Hi! I do not understand where Windows and ReactOS are getting into the equation here. If you have Linux, you can search in your software center whether you find an app to install BIOS updates. If you have some DOS tool for that, you should run DOS for the tool, not Windows.
As your update is more than what fits on a floppy, you can check whether the actual update is smaller. Your file could be some sort of archive. Some BIOS even are able to install updates from files on USB sticks etc. when you find the right menu item. Read the manual :-) http://freedos.org/download/ explicitly offers DIFFERENT downloads for CD/DVD and for USB. Obviously it is easier to use the USB version if you want to run DOS from USB. The "Lite" FreeDOS 1.2 for USB contains an IMG file which you can simply "dd if=FD12LITE.img of=/dev/yourusbstick" (yourusbstick = the device name of the stick) which is unfortunately not explained in the README.md text file. According to the vmdk file in the download, the image has 62 x 16 x 63 DBB geometry at 512 byte per sector: 32 MB decimal or 30.5 MB in powers of 2, at 503 x 2 x 63 CHS. As the image starts with a partition table, you do not use it as partition image, but install it on the whole USB stick, overwriting any existing contents. The FAT16 partition on the stick (note that not all sticks can be booted at all!) has only 112 kB free. You may use gparted to resize it (but keep it FAT16, or it will not boot) or simply delete some files you do not need, for example /FDSETUP/PACKAGES/UTIL/4DOS.ZIP which frees up 4 MB for your BIOS update files and tools :-) You could also take the SOURCE/FREECOM/SOURCES.ZIP out of the COMMAND.ZIP in /FDSETUP/PACKAGES/BASE/ to save more than 4 MB again. *I think it would be better if the USB installer would* *use a much larger image padded with 96 MB empty space* It is very hard to find USB sticks smaller than 128 MB today and it makes life a lot easier if people can add things to the installer without having to resize it :-) ZIP download size will still be only 30 MB nevertheless. In any case, after you install the USB installer image to your USB stick of any size, it will initially look as if you have a 32 MB stick and you can delete 4DOS to make some space for your BIOS update tools and files. You do not need gparted for that and you do not need external floppy drives, CD drives or DVD drives either. Your 32/64 bit issue seems harmless: Your 64 bit Linux still supports 32 bit apps. You can use either style. Regards, Eric PS: Note that USB 1 is horribly slow, so you will need some patience. Even if you have USB 2 ports, your BIOS may use USB 1 access mode when you boot from USB stick. In that case, CD/DVD would be faster, but you need other tools to change the contents of ISO before burning them. _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
