So just fyi, your 2900 bios wasnt picked up by Repository Manager because Dell didn’t tag that bios as part of a platform, so it was left as an “unassigned” component, which means that it has to be done stand alone using the following steps. This will create a bootable cd that flashes the bios. Note this is only if the bios package will not execute in an OS.    When Repository Manager opens, it wants to create  a repository, cancel this.  Click the components tab and scroll down to  PE2900_BIOS_LX_2.7.0.BIN and put a check mark in front of that file name, then click Export in the lower right corner.  Export as New repository, name it and then click finish Select the bios file(s) then click export again Export as new bundle Name it and choose linux (this is a must since we are creating a bootable linux disc that will execute linux packages) Click next on the select operating system (this will be blank) Select specific platform, click next and finish   Click the bundles tab, and check the box for the name of the bundle you just created, then click export again Click next, then on the Export Destination screen, select “Deployment media (Linux only) Export to ISO/script format for deployment then click Next Basically, just click next a few more times and save the iso that is about to be created, then burn the iso to a disc and boot from it and it will flash the bios.  I tested this on my 2900 and it works. 
Hi, all. I hope this is the correct forum location for this. In an attempt to install CentOS 5.5 on a PE2900, the anaconda installer fails and gives a traceback detailing "iutil.makeDriveDeviceNodes" and "isys.DevInode" and a "No such file or directory". The failure is very soon after starting the X window. The reported errors suggest that the SAS 5 HBA is not readable by the installer. We did try earlier CentOS versions to no avail. And network install and local dvd, same result. Given that the PE2900 has been running all the time, with a need for static everything software, it had not been updated since the original build in March, 2007. It was running Slackware 11, but we have migrated many of our servers to CentOS and homogeneity is nice, thus the desire to install CentOS. So, we decided that since RHEL 5 was supported by the PE2900, we should try updating BIOS. The one running was BIOS 1.2, circa late 2006 (?).   So we used SBUU to update all BIOS/firmware using a fairly young SUU (as of Jan 2010) and this successfully updated the BIOS to v 2.6.1 and the NICs' firmware. It appears that the integrated SAS 5 MPTBIOS update depended on a younger system BIOS than was present, so the process had to be run more than once. Now, with SBUU and the SUU, it *wants* to update the LSI MPTBIOS, says it will, appears to run through the process successfully, but upon the reboot we only get notice that it is running MPTBIOS version 6.06.00.02 (circa June 2006).   And CentOS still refuses to install. (Though Ubuntu server installer runs just fine, for some reason.)   Anyone know of another route to updating the MPTBIOS, either from SBUU, some bootable media, or from within Ubuntu server? (Clearly, running some script that requires a running Redhat or Redhat-like distro will not work here). All comments welcome and appreciated.
SBUU, then SUU fails to update SAS 5 HBA BIOS