It looks like Dell have some problem with their ftp servers. I assume
there is some fancy round-robin stuff hiden at their end - or they have
files randomly appearing/disappearing on the servers...
$ wget --proxy=off ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/O755-A05.EXE
--14:09:38-- ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/O755-A05.EXE
=> `O755-A05.EXE.5'
Resolving ftp.us.dell.com... 143.166.11.10
Connecting to ftp.us.dell.com|143.166.11.10|:21... connected.
Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
==> SYST ... done. ==> PWD ... done.
==> TYPE I ... done. ==> CWD /bios ... done.
==> PASV ... done. ==> RETR O755-A05.EXE ...
No such file `O755-A05.EXE'.
try again a couple of times and...
$ wget --proxy=off ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/O755-A05.EXE
--14:10:14-- ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/O755-A05.EXE
=> `O755-A05.EXE.5'
Resolving ftp.us.dell.com... 143.166.11.10
Connecting to ftp.us.dell.com|143.166.11.10|:21... connected.
Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
==> SYST ... done. ==> PWD ... done.
==> TYPE I ... done. ==> CWD /bios ... done.
==> PASV ... done. ==> RETR O755-A05.EXE ... done.
[ <=> ] 2,126,440
309.01K/s
14:10:25 (213.78 KB/s) - `O755-A05.EXE' saved [2126440]
then a bit later it will revert to the not-found etc.
We only have two 755 boxes so far and they currently have BIOS A03 and
mostly seems to work fine with SL51 - it even supports the sound. Mind
you we are using an ATI X300 video card (with the standard xorg drivers)
so maybe we are just being lucky.
We do get the 'PCI: Cannot allocate resource region' messages logged and
I've noticed a couple of network glitches with the built-in e1000 nic so I
may check if the newer A05 BIOS helps at all. Now I just need to find a
dos-floppy-image... (grr). Actually I'll make up a freedos image like we
do for most of our bios updates. It isn't hard but Dell could either
provide updates in either a bootable format or offer a linux bios
update-utility.
BTW Dell's support web pages still list A04 as the latest for the O755...
--
Jon Peatfield, Computer Officer, DAMTP, University of Cambridge
Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/
