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Firmware

AAEONAEU-SW edited this page Nov 27, 2020 · 4 revisions

Official UEFI BIOS

The Official BIOS releases for the UP SBCs are available here: UP Community Downloads

UEFI BIOS History

UEFI BIOS updates


Warning: Updating the bios is a risky operation. Do it only if you're sure about what you're doing!


Note: for the best compatibility, UEFI BIOS upgrades should generally be performed along with OS upgrades.

So be sure to install an OS on the board and to update it before doing the BIOS flashing procedure below.

In the case of ubilinux, after installing you can run:

 sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

Material Needed

  • a PC/ Mac to create the USB disk
  • an empty USB drive

Procedure

  • Download the appropriate bios update for your board UP Community Downloads
  • Put the empty USB Pendrive in your pc.
  • Format it to FAT32.
  • Decompress the bios zip file into the formatted drive. At the end of those step you should have a USB drive similar to this:

  • Attach the USB disk to the board and a USB keyboard and power it on.
  • During boot, hit F7 on the USB keyboard to enter the UEFI BIOS boot menu.
  • Navigate through the following menus and select (check also that your USB drive is shown):
    • UP Board: CRB Setup > CRB Save & Exit > Launch EFI Shell from filesystem device
    • UP Squared: UEFI: Built in EFI Shell

  • Press Esc to enter the shell. After that you should see output similar to the following:
  • Please take note of which filesystem number (fs*) your USB drive is mapped to. In this example, it's fs1.
  • Switch to that filesystem by entering it with a leading colon. In this case:
    • fs1:
  • Navigate to the path where you decompressed the update (the cd and ls commands are available here, as if in a Unix shell).
  • Run the following command: GO.nsh

Warning: The bios update procedure will take some time to complete: don't interrupt the procedure until the board reboot itself in the operating system.


  • If the utility does not automatically reboot your device, you can restart your board with:
    • reset

Note: if after pressing F7 the BIOS asks for a password, simply press Enter to go to the next screen.

Note: if on the first BIOS Menu or in the UEFI shell your USB drive is not shown probably the USB is corrupted. Please try it again with a new USB drive.

Engineering BIOS password

To avoid accidentally bricking the board by changing certain advanced BIOS parameters ("CRB" settings), these have been hidden behind an admin password.


Warning: By changing settings in CRB BIOS menus, users risk bricking the board, and will not be able to claim the warranty in this case.


If you agree to the above, here is the password: upassw0rd

BIOS chip hardware flashing for UP board

If the board is unusable and the regular update procedure can't be applied, the board may be recoverable by directly flashing the BIOS chip with an SPI EEPROM programmer. See BIOS chip flashing for instruction.

BIOS chip hardware flashing for UP Squared

If the board is unusable and the regular update procedure can't be applied, the board may be recoverable by directly flashing the BIOS chip with an SPI EEPROM programmer. See BIOS chip flashing on UP Squared for instruction.

OpenSource UEFI BIOS

Intel made available the Open Source UEFI BIOS with support for UP2. You can find more information and all the necessary instructions from this link: Open Source Firmware UP2

Coreboot added support for UP Squared, more information can be found from this link: Coreboot on UP Squared

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