[NBLUG/talk] HP BIOS Flash

[Mitch Patenaude]

You may be able to fix (or at least work around) this problem without 
flashing the bios.  This sounds like a case of the bootloader failing 
because the the bios won't let it get access beyond cyl. 1024 of the 
disk (a common problem with older bios's).  The kernel (or something 
else the booloader needs) is located beyond that point on disk.

The best way to handle this limitation is to make a small partition at 
the beginning of the disk when you build the system.  have this house 
just the /boot directory.  Then use the rest of the disk to make larger 
partitions for /, /usr, /home, etc.  You can even put the rest of the 
disk into a single root partition (probably the best for a home 
workstation.

   -- Mitch

On Wednesday, Jul 9, 2003, at 14:55 US/Pacific, 
jeff at dreadidread.homelinux.org wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I have an old HP Vectra P2 that I'm having trouble with. Basically, I 
> can
> install an OS, but I can't boot it after the install. I get "L", and 
> that's it.
> I'm pretty sure that's an "L" as in Lilo. Anyway, I've installed a 
> very bare
> bones RH9.0 on it.
>
> I was talking with a sys admin at work and he said he'd run across an 
> issue
> simila r to this and he upgraded the BIOS and that took care of it. I 
> went to HP
> land and found the upgrade, an exe for Windows NT.
>
> My question is, is there any way I can upgrade the BIOS without 
> installing
> Windows? Is there a comparable BIOS upgrade program written for Linux? 
> I really
> don't know much about this, but I don't know what else to do but 
> install
> windows, upgrade the bios, and then reinstall redhat? But that doesn't 
> seem right...
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jeff
>
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