How to extract the ROM file from this DOS exe BIOS updater

biosdell-vostro

I am trying to update my DELL VOSTRO 260 BIOS. I am struggling to get anywhere, see for more info:

I decided to simply extract the flashrom directly. I am not trying to run the flashing step, simply to extract the ROM from the exe. So if I download the exe and try to run it using dosemu, here is what I get:

$ wget http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER01639275M/1/MS-A10.exe
$ dosemu -dumb MS-A10.exe > log
$ cat log
SfxDos v2.11. [2012/06/25]
Extracting Files: [6174382 / 6174382] 100%  
Missing SMBIOS Table

What does this means ? Has anyone managed to extract the actual firmware from those exe ? I could not find anything working:

$ unrar l MS-A10.exe 

UNRAR 5.00 beta 8 freeware      Copyright (c) 1993-2013 Alexander Roshal

MS-A10.exe is not RAR archive

or

$ unzip -l MS-A10.exe 
Archive:  MS-A10.exe
  End-of-central-directory signature not found.  Either this file is not
  a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive.  In the
  latter case the central directory and zipfile comment will be found on
  the last disk(s) of this archive.
unzip:  cannot find zipfile directory in one of MS-A10.exe or
        MS-A10.exe.zip, and cannot find MS-A10.exe.ZIP, period.

For reference:

$ file MS-A10.exe 
MS-A10.exe: MS-DOS executable

How do I extract the ROM file from this self extracting DOS exe ?

Best Answer

Actually that was trivial, simply run it under wine:

$ wine MS-A10.exe

The output will be found in .wine directory:

$ find $HOME/.wine | grep MS-A10
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/AFUWIN.EXE
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/AMIFLDRV.VXD
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/AMIFLDRV64.SYS
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/AMIFLDRV32.SYS
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/RosaBUU.exe
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/Pmxdll.dll
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/Idrvdll.dll
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/FWUpdLcl.exe
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/settings.ini
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/error.log
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/1176upd.BIN
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/AFUWINx64.EXE
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/RosaBUU.log
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/MS-A10.BIN
/home/mathieu/.wine/drive_c/users/mathieu/Temp/MS-A10/FWUpdLcl64.exe

with:

$ file MS-A10.BIN
MS-A10.BIN: Intel serial flash for PCH ROM

I guess this has little interest for anyone trying to do this BIOS update, you should be aware that using a Win7/32bits repair disk is not an option (I followed instructions from here). Indeed the DLL needed at runtime requires that oledlg.dll be found:

$ objdump -x RosaBUU.exe  | grep DLL
 vma:            Hint    Time      Forward  DLL       First
    DLL Name: dbghelp.dll
    DLL Name: KERNEL32.dll
    DLL Name: USER32.dll
    DLL Name: GDI32.dll
    DLL Name: COMDLG32.dll
    DLL Name: WINSPOOL.DRV
    DLL Name: ADVAPI32.dll
    DLL Name: SHELL32.dll
    DLL Name: COMCTL32.dll
    DLL Name: SHLWAPI.dll
    DLL Name: oledlg.dll
    DLL Name: ole32.dll
    DLL Name: OLEAUT32.dll

Apparently this DLL is not present from a Win7/32bits repair disk.

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