Change BIOS settings of T630 with HP Device Manager

[langarait]

Hello,

I am trying to change some of the settings in the BIOS of a fleet of T630's with HPDM 4.7 SP 10

The clients are running Thinpro 6.2

The BIOS is verion M40 v01.08

I have attempted the following:

From one of the T630's

1. Log in as administrator and open Xterm window.
2. Type fsunlock
3. Type hptc-bios-cfg -G
4. Type ls to see if the file CPQSETUP.TXT was created
5. Copy the text file to device manager server.
6. Open filename.txt and edit feature as needed. Move * in front of item need to be disable or enable.
7. Create a task using HPDM. Click File and Regsitry template. Chose Command as subtask.
8. Type fsunlock
9. Add another task and chose Deploy Files. Download CPQSETUP.TXT file. Path on device is /tmp/
10. Add another Command task. Type hptc-bios-cfg -S /tmp/CPQSETUP.TXT
11. Make sure to check "reboot after all task is complete".

This task completes but doesn't change anything.

I have also tried capturing the BIOS from the HPDM directly with a File_and_Registry task using

sudo hptc-bios-cfg -G /tmp/cpqsetup.txt

and then making the desired changes and using it in a deploy file task (similar to step 7 above)

Neither methods make any changes to the settings in the BIOS and I get no error returns from the task - that task finishes without error.

The method did seem to work with the T620's that we have in our fleet (different bios versions lf L40)

Any help would be appriciated.

[langarait]

BUMP!!

[Chen_HPDM]

Hi Langarait,

The idea is to 

1. Setup a golden unit with everything configured as desired
2. Use DM template to capture the BIOS setting
3. Deploy the template to rest of the unit

I have attached the templates (one for get and another for set) for reference. Please test it before applying to production

[langarait]

Hello,

With your help I was able to use the templates to capture and deploy BIOS settings

I used a golden unit to capture the desired settings (disable boot from USB and  internal speaker); however the one setting that didn't get captured (or deployed using the set task) was the setup of the BIOS password.

How can that be achieved ?  How can I send a task to set the BIOS password on the T630's?

Thanks,

[Chen_HPDM]

Ok, this gona be different than those common settings:

To improve on security,  platforms like t628, t630. t730 and newer use an encrypted format to manage the BIOS setup password.

Setting a BIOS password on these platforms requires the administrator to provide the password as an encrypted file.

There is no Linux tool to create this file: it needs to be created with the “HpqPswd.exe” tool from a Windows machine, and copied to the thin client.

The process to set/modify/remove a BIOS setup password is then very different for these platforms. After you have switched to admin mode and opened a terminal, run one of the following commands:

• To set the BIOS password: hptc-bios-cfg –n <new_password_file>

• To modify the existing BIOS password: hptc-bios-cfg –p <current_password_file> –n <new_password_file>

• To remove the existing BIOS password: hptc-bios-cfg –r –p <current_password_file>

Note: it is not possible to combine operations. If you are setting, changing or removing the BIOS password, you can’t provide the “-G [filename]” or “-S [filename]” options on the same command line to get or change the BIOS settings. You have to perform this as a separate call.

Try the commandline locally on a test unit before deploying it remotely through HPDM.

[langarait]

We are so close....

I have gotten the password to save using the method you provided;

We now have two different tasks for the BIOS changes

1) SetBIOS - which is used to make the changes I listed in my first post

2) SetBIOSPassword - which is used soley to send and set the BIOS password.

however, now when I try to send the SetBIOS task - the thin clients get stuck at the HP boot splash screen.

The changes are made - it just gets stuck during the reboot.

I have to manually press the power button to get the thin client to power down.

When it gets powered back up - the changes to the BIOS are made and the thin client boots into Thinpro as intended.

Powering down the thin clients manually ins't practicle - thoughts?

[Chen_HPDM]

I have never seen such issue before. Try upgrade the BIOS to the latest version and if the issue still exists I would suggest to report a bug and let R&D to fix.

[langarait]

it would seem the have the most up-to-date BIOS -  M40 v01.08.

How does one report a bug to R&D?

[Chen_HPDM]

Basically call HP support number in your region and escalate the case about the issue. They will pass the issue to R&D