Re: ANNOUNCE: /dev/bios - flash rom bios driver

Emil Briggs (briggs@bucky.physics.ncsu.edu)
Wed, 11 Feb 1998 18:59:45 -0500 (EST)

>> Ok, it is much more dangerous for the hardware to do a cat /dev/zero >/
>> dev/bios than cat /dev/zero >/dev/sda, but in both cases the system
>> is a) unusable and needs reinstall/repair and b) can be quite easily
>> repaired.
>
>Can it really be repaired easily? I thought that the procedure was to go with
>your tail between your legs to your vendor and ask nicely for a new set of BIOS
>chips.
>

Some SuperMicro boards have a "rescue" procedure where if the flash
upgrade fails you can load a bios image onto a floppy, and power cycle
the system while holding down a certain key combination. I don't know
for sure but I think that part of the BIOS is never replaced when
using their utility to upgrade the flash. This part has enough
functionality to read the image from the floppy and write it into
the rest of the flash. This is just a guess though.

Emil

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