Hello everyone, recently I ran into "the issue" that all the bioses for H11DSI need to be signed with the latest IPMI update 1.52, however, the only signed bios file is 2.8 from my testing, so if you'd like to go back or use any of the modded bioses floating around you will not be able to do so.
I have tested every single method possible of flashing the bios, tried to force update, tried everything, and nothing worked.
So I had to do something that may seem relatively straighforward and obvious, reflash the bios FLASH chip. Since then I have seen some discussions around on GitHub and also been contacted directly, so just wanted to kind of mention that yes, "wasting time on this" is good, because it does work, and it is relatively simple.
So here is what I did:
1. So, previously had my motherboard updated to latest IPMI version(1.52) and BIOS (2.8).
2. As I did not have a SOIC-16 clip at the time, I had chosen to desolder it. On my soldering station 420C with some Amtech flux and 40 air was enough to remove it quickly and cleanly. The chip is a MXIC MX25L25635F in the rev2 (256Mb/32MB NOR flash).
NOTE: Do note the smaller chip, 8-pin, Winbond, next to it holds the firmware for the network controller, so no need to touch it.
3. Soldered it to the adapter board to use it with a CH341A Black programmer.
4. Connected the programmer to PC. You can use Flashrom on MAC/Windows/Linux. Or on Windows the simplest way is with Neoprogrammer or ASProgrammer.
5. Make sure to backup your existing firmware 2 times, and ensure the checksum is the same, this ensure the backup was completed properly. You can use HxD or other software for checksum comparison. Theoretically, this firmware is available online so it is not really needed to backup it, but it never hurts. Good process to always use.
6. Go to this website which backups all the BIOS/IPMI versions ever released by SM (EDIT : Note the links are backed-up, since they get removed from the SUPERMICRO website, not the actual files), since they delete it when a new version is released. Supermicro BIOS/IPMI Archive.
Big thanks to @BlueFox which has been doing this for a while (even more important now considering the legal issues SM is facing so they may go under at any point).
7. Download any bios version you want. I used 1.46 to have the latest before Signed BIOS was introduced.
8. Flash it with the software from before. Make sure you have the Erase - Flash - Verify enabled, especially the ERASE, since blocks may change between BIOS releases and you may end up with a corrupted version.
OPTIONAL: You can try to then read the firmware from the chip and compare it with the FIRMWARE you just downloaded, to see if the checksum is the same. If it's the same, you've correctly flashed everything. Again, not needed, since you've had verify before, but an extra step to ensure less time wasted later.
9. If you used a SOIC16 Clip, remove it, if you desoldered it, solder it back.
10. Boot the board and let it power cycle. Wouldn't hurt to remove the CMOS battery before connecting power and turning it on, just as an extra, but shouldn't matter since you've literally flashed the chip.
11. Check the IPMI and BIOS version and see if everything is fine. Now, you can flash any bios version you ever want without issues. In the following 2 photos I went from 1.52 IPMI and 2.8 BIOS to 1.46 IPMI and the 2.0 BIOS that has AMD CBS enabled (allowing RAM overclock, like 2400Mhz dimms to run at 2666Mhz etc).
Ending:
The reason I did this was so that I could use some of the modded bioses with REBAR that I had created. Unfortunately, I did not realise that no previous bios was signed (even official unmoded), so this was needed.
I have added to this Google Drive different bioses that I modded with REBAR. The v1.3 BIOS modded with AMD CBS (now with REBAR), REBAR to the v2.0 with ROME ES support and AMD CBS, v2.4 original BIOS, and also the original Network Controller firmware for the Winbond chip in case anyone ever needs to restore that if it gets damaged (figured, if I am soldering/desoldering stuff, might as well). Tested it with an RTX 4090 and had REBAR working with 32GB, so I can confirm it does work.
Hope this can help some people. Good Luck!
(This comes by default, but obviously not responsible for any damage anyone does to their boards, chips etc.)
I have tested every single method possible of flashing the bios, tried to force update, tried everything, and nothing worked.
So I had to do something that may seem relatively straighforward and obvious, reflash the bios FLASH chip. Since then I have seen some discussions around on GitHub and also been contacted directly, so just wanted to kind of mention that yes, "wasting time on this" is good, because it does work, and it is relatively simple.
So here is what I did:
1. So, previously had my motherboard updated to latest IPMI version(1.52) and BIOS (2.8).
2. As I did not have a SOIC-16 clip at the time, I had chosen to desolder it. On my soldering station 420C with some Amtech flux and 40 air was enough to remove it quickly and cleanly. The chip is a MXIC MX25L25635F in the rev2 (256Mb/32MB NOR flash).
NOTE: Do note the smaller chip, 8-pin, Winbond, next to it holds the firmware for the network controller, so no need to touch it.
3. Soldered it to the adapter board to use it with a CH341A Black programmer.
4. Connected the programmer to PC. You can use Flashrom on MAC/Windows/Linux. Or on Windows the simplest way is with Neoprogrammer or ASProgrammer.
5. Make sure to backup your existing firmware 2 times, and ensure the checksum is the same, this ensure the backup was completed properly. You can use HxD or other software for checksum comparison. Theoretically, this firmware is available online so it is not really needed to backup it, but it never hurts. Good process to always use.
6. Go to this website which backups all the BIOS/IPMI versions ever released by SM (EDIT : Note the links are backed-up, since they get removed from the SUPERMICRO website, not the actual files), since they delete it when a new version is released. Supermicro BIOS/IPMI Archive.
Big thanks to @BlueFox which has been doing this for a while (even more important now considering the legal issues SM is facing so they may go under at any point).
7. Download any bios version you want. I used 1.46 to have the latest before Signed BIOS was introduced.
8. Flash it with the software from before. Make sure you have the Erase - Flash - Verify enabled, especially the ERASE, since blocks may change between BIOS releases and you may end up with a corrupted version.
OPTIONAL: You can try to then read the firmware from the chip and compare it with the FIRMWARE you just downloaded, to see if the checksum is the same. If it's the same, you've correctly flashed everything. Again, not needed, since you've had verify before, but an extra step to ensure less time wasted later.
9. If you used a SOIC16 Clip, remove it, if you desoldered it, solder it back.
10. Boot the board and let it power cycle. Wouldn't hurt to remove the CMOS battery before connecting power and turning it on, just as an extra, but shouldn't matter since you've literally flashed the chip.
11. Check the IPMI and BIOS version and see if everything is fine. Now, you can flash any bios version you ever want without issues. In the following 2 photos I went from 1.52 IPMI and 2.8 BIOS to 1.46 IPMI and the 2.0 BIOS that has AMD CBS enabled (allowing RAM overclock, like 2400Mhz dimms to run at 2666Mhz etc).
Ending:
The reason I did this was so that I could use some of the modded bioses with REBAR that I had created. Unfortunately, I did not realise that no previous bios was signed (even official unmoded), so this was needed.
I have added to this Google Drive different bioses that I modded with REBAR. The v1.3 BIOS modded with AMD CBS (now with REBAR), REBAR to the v2.0 with ROME ES support and AMD CBS, v2.4 original BIOS, and also the original Network Controller firmware for the Winbond chip in case anyone ever needs to restore that if it gets damaged (figured, if I am soldering/desoldering stuff, might as well). Tested it with an RTX 4090 and had REBAR working with 32GB, so I can confirm it does work.
Hope this can help some people. Good Luck!
(This comes by default, but obviously not responsible for any damage anyone does to their boards, chips etc.)
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