BIOS update EliteBook 2170p from USB flash drive

[tim0123]

Hi!

I'm trying to update the BIOS of my notebook. The notebook is running Linux and I don't have any Windows system available.

I read this post:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/How-to-update-BIOS-on-Linux/td-p...

It sounds quite promising, but it is still not working. I tried to rename files in many different ways but still without success. My usb drive looks like this now:

├── Hewlett-Packard
│   ├── BIOS
│   │       └── New
│   │               ├── 68IMT.BIN
│   │               └── 68IMT.sig
│   └── BIOSUpdate
│               ├── CryptRSA32.efi
│               ├── CryptRSA.efi
│               ├── HpBiosUpdate32.efi
│               ├── HpBiosUpdate32.s09
│               ├── HpBiosUpdate32.s12
│               ├── HpBiosUpdate32.sig
│               ├── HpBiosUpdate.efi
│               ├── HpBiosUpdate.log
│               ├── HpBiosUpdate.s09
│               ├── HpBiosUpdate.s12
│               └── HpBiosUpdate.sig
└── HpBiosUpdate.log

When activating Bios update in the Bios setup and rebooting, a "HP BIOS Update" screen appears. It is counting down the seconds or I can choose "Apply upate now". In both cases the system hangs and the screen is frozen.  The HpBiosUpdate.log always contains the same messages:

01/28/17 08:47:17 EFI HP BIOS Update 2.7.1.0 Started
01/28/17 08:47:18 Failed init of SMBIOS data

It would be nice if someone could give me some hint how to get this running.

thanks

timo

[tim0123 · Accepted solution]

Ok, here's the solution:

1. unpack the exe file, for example with cabextract:

$ cabextract sp77815.exe
Extracting cabinet: sp77815.exe
extracting BIOSUpdate/CryptRSA.efi
extracting BIOSUpdate/CryptRSA32.efi
extracting BIOSUpdate/HpBiosUpdate.efi
extracting BIOSUpdate/HpBiosUpdate.s09
extracting BIOSUpdate/HpBiosUpdate.s12
extracting BIOSUpdate/HpBiosUpdate.sig
extracting BIOSUpdate/HpBiosUpdate32.efi
extracting BIOSUpdate/HpBiosUpdate32.s09
extracting BIOSUpdate/HpBiosUpdate32.s12
extracting BIOSUpdate/HpBiosUpdate32.sig
extracting HPQFlash.exe
extracting hpqFlash64.exe
extracting Installer.exe
extracting Rom.CAB
extracting wsSP77815.rtf

All done, no errors.

2. extracting the included Rom.CAB file:

$ cabextract Rom.CAB
Extracting cabinet: Rom.CAB
extracting Rom.bin
extracting Rom.sig
extracting ver.txt
extracting ver.sig
extracting efibios.sig

All done, no errors.

3. Putting files in the directory structure as seen in my last message.

BIOSUpdate with all files from archive to Hewlett-Packard/BIOSUpdate

Rom.bin to Hewlett-Packard/BIOS/New/68IMT.BIN

efibios.sig to Hewlett-Packard/BIOS/New/68IMT.sig

My mistake was to use Rom.sig instead of efibios.sig. Another tip from the support was to update in small steps. But this did not apply to my case. I could update from F01 to F64 without problems.

I don't understand why HP can not provide an archive with correct file and directory names. Or at least explain how to rename stuff. Can't be that hard.