Is there an app to read the BIOS string, manufacturer, version etc.?

Or is it available for viewing in a conf file or elsewhere?

I've tried to load xcpuid (http://www.traumatic.de/pphlogger/dl...ds/xcpu30g.zip)
but don't know enough about running scripts to make it work.

The reason for the request is to copy the strings to allow a BIOS upgrade, without pausing at the boot screen and transcribing into a search engine.

Any help appreciated.

Some distros have dmidecode available which can provide information like;

$ sudo dmidecode
# dmidecode 2.8
SMBIOS 2.31 present.
24 structures occupying 1026 bytes.
Table at 0x37EFB000.

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 20 bytes
BIOS Information
Vendor: Acer
Version: 3A32
Release Date: 02/20/06
Address: 0xE6880
Runtime Size: 104320 bytes
ROM Size: 512 kB
Characteristics:
ISA is supported
PCI is supported
PC Card (PCMCIA) is supported
PNP is supported
BIOS is upgradeable
BIOS shadowing is allowed
ESCD support is available
Boot from CD is supported
ACPI is supported
USB legacy is supported
Smart battery is supported
BIOS boot specification is supported

<snip>

It would be helpful if you would edit your profile and provide the information on which Linux you are using.

http://freshmeat.net/projects/dmidecode/

That dmidecode is sweet. I had also been wondering if there was a way in Linux to read the CMOS. Dmidecode does the trick!

Thanks for that.

Here's my system's response

# dmidecode 2.7
# No SMBBIOS or DMI entry found, sorry.

This happens... maybe something about your system's BIOS not all systems can be probed by dmidecode. Maybe visiting the motherboard manufacturers site will provide help.