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BIOS flashing comes to Linux at last

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Software

No more dirty DOS bootdisks need touch your pristine Linux box, now that a new Linux app FlashROM is on the verge of release.

FlashROM version 0.9.0 has recently been released, allowing for vastly improved BIOS flashing capabilities on Linux machines.

As the first program to run in your system the moment you turn it on, it can also provide initial control capabilities such as keyboard input from the moment the PC powers up, displaying boot status info on the screen, and on more advanced BIOSes, even access to the hard drive and network.

With FlashROM, it is possible to flash from a Linux desktop through a command-line interface -- and no doubt, a graphical user interface will quickly be built for it.

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Flashrom enables BIOS flashing

Coreboot.org released an almost-final 0.90 version of open source BIOS flashing firmware it says was nine years in the making. Flashrom offers Linux and UNIX users a BIOS flashing mechanism they can call their own, with support for 150 flash-chip families and 75 chipsets, Coreboot.org says.

By its very nature, BIOS firmware is operating system-independent, since it loads before a computer's OS in order to identify, test, and initialize the device's processor, memory, graphics card, and peripherals. But, updating a BIOS to incorporate bug fixes and other improvements requires booting a computer into an operating system, then using the latter to run BIOS flashing software.

All too often, Linux users have been forced to update their BIOSes via MS-DOS boot disks loaded with DOS BIOS flashing utilities. But now, they no longer need suffer that indignity.

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re: Flash Bios

"All too often, Linux users have been forced to update their BIOSes via MS-DOS boot disks loaded with DOS BIOS flashing utilities. But now, they no longer need suffer that indignity."

Who thinks up crap like this? If you care what boot OS is on the floppy disk or USB key used to update your MB BIOS you really REALLY need to get a life.

FYI: Most BIOS update utilities use FREEDOS or DR-DOS not MSDOS - at least get your FUD correct.

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