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List:       freedos-user
Subject:    [Freedos-user] AMI and other BIOS flash tools for DOS, Windows and Linux
From:       Eric Auer <e.auer () jpberlin ! de>
Date:       2021-04-10 13:07:15
Message-ID: cefd6d81-8f70-6a3f-4091-48e2c2f0c77c () jpberlin ! de
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Hi!

Changing the subject to make this link-collection easier to
find, but feel free to reply in the original thread instead.

> Greetings one and all, here is an update
> 
> I followed the instructions on the Dell website:
> https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000131486/update-the-dell-bios-in-a-linux-or-ubuntu-environment#UpdateBIOS
> 

Come on, it already recommends FreeDOS and UNetbootin! Why have
you asked all those questions when the answers were there? :-)

> I booted the stick, was a bit confused as to why freedos did not do
> anything and fdos was the option, and found the BIOS file in drive C:\.
> I ran it.  It looked promising, but alas, alack, no.
> -Start to flash ……. [ Y / N]: Y
> - Error: Problem getting flash information

Does the documentation of your BIOS update tell what that means?
Google says this error message is something seen in the AFUDOS
AMI Firmware Update utility? You might be using the wrong version
of the tool or of the BIOS.

Interestingly, even a Linux version exists:

https://www.ami.com/products/firmware-tools-and-utilities/bios-uefi-utilities/

According to other websites, you have to give the name of the
BIOS update file as an option to the tool: "AFUDOS yourfile"

Also, the DOS and Windows versions of your BIOS update could
be different downloads, so make sure to use the right one.

Usually, you can also run "nameofthetool /?" to get a help text.

> I went back to the Dell website, entered my service tag: BQBD9N1 and
> downloaded the latest BIOS file “M5030A05.EXE” (again, and remember the
> A05 is a latter version to the installed BIOS which describes its
> version as A02).
> https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk/product-support/servicetag/0-YXhUR091TFhQWVdkR0VXeUY0cTREQT090/drivers
> 

The website says: the A05 BIOS is for Dell Inspiron M5030,
while the A02 BIOS is for Dell Inspiron N5030 systems. The
A05 download is described as combined DOS/Windows CPG BIOS
update executable. md5sum: d916cc8e65b8f3fb9063270c08d749f9
Apparently it can also be used for the Inspiron 15 N5030.

On some computers, you can also press F12 at boot (might be
tricky to hit the right moment!) to load a BIOS from USB by
selecting the exe file in an update menu built into the BIOS.

> Making the USB stick bootable and being able to add files to it was
> so easy.  It is as though the root of the memory stick was C:\?

Good to know! If you have no other FAT partitions on your
harddisk then yes, the USB stick can be called C: drive.

Your download contains the text:

Flash BIOS Update Program - Version 8.00
Copyright (C)2010 American Megatrends Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Can you confirm that your BIOS brand is American Megatrends (AMI)?
The Windows tool seems to embed AFUDOS which you run as

AFUDOS ROMfilename

In also mentions AFUWIN and AFULNX so you could use the
Windows or Linux versions instead, too:

https://github.com/Zibri/afulnx/releases or even better:

https://www.wimsbios.com/amiflasher.jsp

https://soggi.org/motherboards/bios-update-flash-utilities.htm

Their English could be better: "Cann't flash to this version."

*If I have to guess, your DOS BIOS update tool may have a problem*
*with your DOS memory driver. Make sure to skip loading EMM386 and*
*possibly even HIMEM at DOS boot.* You can select a suitable boot
option when running the FreeDOS boot stick, or use the generic
F5 or F8 hotkeys.

The Linux version seems to be a bit of a pain to use, but there
are alternatives, such as flashrom:

https://opensource.com/life/16/8/almost-open-bios-and-firmware-update-tips-linux-users


Obviously, the question is how you can get the actual BIOS ROM
or BIN file out of the Windows/DOS integrated update tool. Try
running the tool in Windows, maybe it has a menu item for that?

If it does not have any user interface to click around in, then
some other trick for extracting the BIOS file would be nice :-)

Eric



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