Gilbert Ashley <amigo@ibiblio.org>
		March 05 2009
		
This directory contains a bootable freedos image which can be used
to modify the BIOS for the decTOP (and possibly PIC) computer.

The original BIOS is a locked version which is dedicated to use
with the installed Windows CE version.

The original EDYNAMO BIOS FLASHING TOOL was somewhat limited in its'
usefulness because you had to modify the image manually to select
which BIOS option you wanted to enable. The FLASHING TOOL is a
DOS-based utility which is run by the autoexec.bat file when the
freedos image is booted.

I have modified the original image so that the user is presented
with a menu which lets you choose which version of the BIOS you'd
like to install. It also lets you choose whether or not to format
and re-partition the hard drive. This is especially useful as it
lets you use the BIOS flashing tool without destroying whatever
you have installed to the hard drive.

The changes I made to the autoexec.bat script required the addition
of the freedos CHOICE.EXE program for the menus. Modifying the 
autoexec.bat was pretty unreliable, so I simply added the freedos
EDIT.EXE program to the image for easier editing.

The autoexec.bat 'program', now boots to a menu which lets you choose
a BIOS version or exit to the command line. The error handling and
prompting was also improved to provide 'cleaner' and more informative
operation.

A copy of the new autoexec.bat is found in this directory, along with
a copy of the original (autoexec.bat.00).

Hopefully, this modified utility will be useful to other owners
of decTOP or PIC computers.

The modified BIOS-flashing image is meant to be used with a USB drive.
The image is about 388MB so you'll need at least a 512MB USB stick
to 'burn' it to. To create the bootable USB drive, use the linux
'dd' tool.

The image is compressed using zip, so you'll need to to unzip
it first with the command 'unzip decTOP-BIOS-flashing.utility.img.zip'

Insert the USB drive and then use 'fdisk -l' or 'blkid' to find
the drive -iif no other USB devices are connected to your machine
it will probably show up as '/dev/sda'. But, if your machine uses
SATA hard-drives, the USB drive will probably *not* be /dev/sda.
be sure you know which drive is the correct one, because the 'dd'
command will destroy all data on the selected drive.
Assuming that /dev/sda is the correct drive name, use the following
command to write the bootable image to the USB drive:
dd if=decTOP-BIOS-flashing-utility.img of=/dev/sda

The command may take a long time to complete if your USB connection
is USB-1. 'dd' also uses lots of processor cycles, so you may want
to let it finish working before doing other tasks.