From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Fri Feb 7 05:45:39 2020 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.nyi.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.nyi.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 575A8243AF8 for ; Fri, 7 Feb 2020 05:45:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mout.kundenserver.de (mout.kundenserver.de [212.227.17.13]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "mout.kundenserver.de", Issuer "TeleSec ServerPass Class 2 CA" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 48DPR707GWz48B2 for ; Fri, 7 Feb 2020 05:45:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from r56.edvax.de ([178.5.233.131]) by mrelayeu.kundenserver.de (mreue106 [212.227.15.183]) with ESMTPA (Nemesis) id 1MTzKW-1j9Bsw3YGI-00R0fw for ; Fri, 07 Feb 2020 06:45:37 +0100 Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2020 06:45:36 +0100 From: Polytropon To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Updating BIOS Message-Id: <20200207064536.8ffbb914.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20200206142137.40c130c8@scorpio> References: <20200206085845.7095d5af@scorpio> <20200206142137.40c130c8@scorpio> Reply-To: Polytropon Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Provags-ID: V03:K1:Hsj4iG+KYfWnMIUneUTitvV00HFQ9VN6nMSLMmVq39G4tXz0Ls1 75/dLDfqsREiPUGzgLGoLiPdKrUI1ryrP+YVgB0Wk4uZ3cazZvFEwg1L7+pSJ2Sb8ujSfnI Ij7gfdMKEkSfyvarVs1YirID3hX0aKysJzMODe5AM/bh527SpqbwR1ZELQ8/vUXUcmK2RUP 8efUpmg/USomUkDIOuEEw== X-Spam-Flag: NO X-UI-Out-Filterresults: notjunk:1;V03:K0:P1i2AtFLMX4=:EdR0TS68zpVyJkAfslBCTK LyZQxcizGsg9jxEhw6556CWSWeaj8iw56Q6ZEYwBBVBZOUzhmyMxoWAjpkPqnXbONhFIhb0Fs xEjWrY/eQ25mA90KOtjb3qtw7u10czIgRgqJNv7B5Mvc5zxqVyxAF/Cvw0s0CL/Rom/iKfGj0 rYcJmjUqD3HZWBEjxWLE/by1s+mU1+xD+saSKaUcPiKLzIo04i74Wi7fhPp64hyXp80gLze3d tLbI//IMY7G+1n0uv88vKkhbUsTiEr64k1FFvWFVudpMFEg79GwXBEso9l2DdPeB74EaxtHZi dyFGM0Tywb222y9MutqfsYn6cOubAIPtS3OJhz5AyT4h9OTb9f8jfKp7sq73QMYSUIKoRFfJb Kqko6VqwP09VxYJp6Tgr5+UEj7rk0eXl/lQu6qrWpB+q13AJUWFGX1y0trRguK7gzVzaSna5S uW9lFWn5w2rphfk4i/ZgmdVvUXTH15l+/30pkHnFMMe+PVvRuHqR24YGj386cjwwJQLtRfkQT eSz3XKSkN94Aq7Hda5fkCW4oKOdBr/OYtjio/+Ctov7BknUFIznny9L1MNYnb4VkVtd6mE0zq LRYH4txh6hEbRXZLTqJj7p+xcEYOLlbY/GMOqp97T/1k/0L/yB3axcmRd1Bj6slh1jRNCNb0g 9qsuoq3efaAUPrHRYtOVgF7yitRLc75L1I6ufNapsJZA3EHPnkpPWNdo7ZAn24fal1meGi9NI MwlDstoyA0SdvgHFiDwzagaDguAZS7RVSx9O4LY+2rZM7plcDDhMzLd2dZTRp7NxGwZT9HWT1 ElUTHzAPJU6ROCWpLhniiXWZcgbibYfOYlFQD3K0RQ+X9iYzGz3Iqh1RQnk8YBqoWxTY/EE X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: 48DPR707GWz48B2 X-Spamd-Bar: ----- Authentication-Results: mx1.freebsd.org; none X-Spamd-Result: default: False [-6.00 / 15.00]; NEURAL_HAM_MEDIUM(-1.00)[-0.997,0]; REPLY(-4.00)[]; NEURAL_HAM_LONG(-1.00)[-1.000,0] X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2020 05:45:39 -0000 On Thu, 6 Feb 2020 14:21:37 -0500, Jerry wrote: > On Thu, 6 Feb 2020 06:10:28 -0800, Martin Glazer stated: > >I use a program called truedos it's freeware it boots from a USB > >drive. I put the updated bios from Dell onto the USB drive and book > >the computer from it. And just execute the bios update from there. > > I never found that program; however, I did find FreeDOS, which I have > used in the past. In any case, it turns out I didn't need any of those > applications. Apparently Dell has updated the way a BIOS is updated. I > simple needed to clean and format a USB device -- fat 32 seems to be > what is required and then place the BIOS update program downloaded from > Dell onto the stick. Reboot and press F12. A screen comes up and one of > the options is to FLASH the BIOS. I chose that options. At this point > the mouse becomes inoperative. A screen appears and the name of the > file I placed on the USB stick is shown. Using the TAB key, I highlight > that file and then move to the INSTALL option. Everything is automated > from that point on. > > I wish all of my systems were that easy to update. This sounds complicated and not very automated... On older systems, it was sufficient to run the installation batch file provided by the vendor; it would format a floppy disk and copy all neccessary files to it. Next (and only) thing you did was to reboot your system with the disk in the drive, which typically (except you changed some defaults) it would boot from the floppy, run a specific file which in turn loads the flashing program with the correct image file, and after that was done, it asked you to remove the floppy disk and reboot. I don't know if this approach has been "re-tuned" to work flawlessly with USB media, but according to what procedures and complicated instructions you can find across the Internet, the times of easy and automated updates are over. Of course, updating BIOS / UEFI data from a running instance of your primary operating system, from an unprivileged user account, sourced directly from the Internet, would definitely be very convenient, but opens lots of undesired attack vectors. So probably it's good that some things are still a bit more complicated than they should need to be. ;-) -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...