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Wyse 5060: Firmware Update 

BIOS Update

Why oh why do Wyse make it so difficult?

My first port of call was to the Dell support pages to see what was available. A quick scan threw up:

  • Dell Wyse USB imaging Tool 3.1.0
  • ThinOS 8.6_024 BIOS package for Dell Wyse 5060 thin clients with ThinOS 11 June 2019
  • BIOS update add-on for AMD Microcode to resolve the Side Channel vulnerability on Wyse 5060 thin client for Windows Embedded Operating System

My 5060 came with a dead flash module and hence no OS. My best guess was that it was most likely running Thin OS before its demise. This I validated using the Service Tag as described here.

I download the middle one of the above which yielded the file D10Q_bios.bin. According to the accompanying installation instructions the only ways to install it involved the Wyse Management infrastructure which I do not have. A quick check with the Linux utility flashrom failed as it couldn't find the BIOS chip on the 5060. This left me of the final option of using Wyse's USB imaging tool and 'pushing' a package OS and/or BIOS onto the 5060. I picked on the file OS_Merlin_v8.6_B013_5060_ENG.zip (~600MB) and downloaded it.

Barrier #1: This may be just me, but on my main Windows machine running 64-bit Windows 10 the Wyse USB Imaging Tool (version 3.1) will not use any USB drive that I plug in. It sees them, things go 'green' if I move the mouse over them, but it flatly refuses to advance to the next stage. I find this hard to credit. If you do/don't have similar problems please let me know. (Adam has no such problem).

Sam has since pointed me at a Wyse forum giving a solution if you are faced with this problem. You need to remap the USB drive so that it appears as drive A: or B:. (Use the 'Disk Management' App.)

Anyway I do have a Dx0D here running 32-bit Windows 7 Pro just for this situation. I fired it up and unzipped OS_Merlin_v8.6_B013_5060_ENG.zip onto it. Having done that you have to navigate to the first directory and then expand the file 5060_8_6_013_EN.zip as this contains the files you need. (Why a '.zip' inside a '.zip'?)

NB:The tool attempts to preserve the contents of the USB drive. It copies the contents elsewhere, formats the drive and then restores the original contents along with its own files. If you have no interest in the contents I suggest you wipe the drive clean first to save wasted time.

When you fire up the USB Imaging Tool you need select Image Push. To avoid getting a subsequent error message make sure that the ISO architecture is set to 32-bit and then click on the large blue + sign to add your image.

Wyse USB Imaging Tool

You need to navigate to where you unpacked the files. You need to change the default filter on the open screen from WDM RSP (*.rsp) to Command XML (*.xml) and select the commands.xml file that you unzipped earlier.

Wyse USB Imaging Tool

Click on Configure USB Drive to create the bootable USB drive.

Confession: I did go through this exercise earlier with a WES7 file but, on booting from the USB drive, the software complained about various mismatches and told me to go away and think again. (i.e. The hardware was not licensed for WES7). I only mention this because that time the Imaging Tool did produce a bootable USB drive).

Barrier #2: Having created the USB re-imaging drive I moved it across to the 5060 where it was not recognised as a bootable drive. I had encountered this behaviour before and had an easy solution - I used LiLi (Linux Live USB Creator) to install Tiny Core onto the USB drive alongside the Wyse software. Doing this essentially installed syslinux as the boot loader in place of (the non-functioning) grub that the Wyse Imaging Software installed. Then, using the details from the Wyse grub.cfg file as a guide, I edited the file /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg to include the menu entry:

LABEL wyse
MENU LABEL Boot Wyse USB installer
KERNEL /kernel/vmlinuz
INITRD /initrd/initrd.pxe
APPEND rw root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=131072

This let me boot the Wyse USB imaging software which then went on to update the BIOS and move me from BIOS 1.0A to BIOS 1.0H.

???

  • Why doesn't the USB Imaging Tool run properly on my 64-bit Windows 10?
  • Why doesn't it always produce a bootable USB drive?

 


Any comments? email me. Added March 2022    Last update January 2023