NaveOSS

I recently ran into an issue with upgrading Dell PowerEdge servers. Having many old PowerEdge 1750, PowerEdge 2850, PowerEdge 2900, and many others I needed a quick and easy way to update the bios while in Ubuntu and Debian. Official options from Dell consist of:

• Floppy Image (only you need windows to make the floppy)
• Windows exe install
• Redhat Enterprise Linux (non-free)

Since reformatting and installing Windows or Redhat seems completely dumbfounding just for a bios update, I found there is actually a really good and easy way to do this using smbios2.

In Ubuntu or Debian run “sudo apt-get install libsmbios-bin” after this installs run:

ubuntu-server:~# getSystemId

Libsmbios version:      2.2.13

Product Name:           PowerEdge 1750

Vendor:                 Dell Computer Corporation

BIOS Version:           A11

System ID:              0x014A

Service Tag:            XXXXXXX

Express Service Code:   XXXXXXXXXX

Asset Tag:

Property Ownership Tag:

Note the System ID: value. This server is 0x014A.

Visit http://linux.dell.com/repo/firmware/bios-hdrs/ and you will see a lot of directories listed such as:

• system_bios_ven_0x1028_dev_0x014a_version_a11
• system_bios_ven_0x1028_dev_0x00a6_version_a07
• system_bios_ven_0x1028_dev_0x00a6_version_a08

The end number a11, a07, a08 is the Bios version number. Its always a good bet to choose the highest number. Take the SystemID noted earlier and find the system_bios_ven_0x1028_dev_ that matches.  Since my system ID was 0x014a that means system_bios_ven_0x1028_dev_0x014a_version_a11 is the link that applies to my hardware.  Click that link to get a list of files for your hardware. Once the file list is available, choose to download the bios.hdr to your machine.  Then run the following command:

dellBiosUpdate -u -f bios.hdr

Some data will appear on the screen, and it will indicate when it is ready to reboot.  Do so by typing “sudo reboot” or by pressing ctrl-alt-delete.  As the machine comes back up, the bios will be flashed so don’t shut the system off!!  You will know when its done when your machine starts booting again.

You’ve now upgraded your bios!