Dell PowerEdge BIOS update from within Debian

From NURDspace

Description

Thanks to http://www.ducea.com/2007/08/27/dell-bios-firmware-updates-on-debian/ I found a way to update the BIOS of a Dell PowerEdge 2950. It should work for other models as well, maybe even for Dell desktops and laptops?

So how to do it?

  • Install some tools:

aptitude update aptitude upgrade aptitude install smbios-utils libsmbios2

  • You can check the current BIOS version with:

getSystemId

  • Download BIOS at Dell, you can use "Update Package for Microsoft® Windows®"
  • unzip the .exe file in an empty directory:

unzip<filename>

  • Load a required kernel module:

modprobe dell_rbu

  • Install new BIOS, it is in the payloads dir in the just extracted stuff (.hdr file)

dellBiosUpdate -u -f <filename.hdr>

  • And reboot

reboot
Et voila! Using getSystemId you can check if the version is updated.