BIOS upgrade problem

[Jared]

Joe, thanks for the suggestion, and sorry for the late reply.  I hadn't had 
a chance to mess with the server for the last week or so, but Michael's 
similar response earlier today reminded me of this.

I'd like to clarify a couple things to make sure I understand this approach.

You say that I need to append reboot=bios "in the session you apply the 
update".  By that, you mean I boot Linux with that option _before_ I apply 
the update, then apply it, then reboot again.  Is that correct?

If so, I can't say this is a very efficient solution.  This would not 
require 2 separate reboots in order to upgrade my BIOS, and considering how 
long it takes my server to boot in general (and especially load OMSA), this 
will add nearly 10 more minutes to my update time.

If this does work, would there be any harm in _always_ using that reboot 
option?  That way, anytime I need to apply a BIOS upgrade, I can just do it 
from the running session, reboot, and be done with it.  Would that cause any 
other potential conflicts?  I found a brief mention of reboot=bios in the 
bootparam manpage, but it's rather short on details, so I'm not sure what 
the implications would be of always using this option.

Also, you suggested reboot=bios, while Michael suggested reboot=b.  Is there 
a difference between the two, or is reboot=b simply an abbreviated form? 
I'm assuming it's the latter, but again, just want to clarify.

Thanks again for the help with this issue.


--
Jared

On 02/27/08 15:22, Joe Malicki wrote:
> The Dell BIOS updates seem to store a copy of the BIOS in a special place
> in RAM, and after the reboot the BIOS picks up the change.  I've noticed
> on some platforms with some kernels, the memory is cleared after the reboot.
> 
> Booting Linux with the kernel commandline option "reboot=bios" in
> the session you apply the update fixes this for me.