Eric:
Some version of Windows is what Dell expects him to have to update his
BIOS, that's where that came in. ReactOS didn't fully start for him
when he burned it to a DVD and tried to boot that DVD, but that isn't
surprising considering that ReactOS has not even reached beta status
yet. If he switched to a USB flash drive instead of a DVD he
potentially could get ReactOS to start up fully, but it would make
more sense for him to put a Lite FreeDOS 1.2 on there, his BIOS image,
and the bios programming executable. I'm surprised that he can't use
DOSBOX directly on Kubuntu so he doesn't have to worry about creating
any removable media at all. He has a laptop that has a true BIOS, so I
would think that DOSBOX would allow him to run the BIOS update program
and reprogram it trivially. It would be safer of course for him to
have a usb flash drive set up and boot from it to do this. I hope he
doesn't make any major mistakes struggling to update his BIOS, backups
are key when you are trying to do this and having trouble.
Would it be easier via DOSBOX to format a USB flash drive so it can
boot freedos complete with the BIOS image and the BIOS programmer? I'm
thinking, get poor Stephano away from needing to use dd and worry
about
isos and all that jazz... He should simply be able to do a:
format /s a: ; copy bios.img a: ; cp programmer.exe a:
Of course, bios.img and programmer.exe need to replaced with the
actual file names. The complexity is hidden, you must set up DOSBOX
correctly before it becomes this easy.
-----------------------------------------From: "Eric Auer"
To: freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
Cc:
Sent: Friday April 9 2021 10:06:50AM
Subject: Re: [Freedos-user] Using a USB stick and an optical drive
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/ [1] 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.
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