I'm happy to write a guide for the first time in my life.
In this tutorial, we'll learn how to replace the motherboard stock firmware with an open source firmware.
And I have to say from the beginning of this guide, I'm not responsible for bricked motherboard, burnt rom, thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because of data loss. All responsibility is YOURS!!
From coreboot: coreboot is a Free Software project aimed at replacing the proprietary firmware (BIOS/UEFI) found in most computers. coreboot performs the required hardware initialization to configure the system, then passes control to a different executable, referred to in coreboot as the payload. Most often, the primary function of the payload is to boot the operating system (OS).
With the separation of hardware initialization and later boot logic, coreboot is perfect for a wide variety of situations. It can be used for specialized applications that run directly in the firmware, running operating systems from flash, loading custom bootloaders, or implementing firmware standards, like PC BIOS services or UEFI. This flexibility allows coreboot systems to include only the features necessary in the target application, reducing the amount of code and flash space required.
From Tianocore: A modern, feature-rich, cross-platform firmware development environment for the UEFI and PI specifications from www.uefi.org.
- A CH341A Programmer. (I recommend you to use with USB Extension Cable)
- Chip Puller (Optional, I removed with 2 small knives (be careful!!))
- Of course an ASUS P8H61-M LX3 PLUS R2.0 motherboard
- Good level of GNU/Linux knowledge
- Basic hardware knowledge
- Another computer running GNU/Linux distro (BTW I use Arch)
- Sound
- All USB Ports
- Display
- S3 Sleep Mode
- Ethernet
- Windows (don't use that 😛)
- Neutralised Intel ME
- UEFI + Secure Boot
- PCI-e Graphics (see below)
- PS/2 Input
- Hibernation
- Serial Port (in fact, the serial port doesn't even have a port)
- Sound doesn't work properly on Linux (ALSA issue), but Windows seems fine
- Even if I define the MAC address it doesn't work, I guess someone else experienced it here too
After removing the CMOS battery and power, we'll be comfortable here because our motherboard has a removable socketed BIOS, so that we can easily pull out BIOS and place it in our lovely programmer (look carefully at the small semicircular thing).
We need to make a backup in case of any problems (we'll also get some blobs from here).
Firstly, install flashrom on your favourite distro.
# Debian based distros
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y flashrom
# Arch based distros
sudo pacman -S flashromThen, we'll have to extract the existing firmware with this.
sudo flashrom --programmer ch341a_spi -r backup.bin(You can do this 2 times to make sure that the hashes of these two backup roms are same).
sudo flashrom --programmer ch341a_spi -r backup1.bin
diff backup.bin backup1.binIf you get a terminal output like this, you have successfully backed up!
avsar@archlinux ~$ sudo flashrom --programmer ch341a_spi -r backup.bin
[sudo] password for avsar:
flashrom v1.2 on Linux 6.8.9-zen1-1.1-zen (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org
Using clock_gettime for delay loops (clk_id: 1, resolution: 1ns).
Found Winbond flash chip "W25Q64.V" (8192 kB, SPI) on ch341a_spi.
Reading flash... done.
avsar@archlinux ~$Firstly, we need to install the necessary dependencies for coreboot
# Debian based distros
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y bison build-essential curl flex git gnat libncurses5-dev libssl-dev m4 zlib1g-dev pkg-config nasm imagemagick
# Arch based distros
sudo pacman -S base-devel gcc-ada flex bison ncurses wget zlib git nasm imagemagickgit clone https://review.coreboot.org/coreboot
cd coreboot
git submodule update --init --checkoutmkdir -p 3rdparty/blobs/mainboard/asus/h61-series/Here we'll activate the killswitch using the HAP AltMeDisable bit and delete most of the ME sections
(You need your backup file to get IFD and ME blobs)
cd utils/me_cleaner/
python me_cleaner.py -S -r -t -d -O out.bin -D descriptor.bin -M me.bin ~/backup.binMove these blobs in the folder we created before
mv descriptor.bin ../../3rdparty/blobs/mainboard/asus/h61-series/
mv me.bin ../../3rdparty/blobs/mainboard/asus/h61-series/And we're going back
cd ~/corebootYou can choose the options I show here or you can use the defconfig if you are familiar with it
make menuconfig
Mainboard ─>
Mainboard vendor (ASUS) --->
Mainboard model (P8H61-M LX3 R2.0) --->
(0x400000) Size of CBFS filesystem in ROM
Chipset ─>
[*] Add Intel descriptor.bin file
(3rdparty/blobs/mainboard/$(MAINBOARDDIR)/descriptor.bin) Path and filename of the descriptor.bin file
[*] Add Intel ME/TXE firmware
(3rdparty/blobs/mainboard/$(MAINBOARDDIR)/me.bin) Path to management engine firmware
Devices ─>
Graphics initialization (None) --->
Early (romstage) graphics initialization (None) --->
[*] Use onboard VGA as primary video device
Generic Drivers ─>
[*] Support for flash based, SMM mediated data store
[*] Use version 2 of SMMSTORE API
Payload ─>
Payload to add (edk2 payload) --->
(build/UEFIPAYLOAD.fd) edk2 binary
EDK II build type (Build UefiPayloadPkg) --->
Tianocore's EDK II payload (MrChromebox' edk2 fork) --->
(https://github.com/mrchromebox/edk2) URL to git repository for edk2
(origin/uefipayload_202309) Insert a commit's SHA-1 or a branch name
[*] Use Escape key for Boot Manager
[*] Use the full screen for the edk2 frontpage
[*] Enable UEFI Secure Boot support
[*] Add a GOP driver to the Tianocore build
(IntelGopDriver.efi) GOP driver file
(-D VARIABLE_SUPPORT=SMMSTORE) edk2 additional custom build parametersExit and save the config. You can check it by typing make savedefconfig.
Remember the backup we made, shown in 1.1? Yep. Now we'll get the GOP driver from there so that the display can work.
Install UEFITool and open the backup firmware
Then, press CTRL+F and go to the text tab and type Intel(R) Gop Driver
As you can see, there are 2 inputs here, Ivb and Snb, I choose the Ivb one because my processor is Ivy Bridge
Then, right click on the PE32 image file, select Extract Body and change the name to IntelGopDriver.efi and move it to the main directory of coreboot
make crossgcc-i386 CPUS=$(nproc)
make iasl
make -j$(nproc)You should get an output similar to this after compilation
FMAP REGION: COREBOOT
Name Offset Type Size Comp
cbfs_master_header 0x0 cbfs header 32 none
fallback/romstage 0x80 stage 92464 none
cpu_microcode_blob.bin 0x16a40 microcode 26624 none
fallback/ramstage 0x1d280 stage 100103 LZMA (221464 decompressed)
config 0x35a00 raw 3215 LZMA (10063 decompressed)
revision 0x366c0 raw 727 none
build_info 0x369c0 raw 111 none
fallback/dsdt.aml 0x36a80 raw 8991 none
rt8168-macaddress 0x38e00 raw 17 none
vbt.bin 0x38e40 raw 1248 LZMA (7168 decompressed)
fallback/postcar 0x39380 stage 23352 none
fallback/payload 0x3ef00 simple elf 1307411 none
(empty) 0x17e240 null 2280292 none
bootblock 0x3aadc0 bootblock 20480 none
Built asus/h61-series (P8H61-M LX3 R2.0)
avsar@archlinux ~/coreboot$ Now we need to flash the compiled file.
sudo flashrom --programmer ch341a_spi -w build/coreboot.romIf everything is fine, you should get an output like
avsar@archlinux ~/coreboot$ sudo flashrom --programmer ch341a_spi -w build/coreboot.rom
[sudo] password for avsar:
flashrom v1.2 on Linux 6.8.9-zen1-1.1-zen (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org
Using clock_gettime for delay loops (clk_id: 1, resolution: 1ns).
Found Winbond flash chip "W25Q64.V" (8192 kB, SPI) on ch341a_spi.
Reading old flash chip contents... done.
Erasing and writing flash chip... Erase/write done.
Verifying flash... VERIFIED.
avsar@archlinux ~/coreboot$Disconnect the USB connection (definitely do it first), take the chip and insert it into the motherboard as in 1.0.
If you saw a nice rabbit logo when the computer booted up, yep everything works. (sorry for the bad quality).
After that you'll need to put your favourite bootloader in first boot order and run it.
Save and reboot and you'll get a nice bootloader screen 😸
The rest is up to you... and these are my OS screenshots.
I talked to ellyq on Discord 2 days before updating this guide, she said she merged PCIPlatformDxe support into her own EDK2 fork, so I tried it and it really worked, many thanks!
For this you'll need a graphics card that supports GOP, you can find it by using GPU-Z or searching on TechPowerUp (in fact, almost all cards above 2012 have this support)
Rather than the configurations in 2.4, you'll need to do these separately;
make menuconfig
Devices ─>
Graphics initialization (Run VGA Option ROMs) --->
[ ] Use onboard VGA as primary video device
[*] Re-run VGA Option ROMs on S3 resume
[*] Load Option ROMs on PCI devices
Payload ─>
Payload to add (edk2 payload) --->
Tianocore's EDK II payload (Specify your own repository) --->
(https://github.com/ellyq/edk2) URL to git repository for edk2
(uefipayload_2408) Insert a commit's SHA-1 or a branch name
(-D VARIABLE_SUPPORT=SMMSTORE -D LOAD_OPTION_ROMS=TRUE -D SECURE_BOOT_ENABLE=TRUE) edk2 additional custom build parameters |
 |
For those asking "How does a 16yo video card support GOP??”, here's a guide 😊
Did you miss the opening sound? Yeah, we'll do something similar. Go to src/mainboard/asus/h61-series/mainboard.c and add these things and go back to step 2.6
--- a/src/mainboard/asus/h61-series/mainboard.c
+++ b/src/mainboard/asus/h61-series/mainboard.c
@@ -2,6 +2,12 @@
#include <device/device.h>
#include <drivers/intel/gma/int15.h>
+#include <pc80/i8254.h>
+
+static void mainboard_final(void *unused)
+{
+ beep(1500, 100);
+}
static void mainboard_enable(struct device *dev)
{
@@ -12,4 +18,5 @@ static void mainboard_enable(struct device *dev)
struct chip_operations mainboard_ops = {
.enable_dev = mainboard_enable,
+ .final = mainboard_final,
};We'll use uefitool here too, just like in 2.5.
Go to the GUID tab through the search and type "FD44820B-F1AB-41C0-AE4E-0C55556EB9BD"
Then select Raw section and press Ctrl+D
Look carefully at the text view where it says 08606EXXXXXX, it will be your MAC address. (08-60-6E is owned by ASUSTek COMPUTER INC.)
For example it could be 08606E3F2DE1, it will be different on each device, be careful about this!
Take it in xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx format and add it here;
make menuconfig
Generic Drivers ─>
(08:60:6e:3f:2d:e1) Realtek rt8168 mac addressI've been trying to make this tutorial for about 4 + 2 (10.11.2024) hours.
Actually, I didn't want to do it at first, but my friends asked me to add it, so I did some work and prepared a nice guide.
Thank you to the whole coreboot team, Corna for the me_cleaner project, MrChromebox for his help and his excellent EDK2 project and ellyq for her help.