How do I find my bios version & upgrade my bios with a running 13.1 x64 system

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dalpets

I have used dmidecode without success & have been unable to find here any methodlogy for the necessary conversion to upgrade from Windows exe (bin) files.
Any help is appreciated.
 
The "Howto" section is not for asking how to do things. Thread moved.
 
How do I find my bios version
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Reboot the machine and go in the BIOS, then look at the version.
upgrade my bios
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Modern BIOS/UEFI usually have an option in the BIOS/UEFI to upgrade the firmware. Some boards even have a specific USB port you can attach a memory stick to, with a BIOS/UEFI update file on it. Pressing a button while powering up will automatically upgrade it (so you can even "unbrick" a botched mainboard). But this highly depends on the brand/model of your mainboard.
 
Alain De Vos said:
Many bios upgrades require you run the bios-upgrade executable under windows O.S.
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Not anymore. That certainly was the case for older mainboards. As I said, many mainboards can be upgraded from within the BIOS/UEFI itself.
 
My motherboard is the Asus A8N sli deluxe (circa 2004), so it certainly qualifies as 'older'. Looks like I will have to revert to Windows, as a preliminary, to get the required info.
 
dalpets said:
My motherboard is the Asus A8N sli deluxe (circa 2004)
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RTFM.
The ASUS EZ Flash feature allows you to update the BIOS without having to
go through the long process of booting from a floppy disk and using a
DOS-based utility. The EZ Flash utility is built-in the BIOS chip so it is
accessible by pressing <Alt> + <F2> during the Power-On Self Tests
(POST)
Click to expand...

A8N-SLI Deluxe - Support

www.asus.com www.asus.com
 
<Alt> + <F2> tells me to load a disk. Is this refering to the original old floppy approach which you don't recommend? If this is the case can I substitute a cd/dvd disk? I currently have the update on a flash drive. That goes nowhere.
 
Every bios is different so it's hard to say. Maybe it's just waiting for something to boot , ie not to flash.
You must read the manual of the bios.
 
How do I find my bios version
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As people said before you can find it directly by booting into your bios and look at it, or you can find it also by installing 'inxi' and run the command sudo inxi -b which will show your bios version among few other things.
 
dalpets said:
<Alt> + <F2> tells me to load a disk. Is this refering to the original old floppy approach which you don't recommend? If this is the case can I substitute a cd/dvd disk? I currently have the update on a flash drive. That goes nowhere.
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If you got to the boot menu, you missed the point in time to get into the board's BIOS... You first get the option to get into the BIOS (usually via F2 key), and after that, you get the boot menu. Which means that by the time you press <Alt> + <F2>, the POST process is over. It can be over pretty quick on a good board.

Some ASUS boards come with a Windows utility to update the BIOS - in which case, you can just swap out the HDD with FreeBSD for an HDD with Windows... But yeah, nothing replaces reading the manual for your specific hardware.
 
I own a HP-Pavilion PC. To upgrade the bios i must change first the video card from AMD to Nvidea.
Then i must boot in Windows to re-flash.
It is so cumbersome i don't even upgrade the bios.
 
the manual states @ 4.1.5 (4-7) that the 'EZ Flash Feature allows you to update the bios without going through the long process of booting from a floppy disk' then in the same section @ point 2 it says conflictingly 'save the bios to a floppy disk'

So, what sort of disk do I use that will work best with 13.1 > usb flash disk, or cdrom/dvd?

Thanks all for your helpful advice. The herd comment in the wild that 'nobody reads manuals' certainly does not apply to FBSD but probably can be attributed over long periods of time to a large mass of manuals that are poorly written & useless.
 
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dalpets said:
the manual states @ 4.1.5 (4-7) that the 'EZ Flash Feature allows you to update the bios without going through the long process of booting from a floppy disk' then in the same section @ point 2 it says conflictingly 'save the bios to a floppy disk'

So, what sort of disk do I use that will work best with 13.1 > usb flash disk, or cdrom/dvd?

Thanks all for your helful advice.
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Don't try to update BIOS from within FreeBSD. Boot straight into the BIOS (NOT FreeBSD). And re-read my post (#12 in this thread).
 
astyle said:
If you got to the boot menu, you missed the point in time to get into the board's BIOS... You first get the option to get into the BIOS (usually via F2 key), and after that, you get the boot menu. Which means that by the time you press <Alt> + <F2>, the POST process is over. It can be over pretty quick on a good board.

Some ASUS boards come with a Windows utility to update the BIOS - in which case, you can just swap out the HDD with FreeBSD for an HDD with Windows... But yeah, nothing replaces reading the manual for your specific hardware.
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Interested to know how a Windows bios can also satisfy linux/unix. In a dual boot would they be the same?
 
dalpets said:
Interested to know how a Windows bios can also satisfy linux/unix. In a dual boot would they be the same?
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No such thing as a Windows BIOS... BIOS is a firmware that lives on the mobo, not the HDD... BIOS will 'see' the HDD, and boot whatever's on the HDD.
 
astyle said:
No such thing as a Windows BIOS... BIOS is a firmware that lives on the mobo, not the HDD... BIOS will 'see' the HDD, and boot whatever's on the HDD.
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So, is this 'free range' bios on any given motherboard able to to read all inputs & outputs of any loaded hardware?
Why then does the dual booting of bioses for different OS's require different booting software (grub etc) on the boot sector of a hard drive?
 
Bootloader has nothing to do with the BIOS. All the BIOS does is initialize the (mainboard) hardware, and load the bootsector of a disk. Then the code in de bootsector takes over and the BIOS does nothing at all.
 
dalpets said:
So, is this 'free range' bios on any given motherboard able to to read all inputs & outputs of any loaded hardware?
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BIOS scans for compatible hardware that's not fried. HDD, RAM, USB and ethernet ports.
dalpets said:
Why then does the dual booting of bioses for different OS's require different booting software (grub etc) on the boot sector of a hard drive?
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When BIOS actually finds an HDD, that's when it reads the boot loader off the boot sector of the HDD and gives you a boot menu.

After that step, the bootloader (which lives on the HDD's boot sector, not the mobo) takes over (As SirDice pointed out), and gives you the dual-boot option if it's there.

There's a pretty clean separation between BIOS, bootloader, and OS. They don't mix.
 
SirDice said:
gotnull said:
As people said before you can find it directly by booting into your bios and look at it, or you can find it also by installing 'inxi' and run the command sudo inxi -b which will show your bios version among few other things.
Click to expand...
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I was looking forward to 'inxi' meeting my needs but what it came up with was not even in the default list of bios updates for my board. Maybe as commented elsewhere here, attempting to get the current bios should not be done inside the FBSD OS, which is what I did.
Unfortunately, the other option suggested was a nightmarish failure and I will deal with that in a later thread.
 
dalpets said:
Unfortunately, the other option suggested was a nightmarish failure and I will deal with that in a later thread
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Y'know, the manuals linked to earlier in this thread actually tell you how to get into the mobo's BIOS... It does take paying attention, and putting in some effort to time your push of F2 just right. Older mobos do suffer from not giving you enough time to push F2.

Funny thing about those older mobos - their BIOS usually lets you increase that timeout to more than a whole minute - if you can navigate the BIOS once you get inside.

So, in typical Internet fashion: RTFM. Once you succeed in getting into the BIOS, the first thing to do is to increase that timeout to say, about 30 seconds. I personally do just 5, but that's only because that number suits me.
 
dalpets said:
I was looking forward to 'inxi' meeting my needs but what it came up with was not even in the default list of bios updates for my board. Maybe as commented elsewhere here, attempting to get the current bios should not be done inside the FBSD OS, which is what I did.
Unfortunately, the other option suggested was a nightmarish failure and I will deal with that in a later thread.
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Normally the bios version is on the Mobo line, what does the following command line says:
sudo inxi -b | grep Mobo

That being said as others already said, if really you can't get this info from within FreeBSD you can get it from the Bios directly, it's not that hard:
_ reboot the OS
_ press the specified keys
_ now that you are in the bios , just look at the info you want, then exit and that's it :)

Note:
Just found this comment from a YT video, apparently a guy like you that can't get into Bios
To get in BIOS setup you need to keep tapping del key and it will get you there 50% of time
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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0u1ZnRCwAU


That's exactly what I had to do with the first computer I bought (ACER) long time ago in the 2007 I think.
I remember how stupid it was, tapping like an idiot otherwise ... no bios, since I never ever bought ACER brand.
 
dalpets said:
I was looking forward to 'inxi' meeting my needs but what it came up with was not even in the default list of bios updates for my board. Maybe as commented elsewhere here, attempting to get the current bios should not be done inside the FBSD OS, which is what I did.
Unfortunately, the other option suggested was a nightmarish failure and I will deal with that in a later thread.
Click to expand...
PS: It turns out 'inxi' was correct with 1805, but since Asus has two different conflicting bios pages on their site for this board - one cuts off at 1016, the other at 1805, this was responsible for my original misapprehension. Strangely, there are no bios updates between the above two, this is probably because somehow the latter arrived at a much later date, relating to RAID implementation issues.
The bottom line is it appears that 'inxi' can be used inside FreeBSD.
For the record my bios for this board does not record the latest bios in use.
 
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