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Flashing Your BIOS From The Linux Desktop

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  • Flashing Your BIOS From The Linux Desktop

    Phoronix: Flashing Your BIOS From The Linux Desktop

    Linux hardware support has improved a great deal over the past few years, but there are still a few troubled spots. With computer motherboards, for instance, the core functionality is generally there and most consumer motherboards will "just work" with the latest desktop Linux distributions out there. Where users though can run into problems are with the ancillary features. Motherboard manufacturers usually bundle proprietary software with their products that allow monitoring of hardware sensors, flashing of the motherboard BIOS, and overclocking all from within the Windows operating system. With the exception of LM_Sensors providing some sensors support, this is a grey area for Linux. Fortunately, however, the folks working on the CoreBoot project have developed a program that will near universally allow you to flash your motherboard's BIOS from within the Linux desktop.

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    A wonderful thing to bring to the attention of the community. Thanks Michael.

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    • #3
      This is so great

      Flashing from Windows is totally crap and dangerous, and depends on the company behind the motherboard. If this tool works reliable, this would make things easier for Linux users than for Windows users I'll try it out once the v1.0 release appears.

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      • #4
        This is indeed great news although many modern mainboards now have a flashing tool integrated on a static part of the BIOS.

        But still ... it's good for remote BIOS flashing and updating old boxes.

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        • #5
          Hmm. I'm not a big fan of flashing your BIOS while an operating system is running on top of it either. If you have any kind of power management running chances are pretty good that there are occasional calls into the BIOS happening... and if one of those calls happens while the BIOS ROM is blank, that would be a problem.

          I wouldn't flash the BIOS under any OS unless I already had a recovery plan - either a disk or a shadow BIOS stored in the flash.
          Test signature

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          • #6
            My BIOS can flash itself using a file from a USB stick but still, this is cool. No way I'm gonna flash mine again though. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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            • #7
              Well, novice users usually take whatever the website tells them. And in most cases that's a Windows flash tool.

              Me, I either use a boot CD to flash it (most vendors offer bootable ISOs) or (for the mobos that support it) I flash it through the BIOS itself using a USB stick. Much, much safer.

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              • #8
                Having not had to flash my bios with Linux yet, I had been wondering for quite a while how I would do it if I needed to.

                This is very exciting if you ask me.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by GreatWalrus View Post
                  Having not had to flash my bios with Linux yet, I had been wondering for quite a while how I would do it if I needed to.
                  Using the method described in the post just above yours :P

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by RealNC View Post
                    Using the method described in the post just above yours :P
                    Yes, but I said I had been wondering how I would do it. So now I know of multiple ways.

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