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Initial deployment

Initial flashing of Dasharo firmware can be done from Linux using flashrom with the internal programmer. This document describes the process of building, installing and running flashrom on Ubuntu 22.04.

Deploy using Dasharo Tools Suite

For simplicity we recommend using Dasharo Tools Suite to omit all compilation steps and deploy the Dasharo firmware seamlessly. Be sure to disable the BIOS lock in the AMI firmware setup utility:

  1. Go to Chipset tab
  2. Enter PCH IO Configuration
  3. Disable BIOS Lock.
  4. Save changes and reset.

Now you are ready to use Dasharo Tools Suite (DTS):

  1. Boot Dasharo Tools Suite.
  2. Perform Dasharo installation.

Build flashrom

Currently, the latest flashrom release lacks support for Comet Lake U internal flashing. Because of this, we need to build flashrom from source.

Install build dependencies:

apt install git build-essential debhelper pkg-config libpci-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libftdi1-dev meson

Obtain source code:

git clone https://github.com/Dasharo/flashrom -b dasharo-release
cd flashrom

Build flashrom:

sudo make install

Reading flash contents

Always prepare a backup of the current firmware image. To read from the flash and save them to a file (backup.rom), execute the following command:

flashrom -p internal -r dump.rom

Keep the backup for later recovery if needed.

Flashing Dasharo

To flash Dasharo on the platform, execute the following command - replace [path] with the path to the Dasharo image you want to flash, e.g. protectli_vault_ehl_v1.0.0.rom.

If stock firmware is currently installed:

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

If Dasharo is currently installed, only the RW_SECTION_A partition of the flash needs to be updated. Flash it using the following command:

flashrom -p internal -w protectli_vault_ehl_v1.x.y.rom --fmap -i RW_SECTION_A

This command also preserves Dasharo UEFI settings and the boot order.