Dapper corrupts Dell laptop BIOS!

Hello,

I just discovered that [1] Dapper corrupts the BIOS of some
Dell
laptops.

[1]:
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/
+source/linux-source-2.6.15/+bug/43745

Honestly, I fell cheated.

My laptop is unuseable. It won't boot from a CD, or an
external
USB stick.


My biggest trouble with this is:

1. this bug is known for months;
2. it renders a laptop *completely*broken*;
3. there is no warning, or note about "serious risk of
totally breaking
   your Dell laptop" at the laptop support page or at
the download site
   for Ubuntu CDs.
4. the bug is CONFIRMED but (a) hasn't been assigned to
anyone and (b)
   is not CRITICAL!!!

The motherboard bios gets corrupted by Ubuntu and the bug is
not
critical?!?

I can deal with a broken upgrade, for as long as I still
have the option
to go back, I'll make no big deal of it. But this is
another order of
magnitute.

BTW this is only repport for Ubuntu Dapper, no other distro
seems to
have the problem.

[...]

Right now I still trying to find out where exactly is the
coin cell
battery, and what are the risks of removing it...

Any help or advice is heartily appreciated.

thanks,
-- 
Francisco


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On Tue, 2006-08-22 at 16:11 +0200, Francisco Borges wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I just discovered that [1] Dapper corrupts the BIOS of
some Dell
> laptops.
> 
> [1]:
> https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/
+source/linux-source-2.6.15/+bug/43745
> 
> Honestly, I fell cheated.

Slow down, cowboy. Leave the !!!s and the ?!?s for the poor
souls who
run a different OS and concentrate on the actual problem and
the
solution.

Now, go back and re-read that bug page and realize the
following:

1. Your machine is not broken
2. A corrupted CMOS is very easy to fix
3. This kind of problem has been around since the first PC
was released
25 years ago. So any user who has [clue > 0] sooner or
later runs into
it and learns how to fix it:

The coin cell is a big fat watch battery about 2.5cm across.
It supplies
power to the CMOS memory and when you take it out and leave
it out for
about a minute the CMOS memory is cleared. You'll find it
under a cover
on the bottom of the machine on modern Dells, it has two
wires and a
tiny plug on the end. Power down the machine, unscrew the
cover on the
bootom and unplug this battery, wait a minute and put it
back. Switch
the machine on, press F2 and reset your BIOS data.

The reason the machine can't boot right now is probably
because the info
in the CMOS as to what devices are valid to boot from has
probably been
cleared.

If you still have a problem with the bug not being assigned
to someone
then I recommend you sign yourself up as the responsible
person and
figure out the solution so everyone else can benefit too.

alan



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On Tue, 2006-08-22 at 18:55 +0200, Alan Mckinnon wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-08-22 at 16:11 +0200, Francisco Borges
wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I just discovered that [1] Dapper corrupts the
BIOS of some Dell
> > laptops.
> > 
> > [1]:
> > https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/
+source/linux-source-2.6.15/+bug/43745
> > 
> > Honestly, I fell cheated.
> 
> Slow down, cowboy. Leave the !!!s and the ?!?s for the
poor souls who
> run a different OS and concentrate on the actual
problem and the
> solution.
> 
Just for clarity, can you tell us what model Dell laptop you
have ?
I just ran the upgrade to xorg-core update this morning on
my Dell 8600,
and, as soon as I finish answering some emails, etc., I'm
going to
reboot it to see what's up... I'll let you know if I find
anything...

John


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Francisco Borges wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I just discovered that [1] Dapper corrupts the BIOS of
some Dell
> laptops.
> 
> [1]:
> https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/
+source/linux-source-2.6.15/+bug/43745
> 
> Honestly, I fell cheated.
> 
> My laptop is unuseable. It won't boot from a CD, or an
external
> USB stick.
> 
> 
> My biggest trouble with this is:
> 
> 1. this bug is known for months;
> 2. it renders a laptop *completely*broken*;
> 3. there is no warning, or note about "serious
risk of totally breaking
>    your Dell laptop" at the laptop support page
or at the download site
>    for Ubuntu CDs.
> 4. the bug is CONFIRMED but (a) hasn't been assigned
to anyone and (b)
>    is not CRITICAL!!!
> 
> The motherboard bios gets corrupted by Ubuntu and the
bug is not
> critical?!?
> 
> I can deal with a broken upgrade, for as long as I
still have the option
> to go back, I'll make no big deal of it. But this is
another order of
> magnitute.
> 
> BTW this is only repport for Ubuntu Dapper, no other
distro seems to
> have the problem.
> 
> [...]
> 
> Right now I still trying to find out where exactly is
the coin cell
> battery, and what are the risks of removing it...
> 
> Any help or advice is heartily appreciated.
> 
> thanks,

the yahoo group
htt
p://groups.yahoo.com/group/linux-dell-laptops/
may be useful also
-- 
ac


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On 23/08/2006, at 12:11 AM, Francisco Borges wrote:
>
> I just discovered that [1] Dapper corrupts the BIOS of
some Dell
> laptops.

Not wanting to start a flame war, but this is another reason
that  
swayed me to fork out for an Intel Macbook Pro.  They don't
have a  
BIOS  
Firmware, yes, BIOS (in the traditional sense), no.  They  
are much closer to what I use in my Sun servers - which have
a boot  
EPROM, but no BIOS.

Some stuff in Linux didn't work for me on this Macbook
(Wifi and  
Bluetooth) but have heard of some who persisted and got it
working.   
But for my work machine I need rock-solid reliability and
loooong  
vendor support so I still run OSX as the primary OS (that's
the flame- 
war queue).  However, if the wifi and bluetooth can work out
of the  
box with much the same ease as OSX, then the LTS Ubuntu
variants may  
well make it back onto this machine.

Cheers,

James

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On Wednesday 23 August 2006 05:21, James Gray wrote:
> On 23/08/2006, at 12:11 AM, Francisco Borges wrote:
> But for my work machine I need rock-solid reliability
and loooong
> vendor support so I still run OSX as the primary OS
(that's the flame-
> war queue). 

Hey, I'll bite.  Long support - like Jaguar is still
supported ?
Or how about writing the install script on Tiger to disallow
G3 Lombard Powerbooks  (which work fine under Tiger
incidentally)?
What is that, 3 years software and 4 hardware?
Interesting definition of long support...

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On 8/22/06, Francisco Borges <f.borgesrug.nl> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I just discovered that [1] Dapper corrupts the BIOS of
some Dell
> laptops.
>
> [1]:
> https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/
+source/linux-source-2.6.15/+bug/43745
>
> Honestly, I fell cheated.
>
> My laptop is unuseable. It won't boot from a CD, or an
external
> USB stick.
>
>
> My biggest trouble with this is:
>
> 1. this bug is known for months;
> 2. it renders a laptop *completely*broken*;
> 3. there is no warning, or note about "serious
risk of totally breaking
>    your Dell laptop" at the laptop support page
or at the download site
>    for Ubuntu CDs.
> 4. the bug is CONFIRMED but (a) hasn't been assigned
to anyone and (b)
>    is not CRITICAL!!!
>
> The motherboard bios gets corrupted by Ubuntu and the
bug is not
> critical?!?
>
> I can deal with a broken upgrade, for as long as I
still have the option
> to go back, I'll make no big deal of it. But this is
another order of
> magnitute.
>
> BTW this is only repport for Ubuntu Dapper, no other
distro seems to
> have the problem.
>
> [...]
>
> Right now I still trying to find out where exactly is
the coin cell
> battery, and what are the risks of removing it...
>
> Any help or advice is heartily appreciated.
>
> thanks,
> --
> Francisco
>
>
> --
> ubuntu-users mailing list
> ubuntu-userslists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
>

Hi Francisco Borges!

First of all, my regrets at the loss of your time and
efforts.

If it were me, I would switch distro or OS immediately.  You
do not
have time for this.  The PhD is more important, simply! 
Linux is
"volunteer" software without any promise.

Still, if you want to pursue this I would:

0. Change out the CMOS battery.  They do go flaky.  Also
check the
connections to the battery!!!

0.a Update your flash BIOS!  This may have been fixed by
this time or
a mistake corrected (an unlikely crash of mistakes now
corrected).

1. Go to www.dell.com - obtain the service manual for my
machine -
read the critical pages on the CMOS battery - replace the
battery.

2. Google the bug (looks like you have) and specifically
your machine
(with particularly HW - they have options) and try to get a
handle on
what in the world tromps on CMOS in what settings (shadow -
no?!?).
This is a strange bug!  And apparently hard to verify.  We
all would
like to know what causes it.

3. Consider what you need Linux for.  If business simply try
FC5.  If
you need a Debian flavor but have not the time to deal with
Debian
consider Knoppix.  There are a lot of other options out
there.

Francisco Borges, you are correct that we did not warn you
properly
about the risks.  I stand corrected!  Thank you!

May the thesis go well!

Good Hunting!

Tod

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On 8/22/06, Francisco Borges <f.borgesrug.nl> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I just discovered that [1] Dapper corrupts the BIOS of
some Dell
> laptops.
>
> [1]:
> https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/
+source/linux-source-2.6.15/+bug/43745
>
> Honestly, I fell cheated.
>
> My laptop is unuseable. It won't boot from a CD, or an
external
> USB stick.
>
>
> My biggest trouble with this is:
>
> 1. this bug is known for months;
> 2. it renders a laptop *completely*broken*;
> 3. there is no warning, or note about "serious
risk of totally breaking
>    your Dell laptop" at the laptop support page
or at the download site
>    for Ubuntu CDs.
> 4. the bug is CONFIRMED but (a) hasn't been assigned
to anyone and (b)
>    is not CRITICAL!!!
>
> The motherboard bios gets corrupted by Ubuntu and the
bug is not
> critical?!?
>
> I can deal with a broken upgrade, for as long as I
still have the option
> to go back, I'll make no big deal of it. But this is
another order of
> magnitute.
>
> BTW this is only repport for Ubuntu Dapper, no other
distro seems to
> have the problem.
>
> [...]
>
> Right now I still trying to find out where exactly is
the coin cell
> battery, and what are the risks of removing it...
>
> Any help or advice is heartily appreciated.
>
> thanks,
> --
> Francisco
>
>
> --
> ubuntu-users mailing list
> ubuntu-userslists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
>

Hi again Francisco Borges!

Just on of those late night thoughts as I reread some of
this.  What
if the problem is that Linux somehow uses access to the CMOS
in a way
that tends to draw down the battery?  That would make having
a new,
fresh battery (well connected) a critical item, and would
explain why
some posters (your name) have problems that come back
"after a few
days" (battery more used or in a colder enviornment??)
and why there
are so many 6400s out there with no such problem and why
those with
the problem seem to be unable to predict when it will happen
or not.

Might be good to find a fresh battery!

Good Hunting!

Tod

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