notebook BIOS update without Windows?

[Gabriel M Dragffy]

On Tue, 2006-10-10 at 00:06 -0400, Felipe Alfaro Solana wrote:
> On 10/9/06, Francisco Borges <f.borges at rug.nl> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I have a notebook (Dell Inspiron6400) with only Linux in it. I would
> > like to update the BIOS of it (according to Dell "update thermal
> > control").
> >
> > All files at Dell's website to update the BIOS are .EXE files.
> >
> > Is there way to update the BIOS without Windows?
> 
> I think you answered yourself below :-)
> 
> > A FreeDOS CDROM? Run the exe from Wine?
> 
> You should boot from any FreeDOS or MS-DOS floppy, then run the BIOS updater.
> WIINE won't work, since it won't allow the executable to access the
> hardware directly.
> 

Updating the BIOS is risky business even when you are running windows. I
should do EXACTLY what it recommends in the instructions. Don't even
think about doing it with linux/bsd + wine. The problem is if the update
of the BIOS goes pear-shaped for any number of hundreds of reasons then
you may well be left with a useless computer (motherboard). If the
instructions say you can do the update with some form of MS-DOS then you
*may* get away with freeDOS or something. I don't have experience with
Dell computers but on my Sony laptop the BIOS updates still require a
windows environment.