How broken would my laptop become if i used WINE to update BIOS?
 

Hi all,

I have a Toshiba L300 Laptop using the Insyde H20 BIOS, and i would like to update it, to get all the cool stuff working, like a fan that turns off etc. my question is: is it possible to run the bios update .exe from within wine to updgrade the bios or will that break the laptop?

regards

james

Well it depends, if it executes properly under wine then it could upgrade your BIOS without issue. However, seeing as Wine was created by reverse engineering, not everything designed to run in Windows runs perfectly in Wine, and some applications that appear to work ok still spit out errors from time to time. I would strongly advise against doing this, the last thing you want is for it to do something to your BIOS and then have Wine crap out while it's trying to do something. You could end up with an unusable computer. Some PC manufacturers make bootable discs where you just boot from the CD and use that to update your BIOS. If nothing else, make a BartPE disc and slap the .exe on there, and use BartPE to run it. That would be a lot safer for something this sensitive.

That would require a copy of Windows, though.

As WINE is all or nothing, it is too big a risk...

This is a Satellite L300 and Toshiba says the only way to flash the BIOS is in Windows? Isn't that a convenience?

You might try to flash the BIOS using WINE, but the consequences of a failure in the process are dire: no POST, no hope, new laptop.

There is probably no floppy drive, but your Tosh will probably boot from a CD. You might try this, or at least consider it and google further in that direction.

http://www.linuxinsight.com/how-to-f...ppy-drive.html

However, were it my problem, I would try to use FreeDos on a bootable USB flash drive, put the BIOS .exe file on it and run the .exe with dos from there. This .exe might well contain both the BIOS and a flashing utility which fold themselves out and are then executed. I would feel better working from a writable drive than a CD. I could test that the USB boots and practice with dos with an .exe file, a Windows driver file for example, before trying the flash.

Here is one of many products of google. I suggest you search much further.

http://jeremy.visser.name/2007/09/24...rive-in-linux/

All of this assumes that there should be no problem in running the BIOS .exe file under dos, that is that what goes on under Windows is the same as would happen were the .exe file on a floppy. Toshiba may give you some information about that. It would be something I would search diligently to ascertain before I ran the BIOS .exe file.

Very Good Luck This information is of course to be acted upon at one's own risk.

You can also use the system rescue cd for the purpose.

A link to the bios update in question?

If it will run in M$-windows only, then ask support for a DOS compatible file

Maybe a better idea...

I might just vote for BartPE if you can burn a system rescue CD or borrow an installation CD somewhere. This system was sold with Windows installed, was it not? You may therefore use any physical copy of the Windows licensed for the machine to make a BartPE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFoHP111Km4

And...

You can download the newly released Windows 7 RC and try that either installed or as a basis for a BartPe CD.

My recommendation: do NOT use wine to update your BIOS, you may brick your laptop. Brick = this is what your laptop will become, a brick ... with the exact same amount of interactivity.

Please post a link to exact model and preferably to the BIOS download itself so we can look at it. There is usually a better way.

A USB version of system rescue cd can be made:
http://www.sysresccd.org/Sysresccd-m...n_an_USB-stick

If you have an old copy of DOS, use that. If not, use freedos: http://www.freedos.org/. However, do not use wine.

Dear all

I am amazed and enlightened by the huge response to my question - i never thought i'd get this much attention (shows how good this forum is). thankyou for all your information, dos and donts and the dont-do-it-even-if-your-dyings :P
If i put the bios update .exe on a flash drive and booted from XP Home recovery disc, would that work? if not ill have a go at freedos

regards

james

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=489192 has a number of links for flashing the BIOS.