Updating BIOS from USB

B

balanga

I'm trying to update the BIOS on two ThinkPads W520 and X61.

I have download the BIOS for my X61 from here but it seems that I can't use this image to boot from USB, I have to use a CD.

Is there any way round this?


It looks like I need to create a bootable USB stick. There is a suggestion to use RUFUS, but what can I do on FreeBSD?
 
balanga said:
It looks like I need to create a bootable USB stick. There is a suggestion to use RUFUS, but what can I do on FreeBSD?
Click to expand...

Try the suggestion for creating the freedos boot disk in this posting then copying your files needed to it.

loveydovey

Other Post in thread 'Can FreeBSD be used to create a bootable USB flash drive with the freedos OS?'

As a quick and dirty alternative, you can just go to https://www.freedos.org/download/ and download liteusb image, dd it to your usb stick, mount the partition with -t msdosfs, copy the files you need there, and voila.

This is a great way to do it if you just need it for things like flash BIOS, if it requires FreeDOS.
  • Thanks
 
I just discovered that this works and should be one of the steps in producing the required USB.

fetch https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/7nuj22uc.iso

My aim is to create a script for producing this USB stick.
 
If the BIOS file contains something that can be directly-flashed to a chip as-is (like a 8/16/32MB .bin), I'd try flashrom'ing it after trying to unlock flash descriptors (I'd try a setting under unlocked BIOS or setup_var but unless I was considering Coreboot I'd make the boot CD/USB if the flash unlock wasn't easy)

I burned a CD for a X230 to update BIOS/EC before Coreboot (couldn't figure out a bootable USB for it)
 
After building ms-sys which builds without problems on FreeVSD. running it provides these options:-


Code: 
root@W520:/tmp/dos/ms-sys-2.6.0/bin # ./ms-sys
Usage:
        ./ms-sys [options] [device]
Options:
    -1, --fat12     Write a FAT12 floppy boot record to device
    -2, --fat32nt   Write a FAT32 partition NT boot record to device
    -e, --fat32pe   Write a FAT32 partition PE boot record to device
    -3, --fat32     Write a FAT32 partition DOS boot record to device
    -4, --fat32free Write a FAT32 partition FreeDOS boot record to device
    -5, --fat16free Write a FAT16 partition FreeDOS boot record to device
    -6, --fat16     Write a FAT16 partition DOS boot record to device
    -n, --ntfs      Write a NTFS partition Windows 7 boot record to device
    -o, --fat16ros  Write a FAT16 partition ReactOS boot record to device
    -c, --fat32ros  Write a FAT32 partition ReactOS boot record to device
    -q, --fat32kos  Write a FAT32 partition KolibriOS boot record to device
    -l, --wipelabel Reset partition disk label in boot record
    -p, --partition Write partition info (hidden sectors, heads and drive id)
                    to boot record
    -H, --heads <n> Manually set number of heads if partition info is written
    -B, --bps <n>   Manually set number of bytes per sector (default 512)
    -O, --writeoem <s>   Write OEM ID string <s> to file system
    -S, --writewds <x>   Write Windows Disk Signature hexadecimal <x> to MBR
    -7, --mbr7      Write a Windows 7 MBR to device
    -i, --mbrvista  Write a Windows Vista MBR to device
    -m, --mbr       Write a Windows 2000/XP/2003 MBR to device
    -9, --mbr95b    Write a Windows 95B/98/98SE/ME MBR to device
    -d, --mbrdos    Write a DOS/Windows NT MBR to device
    -s, --mbrsyslinux    Write a Syslinux MBR to device
    -t, --mbrgptsyslinux Write a Syslinux GPT MBR to device
    -a, --mbrreactos     Write a ReactOS MBR to device
    -k, --mbrkolibrios   Write a KolibriOS MBR to device
    -r, --mbrrufus  Write a Rufus MBR to device
    -g, --mbrgrub4dos    Write a Grub4Dos MBR to device
    -b, --mbrgrub2  Write a Grub 2 MBR to device
    -z, --mbrzero   Write an empty (zeroed) MBR to device
    -f, --force     Force writing of boot record
    -h, --help      Display this help and exit
    -v, --version   Show program version
    -w, --write     Write automatically selected boot record to device

    Default         Inspect current boot record

Warning: Writing the wrong kind of boot record to a device might
destroy partition information or file system!

What should I select to make a USB stick bootable for applying a BIOS upgrade?

Does this sound right?

ms-sys -6 /dev/da0
 
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