upgrading Dell bios and firmware??
 

Im trying to update firmware on my dvd-rom on my dell inspiron 8200.But Dell support only has a windows executable for this.I came up on this site googling dell firmware linux...
http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php...itory/firmware

I tried to use it but it gave me message........

Unable to determine that you are running an OS I know about.
Handled OSs include Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS,
Fedora Core and Novell SuSE Linux Enterprise Server and OpenSUSE,
and Ubuntu.

they haven't ported it to Debian yet..but is there away to trick it into thinking im using Ubuntu??I tried using wine to run firmware executable but it didnt do anything..

right now the dvd-rom wont read dvd +rw's..firmware update fixes that..I dont want to install windows xp just to update firmware on dvd-rom..i guess i could setup a partiton and install one of the supported linuxs..just seems like alot to just get dvd-rom to read dvd +rw's..just wondered if anyone else has had to tackle this problem ??

I hadn't realized this was only for specific distros (I still have Vista home on mine) - what about a Ubuntu liveCD ?.

I dont know if a live cd would work??to install the firmware from what i read..just like on windows it does it on reboot.i dont use live cds much..just to install with them..do they reboot and remember settings?

Nothing to do with the O/S once the re-boot initiates - must be a flag set somewhere in the BIOS itself. All the actual updating is done before you see the POST messages IIRC. Certainly before the bootloader is launched.

Can't see why a liveCD won't work - but (obviously) I haven't tried it yet.