Supermicro bios update

[Paul van der Vlis]

Hello,

Normally I buy Supermicro servers. Updating the bios works most of the
time fine with the free program Flashrom.[1] But now I have bought a
type what is not supported by Flashrom.

Because of that, the program asks which type of programmer to use, and
presents a list. But I don't know which one to choose. And Supermicro
support does not know that too.

When I ask Supermicro support (Europe) for another solution to upgrade
the bios, they only can advice me to create a bootable USB stick with
MS-DOS using a Windows PC.

This are servers what are used much with free software, in my opinion
it's normal to have some way to upgrade the bios without Windows.

I would like to ask you if you think about buying a Supermicro server,
first to ask Supermicro support for a way to update the bios. You can
ask it to your sales-person, or here in Europe you can ask it at
"support at supermicro dot nl".

With regards,
Paul van der Vlis.

[1] http://flashrom.org/Flashrom

[Paul Hänsch]

Post by Paul van der Vlis
When I ask Supermicro support (Europe) for another solution to upgrade
the bios, they only can advice me to create a bootable USB stick with
MS-DOS using a Windows PC.

I've done (PC) BIOS updates using FreeDos. That works fine. I believe I
had to disable some CDROM or hard disk drivers in
config.sys/autoexec.bat so the system wouldn't accidentally disable the
floppy emulation when running from a USB stick.

If that works for you, that's maybe a usable recommendation for the
Supermicro 1st level support answering catalogue.
--
Paul H?nsch ?? Webmaster, System-Hacker
??????
Jabber: paul at jabber.fsfe.org ?? Free Software Foundation Europe
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[Paul van der Vlis]

Post by Paul Hänsch

Post by Paul van der Vlis
When I ask Supermicro support (Europe) for another solution to upgrade
the bios, they only can advice me to create a bootable USB stick with
MS-DOS using a Windows PC.

I've done (PC) BIOS updates using FreeDos. That works fine. I believe I
had to disable some CDROM or hard disk drivers in
config.sys/autoexec.bat so the system wouldn't accidentally disable the
floppy emulation when running from a USB stick.

I have an USB stick with FreeDOS what boots fine on my laptop.
But it does not boot on the Supermicro server.

Maybe it has to do with UEFI, the Supermicro server sees the USB stick
only as an UEFI device. So far I know FreeDOS does not have UEFI support.

With regards,
Paul van der Vlis.