Firmware update

Introduction

This document is a guide for updating firmware on your Dasharo-powered device.

Firmware Update Method Support Table

The table below shows which firmware update methods are supported for which devices supporting the Dasharo firmware.

• Every device supports manual updates.
• If a device is missing from the table, the only update method supported is flashing a firmware ROM file manually.
• A hyphen means no support for a given method.
• A version in a column means the method is supported starting from the given Dasharo version. The update to the first supported version for a given method needs to be performed using other methods.
• The table might contain upcoming and not yet released versions if the feature is planned.

Manufacturer	Device	Firmware Update Mode	Capsule Update V1	FWUPD	LVFS	Capsule Update V2
Hardkernel	Odroid H4+	-	v0.9.1	v0.9.1	v0.9.1	-
MSI	Z690-A PRO	v1.1.2	v1.1.4	v1.1.4	-	v1.1.7
MSI	Z790-P PRO	v0.9.0	v0.9.2	v0.9.2	-	v0.9.5
NovaCustom	11th Gen	v1.5.0	v1.6.0	v1.6.0	v1.6.0	-
NovaCustom	12th Gen	v1.7.0	v1.8.0	v1.8.0	v1.8.0	-
NovaCustom	14th Gen iGPU	v0.9.0	v1.0.0	v1.0.0	v1.0.0	-
NovaCustom	14th Gen dGPU	v0.9.1	v1.0.0	v1.0.0	v1.0.0	-
NovaCustom	NUC BOX	v0.9.0	v0.9.0	v0.9.0	v0.9.0	-
Protectli	Vault VP66xx	-	v0.9.3	v0.9.3	v0.9.3	-

Note

Firmware Update Mode (FUM) and Capsule Updates are only supported in UEFI firmware, not supported in SeaBIOS or Heads-based firmware flavors.

Note

Enforcing capsule authentication in V2 made newer capsules incompatible with the older ones. The first release with V2 publishes capsules of the older kind which can be used to upgrade from prior releases, but starting with this release older capsules are no longer accepted to not compromise capsule authentication enhancements.

Manual update

Firmware versions without support for Firmware Update Mode have various update procedures. Check out your device's Firmware Update documentation for more information.

Known issues

Here are known issues, grouped by the platform vendor.

Generic

Firmware doesn't support capsule update in FUM

This issue can happen if DTS was booted via FUM on Dasharo firmware version that does not support capsule updates while in FUM. It can only occur when in Firmware Update Mode and only if capsules are available as this is default way of updating or fusing your firmware.

Note

You can read more about this issue at https://github.com/Dasharo/dasharo-issues/issues/1759

Solution

• Boot DTS without Firmware Update Mode. To do that you can follow DTS documentation.

• When in Firmware Update Mode make sure to use dts.ipxe script when booting DTS. You can do that by:

  • Letting FUM boot it by default

  • Choosing Dasharo Tools Suite in Dasharo Network Boot Menu

    

  • Running it manually from iPXE shell by following Launching DTS

Failed to queue capsule update

The most likely reason for this error is enabled ME. If FD region is unlocked, then capsule update requires ME to be HAP disabled.

Note

In case of locked FD region, e.g. on some MSI platforms or on fused NovaCustom laptops updates don't require ME to be HAP disabled (as it can't be done) so solution below won't work for you. In that case, please report the issue.

Solution

1. Set ME mode to disabled (HAP)
2. Save changes and reboot platform
3. Try the update again

If update still fails, please report it.

Heads update fails

Heads firmware update fails with error message displaying issues with (any of) FD, ME or BIOS regions being either locked or not flashed.

Solution

For heads update, the following regions must be unlocked and flashed: FD, ME, BIOS. If any of the regions is locked, the update will not proceed in order to avoid bricking the device.

For ME related warnings, please ensure the Intel Management Engine is disabled in Dasharo settings. Please disable management engine using HAP mode, and if the update still fails after the change, please also try with ME in "soft-disabled" mode.

MSI

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Locked FD region and ME warnings

The following warnings appear when updating Dasharo:

The firmware binary to be flashed contains Flash Descriptor (FD), but FD is not writable!
The firmware binary contains Management Engine (ME), but ME is not disabled!

Solution

The locked Flash Descriptor makes it impossible to unlock and flash the Management Engine. The problem is not critical and you may continue with the update process. Your firmware will contain old ME. However, we advise to perform additional steps to flash it, as the old ME may cause some issues in the future. To do that, you will have to flash firmware with FD and ME externally using FlashBIOS. This will bypass the locks on those regions. If you wish to proceed with this approach, please follow the steps in the recovery guide. Keep in mind that the memory will need to be trained again, and firmware settings will be reset.

FlashBIOS not working

Platform: MSI Z790-P DDR4

Dasharo version: Before v0.9.2

FlashBIOS does not work

Solution

The problem is likely caused by the fact that we changed the versioning scheme of firmware. Due to this mismatch, FlashBIOS only works for Z790-P DDR4 since v0.9.2. If you wish to update to that version, you will first need to flash the BIOS region with v0.9.2 firmware and then use FlashBIOS to flash everything, including ME. You can flash BIOS with the following command:

flashrom -p internal --noverify-all --ifd -i bios -w <firmware_file>