Bios mod for Intel DS58XO to boot from PCI-e nvme cards

[f-bone]

Hi guys!

Thank you for your great work, you have helped me before in the exact same issue, different motherboard. I recently aquired this beauty, Intel DS58XO with an i7 and although with BIOS v5600 supports UEFI and can also see the nvme drive, it won’t boot from it.

Could a guru please create a modded bios that would boot straight from the nvme without the need for external USB drive assistance?

I already found a similar discussion here but there was no BIOS solution…

Trying to boot from an m.2 drive through a PCIE adapter on an intel DX58SO

I’m sure there are walkthroughs specifically for this but i am a noob and wanted to ask first especially since everything i have read here pertains to windows, and not the OS i am using FreeNAS which is unix based. I have an intel DS58XO mobo that i had my OS(FreeNAS) and three data drives attached to, i needed to expand my server to hold 6 data drives, and still have a separate disk for the OS which is hard because the Mobo only has 6 sata ports. Through some searching i found a pcie to m.2 ada…

thank you in advance guys,

br,
george

[f-bone]

After doing some research here I guess I am out of luck…

"Important note:
Not all mainboard BIOSes can be easily modified by the user.
Examples:

1. Intel mainboards are equipped with an especially modified BIOS. These Intel BIOSes with the suffix .BIO cannot be opened and modified by any standard BIOS tool.
2. Some old Phoenix BIOSes cannot be opened and modified by any common version of the tool CBROM.
3. Some Gigabyte and ASUS mainboard BIOSes can be modified, but the flash procedure is checksum sensitive. Within my BIOS modding guides you may find some tips how to pass this restriction."

[MeatWar]

Samsung 950 Pro (safest way)
or
if possible CH341A and a lot of trials with high risk of failure, using: [Experimental] NVMe Option ROM - BIOS/UEFI Modding / BIOS modules (PCI ROM, EFI and others) - Win-Raid Forum

[IntelModder]

Hi @f-bone, this is normally possible with a hardware programmer. I’m not often on this forum anymore but if you want I can step you through it.

[f-bone]

so the Samsung 950 Pro just works? and if so in legacy mode?

[f-bone]

I’d be delighted to try! I have all sorts of programmers (rt809f, TL866-II, T56, BeeProg2c, various mini ones etc) — so flashing the SPI is easy for me (I am repairing macbook/laptop motherboards for a living) but I do not know what to flash or how to make such a binary.

[MeatWar]

@f-bone

and if so in legacy mode?

Yes as it has its own opROM not motherboard dependent, @Fernando had (i think…) this disk model, i think he can elaborate the method for the boot/partition.

Its some where around in the forum… i never owned this disk model or used the method on old mboards.

[f-bone]

sounds like a really interesting 2nd option if a modded bios can be found… if not I will try and find this nvme drive and maybe @Fernando can give us more details or a link with a guide?

[IntelModder]

@f-bone update to the latest Intel bios the normal way, and then use your hardware programmers to get an spi dump of the board.

Post it here and I’ll take a look for you.

[Fernando]

@f-bone

@MeatWar

@Fernando had (i think…) this disk model, i think he can elaborate the method for the boot/partition.

Yes, I owned a Samsung 950 Pro SSD, but I was never forced to install any Windows OS onto it in Legacy mode using the Master Boot Record Partition scheme - the BIOSes of all my in-use mainboards supported natively booting off an NVMe SSD in UEFI mode.
Although I have never tried it, the procedure to get the OS installed in Legacy mode onto a Samsung 950 Pro should be easy. The only important thing is, that the OS Setup has to create a Master Boot Record as boot partition.

[f-bone]

excellent Ill do this asap!

[f-bone]

thank you Fernando! I am exploring both solutions and see what happens! looking for a 950 pro atm while preparing to read a bios dump from version 5600 of this motherboard.