expect the BIOS vendors and board manufacturers to do their jobs.

Hard to tell the similarities of your laptop bios to that of the OP since it's different companies and architectures.

Off topic for the post, but possibly of interest to you, there are known issues with that laptop and kernel 2.6.18 related to acpi. I don't know if the problem also affects 2.6.17 kernels. On Debian, at least, the only solution is to move to a kernel > 2.6.19

Thats true, plus also HP does offer Linux products, though their notebooks I have seen are windows, the only alternative they offer is FreeDos but not linux. I hope maybe one day they will also give out information on how to get the media buttons to work under linux, but thats another post. Going back on topic, I think it might be a little different with hp/phoenix, but I don't know, I really wouldn't know why my notebook does not suffer from the same restrictions as the OP's, because my notebook was purchased back in Sept of 06, therefore it would have had to be subject to the same restrictions, but it is not, hrmm. :scratch:

To comment strictly on this post, Microsoft has not like BIOS for some time. It's the one bit of software on a PC they didn't write, and they have activly been trying to kill it for a while now.

Concerning the Linux BIOS project, from what I have seen, it was written specifically for a machine running Linux. While the code may be GPLed, I don't see too much difference in the idea from what Microsoft and Phoenix are doing.

The only thing I have seen to replace BIOS that advertises as being neutral is UEFI. The idea is an open standard with source available for one potental implemenation at Tianocore.org. It has its problems, but because of the way it is being developed, the community can help shape it rather than have everything dictated by Microsoft.

Jeebiz - I have the Compaq (R4000) version of that same laptop. I have trouble with the bios period, sometimes when you boot the screen is darker like you are running on the battery even tho it is plugged in yet other times it is at its normal brightness.

I started out trying to run the amd64 flavor of Debian and had clock issues (which has been fixed), I do not think HP will ever correctly fix the bios.

hello!!
 

did anyone READ the post? this guy just said win xp and opensuse booted fine with the new bios.... the actual problem is a BIOS password, that appeared the next day... probably the default password set from the factory! go look it up on their site. they are just not guaranteeing the BIOS to work with non-vista systems since they probably havent tested it with any of them, why dont we wait until boy wonder here figures out his BIOS password before the entire internet decides every computer on earth is going to be vista-only.

ok let me say it again in different words for those who still dont get it, he installed a BIOS, it booted windows xp and opensuse.... ok? you read that right? if it was vista only, why would it boot them? ok, then the NEXT DAY, it asked him for a password, which he thinks had to do with connecting a USB device. ok, so any of you want to explain to me how a USB device sets a password on your system? ok i didn't think so, now maybe you can explain why a manufacturer would make a BIOS that said it was for vista only, worked with every other OS, and then was carefully programmed to detect that it had been installed for a day, and block access to the system by asking for a password? or would it be safer to assume this person is technically inept, has no idea what they're doing, and this post got blown way out of proportion?

Go open hardware! There are open-source-friendly manufacturers, we need to buy their stuff and boycott evil manufacturers!

Phoenix BIOS - Broken Input/Output System

I wonder if setting the password at the very first boot would have overridden that defect in the Phoenix BIOS. Also, if this defect comes from an extension ROM, it may not be something that can be repaired via flashing.

Oh well, maybe this is good news for AMI. I won't buy anything with Phoenix anymore.

Why has nobody suggested yet that you should return your laptop immediately and complain about its crippled functionality and that (hopefully) this was not clearly advertised when you bought it? If you keep the laptop and work around the problem, you're putting money in the pocket of the BIOS maker, Microsoft and the laptop maker, encouraging them to to continue developing BIOSs like this.

I read the description of the BIOS update on the Toshiba page. The "Vista Only" comment probably has something to do with the BIOS ACPI code (also called ASL/AML).

The ACPI code from the BIOS is actually interpreted/executed by the Operating System at runtime. Different operating systems all have their own differences when it comes to implementing ACPI.

Windows Vista expands its ACPI support over previous Windows versions. It adds supports for ACPI 3.0, among other things. Most likely, the Toshiba BIOS uses some ACPI objects that are only supported in Vista. Hence, the comment that this BIOS is "Vista only".

What does this really mean? It means you are probably ok to run this BIOS on previous versions of Windows, however some ACPI-based features (power management, lid closing, special keyboard buttons, etc) may not work properly.

Likewise, you are probably OK to run it on Linux, but some ACPI things may not work properly. If there are some ACPI objects in your BIOS that are unrecognized by the Linux ACPI engine, they will probably be listed in dmesg.

The Linux/ACPI project aims for full ACPI support in the Linux kernel, so if you find something that doesn't work, I recommend you tell them about it.

Of course, if you don't use any power management on your system, this may all be a moot point.

P.S. The Phoenix-Microsoft partnership information you found is a red herring. Phoenix itself does nothing to restrict their firmware to the Windows platform. The issue at hand is Toshiba's specific BIOS implementation. They may have started by licensing the BIOS code from Phoenix, but things specific to the Toshiba platform were (most likely) implemented by Toshiba.

if the whole bios of a computer is easily available to the computer users like they are just normal application softwares that can be executed on the users desktop , they edit , save and reboot(ok , maybe not this one if in linux) ... that would be fun for everyone ... i can(or know how to) use your thing but you cant(or donno how to) use mine ... ^_^


//.2 cents ...

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[OT ::] hmm ... a bit like record breaking for the counts ...


.

chessonly, you are in the news ;).
http://www.itavisen.no/php/art.php?id=376634

As the author of the quoted news piece
 

As the author of the four-year-old piece that chessonly quotes, I felt a need to respond considering the attention this post has had.

http://www.networkcomputing.com/blog...g_to_conc.html


I have discussed chessonly's problems with Phoenix and my thoughts are contained in the blog post above.


chessonly, if you are still having problems, I would be willing to try and help you out. Please feel free to email me.




Steven J. Schuchart Jr.
Managing Technology Editor
Network Computing Magazine
sschuchart@nwc.com

Thanks for the update Sjschuchart. I just saw this on Digg and was going to post a link to your article, but you beat me to it.

--jeremy
http://jeremy.linuxquestions.org/

Before you go raising flags against Phoenix for their bios, let me explain a few things since I worked with them directly during the Pentium 4 ramp up prior to launch.

They make the core bios, but it is like a building block. The vendors make additional changes to their bios specific to their machines. Blaming them for these issues is completely without warrant, as their bios is in far more systems than just Toshiba, and they work fine with Linux. It's like blaming Intel's Centrino for your built in webcam not working.

Now there is room to blame Toshiba, and Microsoft directly. This link has information on the acpi code in Toshibas that is specific to Windows.

Congratulations, chessonly, you got slashdotted as well. If this was a troll, it has been quite successful indeed.

I didn't see anyone else post a link to it but there is also openbios as well,
http://openbios.info/Welcome_to_OpenBIOS

You've had a follow up from the author of that original article you quoted chessonly:

http://www.networkcomputing.com/blog...conc.html#more

Can you believe the arrogance?:mad:

I've had problems with HP/Compaq laptops too, but NEVER with my Toshiba.

Makes me wonder if this is really an anti-Windows troll or an anti-Toshiba troll... anyway.

http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/toshiba.html

You got to be joking right?
The OP is having trouble with a BIOS that Phoenix also says works only with Vista and you are labeling him a troll?

"It's like deja-vu all over again" -- Yogi Berra

No, really, I was quite serious.

The OP said he ignored the warning and successfully installed both XP and openSUSE anyway. So what's the conspiracy exactly? To make everyone upgrade to Vista?

I guess we learned a BIOS can be tweaked to boot one OS faster than another. That's really all there is to see here. But just in case you want to boot Linux in 3 seconds:
http://www.linuxbios.org/Welcome_to_LinuxBIOS
http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/supportlinuxbios.html

NOTE: The above BIOS isn't designed for Windows -- it's a vast OSS conspiracy. :rolleyes:

>> "Makes me wonder if this is really an anti-Windows troll or an anti-Toshiba troll... anyway."

wait until you see consumers marching for their rights ... that would really amuse you forever ...


//like they got nothing better to do ... ^_^

.

LOL
1.tell me something, On a new laptop, do you check the bios page of the manufacturer before installing a new OS to see if the OS you are going to install is compatible with the bios?? NO!
2. I didn't get the warning before hand. First I installed XP, then I got the error , and then I discovered this vista only crap.
Got it?

I am replying to this coz I got yet another 'me too' email from a forum member.

Toshiba rulez cuz...

I'm surprised you got any responses at all. A mysterious BIOS password caused by connecting a USB-to-serial thingy that you suspect has something to do with Toshiba's Vista-tweaked BIOS. :rolleyes:

Personally, I suspect it has something to do with the alignment of the planets. I know that's not logical either, you'll just have to have faith and believe it anyway. :p

EDIT: Come on, tell us the real story... Toshiba screwed you out of a rebate or something, right?

This is . . .stupid.

Do I think Microsoft has some dirty tricks up its sleeve? Yes.
Do I think Microsoft would love for a BIOS to lock out any other operating systems than their own? Yes.
Do I think BIOS manufacturers would enjoy the resulting legal and financial trouble? No.

I'd personally be more concerned about TCPA/TCG devices themselves than a system BIOS simply programmed with features for the use of one operating system or another. If you think about it, even the features like "Wake on LAN" have to interact with your system somehow. Its possible that as one poster said, you simply set a password one night while you were half asleep, and then forgot it.

try to tack it back to the store you got it from and get your money back .
as a comsumer this is the loudest statment you can make
or if you can't tack it back send it to the factory
with the bitch that vis-stool is un useable and you want XP to replace it

i think we should use vista and leave xp for everyone else ... be a responsible good citizen ...


//ok ... ^_^


.

Going back off topic, take a look at this forum post:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=19860

also Google : enable special keys linux

Who is CRITO? He/She has no desire to advance the discourse. Mean spirited diatribes do not do anyone any good save cast doubts on other posters and waste our time. Who writes CRITO's check at the end of the month? Do we have to tolerate nasty little people in this forum? Go away CRITO.

Coupla things here. This thread was revived after being dead for almost a year. I suspect that lack of oxygen would render this thread unable to function even if we pump air into it.

Shortly after the offending post Crito posted and then never posted again.

If you are going to insult members who've been here a while, at last stay current eh?

Closed to prevent a zombie outbreak from engulfing us all.