NovaCustom NUC BOX 14th Gen Dasharo Release Notes¶
Following Release Notes describe status of open-source firmware development for NovaCustom NUC BOX 14th Gen
For details about our release process please read Dasharo Standard Release Process.
v0.9.2 - 2026-07-21¶
Test results for this release can be found here.
Added¶
- Report Intel ME firmware status (FWSTS) in SMBIOS
- SBOM embedded into firmware
- Support for additional USB controller (pci2usb) for Qubes OS certification
Changed¶
- Switched to the Arrow Lake-U/H IoT FSP; refer to SBOM section
- Support extending both SHA-1 and SHA-256 PCRs
- Updated TPM ACPI device path (can help with Windows 11)
- TPM log no longer uses entries of fixed size
- Improved CPU performance by lowering the Energy Performance Preference (EPP) value from 0xb3 to 0x73
- Increased the SMMSTORE region to 512 KB
- Skip the FSP Thunderbolt connect-topology command
- Check for flash descriptor writability when exposing HAP disable option
- Aligned GPIO configuration with stock firmware
- Shrunk the ME region in the flash layout to fit the consumer ME binary
- Updated ME to the newer version; refer to SBOM section
- Intel Microcode updated to microcode-20260512
- UEFI DBX updated to 2025-10-16
- Removed MMX/SSE instructions from UEFI runtime (affects FreeBSD)
- Make BIOS Lock work with all flash-lock (BOOTMEDIA_LOCK) types
Fixed¶
- Very slow boot caused by FSP POST codes routed to I2C instead of Port 80
- Can't update ME on NUC BOX: Error occurred while trying to create container EspiOobNvar
- Recovery of damaged variable storage causing random settings reset
- SMMSTORE writes are unreliable if SMM_BWP is enabled
- Cannot enter Firmware Update Mode twice in a row
- Cyclic platform suspend and resume (S0ix) is slower than expected
- Device in the second M.2 slot fails to resume from suspend
- S0ix suspend compatibility (GPIO initialization moved to ramstage)
- Ghost PS/2 device reported to the OS
- CBFS verification was skipped in SMM
- CSE, graphics framebuffer and I2C MMIO resources now allocated below 4 GB (Resizable BAR compatibility)
- TPM CRB MMIO address range is now reserved
- Skip EV_NO_ACTION events when measuring the bootblock cache to PCR (measured-boot log correctness)
- USB mass storage: retry reset on read for more reliable detection
Known issues¶
- Unlisted error in dmesg | STB002.002 | QubesOS | Heads & UEFI
- Varmilo USB keyboard doesn't work in firmware menu
- Better RAM string in DTS, add separators
- GRUB installation fails sometimes
- NUC Box: OS doesn't boot with eGPU on m2 PCIe
- NUC Box: eGPU is unstable with Thunderbolt 4
- Capsule update signing is not enforced
- Capsule Updates require ME to be manually disabled
- Error during (S0ix); matches stock firmware
Binaries¶
novacustom_nuc_box_mtl_v0.9.2.cap sha256 sha256.sig novacustom_nuc_box_mtl_v0.9.2.rom sha256 sha256.sig novacustom_nuc_box_mtl_v0.9.2.sbom.json sha256 sha256.sig
To verify binary integrity with hash and signature please follow the instructions in Dasharo release signature verification using this key
SBOM (Software Bill of Materials)¶
- Dasharo coreboot fork based on 25.12 revision 974f6ff0
- Dasharo EDKII fork based on edk2-stable202508 revision df708434
- Dasharo iPXE fork based on 2025.08 revision 6c7068fc
- vboot based on f1f70f46dc revision f1f70f46
- Intel Management Engine version v18.1.18.2724
- Intel Firmware Support Package for Arrow Lake-U/H version IoT ARL-UH IPU 2026.3 (6114_54)
- Intel Flash Descriptor version v1.0
- Intel microcode version MTL C0 0x00000028 0x28 24/09/2025
An integrated SBOM is also included in the firmware images. It describes a complete set of components and their versions used to build the firmware images. The published SBOM artifact is in CycloneDX format and can be viewed by SBOM tools, for example sbom-tools.
v0.9.1 - 2026-05-05¶
Test results for this release can be found here.
Fixed¶
- Wake by USB keyboard not working in Qubes
- S3 not supported on Windows
- NUC Box: Error while installing Windows 11 via USB drive
- NUC Box: Windows Device Manager shows errors even after updates
- NUC Box: Error when enabling BitLocker
- NUC Box: USB mouse not working in Windows installer (USB pen drive installation)
- NUC Box Windows SPM 2x suspend fails
- NUCBOX waking up from S3 sleep too early
- Wake by USB keyboard not working in Qubes
Known issues¶
- Unlisted error in dmesg | STB002.002 | QubesOS | Heads & UEFI
- V54: BIOS settings are randomly reset
- Varmilo USB keyboard doesn't work in firmware menu
- NUCBOX unexpected dmesg errors on v0.9.0-rc4
- Better RAM string in DTS, add separators
- GRUB installation fails sometimes
- PCIe controller does not work with linux without disabling mmoconf
- NUC Box: OS doesn't boot with eGPU on m2 PCIe
- NUC Box: eGPU is unstable with Thunderbolt 4
- Can't update ME on NUC BOX: Error occurred while trying to create container EspiOobNvar. Reason: 'espi_oob_enabled''
- Capsule update signing is not enforced
- Capsule Updates require ME to be manually disabled
Binaries¶
novacustom_nuc_box_mtl_v0.9.1.cap sha256 sha256.sig
novacustom_nuc_box_mtl_v0.9.1.rom sha256 sha256.sig
To verify binary integrity with hash and signature please follow the instructions in Dasharo release signature verification using this key
SBOM (Software Bill of Materials)¶
- Dasharo coreboot fork based on 25.03 revision 2dda3abf
- Dasharo EDKII fork based on edk2-stable202502 revision ac25544f
- Dasharo iPXE fork based on 2025.03 revision 8b8a50a8
- vboot based on f1f70f46dc revision f1f70f46
- Intel Management Engine version v18.0.5.2028
- Intel Firmware Support Package for Meteor Lake-H version 2024/04/30 v4122_12
- Intel Flash Descriptor version v1.0
- Intel microcode version MTL C0 0x00000020 0x25 19/03/2025
v0.9.0 - 2025-08-27¶
Test results for this release can be found here.
Added¶
- Support for NovaCustom NUC BOX (Meteor Lake)
- Introduce updates via UEFI capsules (from this firmware onward)
- TPM Measured Boot
- Vboot Verified Boot
- Intel ME soft disable
- Vboot recovery notification in UEFI Payload
- UEFI Secure Boot
- Firmware update mode
- BIOS boot medium write-protection
- SMM BIOS write protection
- Early Sign of Life display output
- Setup menu password configuration
- USB stack disable option in setup menu
- Network stack disable option in setup menu
- Intel ME disable option in setup menu
- Power on AC option in setup menu
- Fan profiles in setup Menu
- Quiet boot/Fast boot
- Throttling temperature adjustment in setup menu
Known issues¶
- S3 not supported on Windows
- Varmilo USB keyboard doesn't work in firmware menu
- Qubes OS spd5118 error in dmesg
- NUCBOX unexpected dmesg errors
- Wake by USB keyboard not working in Qubes
- Capsule update signing is not enforced
Binaries¶
novacustom_nuc_box_mtl_v0.9.0.rom sha256 sha256.sig novacustom_nuc_box_mtl_v0.9.0_dev_signed.rom sha256_dev_signed sha256.sig_dev_signed
To verify binary integrity with hash and signature please follow the instructions in Dasharo release signature verification using this key
SBOM (Software Bill of Materials)¶
- Dasharo coreboot fork based on 25.03 revision fdea68ac
- Dasharo EDKII fork based on edk2-stable202502 revision ac25544f
- Dasharo iPXE fork based on 2025.03 revision 8b8a50a8
- vboot based on f1f70f46dc revision f1f70f46
- Intel Management Engine version v18.0.5.2028
- Intel Firmware Support Package for Meteor Lake-H version 2024/04/30 v4122_12
- Intel Flash Descriptor version v1.0
- Intel microcode version MTL C0 0x00000020 0x25 19/03/2025