Dasharo compatible with MSI PRO Z690-A WIFI DDR4 - installation manual
Flashing coreboot can be done from Linux using flashrom with the internal programmer. This document describes the process of building, installing and running flashrom on Ubuntu 21.04.
Build flashrom
Currently, the latest flashrom release lacks support for Alder Lake S internal flashing. Because of this, we need to build flashrom from 3mdeb fork. The procedure is based on Ubuntu 21.04 desktop amd64 ISO burned on the USB stick.
Boot the Ubuntu live image and select Try ubuntu
option. Open a terminal and
proceed with commands below.
Install build dependencies:
$ sudo apt-get install git build-essential pkg-config libpci-dev udev
Obtain source code:
$ git clone https://github.com/Dasharo/flashrom.git -b dasharo-release
$ cd flashrom
Build and install flashrom:
$ sudo make install
Flashing
All flash operations require UEFI Secure Boot to be disabled. You may download
the binary using scp
(need to install openssh-server package) or wget
command. The binaries can be found on the release page.
Reading flash contents
Always prepare a backup of the current firmware image. To read the original
firmware from the flash and save it to a file (dump.rom
), execute the
following command:
$ sudo flashrom -p internal -r dump.rom
IMPORTANT! You will need a second USB storage to keep the dumped firmware backup or alternatively upload it to some cloud or network drive (Ubuntu live has a Firefox browser installed). Ubuntu live image is volatile and has no persistent storage. All changes made in live image will be lost after reboot.
Flashing Dasharo
To flash Dasharo on the platform, execute the following command:
Replace the
VERSION
in firmware file name with the version you want to flash. For example:msi_ms7d25_v0.1.0.rom
.
$ sudo flashrom -p internal -w msi_ms7d25_vVERSION.rom --ifd -i bios
After the command succeeds, invoke poweroff
or click the power off in the GUI
to shutdown the board. Press ENTER
when prompted on the screen. Power on the
board back. Reboot will not work as some memory settings are preserved after
reboot and FSP fails to train the memory. Poweroff is required.
Flashing back vendor firmware
$ sudo flashrom -p internal -w dump.rom --ifd -i bios
NOTE: Dasharo version v0.1.0 will not have network connection. Use a different USB storage or an USB to Ethernet/USB WiFi adapter to move the binary to the live system.