26/12/2008
BIOS, dell, english, Help, italian, Ubuntu
10 commenti

Dell .hdr file any?

Anybody managed to extract (successfully and with Ubuntu) an .hdr file from an .exe BIOS update file from Dell? Looks like there’s an (almost) easy way to update Dell BIOSes as long as you have an .hdr file, but for my Mini 9 with System ID 0x02B0 Dell hasn’t provide any .hdr file… and extracting it is not working… any clue?

(I will owe you a beer!)

10 commenti
  2. Quigs ha detto:

    Didn’t notice that link :P.
    But still how do you know which lines up to the mini?

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  3. eddie ha detto:

    Some people coming from the planet can reverse it if the hdr is somehow stored inside the exe.

    Some people could even be able to write a hdr from the assembly listing.

    But you will have to provide a link to the exe

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  4. Greg ha detto:

    From http://linux.dell.com/projects.shtml:

    biosdisk simplifies the process of flashing your system BIOS under Linux on Dell desktops and laptops. The purpose of this utility is to create a bootable BIOS flash image using the raw BIOS flash executable images (e.g. WS360A05.exe) available from support.dell.com. An RPM, SRPM, and tarball for this project are available at http://linux.dell.com/biosdisk. A git tree is available at http://linux.dell.com/git.

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  5. Filippo ha detto:

    Don’t know how to extract hdr data but did you consider the biosdisk (http://linux.dell.com/projects.shtml#biosdisk) solution? it should create a little freedos bootable image that runs the update… it’s not clean like launching an exe but could work (didn’t test it yet)…

    Anyway, is there any need for a BIOS update with the mini? I looked for a changelog but didn’t find any…

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  6. I wouldn’t advise up[grading your BIOS unless it’s proposed by the methods described here:
    https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DellBIOS

    There are known issues for Ubuntu users if you upgrade your BIOS.

    You may want to call Dell Linux support directly at 1-866-622-1947 (using VoiP software like gizmo will let you call for free to north american numbers).

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  7. toobuntu ha detto:

    I upgrade Dell BIOS firmware on Ubuntu machines with biosdisk from Dell. It makes a freedos grub image which can be used without the need for a floppy or USB, etc.

    From http://linux.dell.com/projects.shtml :

    “biosdisk simplifies the process of flashing your system BIOS under Linux on Dell desktops and laptops. The purpose of this utility is to create a bootable BIOS flash image using the raw BIOS flash executable images (e.g. WS360A05.exe) available from support.dell.com. An RPM, SRPM, and tarball for this project are available at http://linux.dell.com/biosdisk. A git tree is available at http://linux.dell.com/git.

    “The project consists of a shell script that, when executed, creates a FreeDOS floppy image at a location of your choosing. This project is intended for Dell desktop and laptop customers and not PowerEdge customers, since Linux BIOS flash packages are already available for PowerEdge systems, and raw executable BIOS flash images are not.

    ***

    “* The install action will create the biosdisk image, copy the image file to /boot, and then update the bootloader with an entry for the image. Then all the user has to do is boot the system and select the image to flash the BIOS; this will load the biosdisk image directly from the hard drive and flash the BIOS.”

    biosdisk install [-o option] [–name=] /path/to/{.exe | .img}

    The mkpkg option to create a .deb did not work well for me, but the install options works great. You can delete the image in /boot and remove the grub menu.lst entry when finished.

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  8. Milo ha detto:

    @Quigs:
    You have to look for the System ID in the directory name from that link, you obtain the System ID using the command “getSystemId” (run with sudo). If your Sys. ID is not there, not even with the firmware-tools and update-firmware it will work, as it seems they fetch the file from there…

    @Greg, Filippo, toobunt:
    didn’t know about that project, will take a look at it

    @Filippo:
    Dell has a new BIOS version in their download website. In Italy, as they sell it only with Ubuntu, they are proposing the same update (from version 00 to 03), so I was wondering how to do it with Ubuntu/Linux (in an easy way,, in a double-click like way, not for me but for others), as (usual) they provide only the .exe file…

    @eddie:
    The hdr file _should_ be inside the .exe. I managed to open the exe file with Wine, but obviously didn’t find any hdr files. There’s only one rom.bin and then stuff for the flash program. The firmware-tools in the repo should be able to extract an hdr file from an exe file (that’s what dell wiki says), but it’s not working with that exe file (probably because there’s no hdr file in it?). If I’m not going anywhere with other solutions, I’ll upload the exe file somewhere…

    @Fabian:
    You suggest “not to upgrade” or “not to upgrade not using one of that methods”?

    I have to say that I would prefer the “firmware-tools” way as it looks a little bit easier (having in mind end-users, not power-users). I was planning to document/translate that for the Italian wiki, but only one easy way… if there’s one…

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  9. Milo ha detto:

    Oh… I almost forgot: with the BIOS update looks like they have mapped the F11 key to some Fn+$KEY, so it’s worth a try to me! 🙂

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