Method and apparatus for removable device modification of system configuration

• US 7,769,836 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2008
• Issued: 08/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Bolay, Frederick H., Nalawadi, Rajeev K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar; Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): KOROBOV, VITALI A
• Application Number:
  US12/038,584
• Publication Number:
  US 20080162675A1
• Time in Patent Office: 888 Days
• Field of Search: 709/208, 709/212, 709/216, 709/220, 713/1, 713/2, 713/100, 713/300
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

A method and apparatus for updating the system configuration settings of a computer system. Embodiments include a remote system configuration system that enables a user to update the system configuration of a target machine from a server machine over a network or similar communications system. Another embodiment includes a system configuration method using a bus master device to write system configuration data into a target computer system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving basic input output system (BIOS) configuration data and handling information to identify an active update or a passive update from a bus master device removably coupled to a memory;

storing received BIOS configuration data in the memory;

updating a system configuration according to the handling information; and

checking if a reboot is required, wherein the checking is performed by a software program.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received system configuration data is stored in a predefined memory space.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

checking for changes to the system configuration in stored configuration data in the predefined memory space.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the updating the system configuration occurs during a reboot sequence.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

effecting system changes based on received BIOS configuration data during operation of the system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

notifying a system management module of system configuration changes.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing the received BIOS configuration data with existing BIOS configuration data, and wherein storing comprises storing differences between the received BIOS configuration data and the existing BIOS configuration data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

coupling the bus master device to the memory prior to receiving; and

decoupling the bus master device from the memory storing the received BIOS configuration data after storing and prior to updating.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein checking comprises one of examining the received BIOS configuration data to determine that updating can occur while a computer system is running, and checking a foreign indication from the remote source to identify that the updating can be done while the computer system is running.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the software program is one of a system configuration manager program and a basic input/output system (BIOS), and further comprising the software program performing a power-on self test.