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4.1.2 Flash update
As part of your installation procedure for the x450, we recommend that you check
the firmware levels on the system components and update to the most current
revision:
System firmware
Onboard diagnostics
Remote Supervisor Adapter firmware
Additional devices if installed, such as ServeRAID adapters and FAStT Fibre
Channel host adapters
The latest updates and firmware code can be found at:
http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/MIGR-4JTS2T.html
System firmware and diagnostics updates
Unlike an IA-32 platform, the normal boot process does not permit booting from a
diskette, so a flash update procedure must start differently. The flash program is
embedded in the system. To start a flash update, select Flash Update from the
Boot Manager menu (Figure 4-1 on page 69).
Once the program loads, it looks exactly like the diskette version but with one
change in the EFI version. The diskette version searches for the update files on
the diskette, whereas the flash program on x450 reads the root directories of all
accessible file systems until it finds firmware update files. The implication is that
once the utility successfully locates a flash update file, it will stop searching.
Tip: The routine that searches all devices for suitable flash files stops as soon
as it finds the first one in the root directory of a file system. This may not be the
newest flash file. The routine does not search subdirectories.
We should realize this behavior when we have, for example, the latest firmware
updates on a USB memory key and an older version stored in the root of EFI
System Partition. In such situations, the flash update utility will keep offering only
the older file for update. To resolve the issue in this specific case, we have to
delete the firmware update files from the system partition and repeat the
procedure. If you want to delete the files from ESP, enter the EFI shell, identify
the EFI System Partition and use the rm command (for the exact syntax, use the
help command).
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