How to upgrade BIOS?

[everypot]

I can download the BIOS Upgrade file from the manufacturer's website. But without Windows installed, I don't know how to use it on FreeBSD. wine or virtual box?

 

[robertclemens]

In this scenario you will almost *always* have to use a dos bootable disk with the dos flash program and bios file.

There are a lot of variables but the above solution is a very general one without knowing anything more.

 

[jnr]

It depends on the motherboard. My Gigabyte board, for instance, has a built-in flashing program that can read updates from FAT-formatted USB drives.

 

[Beastie]

Don'ts:
Most of the time you *don't* do it under FreeBSD, or Windows, or any other modern, multi-tasking operating system running under protected mode, unless a special application is provided for that purpose (rarely).
As for doing it under an emulator such as VirtualBox, it should be a pretty fun game.

Do's:
Read any instructions/documentation/readme that came with the file or on the BIOS/BIOS upgrade provider's website. It may explain the entire process and the safety precautions.

Check the file you've got. It most probably is an MS-DOS application, which is the best method for flashing a BIOS when no native (BIOS-MoBo) one is provided. In that case just make a boot disk (from any Win9x or Vista????) or get one from the Internet, put the file on it, boot MS-DOS and execute the file.

And finally here's some reading for you.

 

[everypot]

thanks. I made a bootable winpe usb drive. started windows. downloaded the .exe file from the manufacturer's website. then run the .exe file and reboot. the bios is upgraded!

 

[everypot]

By the way, do I need to rebuild the kernel/world after the bios update? I found that the key for changing brightness does not work on FreeBSD(it works on windows thought). It worked before.

 

[Beastie]

Try loading acpi_video(4) (# kldload acpi_video) and modifying its variables.
Also check xbacklight(1) (x11/xbacklight).