Flash MSI G31M3-L V2 motherboard

jonaskellens · 12-01-2009, 09:26 AM

Is it at all possible to flash the bios when running CentOS or any other linux-distro ?

In my case I have an MSI G31M3-L V2 and running CentOS 5.3. I would update the BIOS so that it has support for Xen.

The downloaded zip contains :

Code:

-rw-rw-r-- 1 jonas jonas    798 2009-10-01 16:04 7529v2x.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jonas jonas 524288 2009-09-25 13:21 A7529IMS.260
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jonas jonas 150096 2009-05-12 13:56 AFUD4310.EXE
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jonas jonas  55296 2008-10-08 11:45 How to flash the BIOS.DOC

With unetbootin I have created a bootable FreeDOS usb-stick. It looks like this :

Code:

[jonas@jonas BiosFlash]$ ls -al
total 1988
drwxr-xr-x 4 jonas root   16384 1970-01-01 01:00 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 root  root    4096 2009-12-01 16:09 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 jonas root   65536 2009-12-01 15:56 7529v26
-r-xr-xr-x 1 jonas root   11579 2009-12-01 15:40 ldlinux.sys
-rwxr-xr-x 1 jonas root     149 2009-12-01 15:40 syslinux.cfg
drwxr-xr-x 4 jonas root   65536 2009-12-01 15:59 .Trash-500
-rwxr-xr-x 1 jonas root 1474560 2009-12-01 15:40 ubninit
-rwxr-xr-x 1 jonas root   20068 2009-12-01 15:40 ubnkern
-rwxr-xr-x 1 jonas root  128364 2009-12-01 15:40 vesamenu.c32

But when booting from USB the 7529v26 is nowhere to be found and so I can not use the flash-utility.

thorkelljarl · 12-01-2009, 10:14 AM

I looked...

I did a quick search of the MSI site for this motherboard, and it seems that you can use either a floppy drive or a USB flash to update the BIOS. Flashing does not seem to require a Windows installation, but the details are something you must find and decide upon yourself.

I read the .doc that is included in the BIOS download as a basis for my post, but I always fear that a readme like that is a standard or obsolete guide, and may only lead to trouble. I would google hard for information from someone who has preformed a good update before I tried it on my own.

On my Gigabyte motherboard the BIOS may be flashed using a USB flash, but the USB flash must contain nothing but the BIOS and its program; no other files, no U3, no copy protection, no whatever else. U3 may not be removed by formatting and may require removal using a special utility program under Windows. This might be necessary good practice with MSI as well.

GrapefruiTgirl · 12-01-2009, 10:24 AM

While there *are* or *have been* methods of flashing BIOSs from within Linux, I'm not sure if there's currently a "known" safe, reliable way.

Luckily, MSI makes it not need Windows to do it, but you DO need to boot into DOS to be able to run the flasher on the floppy. I use the floppy method for my MSI board(s), by booting up DOS 6 first.

Not sure exactly what's happening with your USB situation there; but if all else fails, Google for "MSI emergency BIOS recovery" or check the documents that came with your BIOS download, for the method(s) available for you to force your system to flash the BIOS on its own at startup. (NOTE: this is not the recommended way to flash the BIOS.) Generally it involves putting the .ROM image on a floppy or USB device & booting the machine while pressing certain keys (CTRL-HOME on my MS7350-010 board).

Cheers,
Sasha

jonaskellens · 12-01-2009, 10:33 AM

Code:

3. Extract the BIOS-archive that you have downloaded by double clicking to bootable USB device.

4. Boot your system from a USB device

5. When you get the DOS prompt, type the following sequence:
(assuming USB Flash drive uses F:/ (F Prompt)
F:>cd<space> XXXXVXX(document name) <enter>
F:\XXXXVXX>afud4234<space>AXXXXIMS.XXX(bios name) <enter>

6. Reboot your system when prompted

How could I get a DOS-prompt by just copying the files from the zip-file onto an USB-stick ??