Currently using Ubuntu 6.10 just wondering with the new linux kernels is a bios upgrade necessary or even needed? If so, how would you upgrade now that I've loaded linux on the computer? Thanks!

I don't usually update the bios unless something isn't working and it's clearly a bios fault (like the onboard RAID isn't working or an old box that couldn't boot from CD without a BIOS update).

Having said that, some motherboard manufacturers have started providing linux bios updates. Other times, I've had to create the bios update disk on a friend's windows machine. The ones that must be run from within windows have never worked for me, though it wouldn't surprise me if someone figured out how to make it run on FreeDOS or a BartPE environment.

No BIOS update is needed unless, as pljvaldez said, you need an added BIOS feature. I updated a couple years for large drive support (>137GB). My board mgf (MSI) provides a floppy based updater using, I think, FreeDos.