here ya go: http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Tech/libsmbios

And why isn't the above link displayed on the Drivers/Downloads section when one does a search for support? I left OS at 'All' and nothing.

Thanks for the link. I'm wondering why Dell insists on releasing stuff in packages instead of standard tar.gz format so that any distro can install/run it... (I'm using slackware, not Ubuntu.)

Found a workaround. For those of you unfamiliar with it, BartPE will allow you to build a Windoze LiveCD from a Windoze box. I booted from this with a flash drive connected (problems with hotplugging in the LiveCD) and ran the flash executable from there. Rebooted and the machine flashed perfectly.

Unfortunately, it didn't solve the problem I wanted to flash it for... :(

I've got an Optiplex GX280 with Mepis 6.5 on it. Will have a go at the instructions in the wiki to hopefully cure my usb keyboard & mouse problem. They seem to need to be removed/replugged after reboots.

Dell provides some scripts which generate a FreeDOS bootable floppy image. You can use this image for grub so you don't need Windows or a BartPE disk. I wrote a small howto for that: http://www.felix-schwarz.name/Flashing_a_Dell_Bios_with_Linux_(en)

fs

Tried the Ubuntu method and got the full system info off my GX280 but it doesn't seem to work on my son's old Inspiron. Strange. I haven't actually flashed either bios yet as the problem with usb devices I was having I seem to have fixed by other means.

Does FreeDOS allow the execution of windoze executables? I booted into MS DOS 6 and tried running the exe - windoze only was the message I got.

No, real Windows executables don't run with {MS, Free}DOS. Dell's scripts transformed the exe file I got from Dell for flashing a E521 into a FreeDOS floppy image. And the update program ran perfectly once I booted from this image.

Did you try to run Dell's exe file directly?

Yes, I tried running the exe directly from DOS. I was unaware that the transformation script even existed. (I love all this stuff that applies to a system that isn't turned up via the search function on the dell support site.) Booting via the BartPE LiveCD and running the executable from a flash drive worked fine.