In message <20031204150443.71081.qmail@web40812.mail.yahoo.com>, JS writes:

>> Often these are just DOS tools and the
>> self-extracting exe files contain
>> zips which can be unzipped with just any zip around.
>> At least I've
>> successfully updated my mobo BIOS under FreeDOS
>> (freedos.org) with
>> the AMI flash tool.
>
>Hmm, so does this mean that I could just make some
>FreeDOS boot floppies, boot onto the floppies, switch
>the floppies with the one containing the update, and
>install it from there, even without having to install
>windows?  I guess I also could just unzip the file on
>one of my windows machines and burn to a cd and
>transfer it over to the NetBSD box.
>

I'm skeptical that this will work here.  For a motherboard, the only 
interface that matters is to the motherboard itself; presumably, the 
BIOS updater -- which is keyed to a particular motherboard -- knows 
that interface.  For a Wavelan card, the updater would need drivers for 
many different PCMCIA and Cardbus interfaces as well.  From the 
vendor's perspective, it's easier to let Windows worry about that.

		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb