[Server-devel] Upgrading BIOS on an old Dell without Windows or Floppies

[Anna]

I know this has nothing specific to do with the XS, but maybe it'll help
others, as I spent ages searching around for the solution.  Some of us are
reusing legacy Dells and those can be difficult to deal with in a Linux only
environment.

So just in case other folks are re-purposing old Dell machines as XS's and
are in a similar situation in regards to wanting to upgrade the BIOS -
you'll need:  a Linux box, CD Burner, and 2 CDRs.

We have a bunch of old Dell Optiplex GX270 boxes to use as XS's.  I want to
update the BIOS from A04 to the newest A07, but don't have access to a
Windows machine nor possess any floppies.  I certainly wasn't about to go
and buy floppies just for this, let alone install Windows.  And I've never
been able to successfully boot a USB drive on these boxes, so that's out.

Luckily an OpenSUSE user had the exact same quandary and posted the
solution:
http://collinpark.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-pain-opensuse-111-on-my-dell.html

I downloaded the LiveCD version of FreeDOS 1.0 and burned the iso to a CD.
It's 153M.

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.0/fdfullcd.iso

Then I got the BIOS update from Dell.  Of course it's an exe file which
doesn't let me do anything with under Linux.  I tried to extract it, but
just produced a bunch of errors.  Forget that, then.

I burned the BIOS file GX270A07.EXE to a data CD, which seems kinda a waste
of a CD for such a small file (540K).  But I've got scads of CDRs and no
desire to trot over to Office Depot just for floppies.  Besides, I've got a
lot of these boxes to update, and I suppose it doesn't feel like such a
waste when I think of how many times it'll be used.

I boot the FreeDOS CD and hit enter at the prompt.  Then hit 5 for the
"FreeDOS Live CD Only" option and after a few seconds, got an A:\> prompt.

I eject the FreeDOS CD and insert the CD with GX270A07.EXE.  **This is
important:  wait for the CD-ROM drive LED to quit blinking before you do
anything.**  If you try to access the drive too soon, you'll get an error
and have to reboot.  I enter DIR X:\ and see the exe file.

Then I simply enter:
X:\GX270A07.EXE

I'm prompted twice to hit y, then cross my fingers and hope the power
doesn't go out for a few seconds while it flashes.  Yeah, a UPS is probably
a really good idea.

It automatically reboots and I hit F2 to get into the BIOS setup.  Wow,
there's A07!  If you happen to be using a similar machine, might I recommend
"Power Management -> AC Power Recovery -> Last."  That way if the power goes
out and the UPS dies (if you're lucky enough to have one), the XS will
automagically power back on when power is restored.

Here's the the obligatory: YMMV, the process will likely be different with
other models, and be careful otherwise you might brick the mobo.

Anna Schoolfield
Birmingham
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