Is BIOS upgrade necessary for swapping CPU's on same socket?

[Mike Walsh]

@Keisha:-

Yep; you're right. Found it in /mnt/sda1. It's my own fault; old age creeping up! I knew I'd seen it somewhere before; I'm also forgetting that I've seen it in /mnt/home on my flash drive installs.....because, of course, they're self-contained, and need to have the boot-loader onboard.

It also doesn't help that I've got about a million OLD menu.lst's (OK, several dozen..!), from where I keep running Grub4DOS, as I chop and change between distros. I REALLY must get around to deleting some of them. Like I said, I JUST don't poke around in this stuff very much, if I can help it! I customize the hell out of my distros, visually.....but system stuff I tend to let WELL alone. "If it ain't broke..."

This, I believe, is what you want:-

Code: Select all

# menu.lst produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.9.2
color white/blue black/cyan white/black cyan/black
#splashimage=/splash.xpm
timeout 10
default 0

# Frugal installed Puppy

title Tahrpup 602 (sda2)
  uuid 8b073d4a-5816-4f58-9103-2ce8e0ea8259
  kernel /vmlinuz  pmedia=atahd  pfix=fsck
  initrd /initrd.gz

title Slacko 570 (sdc1)
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /puppy_slacko_5.7.0.sfs
  kernel /vmlinuz  pmedia=usbflash  pfix=fsck
  initrd /initrd.gz

# Full installed Linux

title Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (sda1)
  uuid ec7eb204-1006-411f-8b8d-e8285c0c9e20
  kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 ro
  initrd /initrd.img

# Windows
# this entry searches Windows on the HDD and boot it up
title Windows\nBoot up Windows if installed
  errorcheck off
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd  /bootmgr
  chainloader /bootmgr
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd  /ntldr
  chainloader /ntldr
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd   /io.sys
  chainloader /io.sys
  errorcheck on

# Advanced Menu
title Advanced menu
  configfile /menu-advanced.lst
  commandline

I have SOME flash installs plugged in permanently, which I boot from sda1, and others I just boot from the startup boot menu as and when I want them. Bit of a mish-mash..!

Explain something to me, if you will. In the screenie of GParted, back up the page, why is it some of the entries have a padlock beside them? What are they locked for.....or from?


Regards,

Mike.

[Keisha]

OK, check back here in half an hour.

[Mike Walsh]

Righty-ho. Will have to turn in, anyway, after that. Early start, tomorrow.....then I shan't get back to you till Sunday night, I'm afraid!

Regards,

Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

One question. This method you're going to use; I've not heard of it before, but am I right in thinking it's similar to the DOS method of 'flashing ' the BIOS? I believe THAT involves booting, somewhere along the line.....

Anything to do with THIS?

http://flashrom.org/Flashrom


Regards,

Mike.

[Keisha]

Yes, it's the same as booting to DOS and running a bios-flashing program, except, if we use flashrom there's no need to create a DOS boot floppy (or boot usb stick or boot cd). We can run flashrom directly from the boot partition (sda1).

If you would prefer to use MSI's flashing software and have the means to make a DOS boot usb stick or cd, then if you feel more comfortable doing that, then do that.

Or, to proceed, open Puppy Package Manager, search for flashrom, install it.

...and I'll be back after supper, so I suppose I'll see you Sunday.

[Mike Walsh]

Fair do's. I'm too tired to take this in at the moment (and won't have the time for the next couple of days), so I'll catch you Sunday evening...

Regards (and thanks for your interest),

Mike.

[Keisha]

Sunday morning here now, 8:38 AM. Reply if ready. I'm going to go make coffee.

[Mike Walsh]

Hi, Keisha.

I was waiting till 5 pm! Um; give me about 20 mins, and I'll be with you...OK?

Regards,

Mike.

[Keisha]

OK. I'm on a fresh installation of Tahr-Pup, so it will take me a few minutes to initialize PPM. I'll check this thread every few minutes. What time is it there now?

[Keisha]

First thing to do is start Puppy Package Manager, update it (crossed bones icon) if you need to, and search for "flashrom", and install it. It has one dependency, so Examine Dependencies, then download and install both the dependency (libftdi1_0.20) and flashrom_0.9.6.1+r1563-1.

Next, copy the bios update image (W7093AMS.390) to the top directory (/).

[Mike Walsh]

Hi, Keisha.

Okay; just bear with me. I'm going to set the Dell up, so I can keep in touch in case this goes tits up. I look after Mum full-time; she's in the middle of a course of steroids at the mo, so I have to keep her her fed and watered while she's taking them. Be with you again in about 10 mins. Sorry for the delay.

PPM is up-to-date, so I'll search for 'flashrom' as soon as. At the moment, it is exactly 5.20 pm...

Regards,

Mike.

[Keisha]

One thing to bear in mind is that the bios chip only has a role to play upon first bootup. While the machine is running it doesn't do anything. So if you flash the bios with something other than a good update, the machine will still run, and we can re-flash it with a copy of your old existing bios (which we will make, first thing).

[Mike Walsh]

I take it this BIOS update image is the 3.9, for the MS-7093 board, yes? Just want to make absolutely sure I get the right one. I shan't be getting the X2 until Sunday; my sister got it for me.....she's been a regular on Ebay for years, and has a good rating on there (plus she knows the ropes!) So there's no rush to have to get this done, y'see.

Mike.

[Keisha]

I take it this BIOS update image is the 3.9, for the MS-7093 board, yes?

Yes, from http://us.msi.com/support/mb/RS480M2.html#down-bios

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# md5sum W7093AMS.390
9a3a2821e90ba7b261f77578a1d9d48f  W7093AMS.390

In case we get disconnected: what I plan to do is simply walk you through the steps of the Flashrom section of
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fl ... from_Linux

Preliminary tests indicate that the instructions in that howto are good.

[Keisha]

First thing to do is see if your bios chip is supported. Open a terminal window and Issue

Code: Select all

# flashrom --programmer internal

and paste the result.

[Mike Walsh]

Huh! Glad you corrected me; I seem to have got the page for the RX480M2, NOT the RS480M2...

Just a mo. Right. It's coming up as 7093v39.zip. Is that the one? And if so, do I just copy this to root, as is?

Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

Terminal output comes up as follows:-

Code: Select all

root# flashrom --programmer internal
flashrom v0.9.6.1-r1563 on Linux 3.14.20 (i686)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org

Calibrating delay loop... delay loop is unreliable, trying to continue OK.
Found chipset "ATI SB400". Enabling flash write... OK.
Found Winbond flash chip "W39V040A" (512 kB, LPC) at physical address 0xfff80000.
No operations were specified.
root#

How does that look? You're gonna have to baby-walk me through this step-by-step; I've never dared attempt owt like this before...too frightened of buggering things up completely; 'bricking it', I believe is the expression!

Mike.

[Keisha]

Yes. Looks good.

OK, the object now is to put W7093AMS.390 in /
Tell me if you get stuck.

Here's one way to do it:
1. Copy 7093v39.zip to / (cp -a 7093v39.zip /)
2. Open a rox window in /
3. Click on the icon of 7093v39.zip
4. It will open in XArchive
5. In XArchive, click the Extract button
6. Click OK at the prompts (a total of three times)
7. Close XArchive
8. In the rox window of /, click the icon of the subdirectory 7093v39 to enter it.
9. Open another rox window by right-clicking the up arrow.
10. Move this new rox window out from over the earlier one, if need be.
11. Drag'n'drop (grab it by the icon) (copy) W7093AMS.390 into the / rox window.
12. In the / rox window, tap the ` key (~) (to the left of numeral 1, on most keyboards) to open a terminal window there.

[Mike Walsh]

Right.

Gotta take 15 mins out; Mum needs a sandwich so she can take her meds! I will get back to you as soon as.....should be free for a while then.

Apologies for the delay. Bear with me!

Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

Right, Keisha. Back 'in the saddle'!

So; what's the first step? Incidentally, how does this tie in with the menu.lst? Oh, and talking of which, I've added Racy 550 to the mix since the other day..! I hope that's not going to muck things up TOO much.

Mike.