[clug] can upgrading ubuntu kill your bios?

rodney peters rodneyp at iinet.net.au
Tue Jan 22 10:42:45 UTC 2019


On 1/22/19 2:16 PM, Stephen Gibson via linux wrote:
> There appears to be quite a few web reports of Dell BIOS updates
> bricking XPS 13's. Probably not Ubuntu's fault.
>
> If worst comes to worst, as a final option, you can flash the BIOS chip,
> using a Raspberry Pi and pomona clip.
>
> e.g. Instructions for a Lenovo here (ignore the part about compiling and
> writing a coreboot image):
>
>       https://karlcordes.com/coreboot-x220/
>
> I successfully flashed a 'bricked' Lenovo E530. The hardest part, apart
> from physical access to the BIOS chip, was extracting the 4Mb BIOS image
> from the manufacturer 'BIOS' executable.
>
> Good luck.
>
> Steve

All very 20 th Century.

On some HP towers, as well as on a much lesser known Supox mainboard, 
all I had to do was put the relevant firmware binary in the root 
directory of a FAT32 USB stick, plug in the stick and press a 
(specified) Function key during power up.  A routine in the firmware, 
then runs the upgrade.


Rod




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