How can I upgrade the BIOS on Acer Swift 1 (SF114-32) if I have Linux only installed?

I would like to upgrade the BIOS from 1.07 to 1.09 on my SF114-32 machine. I bought the machine with a Linpus Linux command line only installation, but I installed Arch Linux after. I tried booting a FreeDOS Live CD via an USB DVD drive ( CD image downloaded from here http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.3/previews/1.3-rc1/ ), and again FreeDOS from a 128 MB USB pendrive ( following this guide https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/BIOS_Update#Create_a_custom_FreeDOS_image ), but no success. When I press F12 at boot, I get the boot menu, but only GRUB is accessible from the internal 256 GB SSD.

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Gawain

I always thought freeDOS only works for legacy boots and not UEFI, but i could be wrong. Anyway, whats the reason for updating the bios? do you have an intrinsic issue that you know it'll fix?

Edoka

I have no issues yet, because I bought my laptop only 3 days ago. I just thought it would be better if the BIOS is up to date.

Is there no legacy boot on Acer Swift 1 (SF114-32) ?

Gawain

i don't think so - CSM support is lacking from what i see in the acer bios'. Personally, i'd say if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The risks of bricking the laptop with any firmware uefi update has to be outweighed by the aimed for benefit to justify doing it in the first place. Otherwise there is a risk, yet no upside if it does update, and that's not the type of bet worth making.

Edoka

I see, but what OS should I then boot instead of FreeDOS to be able to update the BIOS in the future? For example some Live version of Windows XP or Windows 7 ?

Maybe in the new BIOS version 1.09 there will be CSM / legacy boot support, hopefully.

Gawain

well, this comes up reasonably often with questions from various people with various machines (and various bios versions) on this site and not one has had the ability to enable legacy support (CSM) so far (insydeh20 is a rather interesting bios writer....) so i wouldn't put money on it happening unless it is expressly stated in the version release notes. uefi only started to come in at 8, but you can dual boot xp and 7 with 10 on a uefi system (but you have to jump through hoops to do it). Which leaves one option if you needed to do it, and that's install 10 on the machine (use woeusb in arch to make a bootable stick from a downloaded 10 .iso), but that wipes your drive, so changing the m.2 you have arch on for another m.2, load 10, install bios update, swap over the m.2's again, and use the windows one as a spare connected by usb (or just use the drive inside your machine and reinstall arch and everything else afterwards). Save yourself the pain, and don't do it unless it is needed, which i doubt it would be!

[Edited the post as personal or inappropriate content posted. Acer-Harvey]

billsey

I would suggest creating a Windows 10 boot image flash drive, then copying the BIOS installer to it. Boot as if you were going to install, then choose the Repair option on the second screen. That puts you into the Windows PE environment, which might be able to run the installer from the command prompt.

The other option is Windows To Go, but I believe that requires ownership of a Windows Enterprise license.

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