From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Oct 19 10:38:57 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ACA6FEE for ; Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:38:57 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mexas@bristol.ac.uk) Received: from dirg.bris.ac.uk (dirg.bris.ac.uk [137.222.10.102]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6727A8FC12 for ; Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:38:56 +0000 (UTC) Received: from ncsc.bris.ac.uk ([137.222.10.41]) by dirg.bris.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.72) (envelope-from ) id 1TP9yb-0005mf-QX for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:38:49 +0100 Received: from mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk ([137.222.187.241]) by ncsc.bris.ac.uk with esmtpsa (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.72) (envelope-from ) id 1TP9yb-00075N-Bc for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:38:49 +0100 Received: from mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk (8.14.5/8.14.5) with ESMTP id q9JAcm3f073342 for ; Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:38:48 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from mexas@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk) Received: (from mexas@localhost) by mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk (8.14.5/8.14.5/Submit) id q9JAcmq7073341 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:38:48 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from mexas) Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:38:48 +0100 (BST) From: Anton Shterenlikht Message-Id: <201210191038.q9JAcmq7073341@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: laptop with no BIOS? or BIOS reflash pain X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list Reply-To: mexas@bristol.ac.uk List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:38:57 -0000 I've HP compaq 6715s laptop. It's all right with 10-current. I've got wireless and at one point I even managed to get flash working. My problem is with BIOS. Apparently it's wrong and John Baldwin provided me with a pci.c patch to get it to boot. There is an updated BIOS version, but so far I failed to get it installed. HP only provide MS and freedos executables. I tried BartPE - doesn't work. I tried plugging in a MS disk - doesn't work. The only think I haven't tried is getting a spare disk, installing freedos on it and then running the freedos executable from USB - what a fucking pain... For proper hardware (servers) HP provide images which are executed from management console, but not for laptops. I guess the idea that one might use their laptops for anything other than MS is so wild, that it never crossed their maid. Anyway, I think I've heard there are some laptops with no BIOS, is this true? Or perhaps there are brands where BIOS reflash is not such a great pain? I remember on Compaq Armada the BIOS was stored on disk and Compaq provided a floppy image to boot from and reflash BIOS. That was easy. Anything like this exist these days? Are there any EFI laptops? Any model people would recommend? Thanks Anton