I’m attempting to upgrade the BIOS in an ASUS 1005HA netbook. The netbook runs SuSE 11.3, and no other OS. All the BIOS utilities on from ASUS are Windows or DOS based. ASUS has a utility titled afudos that apparently flashes the programmable ROM. Running afudos using the dosemu utility suggests that one needs to create a DOS boot drive, execute afudos during a reboot with the new ROM image located on the drive.
How does one accomplish said task on a netbook without a floppy disc drive?
Do I create a bootable DOS USB flash drive that contains just afudos and the new bios flash rom upgrade? And if so, how does one do this?
As a side issue, it looks like all the major motherboard vendors do not support Linux. That is, all the motherboard drivers require Windows or DOS. Is there a Linux solution to this problem?
DOS based are not so difficult. Here is one method: Boot DOS without Floppy - openSUSE (edit : while is says applicable to openSUSE-10.3 and 11.0, it should work with 11.3. I simply have not tested this for a long time)
…
I agree it is likely intimidating for a new user. For an average to advanced user it is basic. Good luck on your progress.
Note you are trying to generically run non-specified BIOS update program(s) [which change the firmware in the very core of your PC] which are also designed to run on a DIFFERENT operating system than Linux, where there signficant differences in operating systems. I would be suspicious of any solution that is too simple.
On 2010-12-14 20:36, neildarlow wrote:
>
> Are you sure the solution is this complicated?
>
> I have an Asus Eee 900A and to update the BIOS all I have to do is
> place the image file, renamed to 900.ROM, on a FAT16-formatted USB
> stick.
That’s because they have prepared the BIOS itself to do updates that way.
Others require you to boot the machine with msdos or windows, and then run
the bios update program.
It would be interesting to know how many machines use the system you
indicate, it is certainly easier. I suppose there must be an extra boot
option in the bios, or a bios config entry or something.
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Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)