Flash ASUS Bios without Floppy?

Flash ASUS Bios without Floppy?

[Wolfgang Rohdewald]

Hi,

how can I update my Bios (Asus A7V266) if I don't have a floppy drive
for using the Asus DOS utility?

Is there any Linux utililty that can do this?

Could I do it with freedos?

Wolfgang

Re: Flash ASUS Bios without Floppy? [OT]

[Pozsar Balazs]

Try the grub bootloader, it can boot floppy images.

On Mon, 3 Dec 2001, Wolfgang Rohdewald wrote:

> Hi,
>
> how can I update my Bios (Asus A7V266) if I don't have a floppy drive
> for using the Asus DOS utility?
>
> Is there any Linux utililty that can do this?
>
> Could I do it with freedos?
>
> Wolfgang
> -
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-- 
pozsy

Re: Flash ASUS Bios without Floppy?

[David Woodhouse]

WRohdewald@dplanet.ch said:
>  how can I update my Bios (Asus A7V266) if I don't have a floppy drive
> for using the Asus DOS utility?

> Is there any Linux utililty that can do this? 

There are flash chip 'map' drivers which know how to enable WE lines, Vpp 
etc for various northbridges. Only the L440GX one is in the kernel so far. 
For the rest, ask on the LinuxBIOS list <linuxbios@lanl.gov>.

Unless you fancy desoldering your flash chips to replace them when, this is
firmly in the "don't try this at home, kids" category, though :)

--
dwmw2

Re: Flash ASUS Bios without Floppy?

[Eric W. Biederman]

David Woodhouse <dwmw2@infradead.org> writes:

> WRohdewald@dplanet.ch said:
> >  how can I update my Bios (Asus A7V266) if I don't have a floppy drive
> > for using the Asus DOS utility?
> 
> > Is there any Linux utililty that can do this? 
> 
> There are flash chip 'map' drivers which know how to enable WE lines, Vpp 
> etc for various northbridges. Only the L440GX one is in the kernel so far. 
> For the rest, ask on the LinuxBIOS list <linuxbios@lanl.gov>.
> 
> Unless you fancy desoldering your flash chips to replace them when, this is
> firmly in the "don't try this at home, kids" category, though :)

Hmm.  Actually most flash chips I have seen for roms have a couple of nice
properties.  1 Voltage so you don't need to play with Vpp.  Either socketed or
their is a jumper that inverts an address line to allow easy switching to a
fallback image.  Of course not all motherboard makers have a clue, but
most do.

It may be worth asking but at this point I don't think anyone has actually
written a driver for the A7V266.  Via hasn't been the most supportive of
companies with the chipset documentation.

Eric

Re: Flash ASUS Bios without Floppy?

[Padraig Brady]

Wolfgang Rohdewald wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> how can I update my Bios (Asus A7V266) if I don't have a floppy drive
> for using the Asus DOS utility?


This might be of use.
http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~stepan/bios/


> Is there any Linux utililty that can do this?
> 
> Could I do it with freedos?


Theoretically I suppose?


> Wolfgang

Padraig.

Re: Flash ASUS Bios without Floppy?

[Len Sorensen]

On Mon, Dec 03, 2001 at 12:03:31AM +0100, Wolfgang Rohdewald wrote:
> how can I update my Bios (Asus A7V266) if I don't have a floppy drive
> for using the Asus DOS utility?
> 
> Is there any Linux utililty that can do this?
> 
> Could I do it with freedos?

There is a flash utility for windows, that runs from HD, so you could
use that.  If you don't have windows, why do you even care about the BIOS?

And if it fails, you WILL need a floppy to recover from the backup bios.

Len Sorensen

Flash ASUS Bios without Floppy?

[Wolfgang Rohdewald]

Hi,

how can I update my Bios (Asus A7V266) if I don't have a floppy drive
for using the Asus DOS utility?

Is there any Linux utililty that can do this?

Could I do it with freedos?

Wolfgang