Read BIOS settings?

[James Jarvis]

Adam Tilghman wrote:
>I'm looking for a Linux tool which can read BIOS settings from an Optiplex
desktop, specifically the boot-order setting.  

Alan, I am fairly sure it cannot read the settings, but dmidecode gives back
a lot of BIOS information. You probably need the nvram module inserted. 

Perhaps one of the Dell engineers could clarify but this would be a useful
ability - it presumably is possible because the Dell OpenManage stuff is
doing something along these lines???

The facility to enumerate and change BIOS settings from within Linux
(subject to admin permissions etc) would be a winning feature when our next
PC tender is undertaken, as we install all our Windows PC's using linux (see
http://pie.ucs.ed.ac.uk/).

James Jarvis
IS - Desktop Services
The University of Edinburgh