update BIOS in Ubuntu

[Gathide]

Hello.
I use Ubuntu O/S (Linux) with Wolfdale 1333 -D667 R2.0 Asrock board. I can not get instructions on how to update the BIOS - ALL I get is for windows and DOS. Any idea?
Another problem I have with this board is that USB ports seem to fail occasionally. for example the usb mobile broadband modem or flash disk - sometimes the computer refuses to boot until I disconnect them. What setting I am missing?

will appreciate assistance on these issues (can use my email [email protected])

[bahram_alinezhad]

Install "flashrom":
flashrom

Or,
sudo aptitude install flashrom

[Gathide]

Install "flashrom":
flashrom

Or,
sudo aptitude install flashrom

Thanks for this respond
I have installed flashrom in the machine. How do I use it to upgrade the BIOS?
Any precuations/safety measures to consider?
Thanks

[bahram_alinezhad]

First, read (and save) your current bios to a file:

flashrom -p internal -r oldrom

If the read process was successful, go for write:

flashrom -p internal -w newrom

finished!

*Note that flashrom does not warn you about incorrect flash! Thus, be careful to select the correct rom for your motherboard.

**In case of wrong or unsuccessful flash, the only chance is that your bios chip is not soldered to board and you are able to flash it on another board or eeprom programmer!!

***I have used flashrom many times without problem.

[Gathide]

First, read (and save) your current bios to a file:

flashrom -p internal -r oldrom

If the read process was successful, go for write:

flashrom -p internal -w newrom

finished!

*Note that flashrom does not warn you about incorrect flash! Thus, be careful to select the correct rom for your motherboard.

**In case of wrong or unsuccessful flash, the only chance is that your bios chip is not soldered to board and you are able to flash it on another board or eeprom programmer!!

***I have used flashrom many times without problem.

Thank you for this:
I have just noted that the developer of this BIOS no longer support it. Could this mean there are no chances of getting newer version when I run flashrom? or increasing possibility of failing the current system to unrecoverable status?
I am just trying being cautions before embarking on the upgrade.

Thank again.

[bahram_alinezhad]

flashrom does not provide you the rom file, it only flashes it for you!
Thus, you have to download the correct rom file (from manufacturer or other reliable sources), and flash it via flashrom utility.

You may ask, then, what is the difference between flashrom and awdflash (award flash) or amiflash?
Answer is that, flashrom can be used to flash a chipset from another board on your board, so you can recover the bios of other boards (provided that its chipset is removable).

A similar program which works in DOS is "uniflash". uniflash is an inactive project (I didn't see any update of that for years), while flashrom is active. The other advantage of flashrom is that it is under linux.

[parsec]

Hello.
I use Ubuntu O/S (Linux) with Wolfdale 1333 -D667 R2.0 Asrock board. I can not get instructions on how to update the BIOS - ALL I get is for windows and DOS. Any idea?
Another problem I have with this board is that USB ports seem to fail occasionally. for example the usb mobile broadband modem or flash disk - sometimes the computer refuses to boot until I disconnect them. What setting I am missing?

will appreciate assistance on these issues (can use my email [email protected])

The DOS BIOS update method is not meant for PCs that actually run DOS as the OS. It's just a BIOS update method that runs from a DOS bootable device, such as a bootable floppy disk. The instructions for the DOS BIOS update method has instructions for creating such a disk.

I don't know if your board/BIOS can boot from a bootable DOS USB flash drive, but that is another potential option. If you have a CD/DVD drive that can write to disks, that could work instead of a floppy disk.

[bahram_alinezhad]

Most new boards, as you know, even does not require any OS to update bios; They have a utility inside their bios setup page who does the job. The only requirement is having the ROM file somewhere on a FAT file system.
Using flashrom is justified when you have no FAT(16/32) partitions, your motherboard does not have floppy port, and you don't know how to, or don't want to create a DOS CD/DVD.
Also as I said, it is used to flash a guest chip.