Re: [Freedos-user] CTMouse Buttons programming?

[Bret Johnson]

What exactly does the EVE.EXE program do?  It's possible that you just don't 
have the correct options set up in MOUSKEYS (or EVE).


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Re: [Freedos-user] FDNet package license problems

[Jim Hall]

We previously had notes in the wiki about questionable licenses in the
FDNet package, and it was marked Yellow ("Maybe") in the wiki for
FreeDOS 1.3. So I think it's a good idea to pull FDNet for now. I've
updated the wiki to reflect that.


http://wiki.freedos.org/wiki/index.php/Releases/1.3/Packages#Networking



On Sat, Apr 10, 2021 at 7:02 PM Jerome Shidel  wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Apr 10, 2021, at 7:03 PM, Michael Brutman  wrote:
> >
> > 
> > Jerome,
> >
> > In the grand scheme of things it is not a big deal and it has been wrong 
> > for years.
> >
> > Thanks for taking care of it.  If it does remain then Rugxulo should 
> > consider updating the parts of mTCP (and anything else) that was repackaged 
> > for use in FDNet.
>
> When DOS was still my primary OS, networking wasn’t really a thing. Sure, I 
> had a fax/modem and connected via dial-up to a couple BBS and eventually even 
> the Internet. But as for actual networking, I didn’t see much of that until 
> late Win3.11. That’s more or less to say... I’m no DOS networking expert.
>
> Rugxulo originally did some network card detection and network configuration 
> in his MetaDOS side project.
>
> FDNET was based on his work in MetaDOS
>
> But, he was not directly involved with or responsible for  FDNET. I don’t 
> expect he will be interested in improving the package.
>
> Actually, I’ve asked several times if anyone was interested in taking over 
> FDNET to make improvements and maybe increase hardware support. But, no one 
> has ever shown any interest in doing that.
>
> So, IDK if it’s even worth updating the FDNET license and resolving any other 
> issues. Or, just drop it completely.
>
> Jerome
>
>
>
>
>
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Re: [Freedos-user] Using a USB stick and an optical drive

[Adam Nielsen via Freedos-user]

> I booted the stick, was a bit confused as to why freedos did not do
> anything and fdos was the option, and found the BIOS file in drive C:\.
>   I ran it.  It looked promising, but alas, alack, no.
> -Start to flash ……. [ Y / N]: Y
> - Error: Problem getting flash information
> C:\>  
> 
> I went back to the Dell website, entered my service tag: BQBD9N1 and
> downloaded the latest BIOS file “M5030A05.EXE” (again, and remember the
> A05 is a latter version to the installed BIOS which describes its
> version as A02).
> https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk/product-support/servicetag/0-YXhUR091TFhQWVdkR0VXeUY0cTREQT090/drivers
> 
> I deleted the BIOS file on the USB stick, copied over the new one and
> tried again.

You've done everything correctly.  Dell are very good about ensuring
you only see updates for the correct machine when you look it up by
service tag so you definitely have the right file.

The fact that it could not get the flash information means that
something else is interfering with what the program is trying to do.

> Any best guesses welcome, or am I at the end of the line?

You can try pressing F5 a few times as FreeDOS is first booting which
will prevent it loading any DOS memory managers which can sometimes
interfere with direct hardware access.  If this works you should see a
lot fewer messages on the screen before you see the C:\> prompt.

If that still doesn't work, all I can suggest is going into the BIOS
setup (F2 at the Dell logo) and make sure there aren't any options set
that might be preventing the BIOS from being updated for
security/antivirus reasons.

Cheers,
Adam.


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Re: [Freedos-user] FDNet package license problems

[Jerome Shidel]

> On Apr 10, 2021, at 7:03 PM, Michael Brutman  wrote:
> 
> 
> Jerome,
> 
> In the grand scheme of things it is not a big deal and it has been wrong for 
> years.
> 
> Thanks for taking care of it.  If it does remain then Rugxulo should consider 
> updating the parts of mTCP (and anything else) that was repackaged for use in 
> FDNet.

When DOS was still my primary OS, networking wasn’t really a thing. Sure, I had 
a fax/modem and connected via dial-up to a couple BBS and eventually even the 
Internet. But as for actual networking, I didn’t see much of that until late 
Win3.11. That’s more or less to say... I’m no DOS networking expert.

Rugxulo originally did some network card detection and network configuration in 
his MetaDOS side project.

FDNET was based on his work in MetaDOS

But, he was not directly involved with or responsible for  FDNET. I don’t 
expect he will be interested in improving the package.

Actually, I’ve asked several times if anyone was interested in taking over 
FDNET to make improvements and maybe increase hardware support. But, no one has 
ever shown any interest in doing that.

So, IDK if it’s even worth updating the FDNET license and resolving any other 
issues. Or, just drop it completely.

Jerome





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Re: [Freedos-user] FDNet package license problems

[Michael Brutman]

Jerome,

In the grand scheme of things it is not a big deal and it has been wrong
for years.

Thanks for taking care of it.  If it does remain then Rugxulo should
consider updating the parts of mTCP (and anything else) that was repackaged
for use in FDNet.


Mike

On Sat, Apr 10, 2021 at 3:52 PM Jerome Shidel  wrote:

> Hello Michael,
>
> On Apr 10, 2021, at 3:20 PM, Michael Brutman 
> wrote:
>
> Gents (Jerome and Rugxulo in particular) ...
>
> As per
> https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.2/repos/pkg-html/fdnet.html
> FDNET is being distributed under GPL V2.  However, it includes mTCP source
> code which is licensed under GPL V3.  As per
> https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html that's not allowed ...
> the two licenses are not compatible.  You just can't relicense
> something that I provided as GPL3.
>
>
> Worse is that you are distributing a version of the code that is 7 years
> out of date ...
>
> Please fix this.
>
>
> The GPL v2 was only the license for the FDNET batch program itself and was
> not meant to cover any other programs that were included in the package.
>
> It was not an attempt to re-license your software. As you can see, the GPL
> v3 license was included with your program sources in the package.
>
> However, you are correct that the listing for FDNET on the software
> repository should not have been GPL v2.
>
> Furthermore, you are correct that GPL v3 is not compatible with v2.
>
> I apologize for the mistake and any confusion it may have caused.
>
> I have taken the git repository for FDNET offline and pulled it’s packages
> from the Software Repositories.
>
> The FDNET package will require further review. It may be updated to
> resolve any conflicting license issue.
>
> However at this point, FDNET may just be discontinued.
>
> Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention.
>
> Once again, I am sorry for the misunderstanding.
>
> Jerome
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Re: [Freedos-user] FDNet package license problems

[Jerome Shidel]

Hello Michael,

> On Apr 10, 2021, at 3:20 PM, Michael Brutman  wrote:
> 
> Gents (Jerome and Rugxulo in particular) ...
> 
> As per 
> https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.2/repos/pkg-html/fdnet.html
>  
> 
>  FDNET is being distributed under GPL V2.  However, it includes mTCP source 
> code which is licensed under GPL V3.  As per 
> https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html 
>  that's not allowed ...  
> the two licenses are not compatible.  You just can't relicense something that 
> I provided as GPL3.
> 
> Worse is that you are distributing a version of the code that is 7 years out 
> of date ...
> 
> Please fix this.

The GPL v2 was only the license for the FDNET batch program itself and was not 
meant to cover any other programs that were included in the package. 

It was not an attempt to re-license your software. As you can see, the GPL v3 
license was included with your program sources in the package. 

However, you are correct that the listing for FDNET on the software repository 
should not have been GPL v2.

Furthermore, you are correct that GPL v3 is not compatible with v2.

I apologize for the mistake and any confusion it may have caused.

I have taken the git repository for FDNET offline and pulled it’s packages from 
the Software Repositories.

The FDNET package will require further review. It may be updated to resolve any 
conflicting license issue. 

However at this point, FDNET may just be discontinued.

Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention.

Once again, I am sorry for the misunderstanding.

Jerome
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Re: [Freedos-user] CTMouse Buttons programming?

[Thomas Desi]

Thank you all for responses to my question. 
I just emailed the original author about this and am awaiting what he has to 
say on this. 

I downloaded Jon Brase’s MOUSKEYS which is great and I did enjoy reading the 
documentation. Long time I haven’t read any doc like it.
It works, but strangely enough not on the two programs I use. The program 
(EVE.EXE) doesn’t seem to care at all about what MOUSKEYS is set up to. The 
program in question, called EVE.EXE cancels all conventions in DOS and sets it 
all up anew. Amazing.  
As much as I like MOUSKEYS, till now it doesn’t seem to team up with the 
program. 

This makes me thinking that also ERIC’s sketch for a TSR (yes, Eric, you are 
right, it’s all »Chinese« to me) won’t do in this case either. 

So I just will see what the original programer might have to tell, and if of 
interest, allow me to share it with you. 

Thanks, regards, Thomas

> On Sat,20210410- week14, at 03:39, Adam Nielsen via Freedos-user 
>  wrote:
> 
>> DOS itself doesn't use/support any mouse, it is up to an application to 
>> interpret the responses given through the INT 33h API, which is 
>> implemented either by the BIOS or a "driver" (TSR_ like CTMouse. While 
>> probably not completely impossible to add another TSR that would 
>> intercept INT33h and instead feeds simulated keyboard events into INT 
>> 9h. I am not sure that something like this exist, at least neither 
>> myself nor any of my friends/clients ever had a need for such a tool...
> 
> Not quite so helpful but the old XT I had many years ago (an Amstrad
> PC1640) had the mouse connected to the keyboard rather than a serial
> port as was usual for the time, and I believe it worked by sending
> unused key codes in response to mouse actions.  The mouse driver would
> pick up these key codes and handle the int 33h stuff.
> 
> However because of this, the machine could be configured at the
> hardware level to send different key codes for the mouse buttons.  So
> running a DOS application to change the machine's CMOS settings was all
> it took to reassign the mouse buttons to send any keystroke you wanted,
> and the setting would persist across power cycles without needing any
> TSR running.
> 
> I wonder whether the author of the original application being discussed
> here had a similar machine, and assumed all PCs could have their mouse
> buttons configured similarly.
> 
> Cheers,
> Adam.
> 
> 
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[Freedos-user] FDNet package license problems

[Michael Brutman]

Gents (Jerome and Rugxulo in particular) ...

As per
https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.2/repos/pkg-html/fdnet.html
FDNET is being distributed under GPL V2.  However, it includes mTCP source
code which is licensed under GPL V3.  As per
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html that's not allowed ...
the two licenses are not compatible.  You just can't relicense
something that I provided as GPL3.

Worse is that you are distributing a version of the code that is 7 years
out of date ...

Please fix this.


Mike
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[Freedos-user] AMI and other BIOS flash tools for DOS, Windows and Linux

[Eric Auer]

Hi!

Changing the subject to make this link-collection easier to
find, but feel free to reply in the original thread instead.

> Greetings one and all, here is an update
> 
> I followed the instructions on the Dell website:
> https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000131486/update-the-dell-bios-in-a-linux-or-ubuntu-environment#UpdateBIOS

Come on, it already recommends FreeDOS and UNetbootin! Why have
you asked all those questions when the answers were there? :-)

> I booted the stick, was a bit confused as to why freedos did not do
> anything and fdos was the option, and found the BIOS file in drive C:\.
>  I ran it.  It looked promising, but alas, alack, no.
> -Start to flash ……. [ Y / N]: Y
> - Error: Problem getting flash information

Does the documentation of your BIOS update tell what that means?
Google says this error message is something seen in the AFUDOS
AMI Firmware Update utility? You might be using the wrong version
of the tool or of the BIOS.

Interestingly, even a Linux version exists:

https://www.ami.com/products/firmware-tools-and-utilities/bios-uefi-utilities/

According to other websites, you have to give the name of the
BIOS update file as an option to the tool: "AFUDOS yourfile"

Also, the DOS and Windows versions of your BIOS update could
be different downloads, so make sure to use the right one.

Usually, you can also run "nameofthetool /?" to get a help text.

> I went back to the Dell website, entered my service tag: BQBD9N1 and
> downloaded the latest BIOS file “M5030A05.EXE” (again, and remember the
> A05 is a latter version to the installed BIOS which describes its
> version as A02).
> https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk/product-support/servicetag/0-YXhUR091TFhQWVdkR0VXeUY0cTREQT090/drivers

The website says: the A05 BIOS is for Dell Inspiron M5030,
while the A02 BIOS is for Dell Inspiron N5030 systems. The
A05 download is described as combined DOS/Windows CPG BIOS
update executable. md5sum: d916cc8e65b8f3fb9063270c08d749f9
Apparently it can also be used for the Inspiron 15 N5030.

On some computers, you can also press F12 at boot (might be
tricky to hit the right moment!) to load a BIOS from USB by
selecting the exe file in an update menu built into the BIOS.

> Making the USB stick bootable and being able to add files to it was
> so easy.  It is as though the root of the memory stick was C:\?

Good to know! If you have no other FAT partitions on your
harddisk then yes, the USB stick can be called C: drive.

Your download contains the text:

Flash BIOS Update Program - Version 8.00
Copyright (C)2010 American Megatrends Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Can you confirm that your BIOS brand is American Megatrends (AMI)?
The Windows tool seems to embed AFUDOS which you run as

AFUDOS ROMfilename

In also mentions AFUWIN and AFULNX so you could use the
Windows or Linux versions instead, too:

https://github.com/Zibri/afulnx/releases or even better:

https://www.wimsbios.com/amiflasher.jsp

https://soggi.org/motherboards/bios-update-flash-utilities.htm

Their English could be better: "Cann't flash to this version."

*If I have to guess, your DOS BIOS update tool may have a problem*
*with your DOS memory driver. Make sure to skip loading EMM386 and*
*possibly even HIMEM at DOS boot.* You can select a suitable boot
option when running the FreeDOS boot stick, or use the generic
F5 or F8 hotkeys.

The Linux version seems to be a bit of a pain to use, but there
are alternatives, such as flashrom:

https://opensource.com/life/16/8/almost-open-bios-and-firmware-update-tips-linux-users

Obviously, the question is how you can get the actual BIOS ROM
or BIN file out of the Windows/DOS integrated update tool. Try
running the tool in Windows, maybe it has a menu item for that?

If it does not have any user interface to click around in, then
some other trick for extracting the BIOS file would be nice :-)

Eric



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Re: [Freedos-user] Using a USB stick and an optical drive

[Mateusz Viste]

On 10/04/2021 14:26, Stephanos wrote:

I booted the stick, was a bit confused as to why freedos did not do
anything and fdos was the option, and found the BIOS file in drive C:\.
  I ran it.  It looked promising, but alas, alack, no.
-Start to flash ……. [ Y / N]: Y
- Error: Problem getting flash information
C:\>
The method is good. Now you need to figure out why the tool is unable to 
communicate with your BIOS chip. Perhaps the EXE tool is not compatible 
with your specific motherboard revision? Or there is some kind of "BIOS 
protection" (or "CMOS antivirus") enabled in the BIOS? I can only guess.



Making the USB stick bootable and being able to add files to it was so
easy.  It is as though the root of the memory stick was C:\?


The USB stick being C: is normal and expected, your BIOS emulates a 
normal hard disk and exposes that to DOS, doing the USB<->HDD interface 
translation on the fly.


Mateusz


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Re: [Freedos-user] Using a USB stick and an optical drive

[Tomas By]

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021 14:26:30 +0200, Stephanos wrote:
>  [...] I ran it.  It looked promising, but alas, alack, no.
> -Start to flash ……. [ Y / N]: Y
> - Error: Problem getting flash information
> [...]
> I then tried Tomas’ suggestion: “start a shell (command window) as
> administrator (important) and then run the exe from there.  If that just
> fails silently then you probably have the wrong bios file.”
> It failed silently.
> Could I really have the wrong file?


Well, your motherboard is too old for that version, I guess.

You should be able to figure that out by checking the model numbers on
the Dell web site or the bios file.

/Tomas


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Re: [Freedos-user] Using a USB stick and an optical drive

[Stephanos]

Greetings one and all, here is an update

I followed the instructions on the Dell website:
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000131486/update-the-dell-bios-in-a-linux-or-ubuntu-environment#UpdateBIOS

At first the instruction about copying the BIOS file to the USB storage
device confused me because I though I was supposed to copy the file into
the Unetbootin interface. (after figure 6).

I booted the stick, was a bit confused as to why freedos did not do
anything and fdos was the option, and found the BIOS file in drive C:\.
 I ran it.  It looked promising, but alas, alack, no.
-Start to flash ……. [ Y / N]: Y
- Error: Problem getting flash information
C:\>

I went back to the Dell website, entered my service tag: BQBD9N1 and
downloaded the latest BIOS file “M5030A05.EXE” (again, and remember the
A05 is a latter version to the installed BIOS which describes its
version as A02).
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk/product-support/servicetag/0-YXhUR091TFhQWVdkR0VXeUY0cTREQT090/drivers

I deleted the BIOS file on the USB stick, copied over the new one and
tried again.

Same error message.

Making the USB stick bootable and being able to add files to it was so
easy.  It is as though the root of the memory stick was C:\?

I then tried Tomas’ suggestion: “start a shell (command window) as
administrator (important) and then run the exe from there.  If that just
fails silently then you probably have the wrong bios file.”
It failed silently.

Could I really have the wrong file?

The only other BIOD file is the same version as the installed BIOS.

Any best guesses welcome, or am I at the end of the line?

Stephanos
On 10/04/2021 12:31, Tomas By wrote:

Hi,

Ok, one more thing you can try is to start a shell (command window) as
aministrator (important) and then run the exe from there. If that just
fails silently then you probably have the wrong bios file.

I checked your previous msg again, and it sounds like you have not yet
managed to boot Freedos? Just get the "USB Lite" image, it does not
matter much which version, and then write it to the stick in any of
multiple different ways. I use "Etcher" in Linux, "Unetbootin" sounds
like pretty much the same thing.

Write image, copy the .exe to it, and then boot.

/Tomas


On Sat, 10 Apr 2021 13:20:34 +0200, Stephanos wrote:


Dear Tomas

Thanks for the reminder.

Yes.  After installation of 7 from DVD I did not make a user account,
nor set a password for the default admin account.  The laptop is not
connected to the internet.  I copied the bios file from my PC to the
laptop via the memory stick, which only had that file on it, no other
bootable image.  I ran the file and it did not work.  However, I tried
again as a result of your prompt and right clicked on the file and chose
run as admin.  But no joy.

Thanks

Stephanos



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Re: [Freedos-user] Using a USB stick and an optical drive

[Eric Auer]

Hi!

> OK, and thanks to all.  I have now read the Dell website about updating
> from within Linux and noted the fact that I should use FreeDOS base 1.0

Or newer, I guess.

> Although the upgrade will not give me Virtualisation, I have another
> reason for continuing with upgrading the BIOS.  It provides better
> support for the battery.  So it seems to me that although Windows 7 is
> on the laptop the issue remains, how to upgrade the BIOS using my 64 GB
> memory stick, FreeDOS and other things.  I was put off by the fact that
> something special had to be done to make the BIOS upgrade file available
> after the boot to FreeDOS.  I was comfortable with booting FreeDOS from
> a CD/DVD and just wanted to put the memory stick in, navigate to it and
> run the file, but that was not to be.

The main point is that you first have to boot DOS. Just opening some
DOS file in Linux or running DOS in a window in Linux is not what you
need. If you would do that, you will still have booted Linux, not DOS.

So you need a DOS boot disk. Because your update is so big, this is
not a boot diskette any more. In this century, you can use a CD, DVD
or USB stick. For making a DOS boot USB stick, you can use UNetbootin:

https://unetbootin.github.io/#distros

It already has a menu item to download and install FreeDOS for you,
apparently. The alternative is that you download FreeDOS yourself
and give the file to UNetbootin.

The next task is to put your BIOS update file and update tool at a
place where you can open it in DOS. As explained, if you use the
FreeDOS IMG file and dd, you end up having a 32 MB DOS USB drive
partition where you can add and remove files easily. If you use
ISO, replacing files works in a different way. Because you already
have Windows on your harddisk at the moment, you can also make a
FAT partition on your harddisk (DOS does not see NTFS partitions)
and put the BIOS tool and update files there instead of on the stick.

No matter which way you select, you always have to boot from your DOS
boot medium at some point. Then, when asked whether to install DOS on
your harddisk, you could say no. But as you only have Windows on your
harddisk at the moment, you can just as well say yes and throw Windows
out to have a look at FreeDOS, of course. Either after booting the DOS
installed on your harddisk or by simply leaving the install process
without installing DOS, you will have a DOS command prompt. As soon
as you are at the DOS command prompt, you can type the commands given
by the Dell BIOS update instructions to update your BIOS.

I guess we could also use some chat to help you interactively :-)

> We are, I suggest, still in business and that the objective has not
> changed, just the circumstances, the laptop has Windows 7 on it.  I want
> to prepare the memory stick using my PC with Windows 10 on it, insert
> the stick into the laptop, boot the laptop and then obey any instructions.

If you want to prepare your DOS boot stick on Windows 10, no problem!
You can use Rufus to make a bootable FreeDOS USB stick. Check this:

http://rufus.ie/

As soon as you have booted DOS from the stick, you can follow the
Dell instructions. Obviously, you want to add the BIOS update and
tools on your USB stick before booting from it, or at least put
the files at another location which you can access from DOS :-)

Regards, Eric



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Re: [Freedos-user] Using a USB stick and an optical drive

[Tomas By]

Hi,

Ok, one more thing you can try is to start a shell (command window) as
aministrator (important) and then run the exe from there. If that just
fails silently then you probably have the wrong bios file.

I checked your previous msg again, and it sounds like you have not yet
managed to boot Freedos? Just get the "USB Lite" image, it does not
matter much which version, and then write it to the stick in any of
multiple different ways. I use "Etcher" in Linux, "Unetbootin" sounds
like pretty much the same thing.

Write image, copy the .exe to it, and then boot.

/Tomas


On Sat, 10 Apr 2021 13:20:34 +0200, Stephanos wrote:
> 
> Dear Tomas
> 
> Thanks for the reminder.
> 
> Yes.  After installation of 7 from DVD I did not make a user account,
> nor set a password for the default admin account.  The laptop is not
> connected to the internet.  I copied the bios file from my PC to the
> laptop via the memory stick, which only had that file on it, no other
> bootable image.  I ran the file and it did not work.  However, I tried
> again as a result of your prompt and right clicked on the file and chose
> run as admin.  But no joy.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Stephanos


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Re: [Freedos-user] Using a USB stick and an optical drive

[Stephanos]

Dear Tomas

Thanks for the reminder.

Yes.  After installation of 7 from DVD I did not make a user account,
nor set a password for the default admin account.  The laptop is not
connected to the internet.  I copied the bios file from my PC to the
laptop via the memory stick, which only had that file on it, no other
bootable image.  I ran the file and it did not work.  However, I tried
again as a result of your prompt and right clicked on the file and chose
run as admin.  But no joy.

Thanks

Stephanos

On 10/04/2021 12:13, Tomas By wrote:

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021 13:08:58 +0200, Stephanos wrote:

Wait to hear



Did you try running it from Win 7 as administrator?

Or just boot the stick and run the .EXE. I'm sure you can do it.

/Tomas




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Re: [Freedos-user] Using a USB stick and an optical drive

[Tomas By]

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021 13:08:58 +0200, Stephanos wrote:
> Wait to hear


Did you try running it from Win 7 as administrator?

Or just boot the stick and run the .EXE. I'm sure you can do it.

/Tomas


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Re: [Freedos-user] Using a USB stick and an optical drive

[Stephanos]

Dear All

OK, and thanks to all.  I have now read the Dell website about updating
from within Linux and noted the fact that I should use FreeDOS base 1.0
etc.  I should just say this laptop is about 11 years old and the F12
boot option does not include updating the BIOS.  What come as a surprise
is that Dell say I can use this file in Windows and it does not work,
and further that this fact does not surprise some.  It surprised me.
But that is experience and experience is what I want to gain.

Although the upgrade will not give me Virtualisation, I have another
reason for continuing with upgrading the BIOS.  It provides better
support for the battery.  So it seems to me that although Windows 7 is
on the laptop the issue remains, how to upgrade the BIOS using my 64 GB
memory stick, FreeDOS and other things.  I was put off by the fact that
something special had to be done to make the BIOS upgrade file available
after the boot to FreeDOS.  I was comfortable with booting FreeDOS from
a CD/DVD and just wanted to put the memory stick in, navigate to it and
run the file, but that was not to be.

We are, I suggest, still in business and that the objective has not
changed, just the circumstances, the laptop has Windows 7 on it.  I want
to prepare the memory stick using my PC with Windows 10 on it, insert
the stick into the laptop, boot the laptop and then obey any instructions.

Is this feasible?

I have already downloaded Unetbootin and I have the BIOS update file,
the size of which is 1950KB, and the version of FreeDOS in file:
fdbasecd.iso found here:
https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.0/

Wait to hear

Stephanos

On 10/04/2021 10:00, Mateusz Viste wrote:

On 09/04/2021 23:50, Stephanos wrote:

So I decided that it was slightly easier to put back Windows 7.
I used gparted to wipe the HDD (...)
I booted into the BIOS and the version was the same A02.
I rebooted back into Windows 7


You should have done like Liam tells you from the beginning. He provides
correct, detailed and verified steps. The operation is as simple as
booting DOS from a removable drive (CD/floppy/USB) to run a single
executable... Any other method is likely to either not work or damage
your PC (esp. if you follow what Michael C. Robinson has been
suggesting). Using Windows to update a BIOS firmware looks perhaps like
an easy way out, but I wouldn't risk my PC with it myself, even if it's
one of the methods suggested by the motherboard producer.

Mateusz


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Re: [Freedos-user] Using a USB stick and an optical drive

[Mateusz Viste]

On 09/04/2021 23:50, Stephanos wrote:

So I decided that it was slightly easier to put back Windows 7.
I used gparted to wipe the HDD (...)
I booted into the BIOS and the version was the same A02.
I rebooted back into Windows 7


You should have done like Liam tells you from the beginning. He provides 
correct, detailed and verified steps. The operation is as simple as 
booting DOS from a removable drive (CD/floppy/USB) to run a single 
executable... Any other method is likely to either not work or damage 
your PC (esp. if you follow what Michael C. Robinson has been 
suggesting). Using Windows to update a BIOS firmware looks perhaps like 
an easy way out, but I wouldn't risk my PC with it myself, even if it's 
one of the methods suggested by the motherboard producer.


Mateusz


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