{"id":582,"date":"2013-04-12T23:46:51","date_gmt":"2013-04-13T03:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glaver.org\/blog\/?p=582"},"modified":"2013-04-13T01:45:40","modified_gmt":"2013-04-13T05:45:40","slug":"dell-poweredge-r300-esm-bmc-firmware-updates-on-unsupported-os","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glaver.org\/blog\/?p=582","title":{"rendered":"Dell PowerEdge R300 ESM \/ BMC firmware updates on non-supported operating systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dell has generally been quite good about making firmware updates available in a variety of formats. In addition to the normal Windows and Linux versions, most patches are also available as a floppy \/ USB image or an ISO image (depending on size). Those of us who don’t run one of the operating systems Dell provides support for appreciate them going through the trouble.<\/p>\n

However, newer updates for older systems and updates for newer systems seem to no longer provide standalone installers. In theory, Dell provides a quarterly packaged roll-up of all available updates on a pair of DVD images (CDU and SUU). Booting these and wasting about 10 minutes switching discs should<\/i> get your system updated to the latest versions of all firmware without any additional steps.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the firmware for the R300’s ESM \/ BMC has not been on any SUU discs I’ve looked at, and the update is listed as “Critical Security Update” on Dell’s site (look under ESM on the R300’s downloads and drivers page). The only two formats it is available in are “Windows Update Package” and “Linux Update Package”. I figure that’s not a problem, as I can boot a Windows 7 recovery disk and then run the ESM update from a USB drive. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work. You get an error about “unsupported operating system”.<\/p>\n

Next, I boot the CDU DVD and select F3 for Advanced Options. This eventually gets me to a Linux shell prompt (CDU\/SUU operates under Linux). I mount the USB drive and execute the Linux version of the ESM update. That errors out with “Not compatible with your system configuration” for some unknown reason. Time to investigate further…<\/p>\n

Clicking on “Previous Versions” on the Dell page shows the previous version as 2.46 from 2009. Looking at the available formats, one is listed as “Hard-Drive”. Depending on the mood Dell is in when they create the kit, this could be anything from a freestanding binary that writes a floppy image to a drive, to creating an ISO file, or something that just unpacks into a bunch of loose files somewhere, perhaps then trying to run them (incorrectly) on the local system.<\/p>\n

I downloaded that file (link here<\/a>) and discovered it created 3 useful files when it was executed:<\/p>\n