How to update BIOS on Linux

[texadactyl]

It sounds like there is an issue with the EXE that you downloaded. 

Is there a newer version available? 

Did you download the EXE as-is i.e. unprocessed?

See the original 05-02-2016 05:19 PM instructions for Linux.  I updated it today to contain precise step-by-step instructions which I did execute again today.

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@michal_za wrote:

I followed the steps as close as possible and I got this message:

"The System BIOS Update failed."

Nothing more concrete.

I have been using the sp77821.exe package that contains Rom.bin. no Mxx_xxxx.bin files - is that OK?

Any idea where could the problem be?

Thanks.

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If this issue repeats, then it needs to be reported to HP support.

[tim8723]

Even with the instructions in the top post of this topic, I still could not get the BIOS of my Probook 450 G3 to update. No matter how I arranged the files and folders on my USB stick, it always told me it could not find the BIOS bin file. I finally got it to work by naming the top-level directory on the USB stick to "EFI" instead of "Hewlett-Packard". Both ways are documented to work, but only EFI worked on my PC.

To make things crystal clear, here is my complete solution:

• Created a new partition table on a USB stick. Created a "Windows data (type 0700)" partition. Labeled the partition HP_TOOLS. Created a FAT32 filesystem on it.
• Named my top-level directory "EFI". "Hewlett-Packard" is also documented to work, but it didn't work for me. Built a directory hierarchy as "\EFI\HP\BIOS\New".
• Expanded the HP SofPaq Windows exe using unar. I am told that 7zip would do it as well, but that's not what I used.
• Copied everything under, but not including, the sp81023 directory to the New directory of my USB stick. The BIOS upgraded without a hitch.

[JohnWester]

How about a one click way to format and prepare a bootable USB stick? It takes one time to create, but would be used 100 times. Or more if it's easy.

[nofoo]

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@tim8723 wrote:

Even with the instructions in the top post of this topic, I still could not get the BIOS of my Probook 450 G3 to update. No matter how I arranged the files and folders on my USB stick, it always told me it could not find the BIOS bin file. I finally got it to work by naming the top-level directory on the USB stick to "EFI" instead of "Hewlett-Packard". Both ways are documented to work, but only EFI worked on my PC.

To make things crystal clear, here is my complete solution:

• Created a new partition table on a USB stick. Created a "Windows data (type 0700)" partition. Labeled the partition HP_TOOLS. Created a FAT32 filesystem on it.
• Named my top-level directory "EFI". "Hewlett-Packard" is also documented to work, but it didn't work for me. Built a directory hierarchy as "\EFI\HP\BIOS\New".
• Expanded the HP SofPaq Windows exe using unar. I am told that 7zip would do it as well, but that's not what I used.
• Copied everything under, but not including, the sp81023 directory to the New directory of my USB stick. The BIOS upgraded without a hitch.

---

I can't get this to work on a HP Envy 15.

The latest BIOS update is: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/swdetails/hp-envy-15-as100-notebook-pc/12499192/mod...

The extracted exe has the following contents:

.
├── sp80819
│   ├── 081D2.fd
│   ├── CrisisFolder
│   │   ├── CryptRSA32.efi
│   │   ├── CryptRSA.efi
│   │   ├── HpBiosMgmt32.efi
│   │   ├── HpBiosMgmt32.s09
│   │   ├── HpBiosMgmt32.s12
│   │   ├── HpBiosMgmt32.s14
│   │   ├── HpBiosMgmt.efi
│   │   ├── HpBiosMgmt.s09
│   │   ├── HpBiosMgmt.s12
│   │   ├── HpBiosMgmt.s14
│   │   ├── HpBiosUpdate32.efi
│   │   ├── HpBiosUpdate32.s09
│   │   ├── HpBiosUpdate32.s12
│   │   ├── HpBiosUpdate32.s14
│   │   ├── HpBiosUpdate32.sig
│   │   ├── HpBiosUpdate.efi
│   │   ├── HpBiosUpdate.s09
│   │   ├── HpBiosUpdate.s12
│   │   ├── HpBiosUpdate.s14
│   │   └── HpBiosUpdate.sig
│   ├── CrisisKeyDLL.dll
│   ├── FlsHookDll.dll
│   ├── FlsHook.exe
│   ├── FWUpdLcl.exe
│   ├── InsydeFlash.exe
│   ├── iscflash.dll
│   ├── iscflash.sys
│   ├── iscflashx64.sys
│   └── platform.ini
└── sp80819.exe

- There doesn't seem to be any *.bin* file. 

-  The instructions at the top of this post say that: "boot / F10 / BIOS / Main /" should have an "Update BIOS" option but I don't see any such option.

-  There is a "Boot from EFI FIle" option but that fails whenever I try any of the EFI files provided with the update.

***

My flashdrive looks like this:

└── Hewlett-Packard
├── BIOS
│   └── New
│   └── 081D2.fd
└── BIOSUpdate
├── CryptRSA32.efi
├── CryptRSA.efi
├── HpBiosMgmt32.efi
├── HpBiosMgmt32.s09
├── HpBiosMgmt32.s12
├── HpBiosMgmt32.s14
├── HpBiosMgmt.efi
├── HpBiosMgmt.s09
├── HpBiosMgmt.s12
├── HpBiosMgmt.s14
├── HpBiosUpdate32.efi
├── HpBiosUpdate32.s09
├── HpBiosUpdate32.s12
├── HpBiosUpdate32.s14
├── HpBiosUpdate32.sig
├── HpBiosUpdate.efi
├── HpBiosUpdate.log
├── HpBiosUpdate.s09
├── HpBiosUpdate.s12
├── HpBiosUpdate.s14
└── HpBiosUpdate.sig

[texadactyl]

Find the earlier entry where someone used FreeDOS to boot or use my earlier entry where I borrowed a Windows 7 installation disk (emergency mode to get DOS command line).  Both of those methods result in a DOS boot and have been verified as working by other people.  No, I have not tried every BIOS known to HP!  (-:

By the way, do you really need to update your BIOS?  If it aint broken, don't fix it.  If you do, make sure that the target PC has adequate wall socket power (don't run while on battery).

There is no way to take an HP EXE file and make a bootable volume out of it without a lot of one-time-use work.  HP does *not* adequately (if at all) support Linux or they would have provided a way to update the BIOS under Linux.   

Regarding the "EFI" note, this sounds like a BIOS-specific requirement that may or may not be work-aroundable using the FreeDOS or Windows emergency boot method.  I suspect that it is not required but then again I was not sitting in the room with you.

Yes, there is a straight-forward procedure for making a bootable volume (E.g. USB stick) from an ISO or other disk-volume-image file on Linux.  And, Ubuntu has a GUI interface for it.  But, GUI or command-line, always be careful of which **bleep** volume the intended target is associated with; Linux `dd` is not forgiving.

[texadactyl]

Even better than my Windows emergency boot CD technique!  Why?  No Windoze.

[JohnWester]

What is this Windows you speak of?

[nofoo]

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@texadactyl wrote:

By the way, do you really need to update your BIOS?  If it aint broken, don't fix it.  [...]

---

I don't think there's anyone who looks for BIOS updates for fun.  The only reason to trawl support sites is because CMOS corruption errors keep occurring, the laptop is unable to suspend properly, das blinkenlights keep showing up instead of the laptop booting properly, or some other arbitrary crash keeps happening.  I'd rather be working, but instead I'm trying to update BIOS and actually have a stable laptop.  😞

[texadactyl]

There are people who think that updating BIOS is like updating the Linux kernel.  I have run into thyem.

So, it sounds like your BIOS might be corrupt.  I hope that portion of the BIOS which loads updates is not corrupt.

Have you tried any of the solutions in this support thread?  Success?  Mine was borrowing a pal's Windows installation DVD.  See page 3, first entry.  It worked for me as stated on my HP Pavilion dv3-1075us.  There were other solutions that looked interesting like a freedos one (next entry after mine on the same page).

Whatever you do, best wishes.  If you have trouble, I suggest posting pictures.

[Stane1983]

I created Bash script which prepares content of USB drive in folder from where script is started or in user defined folder.

Script is on my GitHub. Script needs to be started with sudo (will inform you about that if it's started as regular user).

Basically it's simple. You download EXE with BIOS update from support page and you run script:

sudo ./extract_bios.sh --file=/home/stane/Downloads/sp81459.exe

With these parameters script will create subdirectory named eg USB-20171207224718 which contains all files needed for your machine.

Sample output is:

Your system
===========
System:       HP ProBook 470 G2
BIOS type:    M73
BIOS version: 01.44

Extracting content of archive...
Copying files...
Done!

Any comments, issues etc are welcome. This is tested on above laptop only, so further tests are welcome.