1 Linux
Please note that the instructions are meant for Fedora, or variants of it like the modified distribution pre-installed on the Acer Aspire One, but can be easily adapted to other distributions and package managment systems. So instead of yum use apt-get for Ubuntu or Debian. The package names are likely the same, and the packages may in fact already be installed.
Open a terminal. On the distribution pre-installed on the AA1 press Alt+F2 and check the checkbox to do so.
sudo yum install syslinux p7zip-plugins
wget -O unetbootin-bios http://downloads.sourceforge.net/unetbootin/unetbootin-linux-293
chmod 755 unetbootin-bios
sudo ./unetbootin-bios &Select FreeDOS and the device node, just like in the screenshot, and click OK. The device node is usually /dev/sdb1 if only one USB device is connected.
1 Windows
Just download the file from here. Select FreeDOS and the drive letter of the USB drive, just like in the screenshot, and click OK.
2 Extract all files from the BIOS zip file onto the USB drive.
3 Reboot and press F12 to select a bootable device.
4 Choose option 5 when prompted by FreeDOS and ignore the error about a missing CD-ROM. Change to drive C: by typing C: and if that doesn't work try drive B: instead. If it then still doesn't work, or if FreeDOS doesn't even boot to a prompt, try a different USB drive as the AA1 can be a bit picky.
5 Run the batch file to flash the BIOS by simply entering its filename, which is 3310.BAT for the latest BIOS version. The process usually takes only a few seconds. The AC adapter must be connected or the flash utility will wait until it is.
6 After successfully flashing the BIOS the AA1 will reboot by itself. A few BIOS settings will be reset to default values and might need to be readjusted if they were altered before.
any help?
chmod 755 unetbootin && sudo ./unetbootin &
I get : "Missing fdisk, sfdisk, vol-id,7Z" etc.
Advise is to install util-linux. But that IS already installed...
Then I cannot select /dev/sb1
What do I wrong?
I tried B: instead and it worked. :)
util-linux is installed, but the drive not found. It is there, though:
Disk /dev/sdb: 8258 MB, 8258584576 bytes
12 heads, 4 sectors/track, 336042 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 48 * 512 = 24576 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x04030201
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 29 336043 8064348 b W95 FAT32
It fails to install, long story, short and sad result.
Uwe
I could finally flush the BIOS without any problem.
Thanks a bunch!
Uwe
Thanks.
flashit simply hangs. Locks, nothin, nada, dead as the proverbial blue parrot. Even with the /? flag.
All I can do is big-red-button it, not even the 3-button salute is working.
Anybody have any ideas? Owen,
the cursor is blinking and the message
Loading boot sector..... booting....
-
is that the way it works??
The reason I flashed it was in the hope that I could gain access to the computer. I set the password for the hard drive and the bios. Unfortunately, I used passwords that were 12 letters long. While the bios accepts the 12 letters, when you try to enter the password again, it will only take eight.
And it will not recognize the first eight letters as the password. In fact it appears that the system is stone cold doa. It wont start the HDD without the password and it wont let me into bios without the password. I have the password, I know the password, but it won't let me type more than eight letters of a 12 letter password and won't recognize any part of the password as the password.
ARGGGG!
I made sure the caps lock was on, and typed the first eight letters only. I gained access.
I am now safe from being beaten by my wife for destroying her laptop. In fact, she will never know....
Trying to use the unetbooting utility, but after booting (F12) selecting USB stick, choice 5 and redirecting to drive C: What then?
At this point my A-one decides to die!
Is Freedos 1.0 the correct version to use? I just copied the directions from the blog.
I am amazed that a manufacturer such as acer does not have an easier utility for flashing the BIOS, that works!
Any advice on how to reconstitute my acer would be most welcome, otherwise I'm going MSI Wind.
AOA 110. Win XP Pro SP2.
Thanks!!!!!!!
I can change to the B: drive, but it has the same files as A:. C: and all other drive letters result in "invalid drive". NB: I'm running unetbootin under Fedora Linux ...
Help?
Loading /ubnkern...
Loading /ubninit...
It has been on the second line forever. Any suggestions?
Command line error: no such option -o
Any help gratefully accepted as going nuts now!!
i get this message...
Command line error: no such option: -o
Sny assistance appreciated!!!!
I spent hours trying to find out how to make a USB bootable
Thanks again
If it keeps not working for you and you have reviewed once and again this instructions to no avail, change your stick
Many thanks
Garry
For the Acer Aspire One 150 with XP
had to:
1. make the USB bootable following these instructions:
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/flashing-bios.html
2.download and copy on the bios files and flash it utility following these instructions:
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html
make sure you rename also. o.O
thank you so much
*hopes it doesn't void warranty!*
But i used v3305 which they have online so...
THANK YOU.
It didnt work for me.
The bios number didnt change and afterwards it didnt boot anymore.
I will reinstall from the usb-stick which came with the 110
But i still do have the strange "dead computer" bug.
Why wasnt i able to flash?
So it would seem this is a real big bug with the otherwise near perfect (save the battery life) AAO. Shame Acer does not provide a single exe that writes to a USB drive that customers could use and save having to send their beloved AAO to the Acer repair centre.
anyone know how i can recover the the password?? is there a bypass bios password? ANY help is appreciated.
sofi, aka linux n00b
this just might be the answer i've been looking for... :D
sudo ./unetbootin &
I get the following message:
19:19:08 (316.38 KB/s) - 'unetbootin-linux-293: File name too long
An ideas on how to fix this?
When I try to boot from USB stick I get :
- InitDisk
and nothing happens...
Any idea what to do ?
Thanks,
Igor.
When I dir/p the A:\ I can see all the files relating to free DOS but none of the files I have put on the USB from the zip file.
I have tried changing the directory to C:,B:,D: etc but it doesnt find it!
I'm a complete novice and this was a very very simple way to make a bootable usb drive, took all of 2 mins.
Thanks again!
I lost my beloved acer about 3 weeks ago and you saved me from insanity!!!
I wish there were more people like you in the world!!
Thanks again
Steps 1 & 2 worked well for me. Installed FreeDOS & extracted BIOS files into root of FAT USB drive. When I F12, boot into UNetBootin & select Option 5 I get a message:
UMB's unavailable!
XCDROM V2.3, 7-24-2006.
UltraDMA controller at I-O address 60A0h, Chip I.D. 808627C4h.
No CD-ROM drive to use; XCDROM not loaded!
Any suggestions?
Dermot
~andy
It is my wedding anniversary today and I this is my best gift for the day. I shall call ACER now to cancel collection of the unit.
Again, MACLES ... U DID A GREAT JOB!!!!!!!11
- First step download the zip file, then follow your instructions step by step.
- No need to separately download a file from unetbootin, the commands will do it for you.
- To change the drive in the reboot to C or B, simply type C: (I tried C:\> at first)
Many thanks, Macles!
Was having problem where I followed the steps above and was getting a message "No CD-ROM drive to use; XCDROM not loaded!". Changed to a different USB Stick and it worked fine. Changed to C: drive, ran 3305.bat, and install went perfectly. Am now writing this from my wireless AA0.
Many thanks macles.
Dermot
I experienced the same problem: tried every letter from A: to Z: - no luck.
By total coincidence i found a strange solution. I tested every key with and without the shift key and to my surprise I found a secondary colon when I hit the key combination - shift+Æ - on my danish keyboard (the danish Æ-key is positioned right to the L-key. Using this secondary colon instead of the official colon solved my problem: suddenly I could change drive letter to C:
Hope this can solve the problem for others
Bertil
Stupid me, bricked the lovely thing, gave myself a heart attack, then you saved me!
Thank alot, serioulsy
1. IDE 0: Hitachi HTS543216L9A300
2. USB HDD: SanDisk Cruzer
3. Network Boot: Legacy PCI Device
4. USB CDROM: SanDisk Cruzer
If I choose 2. it brings up a UNetbootin menu with Default highlighted and instructions to press [tab] to edit options and below that it counts down from 10 for automatic reboot. The black screen then comes up with: Loading /ubnkern...
Could not find ramdisk image: /ubninit
boot:
What have I done wrong?
Any and all help is much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
If your aa1 is running windows xp, you can flash the bios from windows itself. No need to prepare an usb disk...
1. made the USB bootable following these instructions:
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/flashing-bios.html
2.download and copy on the bios files and flash it utility following these instructions:
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html
made i you renamed also. set the aa1 to the usd drive did the reboot waiting for the dos to come up and sat for like 1 hour with just a black screen .
the aa1 was plugged in never even got to any instutstions for flash and now have a dead aa1all i get is the fan running no dos no screen?
any ideas?
thx Dan
GaLlIoNGP69
I have upgraded bios 0.3309 by press Fn+Esc.... but my AAO 110 have failed to upgrade and now it's black screen when i turn it on. I tried to flash Bios again but the power button blinks non stop. What I should do now to save my AAO 110?
My Acer Aspire one every now and then can not boot. Since I bough it, February 06, I have flashed th bios as per instructions for 5 times and I just wonder how far I can go on doing it!!! I overheard this is a current issue in Acer Aspire One A110 models, no matter what So you netbook is running. Mine runs Linpus, whose contacts in site www.linpus.com appear to not give a fu...ss to their users. So I hope I can find any help here to this problem. I also heard about noises from the fan. Mine I can barely listen to nothing.
But i have an XP - AAOo 150... Please your help, if Thank you!!..
please hepl me!
I have upgraded bios 0.3309 by press Fn+Esc.... but my AAO 150 have failed to upgrade and now it's black screen or the setup starts Screen, when i turn it on. I tried to flash Bios again with many versions but the power button blinks non stop, or stops but nothing else happens... What I should do now to save my AAO 150? Thank.. EDUARDO (Ecuador)
Many Thanks
Unetbootin seems not to like mount points with a space in them. My removable drive was auto-mounting as "/media/MEMOREX UFD", causing unetbootin to want to install the files to /media/MEMOREX\O40UFD" (040 is the ASCII code for space?). Anyway, unmounting the drive (don't remove/replace the drive, your computer will auto-mount it again with the bad mountpoint), then manually remounting it with a suitable mount point like "/media/flash" (you'll probably need to create that directory and chmod it to something appropriate) resulted in a flash drive with the bootloader and the system files where they were supposed to be. In a word, success (though Thunar still shows the remounted drive as "MEMOREX UFD", probably because that's the volume label)>
After a little trial and error, after seeing it myself... it seems the cause is unetbootin (in windows at least) NOT being proxy aware. So, when it went to download freedos, it couldn't get past the authenticating proxy, failed to download, but continued to create a (broken) usb stick which generates that error upon boot.
I got my XP box back to a 'raw' internet connection (by adsl) and it downloaded freedos just fine (actually did something with progress bar!) When done, it had put the correct stuff on the usb memory stick (*6* files in root dir, not inc bios 3309 dir), which booted and flashed the bios quite happily.
thanks for the guide!
Here From MEXICO.
DUDE tnx soo much. I wanna give a little advice. The first try, I used a USB of 4G and doesn´t work. After that, I used a USB of 128m and works.
I used fdisk to make a new parition table with one small primary partition, bootable, with file system code 0e, FAT16
formated the partition as fat 16.
Installed freedos with unetbootin
copyed the bios files over.
Again I'm not exactly sure what is necessary, but many times I tried I could not access the C: drive.
Loading /ubninit...
That message appears, and the Acer just hangs.
I used a 64MB USB stick, but got the above "error".
Then I tried a 128MB USB stick, and it worked.
So, if one USB stick doesn't work, try another.
Also, here are the instructions that worked for me:
Run unetbootin-windows-323.exe (or the latest version)
Select FreeDOS
Make sure the bottom says USB and points the USB drive/stick.
After it finishes, it wants to reboot; don't do it yet; just exit.
Then copy the contents of BIOS_xxxx.zip to the USB.
Plug the USB into the Acer (if it's not already attached).
Then restart the Acer, and press F12.
Choose USB HDD (option 3 for me, depends on what drives you have installed).
After the USB loads, choose option 5.
It will throw an error and go to A:\
Go to C:
Run the bios batch file (for example, 3309.bat).
When it is done, it will automatically reboot.
Did you make sure that the partition type is set to "W95 FAT32" in fdisk? Helped me.
sudo ./unetbootin &
The error is:
line 3: sntax error near unexpected token "newline"
any fix?
Instead I ended up successfully upgrading to 3309 by using your BIOS recovery procedure described here: http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html
The battery is now working properly.
Just another data point. Thanks Macles
Thanks very much !
JP
I've been trying with 3310 and 3309, but nothing happend, it keeps still after running the batch file 3310.bat or 3309.bat. I'm using a stick with FreeDOS made by unetbootin. Any ideas?.
thanks
Don't forget to rename the BIOS file people - as per Macles instructions - using the 3309.FD or whatever does not work.
Im very very grateful to you for sharing this!
Thanks a million! YOU ARE A STAR!!
Y por supuesto su bios era la 3114 y ahora es la 3310, muchas gracias desde SPAIN...
trying to flash acer aspire 5520 with unetbootin but system hangs at initdisk...what am i doing wrong?
thanks in advance
Thanks
Following it I was able to solve my battery problem .
Only a "small" detail .
Because I was not able to flas it from my USB drive , I start looking arround ( in that folder ) and actually there is a " read me " file .
I double-click the " inside flash " and after that " sure " for over-writting BIOS and in about 2 minutes my battery was charging ...
I let my acer for 4 months without batt. and when nedeed , the battery was like dead .
How much time do you think it needs for a complete charge ?
Anyway , I'm a begginer in this and it was really simple ( this is my first BIOS operation...)
THANK YOU!!!
Here is what is on the USB drive:
ZG5_3304 File Folder
syslinux.cfg
ubninit file
ubnkern file
vesamenu.c32
I place the usb drive in the Acer AspireOne push power button on while selecting the F12 button but nothing happens just a continious black screen. Power light stays on but nothing else is happening. ??????
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks
Hey anonymous Nov6 ! You have the wrong files on your USB drive.
It should be (and this worked with me) only the DOS files from the ZIPfile.
And of course the files that were created by Unetbootin.
- 3310.BAT
- 3310.fd
- Flashit.exe
and the ones you mentioned. Succes
Btw: Thanks very much MACLES*
Please help !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What am I doing wrong?
flashit ZG_3310.fd /mc /all /dc
Bad command or filename - "Flashit"
Please help !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What am I doing wrong?
--> start the computer and connect the usb drive just seconds later. This worked for me. If the USB drive was connected from the beginning, it was not found and there was no option for usb drive in the boot menu.
THANKS SOOOOO MUCH!!! YOU ALL ARE AWESOME!!!!
Flashing my recently acquired second hand AAO150 BIOS from 3114 to 3310 worked first time, and has fixed its battery charging problem. Switching to Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 and bringing everything up to date has also greatly improved the user experience (8-)
Now my acer one 150 is charging perfectly!! :)
Followed your advice but I had repeated failures trying to boot from the USB with "Could not find Kernel",
I changed the unetbootin version to unetbootin-linux-442 as opposed to -293 and manged to flash the BIOS successfully.
Great blog and a fabtastic resource for a newbie like me. Hope one day I can contribute also.
For Debian i'd used :
# apt-get install syslinux p7zip unetbootin
unetbootin-bios isn't necessary.
package p7zip-plugins doesn't exist here :
http://packages.debian.org/search?lang=en&suite=all&searchon=names&keywords=p7zip-plugins
But it's alright with p7zip.
For AZERTY keyboards with FreeDos :
The ":" is MAJ "M"
The "A" is "Q"
For 3310 don't use MAJ
I'd like to translate it in french language on my website but there is no GPL or Créative Commons license here ??
I didn't found contact so ... how can i do ??
Thanks.
Thanks.
Best regards.
I had a bit of trouble navigating to the sub-folder on my usb drive (where the bat file was), since the name, Dos_Flash, was more than 8 letters long.
If anyone else has the same problem, here's how you do it:
I had to do a
cd Dos_Fl~1
in order to get to the subfolder, but my no keystroke would write the tilde (~). Writing
cd Dos_Fl
and then pressing the tab-button made it look like this:
cd Dos_Fl~1
and after pressing enter, I was able to go to the next step in the tutorial.
1. First format an USB stick with FAT, if this option is not available use a smaller USB stick (eg 1Gig)
2. Download the latest BIOS, and put both FLASHIT.EXE and the BIOS file in the root directory of the stick. Do NOT rename the BIOS file, it should be KAV60.fd
3. Now connect the USB stick to the AA1
Turn the AA1 off, DISCONNECT the battery but leaving the AC adapter connected. Press Fn+Esc, keep it pressed and press the power button to turn the AA1 on. Release Fn+Esc after a few seconds. Press power button if it begins to blink, otherwise do nothing. The AA1 will now initiate the BIOS flash, do not interrupt it under any circumstances. The AA1 will reboot shortly after. Wait patiently.
4. The BIOS has been flashed and all settings reset to default.
Thank´s