28.12.2012 DELL 1645 - FLASH BIOS FROM LINUX
How to flash the BIOS on DELL Studio XPS 16 (Model 1645)
- Download the windows flash utility from DELL support
- Run the exe file under wine
- This will unzip
1645_A13.exe
in your chosen folder
- Run
1645_A13.exe
- You will now get an error message, don't click OK!
cd ~/wine/drive_c/users/[username]/Temp/WinPlash
- Copy the
.WPH
file to a safe folder, this is the BIOS data.
- Download the PHLASH16.EXE utility
- Download the Freedos
- Setup a boot-disk
qemu-img create freedos.img 16M
qemu-kvm -hda freedos.img -cdrom fdbasecd.iso -boot d
- I disabled all optional install options, don't know if this is necessary,
You will probably have to make sure the drive is formated with FAT16
- Copy the BIOS and flash utility to the boot-disk
losetup -f freedos.img
kpartx -a /dev/loop0
mkdir tmp
mount /dev/mapper/loop0p1 tmp
cd tmp
cp ../BIOS1.WPH .
cp ../PHLASH16.exe .
cd ..
umount tmp
rmdir tmp
- Get some important info about the partition-table
fdisk -l freedos.img
Disk freedos-minimal.img: 16 MB, 16777216 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 32 cylinders, total 32768 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
freedos-minimal.img1 * 63 32255 16096+ e W95 FAT16 (LBA)
dd if=freedos.img of=freedos_mbr.img bs=512 count=63
The count=63-part is from 63 sectors/track
dd if=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 of=freedos_part1.img
cat {freedos_mbr.img,freedos_part1.img} | gzip -9 > freedos_combined.img.gz
- Install memdisk
zypper in syslinux
cp /usr/share/syslinux/memdisk /boot
- Add a new entry in the bootloader
- This is for grub:
###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title BiosUpgrade
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/memdisk harddisk c=32 h=16 s=63
initrd /boot/freedos-minimal-combined.img.gz
For grub2, you'll need something like this:
For some reason I could not get this to work with the gzipped image.
menuentry 'BiosUpgrade' {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='hd0,msdos4'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos4 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos4 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos4 772f3686-9f80-4c06-b47f-28a6424be960
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 772f3686-9f80-4c06-b47f-28a6424be960
fi
echo 'Loading FreeDos'
linux16 /boot/memdisk harddisk h=16 s=63 c=32
echo 'Loading init disk'
initrd16 /boot/freedos_combined.img
}
It shoud probably be placed somewhere in /etc/grub.d/40_custom
- Disconnect the loop drive:
kpartx -d /dev/loop0
losetup -d /dev/loop0
- Reboot and pray!
Vi bedriver endelig lyssetting.
2nd Unit.
Nok en dag på kontoret.
Grotli, 9. april 2011
Det er noe med været.
Petter in blizzard.
Andreas in blizzard.
En glad gutt.
Hva med og kaste sleden ned her?
Simen fotograferer Stian.
Er det langt ned?
Hjemmefronten.
Waiting pose 5.
Waiting pose 4.
Waiting pose 1.
Venter på en sky. (Eller sol?)
MERE RØYK!
Kjærlighet
Stian kjører fra alle
Ikke Snø!
Morten fjerner alle spor
Bob the builder
Lunch
En vanlig dag på kontoret
Bekymret?
Björn.
Ut og hjelpe Bob.
Kamerasleden.
Thomas nyter solen
og stillheten.
Scenografigruppa preparerer
bre-sprekk.
Endre.
Olav spiser opp lunchen sin.
Petter kjeder seg.
Stian koser seg på jobb.
Stian på skuter på vei til hotellet som
ligger ca. midt i bildet.
Daniel, Olav, Stian - Hytta og lyslageret i bakgrunnen!
Utsikt fra vinduet, første morgen!