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The information on Groklaw is not intended to constitute legal advice. While Mark is a lawyer and he has asked other lawyers and law students to contribute articles, all of these articles are offered to help educate, not to provide specific legal advice. They are not your lawyers.

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BIOS won't allow update of Fedora? | 280 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
already switched to linux
Authored by: Wol on Wednesday, February 20 2013 @ 06:57 PM EST
Upgrading the bios is scary (get it wrong and you'll brick the computer) but
it's not really that difficult. I just googled your model number, and it led me
to a bios update. The real scary thing is making sure you get the right bios,
and from what I can see you've got a choice of one. (Several versions, but the
model number means you won't get it wrong.)

Beyond that, I can't really help much - the last bios I remember updating I did
from DOS, I think. But it looks like your bios is a windows program - read the
instructions, make sure the laptop is plugged into the mains, and let the
program do its thing.

Do you have a mom-n-pop computer shop, or a geek squad, nearby? Find out how
much they'll charge to do it (and what guarantees they offer against it all
going pear-shaped!).

Just bite the bullet and go for it - it's not likely to go wrong - it's just
scary because if it does go wrong, it goes badly wrong.

Cheers,
Wol

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Acer 77739Z BIOS
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, February 21 2013 @ 02:06 AM EST
Your Acer 77739Z laptop drivers, bios and associated applications downloads can be found on the tabs within this page here . Obviously if you use only Linux, only the BIOS tab is relevant to you :)

Unfortunately, as you have realized, Acer only supports the Windows operating systems with their latest BIOS v1.06, presumably because they now only cater for the non computer literate that sticks with the Windows OS bundled with their purchase :(.

In such cases, generally the windows executable is a wrapper that contains the BIOS binary but also provides some logic, which presumably checks the SMBIOS data and ensures that the BIOS you actually downloaded (you know, the one Acer placed in their support page for your specific laptop) is indeed the correct one for your specific laptop. It's a nice check to have but not imperative as long as Acer places the correct BIOS in the correct laptop web page and their customers download the BIOS from the correct web page :) So, I'm not really sure who Acer is trying to protect by forcing such checks via a Windows only solution, themselves or Joe public, probably a bit of both i would think. And smarter people than me can extract the binary file needed for a DOS BIOS flash from these windows utilities.

It should also be noted that Acer did previously provide DOS based utilities with earlier versions of their BIOS (v1.05 and lower) zip files. These could be used with a DOS bootable disk or usb stick and presumably useable with freedos bootable disk or usb stick. This old page describes a general how to flash BIOS for linux users. Since Acer previously provided DOS based BIOS updates, i would ask them to continue with this practice and make the DOS based utilities and binary file available to you. I would also ask them to confirm that freedos is an acceptable OS to use with their DOS based utilities if you want to go the freedos route (easiest).

I just hope your Acer laptop does not have the BIOS bug that resulted in Samsung UEFI installs of linux bricking those machines. I'd stick with teh old BIOS and leave UEFI for alone for now.

With any risky updates like BIOS flashing, i would have a very good backup of your important files just in case the worst happens. backup backup backup is the best insurance from loss of your valuable data.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

already switched to linux
Authored by: Bas Burger on Thursday, February 21 2013 @ 04:14 AM EST
Hi PJ,

A solution might be, and I say might, as I am on Linux for so long that I can't
guarantee that my solution in the windows world works.

I hear a lot of things about portable programs and know there are portable
windows OS too.

If you could run a copy of XP on CD or USB than that might help you.

Example:
http://www.dl4all.com/portable/7221-portable-windows-xp-live-usb-usb-tools.html

But be very careful out there, in windows world things never appear as they
really are.


---
No comments...

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

already switched to linux
Authored by: ukjaybrat on Thursday, February 21 2013 @ 12:22 PM EST
was going to appologize for re-purposing a thread into a tech
discussion then i noticed you were in on it too lol.

---
IANAL

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

BIOS won't allow update of Fedora?
Authored by: BJ on Thursday, February 21 2013 @ 01:54 PM EST
Or Fedora won't go ahead with some update because of your BIOS version?

I'm not that into laptops, but it's the first time ever I hear of anything like
this.

Maybe you should place an RFC here and attract some comments
on the problem in the first place??

bjd


[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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