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 van der Vlis paul@vandervlis.nl Thu 2014-09-11 16:41:
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.
op 11-09-14 17:10, Paul Hänsch schreef:
Paul van der Vlis paul@vandervlis.nl Thu 2014-09-11 16:41:
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.