Thursday, September 27, 2012

Update Dell BIOS from linux

NOTE: messing with your BIOS is obviously dangerous.  Proceed at your OWN RISK!
First, install libsmbios-bin
sudo apt-get install libsmbios-bin
Now, you need to get the proper .hdr file.  It is bundled inside those little executables Dell has on their website.  So, start by downloading the latest .exe file from Dell. These can be extracted either with unzip or wine, as shown from this log file.
After trying unzip, I tried this command, and it worked:
wine O780-A13.exe -writehdrfile -nopause
Creating the file: O780-A13.hdr Now, follow these directions (as su or root):
modprobe dell_rbu
dellBiosUpdate -u -f ./O780-A13.hdr
Now just reboot, and wuala, an updated BIOS.