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

[Brian Pitts]

On 01/07/2011 02:12 PM, 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.

Here are my notes from work on the different approaches for updating
Dell BIOSes. I am not certain how many of them are relevant for laptops
instead of servers.

!! Working Approach
Out of all the different approaches, this is what I cam up with that
successfully let me install the latest BIOS without taking a trip to the
data center.
  # Install smbios-utils from EPEL
  # Download the BIOS package from the Dell website,
[here|http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz&releaseid=R281099&SystemID=pwe_r610&servicetag=F1WFVH1&os=WNET&osl=en&deviceid=11809&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=7&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=1&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=415215]
is an example
  # Rather than running what you downloaded, just extract the files,
e.g. <code>./PER610_BIOS_LX_2.1.15.BIN --extract bios_files</code> would
extract the files to a directory named bios_files
  # The actual BIOS image is in the subdirectory named payload. Install
it using the
[dellBiosUpdate|http://linux.dell.com/libsmbios/main/dellBiosUpdate.html] program,
e.g. <code>dellBiosUpdate -u R610-020115C.hdr</code>
  # Reboot

!! Unified Server Configurator Approach
A GUI that's a part of the Lifecycle Controller. I think you get to it
by pressing F10 for System Services during boot.
* Pros
  * Able to update all firmware on the system
  * Fetches the latest version
  * No dependencies on installed OS
* Cons
  * Must go to data center since console redirection does not work with it
  * Extensive downtime as updates are downloaded

!! Download Approach
Dell's [Drivers and
Downloads|http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&cs=RC956904&l=en&s=hied]
page has BIN files you can download and run from within linux to update
the BIOS. These are a combined shell script and archive. In theory, you
just run them and the new BIOS is installed.
* Pros
  * Can always get latest version
* Cons
  * Must manually browse site and identify proper download
  * Only updates the BIOS, not other firmware
  * In my experience, this does not work. A report of the kind of error
I ran into and some troubleshooting steps are
[here|http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2010-January/041030.html].

!! Dell "Hardware" Repository Approach
Dell officially maintains and supports a [yum
repository|http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/] with rpms for
their firmware and some tools for installing it.
* Pros
  * Able to update all firmware on the system
* Cons
  * Has software that is also packaged in EPEL, meaning you must assign
a higher priority to this repository in your yum config
  * The repository is not kept up to date with the latest firmware. It
seems that it's updated in batches every few months.
  * In my experience, this does not work. See [these error
reports|http://www.mail-archive.com/search?q=dell_dup_componentid_00159&l=linux-poweredge@dell.com&o=relevance&start=10]
over a period of months where the R610 BIOS update fails to install.

!! Dell "Firmware" Repository Approach
Matt Domsch from Dell maintains an unsupported [yum
repository|http://linux.dell.com/repo/firmware/] just with BIOS updates.
You need to install some other tools from Dell's [community
repository|http://linux.dell.com/repo/community/] (or maybe smbios-utils
and firmware-addon-dell from EPEL would be enough, haven't tested this
yet) to use it.
* Pros
  * Should always be latest version
* Cons
  * The script that generates the repository is [fragile and frequently
breaks|http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/firmware-tools-devel/2010-December/000549.html]
  * Doesn't seem to have all the BIOS we want, e.g. it didn't find any
updates for our R610

-- 
All the best,
Brian Pitts