June 27, 2010

Unpacking the Gigabyte BIOS without Windows

Before moving on to installing the OS, let's take care of updating the BIOS.
Gigabyte publishes (quite often) updated BIOS with new features and fixes.
So let's download and unpack the new BIOS.

At the time of the download, the latest was version F9.

OK, so here I have my motherboard_bios_ga-p55m-ud4_f9.exe file...

But, how am I going to execute the .exe in my Mac or my Linux PC ?
Easy... I won't !

The BIOS file is a self-extracting 7zip compressed file.

So I can use keka, Stuffit Expander, or 7za on my Mac OS X (or p7zip on my Debian Linux PC) to unpack it.

Once open, I find the p55mud4.f9 there...

Time to move on to Updating the BIOS
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18 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 11, 2010 at 7:34 PM

    I usually use Wine for this operation. I'll give the OSX native apps a try next time. Good tip.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJuly 18, 2010 at 3:40 AM

    Worked great. Thank you. Updated my GA-P55-USB3 rev 1.0 to F6 with no problems. I loaded optimized defaults and changed the SATA mode back to ACHI.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lnx2MacJuly 18, 2010 at 7:40 AM

    @Anonymous: Glad it helped. Instead of "just" changing SATA to AHCI, check out my Optimal BIOS Configuration post to squeeze the most of your rig.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lnx2MacJuly 18, 2010 at 10:44 AM

    Added a link to the free/GPL keka, based on Anonymous feedback in Updating the Gigabyte BIOS

    ReplyDelete
  5. alex aestheticsDecember 5, 2010 at 8:45 PM

    im downgrading the bios from F.11 to F.9 and can't get the .exe file to unpack. i've used all 3 apps listed but all they do is compress .exe file...

    any chance u could host that .f9 file somewhere?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lnx2MacDecember 5, 2010 at 11:39 PM

    @alex aestetics: To unpack with 7za you'd just do in a Terminal:
    $ 7za x motherboard_bios_ga-p55m-ud4_f9.exe

    You'll then find p55mud4.f9 in the same directory where you ran this.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousDecember 11, 2010 at 6:12 PM

    i've installed p7zip via macport

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJanuary 5, 2011 at 6:09 PM

    Worked great. Thanks for the post

    ReplyDelete
  9. link DescriptionJanuary 24, 2011 at 12:21 AM

    hello i'm trying to update my bios to FE. i downloaded the .rar file and dropped it in Keka, but all i get are .exe files. How do i get the .exe files to be recognized by mac.

    thanks for the help.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Lnx2MacJanuary 24, 2011 at 5:05 AM

    @link Description: Open the .exe file with keka again...

    ReplyDelete
  11. mcpcMarch 8, 2011 at 8:14 PM

    Make sure you have latest version of stuffit.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousApril 16, 2011 at 2:22 PM

    7zX also works on the Mac

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousJuly 17, 2011 at 4:01 PM

    Hi, first hackintosh. Am I to unpack the updated bios in a different computer, save it on a flash drive as instructed in your other posting, and then use q-flash to update? Or do I do everything in the new system that will eventually be my new Hackintosh? If its the latter, I'm confused how to go about unpacking despite the file being self-extradicting if the new system is completely empty of any os to allow the unpacking?

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousJuly 17, 2011 at 4:04 PM

    I guess whenever I update a BIOS I'll have to re-install everything correct, start from scratch as the existing DSDT file, along with kernels and kexts files will only work with the previous BIOS version, so new files must be created to correspond with the new BIOS update? Or are there ways to prevent having to re-install?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Lnx2MacJuly 18, 2011 at 5:34 AM

    @Anonymous: If you have another computer to unpack these, it'll be the easiest.
    Otherwise, you can install OSX and boot with iBoot, then unpack/upgrade your BIOS, and follow by customizing your setup.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Lnx2MacJuly 18, 2011 at 5:35 AM

    @Anonymous: No need to reinstall at all...
    Just grab the edited-DSDT for your updated BIOS, and put it on /Extra.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Karl EntwistleJune 30, 2012 at 12:21 PM

    Thanks very much for posting this! I was trying to figure it out for ages used Keka on Mac.

    ReplyDelete
  18. sekkkJanuary 6, 2013 at 8:11 AM

    I suggest "the unarchiver" for extract the bios!

    ReplyDelete

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