Linux tools for changing BIOS Settings

Sure, my reasons... I have a ISOLINUX distribution coming down via PXE/TFTP, from there I will provision the server with a Windows Image via DD. This process works fine on all servers except those that are SAN connected. The problem is that the SAN HBA Emulex card shows up after the MegaRaid card, therefore my quick fix will be to disable the megaraid whilst the system is provisioned, then bring it back ready for when windows starts its mini setup.

Thats the main reason, but we also wish to set other settings within the BIOS for security reasons, these machines are delivered from Dell as bare metal. We can do all of the above on HP and IBM kit no problem, they have clear support for linux at the hardware layer. I am hoping that Dell do too....so far I have only come across open source stuff, that to be honest does not work that well either.

 

 

Use the 20050823 version of the DTK: http://ftp.us.dell.com/sysman/dtk-1.3-dos-A04.exe

BIOSCFG.EXE User Guide: 

What I did was create a FreeDOS boot disk, then use bioscfg.exe to make all changes, use a wait.exe to sleep as needed, then use reboot.exe to reboot the systems.

I originally took a FreeDOS boot image known as ODIN and modified it. It seems FreeDOS now has a new image that might work.

http://freedos.org/freedos/files/

I have also been able to use biosdisk to create a boot disk

http://linux.dell.com/biosdisk/

Basically, just create a bootable image. All you need to do is mount the image and edit it to fit your needs. I removed everything but the essentials.

Now copy bioscfg.exe, reboot.exe, and anything else you might want. Setup your commands in the autoexec.bat. I also used "--nextboot" at the end to tell it to bypass PXE on the next boot.

On the PXE server end I used pxelinux and memdisk to boot off of the image, and set the default PXE to this image. When I was finished with all of the updates, I just switched the PXE default to whatever it was before.

The problem with OM or the Dell Deployment kit is that TFTP is designed for small transfer, 130mb is not small when tranfered via UDP/TFTP. My current ISOLINUX is 12mb just enought to have RPM support, which is all HP and IBM require to flash or change BIOS settings. Thanks for the links.

Thanks for your replies but, DOS will not help me here I need to stay witin the Service OS which is Linux Kernel 2.6 based. We are using Radia to control the pre-os flashing of firmware and bios changes, technically I could use DOS but will take me down a path which is very different for Dell Servers over the other methods being used. Dell seem to supply the Flash upgrades in Linux format why not the tools to change them, obviously downloading and installing OM is too bigger a job for a Service OS, be it Linux or any other Service OS.

You may want to submit an email to the PowerEdge Linux servers discussion list. Many of our lead Linux engineers monitor that list and may be able to provide you with the solution that you need.

 

http://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo