Hi,

I have an Acer Aspire A315-31. I like it, but I don't like the BIOS. It's very minimal. It might also be corrupted, as the boot menu lists nothing as a boot option unless a USB stick is plugged in. No HDD or anything else.

I'd like to replace my BIOS with something else. Something with legacy options... I'd like to nuke UEFI.

This is a little out of my depth, and I would really appreciate some guidance on the issue.

If it's possible to install an OpenSource BIOS, that would be great. So far, I think coreboot isn't compatible, and I'm not sure what other options will work.

I'm presently using Debian Stretch.

Thanks...

Is your laptop able to start any operating system of any kind?

I personally would not recommend you upgrade/change your BIOS/UEFI, unless it's the only option to fix a problem.

1. take up programming. Program your own BIOS
2. Find one at a place that sells BIOS's (Ebay even does) and make sure it is for your MotherBoard.
3. Take up basic electronics or electricity. Because you cannot just plug them in. They are soldiered to the MB.
4. Have money for a new Motherboard just in case that does not work.

jmh72,

You normally need to set a temporary Supervisor password on Acer notebooks in oder to access further boot options.

Look at post #3 on this thread:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...op-4175624756/

Then again, your BIOS may be corrupted.

1 members found this post helpful.

jsbjsb001: Yes. It's running Deb 9 perfectly. I just don't like the BIOS.

BW-userx: Thank you, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel. I just want to flash the chip that's already installed with something better.

beachboy2: I did that. Set a supervisor password. It then allowed the option to disable secure boot. That's it.

is not, I'd like to flash my BIOS so I have different options. Which goes back to my # 1. learn how to program and write your own BIOS.

because if you where to look into it, they the makers of the MB or PC that puts the MB in there systems do not have a set BIOS and a hand full or even an Option of which BIOS options would you like to have in your BIOS. that is just not how they, the powers that be, do things with BIOS'es

jmh72,

At your own risk, try this:
https://wiki.debian.org/FlashBIOS

1 members found this post helpful.

The link posted is for updating the BIOS with a manufacture's BIOS update and not completely replacing it with something else.

In most cases the BIOS is proprietary firmware specific to each motherboard/chipset. If the motherboard manufacture is unwilling to provide technical documentation that makes it a bit difficult. I don't know how difficult it would be to reverse engineer a BIOS.

If your motherboard is not currently supported by any opensource project then your stuck with it.

There are open source BIOSes for some hardware,but you need to check that any such is made for your specific motherboard version. Either applying the wrong BIOS or a failed update will very likely completely ruin your motherboard. It is not something that should be done unless absolutely necessary and even then the instruction MUST be followed explicitly.

Coreboot, openbios and librebios and a few others have been around a while. Not a lot of folks try it but look at web documentation and see if it is right for you.

UEFI is an open implementation and well documented. I did look at it's programming and considered working on uefi bios code but never got to it. You do run a high risk of bricking unless this has a fail safe way to recover bios.

Have you tried updating the BIOS using one supplied from Acer?