[ale] A reason NOT to remove Windows from a laptop

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Fri, 2011-01-07 at 14:12 -0500, Ron Frazier wrote: 
> Hi all.  I have a Dell laptop which I dual boot between Windows and
> Ubuntu.  I do about 95% of my activities in Ubuntu, but have a few that
> require Windows.  I also support some family and friends which use
> Windows.

> FYI, I just discovered another reason to leave Windows on there.  I
> decided to update the BIOS on the machine to the latest version.  I
> discovered that the BIOS flash update program from the Dell website is
> designed to run under Windows.  So, it's a good thing I hadn't erased
> Windows or I couldn't update the BIOS.

No you don't.  Yes you could.

http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Tech/libsmbios
http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Repository/firmware

They even have links to building a Fedora run-live to do it.

Then there's always flashrom that seems to support just about
anything... 

yum info flashrom

Available Packages
Name        : flashrom
Arch        : x86_64
Version     : 0.9.3
Release     : 0.1.svn1205.fc14
Size        : 101 k
Repo        : updates
Summary     : Simple program for reading/writing BIOS chips content
URL         : http://flashrom.org
License     : GPLv2
Description : Utility which can be used to detect BIOS chips (DIP, PLCC), read
            : their contents and write new contents on the chips ("flash the
            : chip").

I think that comes from the coreboot project, iirc.

> Just thought I'd pass that along.
> 
> Ron
> 
> -- 
> 
> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
> call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
> mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new messages very quickly.)
> 
> Ron Frazier
> 
> 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
> linuxdude AT c3energy.com

Regards,
Mike
-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
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