Problems using tool with Dell Dimension 8250

[Matt Domsch]

On Mon, Aug 28, 2006 at 09:06:07AM -0600, Stephen John Smoogen wrote:
> I have a Dell Dimension 8250 (currently BIOS A02), and decided to try
> the firmware tools to update. Followed the instructions on the wiki
> page and yum installed the package
> 
> system_bios_ven_0x1028_dev_0x0145-a04-14.1
> 
> as expected. Rebooted the system and saw it flash  a message saying
> that it was attempting to flash the bios to A04, and then the grub
> screen shows up. Checking the BIOS again, it is still at A02. What are
> the debugging steps I should try to find out why this isnt working.

After much investigation, it appears that some number of desktop
systems shipped with a non-functional version of the BIOS update code
method that firmware-tools uses.  These include some systems that
started shipping as recently as late 2002, though not all 2002 systems
are affected.  Newer systems, those that include a Windows flash
executable in their packages on support.dell.com, are not affected.

We're compiling a list of systems provided to us by our BIOS teams
that will be incorporated into dell-repo-tools, so we don't produce
BIOS update RPMs for the affected systems.

Smooge, unfortunately, your Dimension 8250 is one of those.

Thanks for finding this, and for letting us know.  The published
method for updating affected systems is to download and boot a floppy
disk.

If, after we've updated dell-repo-tools, you find additional systems
on which firmware-tools doesn't work, please let us know.

Thanks,
Matt

-- 
Matt Domsch
Software Architect
Dell Linux Solutions linux.dell.com & www.dell.com/linux
Linux on Dell mailing lists @ http://lists.us.dell.com