[ale] A reason NOT to remove Windows from a laptop

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Fri, 2011-01-07 at 15:31 -0500, Michael H. Warfield wrote: 
> On Fri, 2011-01-07 at 14:12 -0500, Ron Frazier wrote: 
> > Hi all.  I have a Dell laptop which I dual boot between Windows and
> > Ubuntu.  I do about 95% of my activities in Ubuntu, but have a few that
> > require Windows.  I also support some family and friends which use
> > Windows.
> 
> > FYI, I just discovered another reason to leave Windows on there.  I
> > decided to update the BIOS on the machine to the latest version.  I
> > discovered that the BIOS flash update program from the Dell website is
> > designed to run under Windows.  So, it's a good thing I hadn't erased
> > Windows or I couldn't update the BIOS.
> 
> No you don't.  Yes you could.
> 
> http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Tech/libsmbios
> http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Repository/firmware
> 
> They even have links to building a Fedora run-live to do it.
> 
> Then there's always flashrom that seems to support just about
> anything... 
> 
> yum info flashrom
> 
> Available Packages
> Name        : flashrom
> Arch        : x86_64
> Version     : 0.9.3
> Release     : 0.1.svn1205.fc14
> Size        : 101 k
> Repo        : updates
> Summary     : Simple program for reading/writing BIOS chips content
> URL         : http://flashrom.org
> License     : GPLv2
> Description : Utility which can be used to detect BIOS chips (DIP, PLCC), read
>             : their contents and write new contents on the chips ("flash the
>             : chip").

> I think that comes from the coreboot project, iirc.

Oh, they just list it as "related".  Here's the Flashrom site:

http://www.flashrom.org/Flashrom

== 
flashrom is a utility for identifying, reading, writing, verifying and
erasing flash chips. It is designed to flash
BIOS/EFI/coreboot/firmware/optionROM images on mainboards,
network/graphics/storage controller cards, and various programmer
devices.

      * Supports more than 261 flash chips, 152 chipsets, 259
        mainboards, 43 PCI devices, 5 USB devices and various
        parallel/serial port-based programmers.
== 

> > Just thought I'd pass that along.
> > 
> > Ron
> > 
> > -- 
> > 
> > (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
> > call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
> > mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new messages very quickly.)
> > 
> > Ron Frazier
> > 
> > 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
> > linuxdude AT c3energy.com
> 
> Regards,
> Mike

-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
   /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/          | (678) 463-0932 |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
   NIC whois: MHW9          | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
 PGP Key: 0x674627FF        | possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!
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