Trouble updating BIOS on a PowerEdge SC1420

[Chad Scott]

On 10/4/06, Matt Domsch <Matt_Domsch at dell.com> wrote:
> > # modprobe dell_rbu
> # dellBiosUpdate -u --force_mono -f /usr/share/firmware/bios/whatever
> > # /sbin/shutdown -r now

Okay, although this, in the end, worked, there was some strangeness
with this method...

I did an 'init 1', waited to drop to single-user, did 'modprobe
dell_rbu', verified it was loaded, then did a 'dellBiosUpdate
--force_mono -f bios.hdr -u' and got a strange error that I was unable
to capture.

It complained of insufficient permissions, being unable to allocate
memory, and the rbu size not being set (?).

So, I thought maybe my syntax was wrong, so I tried it again with the
same result.

So, I ran 'script /root/bios.txt' to capture the error, and the damn
thing succeeded.  That'll teach me to not run script right off the
bat. :)

My box is now happily running A04.

I hope that helps.  I can try to downgrade to A03 and then back to A04
to see if I can reproduce this if needed.