Bios update on PE1850 'McAfee SCM appliance'

[Michael E Brown]

On Fri, Dec 14, 2007 at 12:24:45PM -0500, Dan Reagan wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've recently been handed a PE1850 which appears normal in all respects 
> but one, it has a McAfee SCM appliance bios on it (rev A04). It is 
> resisting my efforts to flash it to a more recent version, both with the 
> DOS boot disk and native Linux tools.
> 
> Is it possible (and/or permissible) to flash this machine up to a more 
> recent revision?
> 
> The DOS floppy upgrade method fails by explicitly stating:
> 
>    Cannot use a "" BIOS in a "McAfee, Inc. - SCM appliance"
> 
> I used this same upgrade floppy to do another PE1850 shortly afterwards 
> so I'm sure that the floppy is functional and the error is pretty clear 
> about what the problem is.
> 
> The linux upgrade method (dellBiosUpdate -u -f bios.hdr) works at the 
> command line initially. After the reboot it starts the upgrade process 
> which immediately fails and continues to boot.

Huh. I didnt expect that. I sort of expected that would work. There
arent any settings that I can frobble to get around that, though, in the
Linux flash utility.

Which versions did you try, how did you do the update, and what were the
messages it gave?

> It appears that there is some sort of protection mechanism in there for 
> this OEM bios. I don't know whether it's there so people don't 
> accidentally bung up their McAfee appliances or if it's there because 
> you're not *allowed* to upgrade the bios on these boxes and I imagine 
> that's going to be the sticking point if there is one.

There isnt really anything there as far as technical measures to prevent
this. A couple of software checks. All of the cases I know if the Dell
BIOS will work just fine.

> I'm not sure that it'll be a functional problem for me (beyond whatever 
> changes are available in A04->A06) as I was able to flash the RAID 
> controller and the DRAC firmware with no problems. The splash screen is 
> aesthetically displeasing which is an incentive though ;')
> 
> All that said, does anyone have any idea how I can get past this or am I 
> pretty much out of luck? I don't want to trod on any contractual or 
> legal toes if I'm not allowed but would like to get it done if possible.

There are some undocumented switches to the DOS flash utility...

--
Michael