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neur0

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neur0

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July 28th, 2008 12:00

BIOS upgrade on Vostro 1310

Ill just c/p my post on Ubuntu forums:

There is a BIOS update for my laptop in .exe form on http://support.dell.com

I cannot seem to upgrade my BIOS. Here is what I've tried so far:

firmware-tools (from wiki https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DellBIOS)
It says there are no updates. (my firmware is A05, new one is A10)

I would have tried using libsmbios
(tutorial from http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php...dellBiosUpdate)
But there is no 0x026 (my system ID) folder in bios headers directory
( http://linux.dell.com/repo/firmware/bios-hdrs/)

So I finally tried using biosdisk
( http://linux.dell.com/projects.shtml)
And everything is going fine, but when I boot to the image DOS prompt, it says "bad command or file name" then I try .exe to manually start it but I get the "cannot run in DOS mode" error.
  • neur0

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    Posted August 9th, 2008 09:00

    Last bump
  • ieee488

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    Posted August 9th, 2008 10:00

    The caveat on the first solution is In a nutshell, for Ubuntu systems with Feisty, Gutsy, or Hardy, be sure the Universe section is enabled in /etc/apt/sources.list.

    Did you do that? 

  • neur0

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    Posted August 10th, 2008 08:00

    Yes, it is enabled. By default I believe.

    after I do:

     

    "aptitude install $(bootstrap_firmware -a)"

     

    I get lots of these messages:

    ...

    Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "pci-firmware-ven-0x8086-dev-0x2834-subven-0x1028-subdev-0x026f"
    Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "pci-firmware-ven-0x8086-dev-0x2834-subven-0x1028-subdev-0x026f"
    Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "pci-firmware-ven-0x8086-dev-0x2835-subven-0x1028-subdev-0x026f"
    Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "pci-firmware-ven-0x8086-dev-0x2835-subven-0x1028-subdev-0x026f"
    Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "pci-firmware-ven-0x8086-dev-0x283a-subven-0x1028-subdev-0x026f"

    ...

     

    And then when I do update_firmware i get:

     

    "Running system inventory...

    Searching storage directory for available BIOS updates...
    Checking System BIOS for Vostro1310 - a05
        Did not find a newer package to install that meets all installation checks.

    This system does not appear to have any updates available.
    No action necessary."

     

  • ieee488

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    Posted August 10th, 2008 20:00


    What those error messages say to me is that your laptop was not able to download those files from the Dell

    server.

     

    By the way, you are running these commands as root right?
    Message Edited by ieee488 on 08-10-2008 05:50 PM
  • neur0

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    Posted August 11th, 2008 14:00

    Yes, my thoughts exactly.

    I've just tried that method on my desktop (just to see if it can find those packages) and it also cannot.

    Perhaps the instructions on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DellBIOS are outdated. or something.

    EDIT: Btw, yes its run as root. The instructions say to do "sudo -s" before anything else.

    Message Edited by neur0 on 08-11-2008 05:59 PM
  • ieee488

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    Posted August 11th, 2008 18:00

    Looks like you are out of luck. http://linux.dell.com/repo/software/bios-hdrs/   directory doesn't show the files

  • HotTec

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    Posted August 22nd, 2008 13:00

    Hello,

     

    I have the same problem:  there is no 0x020D (my system ID) folder in bios headers directory
    (http://linux.dell.com/repo/firmware/bios-hdrs/)

    It's a brandnew DELL Inspiron 530n (Ubuntu 8.04 preinstalled from DELL with BIOS Version 1.0.13).

    Where can I find BIOS Version 1.0.15?
    Thanks!

  • neur0

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    Posted August 23rd, 2008 07:00

    Well, all I can say is try the methods I posted links for in my first post. If it doesn't work, I guess we can't upgrade the bios from linux on our Dells.

    Describe what you have tried and what result did you get.