update_firmware: "dellBiosUpdate: error: no such option: -f"

[James Hogan]

Hi,

I'm trying to update my BIOS on an XPS M1210 laptop with fedora 9 x86_64. I've 
setup the repositories, yum installed "system_bios_MXC062", but when I 
do "update_firmware --yes" I get "dellBiosUpdate: error: no such option: -f". 
Anybody got any ideas what's wrong or how I can work around it?

I have tried restarting and I still get the same error (even from a virtual 
terminal without logging in graphically), and this is with 4gb of RAM so I 
don't think it is the memory fragmentation problem.

Slightly OT but if anybody has any idea how to get the BIOS to release more 
than 3.3GB of my 4GB to 64bit Fedora then I'm all ears (that's what I'm 
hoping to fix by updating my BIOS).

Full output of the "update_firmware --yes" command is below.

Thanks
James

> Running system inventory...
>
> Searching storage directory for available BIOS updates...
> Checking System BIOS for MXC062 - a06
>         Available: system_bios(ven_0x1028_dev_0x01d7) - a08
>         Found Update: system_bios(ven_0x1028_dev_0x01d7) - a08
>
> Found firmware which needs to be updated.
>
> Running updates...
> -       Installing system_bios(ven_0x1028_dev_0x01d7) - a08Installation
> failed for package: system_bios(ven_0x1028_dev_0x01d7) - a08 aborting
> update...
>
> The error message from the low-level command was:
>
> Could not update the system BIOS.
>
> Many times, this is due to memory constraints. The BIOS update can require
> from 1 to 4 megabytes of physically contiguous free RAM in order to do the
> update. Because memory can become fragmented, this is not always available.
> To correct this, try rebooting and running the update immediately after
> reboot.
>
> The output from the low-level bios update command was:
>
> Usage: smbios-rbu-bios-update
>
> dellBiosUpdate: error: no such option: -f

-- 
James Hogan