Users of Ubuntu are generally told not to use root prompts, but instead to use sudo to gain necessary authorisation to accomplish adminstrative tasks.

 Your steps pass a web-downloaded script directly to a root bash shell. Not something I'd recommend a user do under any circumstances, especially your target audience of home users.

 Please could you modify/update your steps to use a more sane set of tasks as non-root.




 

Alan, I agree, running most things as root is a very poor idea.  However, with the exception of the actual download of the bootstrap script, each of the things done in the bootstrap script (adding GPG keys to the apt keyring, adding apt sources.list lines) and each of the things that happen thereafter (installing packages, getting system hardware inventory, running update_firmware) _do_ require root privileges.  So yes, it could be re-written:

 $ wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/firmware/bootstrap.cgi > bootstrap.sh

(very carefully read bootstrap.sh)

$ sudo  bash bootstrap.sh
$ sudo aptitude install firmware-addon-dell
$ sudo aptitude install $(sudo bootstrap_firmware -a)
$ sudo update_firmware

but I'm not sure that's any prettier.
 

Good to have these tools in Ubuntu!

However the packages are not perfectly tailored for a deb based system:

• they install some yum related files, and depend on rpm related libraries,
• I have noticed this error launching the gui: Unable to open /usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc for reading: No such file or directory,
• no menu entry for the gui.

With a little polishing though inclusion in hardy should not be a problem and Dell will be even more appreciated from Ubuntu users.
 

The yum / rpm related files, which look for rpmrc, implement a handy version comparison function that works for BIOS versions as well as RPM versions.  It can probably be replaced, which would eliminate those dependencies and messages.  Patches welcome.  GIT repository at http://linux.dell.com/git/firmware-tools.git/

Good point about the GUI.  It's a new feature, so we need to add a .desktop file for it.  Thanks for the reminder.
 

Good to see you have Debian packages too, even though you didn't mention it. Will you be including firmware-tools and firmware-addon-dell in Debian?

I'd like to be able to trust Dell's firmware, since I have a Dell Laptop, but I cannot do that unless you provide source code for verification.

@pabs: thanks for owning a Dell laptop.  The BIOS images posted for Dell systems are not open source, though it's been requested many times. Do you not trust the system you have now (for whichever definitions of trust you wish to use)?  If so, how would these updates be any different?

 It's taken a while to get all the packages building for the Ubuntu versions we do support.  I suspect I'll get even more feedback on the packaging now that they're available, and I simply haven't taken the time to build the packages for Debian.  I have every reason to believe they will build there.  And yes, I would love to see these included in Debian and Ubuntu both, just as they are included in Fedora.

As for duplicating apt/dpkg and yum/rpm, no, in fact we don't do that at all.  We use dpkg/rpm packaging to provide the tools and payload files in an easily-consumable format, and apt/yum for package management.  The goal is to fit cleanly into these existing tools, absolutely not duplicate them.
 

Matt, are you aware of Ubuntu's 0launch command? You can use it to download and run a script, but it will do some GPG key-downloading and checking for you.

It's not perfect, since users may not know your key in the first place, but it's better than piping from wget to bash!
 

Error here when running the first command:

~$ sudo wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/firmware/bootstrap.cgi | bash
bash: line 221: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dell-software-temp-bootstrap.list: Permission denied
Downloading GPG key: http://linux.dell.com/repo/GPG-KEY-libsmbios
    Importing key.
gpg: no writable keyring found: eof
gpg: error reading `GPG-KEY': general error
gpg: import from `GPG-KEY' failed: general error
GPG-KEY import failed.
   Either there was a problem downloading the key,
   or you do not have sufficient permissions to import the key.

Any suggestions?
 

@Tom - no, I hadn't heard of that, I'll have a look.  imbrandon showed me how the Adobe flashplayer-plugin is being handled, which might be useful, we're still discussing.

 @holotone: the bash script must be run with sudo privilages too, which in your command line it isn't.  It's easiest if you just:

$ sudo bash

and then run all the commands, or if you like, you can do the wget, write it to a file, and then start a 'sudo bash' in which you execute the other steps.  See above in the comments here for why you need everything from the bash step onward to be run as the root user.


 

Kevin, it's supposed to update daily, but that cronjob isn't quite working smoothly.  I'll investigate further.

imneat: yours is the second report of this, I haven't seen it myself yet.  Perhaps others have ideas? 

Victor: that's one of the nice things about firmware-tools: it uses the exact same BIOS flashing mechanism as all other Dell systems use.  firmware-tools merely puts the BIOS image in memory, and sets an NVRAM flag  - nothing more.  When you reboot the system, BIOS, during POST, sees the NVRAM flag, re-assembles and checksums the image, then performs the actual flash.  This assures that no other OS functions can interfere, because there is no OS running at the time.

 We did have some very early systems with a broken (advertised, but non-functional) flash implementation, but we know which those are, and the tool specifically excludes posting BIOS images for them.

There are a few exceptions.  Some of the newest systems, in particular some Vostro and Inspiron systems, don't have this capability.  We're investigating ways to provide the same functionality.
 

Many thanks for doing this! I'm trying this out with my M1210 now :-).

error: Unable to open /usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc for reading: No such file or directory.

 
I get that error using Kubuntu Feisty  

Matt, I applied the update yesterday per the instructions, and for me the Synaptic update notification still appears, even after running the update several times. I see a couple other people reported this happening too

 However, my test machine already had the latest BIOS update in place at the time. Is it possible that this happens when updating the BIOS for the first time on a machine that's already been updated? I haven't had time to test myself yet.

Add yet another user confirming the persistent "available bios update" notification from update manager after successfully executing the update.  Gutsy on a Latitude D410.  It appears that the most recent BIOS is from December '05, but it saw it as new and installed it.  But now I can't get update manager to ignore it.

Matt, imneat, Skwirkle etc.

 I have the same problem, update-manager and synaptic keep offering the BIOS update. Running "aptitude safe-upgrade" also offer the package over and over again.

 Example output blow.

Matt, have you been able to reproduce this?
What other information could help?

~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  system-bios-dimension-8300
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/281kB of archives.
After unpacking 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
(Reading database ... 149874 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace system-bios-dimension-8300 0.a07-1 (using .../system-bios-dimension-8300_0.a07-1_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement system-bios-dimension-8300 ...
Setting up system-bios-dimension-8300 (0.a07-1) ...

Processing triggers for firmware-tools ...
error: Unable to open /usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc for reading: No such file or directory.
Config does not specify automatic install during package install.
Please run update_firmware manually to install updates.
$ update_firmware --yes
error: Unable to open /usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc for reading: No such file or directory.

Searching storage directory for available BIOS updates...

This system does not appear to have any updates available.
No action necessary.

$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  system-bios-dimension-8300
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/281kB of archives.
After unpacking 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.

Mark: your 'sudo wget' means wget is running as root, but then it's piped into a non-root bash-shell, thus it fails.  Please instead:

$ sudo bash
# wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/firmware/bootstrap.cgi | bash

 
and it will succeed, because now bash is being run as root.

Matt,

Worked like a charm - thank you!

Regards,

Mark

Funnel Weaver: it's good for a lot of Dell systems (~240 right now), but not all.  Some of the newest Inspiron systems lack the feature, but some have it.  You could either:

a) try the instructions above to see if it'll work for you, or

b) install the libsmbios-bin package from Universe, run 'getSystemId' to get the system ID number (a 4-hex-digit value), and then look in

 http://linux.dell.com/repo/dists/cross-distro/dell-firmware/binary-i386/

for a file named system-bios-ven-0x1028-dev-(that-four-digit value).  If you find it, then it _should_ work.  And when you do, send me back the system ID -> pretty name mapping so I can add it to the list, so future postings will use the pretty name.

Matt,

 I noticed the same problem imneat did - the BIOS update doesn't clear even after it's installed.  I had to go back to  System > Administration > Software Sources > Third-Party Software and clear the checkmarks for the Dell repositories.

Mark

I have an Inspiron 640m. I could install the repositories as you suggested and all worked fine. But getSystemId   returned "System ID:    0x01D8" and that number is not in the firmware repository page. Do I have to leave the utility installed for a future release of a new BIOS for my laptop model?

Thank you!

Jorge.
 

The problem with BIOS packages constantly re-downloading has been fixed, with thanks to the members of the Ubuntu MOTU team who discovered my packaging error.  They should download one more time, and then never again.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

I have upgraded my Dell Inspiron 6400 to MM061-A17 on Fedora 8. However I need to do with a small change:

yum install firmware-addon-dell

rpm --import http://linux.dell.com/repo/GPG-KEY-libsmbios
# bootstrap.cgi should install GPG-KEY-libsmbios for us, however it didn't do that.

wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/firmware/bootstrap.cgi | bash
# You should get "Done!" message

yum install $(bootstrap_firmware)
# You will see many "No package ... available.", but there should be a system_bios_MM061 can be installed.

update_firmware
# You should see an available firmware.

update_firmware --yes
# Install it

-----

I need to manually install GPG Key. Line 130 of bootstrap.cgi only allows $1 = "apt" to get the GPG Key. On Fedora, $1 will be "rpm", then Fedora's users will not get the key to import and they can't continue the process of updating.

After running update_firmware, I got no successful message. I check update_firmware, and this is what it should do: no successful message. However the firmware was updated after reboot.
 

@livibetter: for RPMs, you need to run the dell-software bootstrap script first, then the dell-firmware bootstrap script.

# set up repos

wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/software/bootstrap.cgi | bash
wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/firmware/bootstrap.cgi | bash
# install firmware tools
yum -y install firmware-addon-dell
# install BIOS update
yum -y install $(bootstrap_firmware)
update_firmware

If that doesn't work, please let us know.

Thanks,
Matt

I installed the repositories and everything was fine until I tried to do the bootstrap_firmware install. It couldn't find anything for me. So I did the getSystemId and I have 0x01BD, which does exist in the repositories, but my firmware is A03 and I noticed that 0x01BD starts at A05. Does this mean I'm out of luck?
 

"There are a few exceptions.  Some of the newest systems, in particular some Vostro and Inspiron systems, don't have this capability.  We're investigating ways to provide the same functionality."

"Some of the newest Inspiron systems lack the feature, but some have it."

And from what I see the Inspiron 531 is one of them, right ? Well I have to be patient so :)
 

Kubuntu

around line 88 Add

    [ "${DISTRIB_ID}" = "Kubuntu" ] && echo "LSB" && return
 

Strange the 530n update doesn't seem to install at all. In the meanwhile, I'm stuck with a very annoying fan whirring on full constantly.

 Is there no alternative way to extract the BIOS from the windows EXE file and use a DOS bootcd to flash the BIOS?
 

I'm using an XPS 700, and everything seems to work out, until the end. I keep getting:

$update_firmware

bash: update_firmware: command not found

I'm logged in as root, and I've sudo bash'ed before the above, fourline script. I'm on Ubuntu 7.10, brand new install.

 Any suggestions? I'm boggling my mind, here.

I was able to simplify the process by adding the dell repository to my sources.list file.

deb http://linux.dell.com/repo gutsy dell-software

This took some thinking on my part but I prefer telling users to do this as opposed to running a script as root. 

Jeff:

There are in fact several changes that the bootstrap script makes which are necessary.

1) creates new sources.list.d/dell-software.list file with the line such as you noted, as well as the deb-src line.

2) creates a new sources.list.d/dell-firmware.list file with a line allowing downloads of the BIOS image debs.

3) installs the Dell and Libsmbios GPG keys into apt-key, so the user is not prompted that the dell-software and dell-firmware repositories are signed with an unknown key, every time they run apt-get.

It's because it takes several steps in order to succeed that I wrapped them up into a shell script to be run.

Hmmm, I'm getting this:

root@ubuntu:~# aptitude install firmware-addon-dell
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree      
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information     
Initializing package states... Done
Building tag database... Done     
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "firmware-addon-dell"
No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.

Adam, from where are you expecting to pull the packages?  Hardy Universe, or linux.dell.com?  Are they enabled?

 They are in Hardy's universe section, and on linux.dell.com's dell-software section for feisty and gutsy.

Adam, there was a bug in the apt-ftparchive signing process (my bug, not Debian/Ubuntu's), which I believe I have resolved.  The bug lead to the Release.gpg (repo signature files) not being created, which is why the bootstrap script failed.

 Please try again and it should be corrected.

Thanks,
Matt
 

Hi Matt,

Thanks for all your work on this. I am getting the same problems as Adam. See below.

Am I doing something wrong? 

root@vmware-host:~# wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/firmware/bootstrap.cgi | bash
Downloading GPG key: http://linux.dell.com/repo/GPG-KEY-libsmbios
    Importing key.
OK

The following NEW packages will be installed:
  dell-repository-keys
0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 21 not upgraded.
Need to get 4250B of archives. After unpacking 49.2kB will be used.
WARNING: untrusted versions of the following packages will be installed!

Untrusted packages could compromise your system's security.
You should only proceed with the installation if you are certain that
this is what you want to do.

  dell-repository-keys

Do you want to ignore this warning and proceed anyway?
To continue, enter "Yes"; to abort, enter "No": Unrecognized input.  Enter either "Yes" or "No".
Do you want to ignore this warning and proceed anyway?
To continue, enter "Yes"; to abort, enter "No": Unrecognized input.  Enter either "Yes" or "No".
Do you want to ignore this warning and proceed anyway?
To continue, enter "Yes"; to abort, enter "No": Unrecognized input.  Enter either "Yes" or "No".
Do you want to ignore this warning and proceed anyway?
To continue, enter "Yes"; to abort, enter "No": Abort.

The following NEW packages will be installed:
  dell-firmware-repository dell-repository-keys dell-software-repository
0 packages upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 21 not upgraded.
Need to get 8096B of archives. After unpacking 147kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] Abort.
Get:1 http://ie.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy Release.gpg [191B]
I
Fetched 3B in 10s (0B/s)
Reading package lists... Done

Jason, we had lab downtime over the weekend that affected the repository publishing process.  The errors you see were because the repository was not being GPG signed.  I've corrected this.  Please run the bootstrap script again.

Thanks,
Matt

Thanks Matt, I think that the install went well. I had a few errors similar to Adams

Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "pci-firmware-ven-0x1000-dev-0x0054-subven-0x1028-subdev-0x1f09"
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "pci-firmware-ven-0x14e4-dev-0x1659-subven-0x1028-subdev-0x01e6"

 
but not sure if this is expected. I have a PE860 with Ubuntu server 7.10.

The update_firmware picked up an update which I already had but this was expected from reading the above posts. 

Thanks again for all the time and effort you put into this.

 
Jason

 

I am trying to update my bios on a Dell XPS T500, I ran the getSystemID and it does not give me the "System ID", here is the output:

 Is anyone able to tell me if my system is too old or is there anyway to find out the right System ID to get the firmware upgrade from http://linux.dell.com/repo/software/bios-hdrs/

Any help is appreicated,

Stephen 

 Matt,

 Thanks for all of the hard work.  I see that my system id (020D - Inspiron 530)  isn't supported as noted by others.  The bios update is available from the website as an EXE, but the deb package isn't yet available for apt.  Is it possible for end users to build the deb packages and submit them to you?  Is the process for doing this documented anywhere?

On a side note, is there a link anywhere that explains what the bios revision fixes (like release notes).  I couldn't find it on the download page:

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R174855&SystemID=INSP_DSKTP_D530&servicetag=&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=14390&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=4&catid=-1&impid=2&formatcnt=1&libid=1&fileid=237513
 

Rob 

Hello 

I am running Kubunto 7.10 on a Dell Inspiron 531s. Since Dell does not sell Inspirons pre-loaded with Ubuntu in Canada, I installed Kubuntu myself.

My  BIOS version is 1.0.6 (see below) and it seems that 1.0.8 is the latest (http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R172546&SystemID=INSP_DSKTP_D531S&servicetag=HK9HZD1&os=BIOSA&osl=en&deviceid=14180&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=2&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=1&fileid=234724).

However, when I attempt to follow the instructions, an update is not found. Like others I see many errors of the type "Couldn't find any package whose name ...".

Any help or explanation would be appreciated.

Thanks

Jim
 

getSystemId:

Libsmbios:    0.13.6
System ID:    0x020E
Service Tag:  XXXXXX
Express Service Code: XXXXXXXXX
Product Name: Inspiron 531s
BIOS Version: 1.0.6
Vendor:       Dell Inc.
Is Dell:      1

root@isomer:/home/jim# aptitude install $(bootstrap_firmware -a)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Building tag database... Done
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "bmc-firmware-ven-0x1028-dev-0x020e"
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "system-bios-ven-0x1028-dev-0x020e"
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "pci-firmware-ven-0x10de-dev-0x03ea-subven-0x1028-subdev-0x020e"
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "pci-firmware-ven-0x10de-dev-0x03e0-subven-0x1028-subdev-0x020e"
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "pci-firmware-ven-0x10de-dev-0x03eb-subven-0x1028-subdev-0x020e"
...

...

I ran the scripts/commands above exactly as posted as root and when I rebooted the BIOS upgrade screen came up and then issued an error message saying that the BIOS could not be updated because a valid ROM image could not be found. I tried twice. Then uninstalled the all the packages installed by the scripts and tried it all again.  Same error message. I tried running  update_firmware --yes again and rebooted. Same error.

# getSystemId
Libsmbios:    0.13.6
System ID:    0x017F
Service Tag:  XXXXXXX
Express Service Code: XXXXXXXXXXX
Product Name: Inspiron 1150
BIOS Version: A05
Vendor:       Dell Computer Corporation
Is Dell:      1

system-bios-inspiron-1150_0.a07-1_all.deb exists in the 
http://linux.dell.com/repo/dists/cross-distro/dell-firmware/binary-i386/ 
repository. 

@ Mike S: which kernel are you using please?  2.6.24 (released this week) will fail due to a change in drivers/base/firmware_class.c which will be fixed in 2.6.24.1.

Wow! that was fast. 

uname -a reports Linux 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Tue Dec 18 08:02:57 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux. I am running Release 7.10 (gutsy).

The update manager runs daily. Not sure why I don't have a newer kernel. I have recently switched to ubuntu, I have been running RH and Fedora for the last 8 years.
Thanks

I have "2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Tue Dec 18 08:02:57 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux" as well.  Maybe the 2.6.24.x kernels Matt is referring to are only in Hardy, and so wouldn't really be available to us Gutsy people. 

There was a kernel update today, literally a few minutes before I started doing the BIOS update.  I am now wondering if firmware-tools will work with today's update.  Probably not a problem, but this is a pretty delicate operation and I don't want to take any risks.   Can someone confirm the bios updates will work OK? 

I'm running Ubuntu Gutsy 32bit on an Inspiron 1420N.

Thanks for any help.

-tim 

Just to follow up for anyone else with a 1420N, I did get courageous and performed the bios update.  No problems.

I am running Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) on a Dell Inspiron 9300 notebook and was able to run everything just fine  using sudo....however upon rebooting, bios update failed ...."unable to find valid ROM image"..... any ideas?

Note:Ubuntu users... For anyone copy and pasting (which is normally what I do to avoid mistakes) take care to not include the $ as it is already in terminal and duplicating it corrupts the command....at least that's what initially happened to me.... 

error: Unable to open /usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc

 I keep getting the above error message from Ubuntu Gutsy. I suspect it's gumming up the

  aptitude install $(bootstrap_firmware -a)

 command.
 

@Jimcooncat: that error message is harmless.  It's a figment of the fact that firmware-tools uses the version comparison function from rpmlib instead of reinventing that wheel, but I agree it's annoying.  We will likely re-implement that function in python in firmware-tools itself to avoid it, but that hasn't been our highest priority. 

 Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "pci-firmware-ven-0x104c-dev-0xac56-subven-0x1028-subdev-0x0149"

Sounds like the same situation Jim Robinson above is dealing with.

Well, since bootstrap_firmware seems to be letting me down for upgrading my Inspiron 1100, I did some package searching with  

apt-cache search firmware | grep 1100

and found the following package that seems to be the bios version I want. Can I just install it and have it work?

Package: system-bios-inspiron-51-1100
New: yes
State: not installed
Version: 0.a32-1
Priority: optional
Section: admin
Maintainer: firmware-tools developers <firmware-tools-devel@lists.us.dell.com>
Uncompressed Size: 1114k
Architecture: all
Compressed Size: 420k
Filename: dists/cross-distro/dell-firmware/binary-i386/system-bios-inspiron-51-1100_0.a32-1_all.deb
MD5sum: b3b01b91a78931f8a0f8e4a023078a51
Archive: cross-distro
Depends: firmware-addon-dell (>= 1.1), firmware-tools (>= 1.1)
Provides: system-bios-ven-0x1028-dev-0x0149
Description: BIOS upgrade package for System: Inspiron_51_1100
 This package contains BIOS update version a32 for System Inspiron_51_1100

Bumping. :-) 

Got it! With Ubuntu, most people (like me) don't run as root. But: 

    sudo aptitude install $(bootstrap_firmware -a)

 
does not work correctly.

    sudo aptitude install $(sudo bootstrap_firmware -a)

does. It's because bootstrap_firmware needs to be run as root, and it's not the root user when it's running in the bash subshell.

The default Ubuntu installation doesn't have a root password enabled. Your instructions say "run as root", and many users have been used to just sticking a "sudo" in front of instructions as shown.

Another Inspiron 531S user here.  There is an "urgent" BIOS released for this machine (1.0.9) and I cannot seem to find any way to update this as the downloads page only has the exe for windoze. 

Libsmbios:    0.13.6
System ID:    0x020E
Service Tag:  XXXXXXX
Express Service Code: XXXXXXXXXXX
Product Name: Inspiron 531s
BIOS Version: 1.0.7
Vendor:       Dell Inc.
Is Dell:      1
 

What are the options?  A couple of other folks have asked above and I did not see an answer.  Thanks 

Shawn, currently firmware-tools cannot update the BIOS of the Inspiron 531S (system ID 0x020E).  There are a few systems which do not have this capability, yours is one of them.

I believe the BIOS package posted on support.dell.com requires some form of Windows to execute it.  If it would work in DOS, you could use the biosdisk tool at http://linux.dell.com/projects.shtml  to build an image you could boot into FreeDOS.  But I don't believe that will work with this particular system.

That's too bad, hopefully it will work soon.  For those of you looking for a workaround, as ugly as it may seem...

 I installed Bart's PE Builder on a windows machine, downloaded the bios file from dell, ran the PE Builder as described on bart's site and added the bios file to the Custom files.  This will get you a bootable CD in a windows environment that will let you run the bios update.
 

Matt,

The BIOS update for the Inspiron 530 is listed as “Urgent” with no supporting documentation.

I called Dell to ask for more information.

The Dell tech rep said there is no additional information and that Ubuntu systems do not need it because the update is for Windows.

I’m left with an uneasy feeling that the rep may have not had all the information.

Do you happen to know who I can contact at Dell who might be able to provide some additional information on the BIOS update?

Regards,
Adam.

worked flawlessly on a dell xps m1330 running 7.10 w/latest updates

not sure what i gained by the bios update...but it worked :-D 

I wonder if the "bios repositories" are up to date? On support.dell.com I can download version A.06 (ftp://ftp.dell.com/bios/1700_A06.EXE) for Windows, but the linux repositories only gives me A.04.

I am running Ubuntu 7.10 i386 on a Vostro 1700.

 Regards

Mats

 Mats, the Ubuntu repository is not quite up-to-date at the moment.  The BIOS extraction process changed a couple weeks ago, which broke my deb autobuilder, and I haven't had a chance to fix it.

Doesn't look like the BIOS update worked on my DELL Inspiron 8000 even though the commands did a LOT of processing.  My device manager still shows A02 (instead of A23 like the update said it was applying).  I guess now would have been a good time to keep the output from those 4 commands to debug (unless it all gets stored to a log anyway, I'm very new to ubuntu so please let me know).

Thanks.

Guess I forgot to mention I'm running on Gutsy (7.10) and received an error RBU #00002 when the computer restarted (though I don't know where I can look that one up, sorry).  I hope this helps.

Thanks. 

I just found on:

http://www.bay-wolf.com/flashbios.htm

that mentions:
   "If you are using Linux on an Inspiron 8000, do not upgrade the BIOS beyond version 17. All of the subsequent BIOS images are flawed. The kernel gives this message - 'Dell Inspiron with broken BIOS detected. Refusing to enable the local APIC.' Thanks go out to ErikK for bringing this to my attention."

    Of course, I'm not currently having problem with "broken BIOS".  I assumed that my laptop would potentially be improved by upgrading from a relatively ancient A02 BIOS (I don't want to introduce any more problems).  Please let me know if you can verify that updating my BIOS can help.

Thanks.

 Will there be an update for inspiron 1501 bios. I see there is one for windows here: http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R174470&SystemID=INS_PNT_1501&servicetag=BJ1N73J&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=13120&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=9&catid=1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=1&fileid=236967  

but when I looked up for my system id in  http://linux.dell.com/repo/dists/cross-distro/dell-firmware/binary-amd64/  I didn't find it.

Hmm... Not firmware, for my insp 1501 =(

root@dark-new-laptop:~# getSystemId
Libsmbios:    0.13.10
System ID:    0x01F5
Service Tag:  XXXXXXX
Express Service Code: XXXXXXXX
Product Name: Inspiron 1501
BIOS Version: 2.6.1
Vendor:       Dell Inc.
Is Dell:      1
root@dark-new-laptop:~# apt-cache search firmware | grep 1501
root@dark-new-laptop:~#

 

 K Diesel, Dmitry:  the Inspiron 1501 BIOS does not implement a BIOS update method that is compatible with firmware-tools at the moment.  I've listed it on the appropriate linux.dell.com web page for reference.  While a great number of Dell systems (~270) do have firmware-tools-capable BIOS updates, a few systems do not, the Inspiron 1501 is among them.

I tried this today (Apr 10) on an 1330 with Ubuntu 7.10.  

 $  wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/firmware/bootstrap.cgi | bash

bash: line 108: syntax error near unexpected token `fi'
bash: line 108: `           fi'

 Hmm...Any suggestions?

 

I have the same issue as ik does.  A solution would be great.     

Re: my note on the 10th,  

For some reason it works today (Apr 18th).  Unfortunately I didn't save an old copy of bootstrap.cgi to see if it was a change of the script, or something else.  Thanks to the spirits and goblins who fixed it.

 Also--when I run the bootstrap.cgi I get:

Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "pci-firmware-ven-0x8086-dev-0x2a02-subven-0x1028-subdev-0x022f"

 I have the same problem.  When I run aptitude install $(bootstrap_firmware -a), I get the message on my Inspiron 1420N:

Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "pci-firmware-ven-0x8086-dev-0x2a02-subven-0x1028-subdev-0x01f3"

  However, if I look at the package lists in Synaptic, I see a package called system-bios-inspiron-1420.  Is it safe to install it?  Does it do the same job?  It is nice of Dell to support Ubuntu, but without any documentation, I am not going to risk installing this.  Any help?

I also have this problem of the "Couldn't find any package...". I have a dell xps 1330 with ubuntu 8.x. Any idea?

All the messages "Couldn't find any package pci-firmware-*" can be safely ignored.  They are working as designed.

Most desktops and notebooks don't have PCI devices with upgradable firmware.  However, to be complete, the inventory_firmware script requests all those pci-firmware-* packages from the repository, just in case one does exist (on servers they do).  I recommended using aptitude to install, because it won't stop when the first non-existant package is requested, it continues and installs whatever it can that is requested - in the successful case, anything that matches system-bios-*.  (apt-get would fail as soon as you requested a non-existant package, which would be a problem for us here.)

Your reply on April 4th didn't mention my Inspiron 8000, nor was it listed in your  "appropriate linux.dell.com web page" as a reference.  Is it possible to update the BIOS of my Inspiron 8000 at all, using ubuntu?   It is currently at A02.  I enjoy ubuntu on this machine and don't want to install an inferior and proprietary OS just to update the BOIS.

Thank you.

 Thanks Matt, updated the BIOS without any problems now.