Ubuntu – How to configure UEFI Bootable FreeDOS USB stick

bootuefi

FreeDOS .img was burned to a USB drive via balena etcher.

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A UEFI only desktop does not recognize the FreeDOS USB stick for boot. USB bootup tests, on a BIOS laptop, indicates a successful legacy boot.

QUESTIONS

  • What is required to be UEFI bootable?
  • Is it possible to change the Partition table from MSDOS to GPT?

UPDATE

The Dell 7010 desktop firmware is old and for some reason: only UEFI boot. The Legacy boot option is greyed-out. Booting from the DVD/CD is not possible

The goal is to update the firmware with a DOS executable provided at this link:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=5M70H

Best Answer

The FreeDOS wiki page wiki.freedos.org/wiki/index.php/UEFI tells us that it does not work:

UEFI is an acronym for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface.

Note that many new (2010 and later) computers boot using UEFI, which is not compatible with BIOS. FreeDOS assumes a BIOS, and does not work with UEFI.

Many motherboard manufacturers are replacing BIOS+MBR with UEFI+GPT. UEFI uses a GPT table instead of the MBR. UEFI handles large-sectored hard disks. Hard disk manufacturers are already (2010 and later) coming out with hard disks with large sectors, which BIOS does not handle (they are hard-coded to 512-byte sectors).

A workaround would be to install FreeDOS in a virtual machine and set this virtual machine to boot in BIOS mode alias CSM alias legacy mode. You can use VirtualBox for that purpose.

Edit:

I found this link, that might be helpful:

wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Flashing_BIOS_from_Linux

Flashing BIOS from Linux

This article aims on providing information on flashing your system BIOS under Linux. Most manufacturers provide a Windows executable or a BIOS executable that can only be run under Windows. However, there are a few utilities that allow you to upgrade your system BIOS under Linux. Warning: Flashing motherboard BIOS is a dangerous activity that can render your motherboard inoperable! While the author of this article has successfully run this procedure many times, your mileage may vary. Be careful! You may want to consider updating microcode instead if it is supported by your system. Note:

...

For users with Dell computers, Dell recommends Linux users flash their BIOS following information located here (in short, put the .EXE on a USB stick and use the F12 boot menu to access the firmware's flash utility).

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