In this article I will describe how to update the BIOS of your ALIX or PCEngines device using a serial console with XMODEM. For this process I will be using my favorite terminal emulator Tera Term. You will also need to grab the new BIOS here.
Default serial console settings for your ALIX/PCEngines device (can be changed):
- Bits per second: 9600
- Data bits: 8
- Parity: None
- Stop bits: 1
- Flow Control: None
To update your BIOS:
- Connect to the console port using terminal emulation parameters (see above). In Tera Tern to edit the settings, navigate to setup > serial port…
- Once you have successfully established serial communication with the device, reboot the device by disconnecting and then reconnecting it’s power cable.
- The device will begin it’s POST procedure as displayed in the serial terminal emulator. Be ready at the keyboard to press the “s” key during the RAM Test.
- Once in the BIOS you will see something similar to the picture below.
- Press the ‘x’ key for XMODEM upload, follow the prompts to upload the ALIX BIOS binary .