Using hptc-bios-flash on TC T620

[SacUser]

I am trying to update the BIOS on a Thin Client T620 (HP ThinPro 6-64) from 2.08 to 2.11 and I am having issues with hptc-bios-flash.  I get the following message.

"The version of BIOS on thie thin client may not support tool-less BIOS update"

I then get a message to reboot, but the BIOS remains the same.  As a test, I was able to update the BIOS on a different T620 with ThinPro Version 5. 

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks. 

[nitrateAvatar]

I just encountered this issue myself: here is how I fixed it for future reference. (Sorry for the slight necropost)

The way the bios upgrade works has changed with thinpro 6. (hptc-bios-flash now just moves the *.bin to the bootpartition, then after a reboot the bios checks in this location for updates). Old bios versions cannot be upgraded this way (hence the warning).

What I did was I extracted /usr/sbin/hptc-bios-flash from an old thinpro 5 installation (which is just a really simple bash script). I used this script to successfully upgrade bios 2.08 to 2.13 on a thinpro 6.2 installation (t620). This saved me downgrading all my thinpro 6 installations to upgrade the bios.

bash /tmp/hptc-bios-flash /tmp/L40_0213.bin

I uploaded the hptc-bios-flash script here: https://hastebin.com/kececumupo.bash

Hope this helps somebody.

[CorrineWinslow]

The script was exactly what fixed my issue attempting to upgrade BIOS L40 2.08 to L40 2.14. Very much appreciated.

My symptoms exactly as you described them.

The built-in htpc-bios-flash on ThinPro 6 ran without error and copied L40_0214.bin to /boot/EFI/EFI/HP/BIOS/New but the BIOS did not upgrade on reboots. Bashed my head against a brickwall for several days until I came across your post and script.

After copying your script to a USB key (mindful to convert text to LF only line returns) and then at X Terminal:

fsunlock

sudo su

cd/tmp

copied /tmp/tmpfs/mnt/<your USB key name>/kececumupo.bash script to /tmp

copied /tmp/tmpfs/mnt/<your USB key name>/L40_0214.bin script to /tmp

chmod 777 /tmp/*

./kececumupo.bash L40_0214.bin

Multiple text lines began showing bios upgrade progress. When the command was completed a reboot confirmed the BIOS upgrade was successful.

Thanks. Very much appreciated, Corrine

[langarait]

I am having the same types of issues.

I have a fleet of T620's with BIOS versions from 2.02, 2.05, 2.09, 2.10, 2.11, and 2.14

We are trying to upgrade the BIOS's to 2.14 but are having isssues with the 2.09's

We need to be able to do this via HPDM by pushing a task

I think this post might be able to help, but I am unsure how to implement this using HPDM.

command: fsunlock

deploy file: L40_0214.bin   to   /tmp

command: hptc-bios-flash /tmp/L40_0214.bin

command: fslock

upon reboot nothing happens

If I send the task without rebooting and then open xterminal I can verify .bin was deployed.

I can also run the hptc-bios-flash L40_0214 command and it shows the same warning mentioned above regarding "may not support tool-less BIOS update".  it informs me to reboot the thin client - and when I do nothing happens.

Can someone explain how I can get this BIOS to upgrade using HPDM commands.

They are running ThinPro 6.2 btw

[nitrateAvatar]

Well the hptc-bios-flash included in ThinPro 6.2 on your thinclients is unable to flash older bioses.

So you have to also deploy the older version of 'htpc-bios-flash' to the thinclient. You can extract it from a Thinpro 5 installation, or just use the link earlier in the thread.

So it would look like this:

command: fsunlock

deploy file: L40_0214.bin   to   /tmp

deploy file: hptc-bios-flash  to   /tmp

command: bash /tmp/hptc-bios-flash /tmp/L40_0214.bin

command: fslock

Good luck!

[langarait]

I extracted the hptc-bios-flash tool from a TP 5 device and copied the commands, but after reboot..the same result.

I even open xterminal to make sure the files are being copied and they are.

I even tried to cd/tmp and then just ran hptc-bios-flash L40_0214.bin.

If i run the command in Xterminal it show sthe same "not support tool-less BIOS" and shows file was copied to

/boot/EFI/EFI/HP/BIOS

and to reboot....no changes

Help!! - I have over 200 of these units with this BIOS

[nitrateAvatar]

If you copied hptc-bios-flash from thinpro 5 to /tmp then you should run the following command in xterm:

bash /tmp/hptc-bios-flash L40_0214.bin

So be sure to execute the htpc-bios-flash you copied! Not the hptc-bios-flash already on the system!

If you see the warning about the tool-less BIOS update, or any file was copied to /boot/ then you are still running hptc-bios-flash from Thinpro 6.

[MichelP]

Hi there, i was running thru some forums for an answer to my problem and i saw this post. Hope ppl are still looking at it. I have quit the same problem, i have around 20 T520 and there bios is from L41 v01.04 to 08. 

I would like them to be on all the same bios but with HPDM i cant seem to get it working... the command hptc-bios-flash seem to work but nothing change.. chmod command wont work..

Im not a pro with HPDM but i manage to upgrade a lot of thing, but not the BIOS. This i what i use that seem to work but did not change anything

fsunlock

deploy L41_0107.bin to /tmp

hptc-bios-flash /tmp/L41_0107.bin

I get no error from this, but the bios wont change its stuck to 0104

Any idea?

Thanks