Update BIOS from the command line of OS

Applications Hardware
1

Hi,

I've two machines (Dell OptiPlex 390 & 7010) running Ubuntu (server) and installed in attic and seems to be working really well. But due to their location, access is not the easiest thing but that is whole point!

The machines are old and need BIOS update and I was curious if it is even possible to update BIOS from command line via SSH session.

Just looking for pointers here as otherwise I'll need to hook up machines with keyboard, mouse and monitor and do it the old fashion way.

2

Hello,

Given that you're on Ubuntu, this may actually be possible. Ubuntu provide a system package called fwupd. I've not used it myself, but a quick spot of Googling seems to reveal that it, combined with its client interface command fwupdmgr, may well be able to do exactly what you're after.

Have a look at that, and see if it does what you need. If not, then I think on an Optiplex you'd probably have to manually do the install, yes. For servers, Dell provide Linux packages for things like system firmware updates, but not for their PCs. Optiplex firmware updates are solely available as a downloadable EXE file, and are intended to be installed from Windows. Now that's not to say that there aren't ways of doing it from Linux anyway with the contents of that EXE, but overall you'd be safest to stick to the "approved" way of updating the BIOS if you can.

Anyway, give fwupd / fwupdmgr a look and see how you get on. Hope this helps !

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3

Yes, it is possible to update the BIOS of your Dell OptiPlex 390 and 7010 from the command line via an SSH session. You can use the Dell Repository Manager to create a bootable Linux ISO image that contains all of the necessary BIOS update files. Once you have the ISO image, you can use it to boot the machine and perform the BIOS update from the command line.

Here are the steps you can follow to update the BIOS of your Dell OptiPlex 390 and 7010 from the command line via an SSH session:

  1. Download and install the Dell Repository Manager on a machine that has internet access.
  2. Launch the Dell Repository Manager and create a new repository.
  3. Select the "Updates" option and then select the "BIOS" category.
  4. Select the BIOS update that you want to apply to your Dell OptiPlex 390 and 7010 and add it to the repository.
  5. Export the repository as a bootable Linux ISO image.
  6. Transfer the ISO image to the machine that you want to update the BIOS on (e.g. using scp).
  7. Boot the machine from the ISO image (e.g. by setting the boot order in the BIOS to boot from USB first).
  8. Follow the prompts to update the BIOS.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

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4

Thanks @drysdalk & @chatgpt for the pointers, I do see "fwupdmgr" installed on both the boxes and will try out both the methods over next weekend and update here.

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@pankaj13 this worked. "fwupdmgr get-upgrades" showed firmware updates/upgrades, and "fwupdmgr update" applied them. Runnning Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS through ssh on Dell Optiplex 3060 as a server node. Dell bios upgrade from 1.2.22 to 1.29.0.

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