how to update Bios on a Dell laptop [Solved]

[Lebarhon]

Hi,
I would like to update my BIOS because I have bugs with Mageia 7 tests and BIOS could be the reason.
It is a Dell Latitude laptop (2010) and Dell only provides an .exe file called D630_A17.EXE. For linux users, they say to create a bootable USB stick with Freedos using Unetbootin. The problem is that such a USB stick doesn't boot, I don't know why, it just doesn't boot, I tried on several systems. Other USB sticks with linux ISOs boot fine, but with freedos I just have a blinking cursor on the upper left corner, that's all.
Does anyone know a way to execute D630_A17.EXE on a laptop without Windows nor DOS, only Linux?
Thanks

https://www.dell.com/support/article/fr ... ts?lang=en

[doktor5000]

You could run it via wine, but not sure if writing to a device would actually work.

[xboxboy]

I have a XPS13 developer edition, 9333 IIRC. I had to update the bios, and I used freedos, I think....

Later I found out that being a UEFI system, I could have put the file in /boot/efi and booted from that or some other process.

Have you tried all the USB ports? Sometimes dells are a bit funny like that, so are bootable some aren't.

PS: Ah, just remembered.... How is mageia installed? UEFI?? If so, you'll probably need to change the boot process from UEFI to legacy???

[JoesCat]

Several of the PCs I maintain recognize a simple USB, and have built-in update as part of BIOS - no operating system required.

You will need to format the USB stick as FAT, or VFAT. and put the expanded BIOS bin file on a root directory.
Older PCs generally are better with small USB sticks like 100MB, and at most 2GB.
Some PCs require the entire USB stick to be formatted with no partitions, while more modern PCs are ok fine with partitioned USB, as long as one of them is FAT or VFAT.

Accessing BIOS might be a matter of using the right key combination.
During bootup, you may need to repeatedly press <DEL>, or <ESC>, or <F2>, or another key, and then at some point during the bios bootup, it will bring up your BIOS menus.
One of the BIOS menus allows you to update BIOS from a file loaded on a plain FAT/VFAT formatted USB.
Dell has a webpage describing this and says to repeatedly press <F2> as you power-up the PC.
https://www.dell.com/support/article/us ... es?lang=en

Some operating systems also lock the BIOS in a manner that you must power-up, login, then do a restart (your only access is to repeatedly press during reboot, no access on cold start).

[Lebarhon]

You could run it via wine, but not sure if writing to a device would actually work.

I tried and got an error message:
"An unexpected error occurred while running the Flash application. Please reboot and try again"

[Lebarhon]

I have a XPS13 developer edition, 9333 IIRC. I had to update the bios, and I used freedos, I think....

Later I found out that being a UEFI system, I could have put the file in /boot/efi and booted from that or some other process.

Have you tried all the USB ports? Sometimes dells are a bit funny like that, so are bootable some aren't.

PS: Ah, just remembered.... How is mageia installed? UEFI?? If so, you'll probably need to change the boot process from UEFI to legacy???

I tried all the USB ports, they are only two
It's a legacy Bios.

[Lebarhon]

You will need to format the USB stick as FAT, or VFAT. and put the expanded BIOS bin file on a root directory.
Older PCs generally are better with small USB sticks like 100MB, and at most 2GB.

Unfortunately, I have only USB sticks of 256MB, 8, 16 and 32 GB. 256MB is too small. I tried with a 8 GB stick and it failed.

Some PCs require the entire USB stick to be formatted with no partitions, while more modern PCs are ok fine with partitioned USB, as long as one of them is FAT or VFAT.

All my tests were with no partitions.

Accessing BIOS might be a matter of using the right key combination.
During bootup, you may need to repeatedly press <DEL>, or <ESC>, or <F2>, or another key, and then at some point during the bios bootup, it will bring up your BIOS menus.

The bios is configured to boot first on an USB stick, and it works with Mageia ISOs, not with Freedos. I also tried the keys F12 as explained by Dell and I get a menu with the boot option "USB storage device". So, I think the keys are working, Freedos or Unetbootin aren't.
I tried to create the USB stick with Isodumper, I get the message "No boot on USB sector" whereas with Unetbootin I only get the blinking cursor.

One of the BIOS menus allows you to update BIOS from a file loaded on a plain FAT/VFAT formatted USB.
Dell has a webpage describing this and says to repeatedly press <F2> as you power-up the PC.
https://www.dell.com/support/article/us ... es?lang=en

On my computer <F2> enters the Bios setup

Some operating systems also lock the BIOS in a manner that you must power-up, login, then do a restart (your only access is to repeatedly press during reboot, no access on cold start).

In my case, it doesn't change anything.
Thanks for your help.

[JoesCat]

I took a look at the Dell page, since it is *.EXE, you are limited to a DOS or Windows install.

On the Freedos website http://www.freedos.org/download/ you have a legacy CDROM FreeDOS 1.2 install.
You will need to have a modified version of the iso that includes your BIOS *.EXE file on the CD itself.

Download the iso, then mount it.
su
password
md /mnt/d
mount your_freedos_iso /mnt/d
ls -l /mnt/d
you should see the file system at this point, and be able to copy the exe into the root directory.
you will probably want to edit the autoexec.bat in the root directory and add "pause" somewhere before the installer, or insert "rem " or "remark " in front of the installer steps, but I think you might be able to <CTRL-C> the install process, so it's probably unnecessary. then:
umount /mnt/d
and create your freedos CDRom.
during the CDRom boot process, you should be able to <CTRL-C> break the process and see a DOS prompt. At this point, you can run the dell BIOS program.

Some EXEs will refuse to run from freedos - if this is the case, you'll probably need to make an msdos cdrom, google found this http://www.optimizingpc.com/install/bootcd.html

CDroms are read a little different from USB, and are a bit older tech.

The fact that you are able to boot a USB containing Mageia is a good sign, it means you can boot a USB stick. Mageia takes care of itself by loading appropriate drivers, but DOS, you would need to find drivers to get you past the black cursor problem. This may be a challenge.
I think Dell supplies install or recovery CDs - you may have to resort to installing/recovering a windows OS simply to run the BIOS update, but as you're installing Mageia 7, I'll guess you might not mind if you're doing a fresh install anyways.

[Lebarhon]

Download the iso, then mount it.
su
password
md /mnt/d
mount your_freedos_iso /mnt/d

I used the following command to mount the ISO file:
mount -o loop -t iso9660 /path/to/file/FD12CD.iso /mnt/d
The system answer is:
mount: /dev/loop0 is write protected, will be read only mounted
And indeed, it is not possible to add the .EXE file

[Lebarhon]

Here is what I did:

I burned a Cdrom with Freedos alone (no .EXE file) and it booted. I accepted to install Freedos on my HD, at the partition step, I cancelled the installation. Everything stopped and the system remained with a DOS prompt, A:>. I tested D:, it was the Cdrom, so I burned another one with D630_A17.EXE, and enter the command
D:>D630_A17.EXE
The system answered: "Are you ready to replace A17 bios by A17 bios? Y to accept"
I thought I won, but next comment was:
"The battery is too low, aborted"
Indeed the battery is low but I don't care because I always use this laptop at home, plugged, for backups and tests.
May be this funny method could some day help somebody, for myself I give up, thanks again for the help.

[JoesCat]

LOL - sooooo close.
...but to be fair about it...you continued where others would have given up, and you did "solve" this problem - it ran!

Thanks for sharing the solution.
& Good luck with your testing.