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Dasharo Tools Suite

Introduction

Dasharo Tools Suite (DTS) is a set of tools running in a minimal Linux environment, with a goal of deploying, updating and maintaining firmware on Dasharo supported devices. For example, it can be used to update the firmware on a device, even when no OS is currently installed.

Flavors

There is a common base, but there might be multiple flavors of the DTS images. Currently, there are:

  • CE - Community Edition
    • Dasharo HCL Report - generates a package with logs containing hardware information
    • flashrom, fwupd, and many more useful tools
    • can drop to shell to update the firmware manually
  • OEM
    • on top of that, provides tools for automatic firmware deployment and rollback (switching to Dasharo back and forth)

Releases

This section provide links and changelogs of DTS CE version started from release v1.0.0.

v1.0.1

Images

See how to verify hash and singature on this video.

Changelog

v1.0.0

Images

# assuming all files have been downloaded to the same directory without
# changing names
sha256sum -c [sha256 file]

Changelog

Disabling Secure Boot

Any procedure which affects the firmware flashing should be preceded by controlling the Secure Boot status and if it is turned on, turning it off. The enabled Secure Boot will not only prevent you from operating on the firmware, but you will also not be able to launch DTS.

To check the Secure Boot state:

  1. Turn off the station, on which you want to test the Dasharo firmware.
  2. Turn the station on and go to the next step immediately.
  3. Hold the BIOS SETUP KEY to enter the BIOS MENU.
  4. Localize and enter the Secure Boot menu using the arrow keys and Enter.
  5. Verify that the Secure Boot Status field says Disabled - if not, deselect the Enforce Secure Boot option using the arrow keys and Enter.
  6. Change the setting of Secure Boot to Disabled and press Enter.
  7. Press the F10 key to open the dialog box.
  8. Press Enter to confirm changes and exit from the menu.

After completing the steps described above, Secure Boot should be disabled. You could confirm that by repeating steps 3 - 5.

Running

The Dasharo Tools Suite can be started in various ways. Currently, there are two options:

  • bootable over network (iPXE),
  • bootable USB stick image.

The first one should be always preferred if possible, as it the easiest one to use.

Bootable over network

This section describes how to boot DTS using iPXE.

Requirements

Launching DTS

To access Dasharo Tools Suite:

  • attach a wired network cable to the device's Ethernet port,
  • power on the device, holding down the Boot Menu entry key,
  • in the Boot Menu, select the iPXE Network Boot option,
  • in the Network Boot menu, select the Dasharo Tools Suite option,
  • the DTS menu will now appear.

Bootable USB stick

This section describes how to boot DTS using USB stick.

Requirements

Launching DTS

To access Dasharo Tools Suite:

  • flash the downloaded image onto USB stick,
    • you can use cross-platform GUI installer - Etcher
    • you can also use dd to flash from command line
gzip -cdk dts-base-image-ce-v1.0.0.wic.gz | \
sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=16M status=progress conv=fdatasync

Note: this is an example for v1.0.0 image.

  • insert the USB stick to a USB in your device,
  • boot from the USB stick,
  • the DTS menu will now appear.

DTS CE functionality

This section describes functionality of Dasharo Tools Suite in Community Edition. These are:

  • Dasharo HCL Report,
  • Dasharo firmware update,
  • Dasharo EC Transition,
  • Dasharo EC update

Dasharo HCL Report

DTS allows to generate a package with logs containing hardware information. To create one, choose option number 1 and check out the disclaimer. If you would like to send the report to our servers, please remember about connecting the ethernet cable.

Dasharo firmware update

Within DTS, you may use the flashrom and fwupdmgr utilities to update, downgrade, or reinstall your firmware.

To update your firmware to the latest version first choose option number 9 to drop to Shell and run:

fwupdmgr refresh
fwupdmgr update

Dasharo EC Transition

DTS allows to perform full Embedded Controller firmware transition from the proprietary vendor EC firmware, to the open-source Dasharo EC firmware. Currently, this functionality is supported on the NovaCustom NS5x/NS7x only).

To perform EC transition, make sure you are running DTS version 1.0.1 or higher and follow these steps:

  • After boot, choose option number 9 to drop to Shell
  • Plug in power supply (without it, flashing EC is not possible as losing power may result in firmware corruption)
  • Download BIOS and EC update files:
wget -O firmware.rom https://cloud.3mdeb.com/index.php/s/SKpqSNzfFNY7AbK/download

wget -O ec.rom https://cloud.3mdeb.com/index.php/s/GK2KbXaYprkCCWM/download
  • Run script for EC transition:
ec_transition firmware.rom ec.rom

Note: Make sure you have provided 2 arguments: The first is path to BIOS update file and the second is path to EC update file

The output of the above command should look as follows:

Getting update
/tmp/biosupdate.rom: OK
Found PCI subsystem match for device CLEVO NS50MU/NS51MU
EC version: 1.07.07 is not supported, update required
Getting EC firmware update...
/tmp/ecupdate.rom: OK
Updating EC...
flashrom v1.2-575-g5618d82 on Linux 5.15.36-yocto-standard (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org

Using clock_gettime for delay loops (clk_id: 1, resolution: 1ns).
Found PCI subsystem match for device CLEVO NS50MU/NS51MU
Mainboard EC Project: NS50MU
Mainboard EC Version: 1.07.07
Flash Part ID: ef 00 00
Found unknown Winbond flash chip
Found Programmer flash chip "Opaque flash chip" (128 kB, Programmer-specific) on ite_ec.
Reading old flash chip contents... done.
Erasing and writing flash chip... Erase/write done.
Verifying flash... VERIFIED.
Successfully updated EC firmware
Installing Dasharo firmware...
flashrom v1.2-575-g5618d82 on Linux 5.15.36-yocto-standard (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org

Using clock_gettime for delay loops (clk_id: 1, resolution: 1ns).
No DMI table found.
Found chipset "Intel Tiger Lake U Premium".
Enabling flash write... SPI Configuration is locked down.
Enabling hardware sequencing because some important opcode is locked.
OK.
Found Programmer flash chip "Opaque flash chip" (16384 kB, Programmer-specific) mapped at physical address 0x0000000000000000.
Reading ich descriptor... done.
Using region: "bios".
Reading old flash chip contents... done.
Erasing and writing flash chip... Erase/write done.
Verifying flash... VERIFIED.
Successfully installed Dasharo firmware
Powering off
Syncing disks... Done.
The computer will shut down automatically in 5 seconds
  • Computer will shut down automatically.
  • Power on your computer. Booting process may take a while.
  • After boot, choose option number 9 to drop to Shell.
  • Your firmware is correcty installed. You can retrieve EC firmware information using:
system76_ectool info

The output of the above command should contain information about the version of flashed firmware:

board: clevo/ns50mu
version: 2022-08-31_cbff21b

Dasharo EC update

DTS allows to update Embedded Controller firmware to the newer version. To properly update it, follow these steps:

  • Retrieve information about your current EC
system76_ectool info

The output of the above-described command should contain information about the version of flashed firmware:

board: clevo/ns50mu
version: 2022-08-16_c12ff1a
  • Download the newest version of Embedded Controller firmware.
  • Plug in power supply, without it, flashing EC is not possible as losing power may cause in damaged firmware.
  • Flash Embedded Controller firmware internally:
system76_ectool flash ec_file.rom

The output of the above-described command should look as follows:

file board: Ok("clevo/ns50mu")
file version: Ok("2022-08-16_c12ff1a")
ec board: Ok("clevo/ns50mu")
ec version: Ok("2022-08-31_cbff21b")
Waiting 5 seconds for all keys to be released
Sync
SPI Read 128K
Saving ROM to backup.rom
SPI Write 128K
SPI Read 128K
Successfully programmed SPI ROM
Result: Ok(())
Sync
System will shut off in 5 seconds
Sync

Note: this is example output, versions may differ

  • Retrieve information about your updated EC
system76_ectool info

The output of the above-described command should contain information about the version of flashed firmware:

board: clevo/ns50mu
version: 2022-08-31_cbff21b

Reporting issues

Thank you for using Dasharo Tools Suite Community Edition. If you have encountered any problems with this version, or would like to provide feedback for us - please open an issue on Dasharo issues.