Firmware update

The following documentation describes the process of Dasharo open-source firmware update. The update process may be different, depending on which firmware version is currently installed on your device. The currently installed firmware version can be checked with the following command in a Linux environment:

sudo dmidecode -t bios | grep Version

Alternatively, it can be checked in the BIOS Setup Menu.

Prerequisites

Depending on firmware version (1) there may be manual steps required to ensure that the firmware can be updated.

v0.9.0 for Z790-P and v1.1.2 for Z690-A introduced support for Firmware Update Mode

Firmware Update Mode

If the currently installed Dasharo version supports Firmware Update Mode, follow the steps outlined in generic Firmware Update documentation.

Manual

Ensure that the firmware protections are disabled in Dasharo Security Options. Both BIOS boot medium lock and Enable SMM BIOS write protection should be unchecked. UEFI Secure Boot must be disabled as well (uncheck Attempt Secure Boot if Current Secure Boot State does not say Disabled). To apply changes you will need to reboot.

Please use one of the following environments to perform Dasharo update:

Dasharo Tools Suite (DTS)
Linux distribution of your choice

We recommend using DTS for updating firmware.

Dasharo Tools Suite

The DTS allows performing automatic firmware update process, which is the recommended method. To update your firmware, follow below steps.

Boot DTS using iPXE on your platform.
Follow firmware update procedure described in DTS documentation.

Linux distribution of your choice

Linux distributions may not yet have the support for the newest chipsets in flashrom installed via package manager so building the flashrom from source may be inevitable. You may check if your flashrom supports the Z690 and Z790 chipset by doing a dry run without firmware binary:

sudo flashrom -p internal

Example output of undetected chipset:

flashrom v1.2 on Linux 5.19.0-32-generic (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).
Cannot open file stream for /dev/mtd0
No DMI table found.
WARNING: No chipset found. Flash detection will most likely fail.
========================================================================
You may be running flashrom on an unknown laptop. We could not
detect this for sure because your vendor has not set up the SMBIOS
tables correctly. Some internal buses have been disabled for
safety reasons. You can enforce using all buses by adding
  -p internal:laptop=this_is_not_a_laptop
to the command line, but please read the following warning if you
are not sure.

Laptops, notebooks and netbooks are difficult to support and we
recommend to use the vendor flashing utility. The embedded controller
(EC) in these machines often interacts badly with flashing.
See the manpage and https://flashrom.org/Laptops for details.

If flash is shared with the EC, erase is guaranteed to brick your laptop
and write may brick your laptop.
Read and probe may irritate your EC and cause fan failure, backlight
failure and sudden poweroff.
You have been warned.
========================================================================
No EEPROM/flash device found.
Note: flashrom can never write if the flash chip isn't found automatically.

It means you cannot proceed with this flashrom version and you have to remove it using your package manager. Then follow the procedure for building the right flashrom is described in Build flashrom section in the Initial deployment documentation (note the procedure describes Ubuntu case only, your package manager and package names to install may be slightly different). We recommend to use Dasharo Tools Suite.

Example of good output:

flashrom v1.2-1031-g6b2061b on Linux 5.19.0-32-generic (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 Z690".
Enabling flash write... SPI Configuration is locked down.
FREG0: Flash Descriptor region (0x00000000-0x00000fff) is read-write.
FREG1: BIOS region (0x01000000-0x01ffffff) is read-write.
FREG2: Management Engine region (0x00001000-0x003d8fff) is read-write.
Enabling hardware sequencing because some important opcode is locked.
OK.
Found Programmer flash chip "Opaque flash chip" (32768 kB, Programmer-specific) on internal.
No operations were specified.

That means you are good to go.

Migrating SMBIOS unique data (optional)

Before flashing you may migrate your serial number and UUID as described in Initial deployment. Applicable to Dasharo v1.1.0 (PRO Z690-A) / v0.9.0 (PRO Z790-P) and later.

Flashing using flashrom

PRO Z690-A boardsPRO Z790-P boards

Version v1.1.0 or newer

Version v1.1.0 and v1.1.2 had to change the flashmap layout and requires usage of the procedure below when migrating from v1.0.0 or older.

Only the RW_SECTION_A and RW_SECTION_B partitions of the flash needs to be updated. Flash it using the following command:

flashrom -p internal -w [path] --fmap -i RW_SECTION_A -i RW_SECTION_B

To flash newer firmware the command described in the section below might be also used. But remember, in that case, all Dasharo UEFI settings will be lost. Also, the memory training procedure will have to be carried out again.

Version older than v1.1.0

In this case, the whole bios region must be updated.

flashrom -p internal -w [path] --ifd -i bios

There is only one version available for now. Please follow instructions described in Initial deployment to deploy the Dasharo.

If updating firmware using custom builds without changing the flashmap, only the RW_SECTION_A and RW_SECTION_B partitions of the flash needs to be updated. Flash it using the following command:

flashrom -p internal -w [path] --fmap -i RW_SECTION_A -i RW_SECTION_B

Troubleshooting

Possible errors are described in the Generic deployment problems with flashrom