Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2020 06:45:36 +0100 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> 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> <CAMEY5_9_rTTQHCGZm7=BmsvF4rn=CnW3TgO012dwT1cVUx7rOA@mail.gmail.com> <20200206142137.40c130c8@scorpio>
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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, ...
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