[Discussion] UBU Tool related Questions, Reports and Suggestions

@nosirrahx - Generally speaking, for Intel boards, you may or may not be able to open the stock downloaded BIOS with BIOS tools and or work on it, but you usually cannot and should not flash this (even if you see mention of a forced method)
The usually safe way to modify Intel board BIOS is to dump with programmer, then modify, then program back. This is due to how they are made, and as SoniX mentioned signatures usually, plus you generally can’t flash the resulting mod BIOS from stock package anyway.
I’d stop there and do nothing with the Intel boards, until you have flash programmer in hand and confirmed valid and OK backups made, then you can move forward

@Lost_N_BIOS :
Good to know. At this point the only thing I have really ever flashed is my Apex X299, flashback makes that pretty easy.

At the moment I am looking into flashing my MSI P75 Creator 9SF. This is a 9th gen high end laptop that MSI instantly abandoned. The modules and microcode wont ever get updates so if I want those updates I will have to do them myself.

Is flashing modified MSI laptop BIOS possible? There seems to be a lot less documentation on MSI in general.

Thanks again about the warning for Intel boards.

@nosirrahx @Lost_N_BIOS

I upgraded the microcode on an MSI laptop using UBU without issue. The laptop was a friend’s MSI GT75 TITAN 8RG and I used the ordinary MSI in house flash procedure.


Modding the other ROM/EFI will likely require the ANNEX method on UEFI/BIOS except for the graphics which is another area of complexity as compared to stock desktop motherboards. When you mod the ROM/EFI and try the regular flash method it doesn’t pass security verification.
Thus for the ROM/EFI update you’ll need to use the FreeDOS ANNEX method to update the UEFI/BIOS further. In general the graphics portion offers more complexity, but updating the network and storage/raid ROM/EFI should be easily achieveable.

Cheers


Thanks for the feedback.

At this point the only 2 changes I want to make are storage modules and microcode since those 2 are probably the only ones that will have any impact on anything. I use RAID and/or Optane on a lot of systems so staying current on the storage modules and drivers matters a bit more than it otherwise would.

001.PNG



The motherboard has two network cards but UBU can only replace the ROM of one network card,The motherboard has two I350 network cards, the original ROM is 1.5.43, after executing the replacement command, UBU shows that only one network card ROM has been replaced with 1.5.88, why the other one is not replaced successfully?

@linkpark007 :
The only person, who can answer your question, is SoniX, the developer of the UBU tool.
That is why I have moved your report/request into the UBU Discussion thread, which is watched by @SoniX. So it was not a good idea to start a new thread about this UBU topic.

@linkpark007

Link on BIOS file?

@nosirrahx - Yes on the MSI - make a thread and I can help, or you can try as hancor mentioned and see if stock update method allows you to flash in mod BIOS.
@hancor - your comment contradicts itself >> Use ordinary MSI in house flash method >> Then >> Use “Annex” method << This = two very different BIOS flashing methods

@Lost_N_BIOS @nosirrahx

Not contradictory at all.

1. Doing a straight up microcode only replacement allows you to use the in house method, if that is the ONLY thing one mods in UBU. (This is true of MSI GT75 TITAN 8RG and ASUS ROG Zenith Extreme as I’ve discovered)

2. Adding in ROM/EFI mods to storage/network items later results in security verification failure; which thus necessitate the FreeDOS ANNEX method.

The methods are complementary not contradictory; as in achieving a modded uefi/bios flash.

Doing all the mods, eg microcode, storage and network requires the FreeDOS Annex method.

@Lost_N_BIOS you OVER ACHIEVER!

@hancor - Thanks for clarifying that! I wonder why it’s OK to mod microcode? Did you confirm the changes are actually flashed in when doing microcode only?
Yes, best way to do that mod then, if you’re updating other stuff as well as microcodes would be just do it all at once via Annex method.

@Lost_N_BIOS @nosirrahx

1. [OFFER] Asus ROG Zenith Extreme_v2001 microcode update

2. [OFFER] Asus ROG Zenith Extreme BIOS/UEFI_v2001 mod ROM


I’ve outlined the distinguishing methods in both my offers to the Asus ROG Zenith Extreme as listed above.

It should be no different on the MSI laptop side; except for the graphics card mods which on laptops brings their own complexity.

I hope that clarifies the matter; between microcode only and more generalized mods.

Cheers

@hancor - >> only microcode update works thus far using EZFlash, Flashback did not work" <<< This sounds like bad mod, or broken BIOS, and EZ Flash is possibly not actually flashing in the mod BIOS, this is why I asked if you confirmed in OS that the microcode version was changed vs pre-mod in OS?
I see your image there, but this only shows that is current microcode same as what’s in BIOS, but could also be what windows is using and it’s not loading out from the BIOS.
What was there on stock BIOS, in HWINFO64, 800820B? Or, have you dumped the BIOS or BIOS region post that EZ Flash to confirm those updates to ucode are in there?

USB Flashback should always work, provided you have compatible USB Stick for said model, ie you can USB Flashback stock BIOS, then mod BIOS should also work unless file is not properly created/compiled etc (ie bad mod, bad flashback file creation, unsigned capsule etc)
Laptop ALWAYS Much more different than desktop, nothing should ever be compared or said is similar to desktop when you are talking laptop BIOS flashing.

@Lost_N_BIOS

I’ve gone backwards and forwards on this one, not a bad flash, or USB stick; just a pure security oddity that it goes through on EZFlash.
I verified by going back to stock bios via flashback using the same USB 2.0 FAT32 formatted stick recommended by Asus.
We discussed this way back in Oct of 2019 here:

[Discussion] UBU Tool related Questions, Reports and Suggestions (33)

see post #488 of this thread, where I reported this result prior to the ANNEX method becoming more fully available.

Manufacturers occasionally do screwy things, they can justify them. I just observe the results!

Same thing happened on the MSI laptop, so most likely NOT A COINCIDENCE!


Cheers

@hancor - I was mainly talking about USB Flashback, I know sometimes EZ flash allows certain things by accident, sometimes, but you did not answer/confirm anything about the EZ flash and microcode for me (what was the ucode shown as in windows pre-EZ flash?).
On Flashback, I said the same thing to you in the link you provided, this may be broken BIOS so not flashback compatible.
Send me your BIOS that fails flashback, I will check and see if it should be OK in general for flashback, and to be 100% sure, I will put your mod BIOS into capsule myself so you can test, just to be sure
And to be double sure, please tell me exactly what mods you did, and I will do them myself to the stock BIOS, manually, so we can confirm if it’s a UBU issue or not too.
That way, if it is due to something UBU does then SoniX can try to address the issue.

@Lost_N_BIOS


Before from stock bios:

Asus ROG Zenith Extreme.png

             After Mod:  

Asus ROG Zenith Extreme_after.png




I didn’t take exhaustive pics when I was doing this but clearly there is a difference between my offer posted link and the stock bios:

IE: microcode 0800820B and microcode 0800820D

@hancor - nothing above My main goal in replying to you, was to help you sort the USB Flashback issue there, because it should not be and is abnormal, so there is some issue, and we can sort it out

* Edit - To your edit, showing me microcodes in BIOS via UBU or MCE etc, prove nothing in regards to what I mentioned, you can only see if windows is loading that microcode or your mod BIOS flashed it in, if you flash back to the stock BIOS and check with HWINFO64 while on stock BIOS
If it’s flashed in via EZ Flash great, but that needs to be confirmed due to the issues/oddities mentioned in general. This is the way to check and confirm that. Flash stock BIOS, check what you see with HWINFO64

@Lost_N_BIOS

I gather you missed my photo in my offer link.
This was the purpose of taking the pic in the original posting via HWINFO; to verify I was using the updated code, as opposed to loading the old microcode which Asus was offering.

[OFFER] Asus ROG Zenith Extreme_v2001 microcode update

Not trying to be picayune here, but I believe I already verified that some months back…

@hancor - No I did see the image, and I mentioned that above, that does not show anything other than what microcode is currently being used (may not may not be from BIOS)
That’s what made me ask you to verify stock BIOS/microcode and what’s then shown in HWINFO64 while using stock BIOS, to confirm for sure that your mod microcode is used from the BIOS, and not being auto-loaded by windows itself.
Since there is unusual things going on here, best to verify was all I meant there. Not sure what picayune means, but I’m only trying to help you to be sure be 100% sure all is as you suspected.
And, again, this wasn’t my main reason for replying about any of this either, it was mainly to help you sort the flashback issue.

@SoniX

https://www.inspur.com/eportal/ui?struts…_id=2464&type=0

in the firmware page, bios is NF5270M4_BIOS_4.1.26_Standard_20190606

thank very much

@linkpark007

Sorry, I could not find the file specified.