Updating BIOS from a USB
 

Okay.

I'm now getting fabulously clean boots after having done the pen-drive trick with the SimplyMEPIS iso that I've got.

The next issue is: my BIOS is WAY out of date, and since I want to be doing stuff with Kismet with my wifi-card working in RFMON (hardware-details here), I need to flash and upgrade the BIOS. I also need to do this so I can complete backing up my system before I do a partition and install because my DVD-drive has largely forgotten how to read and write.

I got over one hurdle I'd been having, but the issue now when I try to execute from Windows is the blocky commandline-text GUI tells me "Cannot flash if memory managers (e.g. EMM386) present." Booting into Linux also does me no good because MEPIS will not run the .exe, or the .bat (which, just calls the exe with a few different args) and does not know how to interpret the WPH-file which is the actual meat and bones of the new information that needs to be loaded. I remember reading somewhere along the way that a WPH can be run if I do some hex-editing but I don't think this simplyMEPIS distro has the right tool pre-installed.
I'm not sure whether the same 'memory management'-problem would be caused by a live USB-boot of Linux or not.

Do I need to download a distro that has DOSBox preinstalled in the live version, or is there something to doing the hex editing?

Because of the way XP is configured, there's no way to get to the command prompt before the shell is loaded -- startup-scripts are only enabled post-logon, and XP no longer supports an old ME-option called RunServicesOnce, which apparently can run stuff before logon.

Short of installing Windows 98 to get a non-memory managed cpl, what are my options?
Will a live version of SimplyMepis interfere with the BIOS-flash, or would it be managing different memory than the complaint is about? If Linux can do the flash for me then do I need a new distro-iso so I can run the exe, or can I install programs directly to the flash somehow and have them show up "pre-installed" on live boot? Or is there a surefire way to edit the WPH so the BIOS can get updated without having to wait for that?

Please help.
Thanks.

There are many ways to flash the BIOS, many of them quite risky. Maybe you should post what motherboard you have, that may help in deciding what is the best way.

Copied and pasted from my start-thread:

video:
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT (not integrated)
Processor:
Core2 Duo T9400 @ 2.53GHz
Chipset:
Mobile Intel® PM45 Express Chipset
I/O Controllers:
Intel(R) 82801IMB Intel(R) I/O Controller Hub (ICH9M-B) SATA Controller found in IDE mode
Mobile Intel® 82PM45 Memory Controller Hub (MCH)
wireless card:
Intel WiFi Link 5300 AGN

Hi,

Take a look at 'Flashrom' & 'Universal BIOS Flash programmer for Linux, BSD and more'.

:hattip:

Well, I don't think flashrom or coreboot will work. So where did you get this BIOS you need to flash ? Is it for DOS or Window$ ? If it's for DOS, you may want to use a boot disk or some other bootable media with some version of DOS on it and the BIOS you need to flash. If it's Window$, you should extract the BIOS file that you need to flash, and make a DOS boot disk for flashing it. I think it's very unsafe to flash BIOS using Window$ or wine.

I know with my mobo, the site where I download the BIOS from Intel has a bootable DOS CD ready made, so you just burn it and flash, with my other mobo, Gigabyte has a boot option to boot into DOS and flash a BIOS from another media even USB. So it really does depend a lot on the mobo manufacturer, but even so, you should be able to do it with a DOS boot disk.

Hi,

Your right, I didn't realize this was for a laptop.

The OP should look at the manufactures Update utilities.

Okay. Here's what the manufacturer's site provides, incase you think I'm dumb for not seeing a utility anywhere.

http://www.ibuypower.com/Support/Driver.aspx

What IBP calls "CZ9-Ultra" which is the same as "HL-90" which is what it says on the bottom of my machine under "model#." Feel free to wander around the tree as I did, looking for an easy approach. There is really just the one file that's there. Basically the simple upgrade program can't be run with my current OS running at the same time.

There's also a utility that runs under Windows XP just fine, but all that it does is update the /drivers/ that the chipset uses to interface with the various devices. Nothing significant changed after I restarted after installing that. Does anyone know of a working and available utility that will just let me get a (say) Win95 prompt to show up off of a USB-drive? Or is there a way to just get the BIOS to just /run/ the executable?

Then I could boot to the drive, flash, and then change my USB-drive back to its former self.

Suggestions, please. I'm no expert at this stuff.

Alright. I got it.

I used this fabulous walkthrough here to get a simple DOS USB and it worked like a charm.

On to my next question (about backups) in a new thread.

Hi,

Please mark the post as Solved via the Thread Tools.