Firmware transition

Introduction

This document describes the process of transitioning from Dasharo UEFI to Heads and the other way around.

Transition from Dasharo UEFI to Heads variant

Recommended

Please use Dasharo Tools Suite with Heads subscription credentials to transition to Heads.

Manual

Use FlashBIOS method (recommended) or flash with flashrom in OS. To use FlashBIOS we recommend to switch back to MSI UEFI firmware (if you don't have the desktop Dasharo Entry Subscription or not running Dasharo v1.1.3) and then use FlashBIOS with heads binary.

To transition to heads firmware with flashrom, whole binary has to be flashed:

flashrom -p internal -w <heads_fw_file>

Warning

ME has to be disabled and descriptor unlocked to flash full file. MSI firmware began to ship the platforms with ME and flash descriptor regions read-only. Unlocking the descriptor is possible using Firmware Update Mode on Dasharo v0.9.1.

Transition from Dasharo Heads back to UEFI

At the moment, Dasharo Tools Suite does not support switching from Heads back to UEFI-based firmware. Use FlashBIOS to restore a saved backup, stock, or Dasharo UEFI firmware.

Warning for Qubes OS users

If you installed Qubes OS under Heads, it has been installed in legacy BIOS boot mode and will not be bootable under UEFI. You will likely need to install Qubes OS again.

Users who installed Qubes OS before switching to Heads are not affected.