Merge pull request #586 from 3mdeb/develop

Publish "Dasharo Compatible with MSI PRO Z690-A Release v1.1.3"

blog/content/authors/michal-zygowski/_index.md

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ twitter: "https://twitter.com/_miczyg_"
 linkedin: "https://www.linkedin.com/in/miczyg"
 github: "https://github.com/miczyg1"
 ---
-Firmware Engineer with networking background. Feels comfortable with low-level
-development using C/C++ and assembly. Interested in advanced hardware features,
-security and coreboot. Core developer of coreboot. Maintainer of Braswell SoC,
-PC Engines, Protectli and Libretrend platforms.
+Firmware engineer and core developer of coreboot. Maintainer of Braswell SoC,
+PC Engines, Protectli and Libretrend platforms. Interested in advanced hardware
+features, security and coreboot. Open source firmware enthusiast and conference
+speaker.

blog/content/post/2024-02-13-msi_z690-a_v1.1.3_release.md

@@ -0,0 +1,331 @@
+---
+title: Dasharo Compatible with MSI PRO Z690-A Release v1.1.3
+abstract: 'Discover the latest Dasharo v1.1.3 release bringing new features,
+many bug fixes, and compatibility with 14th generation Intel Core processors.
+Dive in to find out more.'
+cover: /covers/msi_pro_z690a.png
+author: michal.zygowski
+layout: post
+published: true
+date: 2024-02-13
+archives: "2024"
+
+tags:
+  - dasharo
+  - coreboot
+  - msi
+  - z690
+  - alderlake
+  - raptorlake
+categories:
+  - Firmware
+  - Security
+
+---
+
+## Introduction
+
+Again, thank everyone who contributed to this release, including the Dasharo
+community and the Dasharo Team. Your continuous efforts and collaboration have
+led to this exciting update. As previously announced, this release is also a
+Dasharo Entry Subscription Release. If you missed our [recent blog
+post](https://blog.3mdeb.com/2023/2023-09-08-msi_z690-a_v1.1.2_release/) about
+v1.1.2, be sure to read it to catch up with the versioning strategy and what
+Dasharo Entry Subscription Release is.
+
+After nearly three months, we are back with yet another update, bringing
+several improvements and fixes to enhance the user experience and system
+performance. Let's delve into what's new in this release.
+
+### Key Changes in the New Release
+
+Since the last release we have been working mainly on new features and bug
+fixes. Here are the critical updates:
+
+## Added
+
+### [Memory overclocking support with XMP profiles](https://docs.dasharo.com/dasharo-menu-docs/dasharo-system-features/#memory-configuration)
+
+Probably the most popular features request in community. Allows one to select
+a different (typically better performance-wise) memory profile called [Extreme
+Memory
+Profile](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/gaming/extreme-memory-profile-xmp.html)
+via firmware setup. These profiles are used as input parameters to the memory
+training algorithms to configure the memory controller to operate at higher
+clock speeds, which as a result increases memory performance. The configured
+memory speed is also displayed now on the main page of firmware setup.
+
+![XMP options](/img/dasharo_xmp_opt.jpeg)
+
+### [Compatibility with Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs](https://github.com/Dasharo/dasharo-issues/issues/534)
+
+In the meantime, between the last release and v1.1.3, Intel released the next
+generation Intel Core processors, which are the refreshed versions of 13th
+generation. Taking advantage of the opportunity, we have added the 14th
+generation compatibility in coreboot We also updated Management Engine and
+microcode versions to ensure seamless operation of new processors.
+
+### [Selective Option ROM loading](https://docs.dasharo.com/dasharo-menu-docs/dasharo-system-features/#pcipcie-configuration)
+
+OptionROMs have always been a security concern. OptionROMs are executable
+binaries embedded into the peripheral devices on PCI/PCI Express buses. In
+order to perform device-specific initialization, firmware/BIOS unconditionally
+loads and executes such OptionROM from the device. If such device is
+malicious, it can contain an OptionROm with malware for example. To limit the
+attack vector from OptionROMs, we have added a setup option to select which
+OptionROMs can be run: all, none or display devices only.
+
+![XMP options](/img/dasharo_pci_opriom_opt.jpeg)
+
+### [Serial Console Redirection option](https://docs.dasharo.com/dasharo-menu-docs/dasharo-system-features/#serial-port-configuration)
+
+For boards with serial port it can be used to access firmware using a serial
+connection. The option controls whether the console should be redirected to
+serial port or not. As the MSI boards have only TX signal routed, such console
+serves only debugging purposes (mainly Dasharo validation).
+
+### [Power state after power fail option](https://docs.dasharo.com/dasharo-menu-docs/dasharo-system-features/#power-management-options)
+
+Depending on an application, some machines may be used as a home servers,
+which should always be up. This option allows to set what should happen after
+power returns when power failure/shortage occurs. One may select to turn the
+machine power on or off or keep its previous state. Previously the machine was
+hardcoded to be powered off whenever the power is restored. The option offers
+flexibility of the machine usage.
+
+### [Option for Resizable BARs enabling](https://docs.dasharo.com/dasharo-menu-docs/dasharo-system-features/#pcipcie-configuration)
+
+Resizable BARs is a PCI Express device capability to decode its full resources
+in the system. For example, a discrete GPU card may advertise only 256MB of
+its memory resource, which during firmware operation is enough to get the
+display working. But modern cards have gigabytes of VRAM, so the resource
+restricted to 256MB may limit the performance of such card. With Resizable
+BARs the device can advertise bigger resources that can be allocated for the
+device, and for example a GPU with 4GB VRAM may advertise 512MB, 1GB, 2GB and
+4GB resource. BIOS may select based on its policies which size to choose. We
+have implemented a runtime option to control whether Resizable BARs should be
+enabled and used during PCI enumeration or not. The maximum Resizable BAR
+configured for now is 128GB in Dasharo.
+
+Also thanks to the community we have discovered bugs in upstream coreboot
+regarding the [PCI Express Resizable BAR
+programming](https://github.com/Dasharo/dasharo-issues/issues/565) and the
+[Intel ARC A750 PCI resource allocation when Resizable BAR is
+enabled](https://github.com/Dasharo/dasharo-issues/issues/584).
+
+### [ESP partition scanning in look for grubx64.efi or shimx64.efi or Windows bootmgr](https://github.com/Dasharo/dasharo-issues/issues/94)
+
+Migrating a disk with a pre-installed OS may be troublesome. Per UEFI
+specification it may not always be recognized as bootable, due to how boot
+options are created (e.g. `BOOTX64.EFI` files are meant to be bootable files
+on removable media, OSes often do not provide such). This is where ESP
+scanning feature comes into play. Dasharo scans the EFI partitions on storage
+devices and checks for known bootloaders, and if present, creates a boot
+option for them. As a result whenever one plugs a disk with an pre-installed
+OS, a boot option is automatically created for it.
+
+![ESP scanning](/img/dasharo_esp_scan.png)
+
+### [Automatic fan control](https://github.com/Dasharo/dasharo-issues/issues/381)
+
+Automatic fan control seems to be one of the features typically implemented
+from the beginning. A fan noise may drastically reduce the user experience and
+usability of the machine. However, our full PC build were shipped with very
+silent Noctua fans, which did not make a noise, even on full speed. The reason
+of the automatic fan control appearing so late is the lack of documentation.
+MSI boards use Nuvoton NCT6687D as a Super I/O and Hardware Monitor, which
+does not have public datasheets. Fortunately there are NCT6686D datasheets
+available, which were close enough to their successor to implement the
+open-source driver in coreboot. Another reason is the complexity of such
+driver. The datasheets have over 500 pages together and a mass amount of
+registers. Understanding how the chip should operate and how it should be
+programmed was very time-consuming and resulted in nearly 2800 lines of code
+added to coreboot. Now CPU fans should run quietly as long as the CPU
+temperature is not high.
+
+One can now observe the Hardware Monitor readings using:
+
+- [nct6687d module on Linux](https://github.com/Fred78290/nct6687d)
+- MSI Center on Windows
+
+![MSI Center HWM](/img/msi_center_hwm.png)
+
+### [Support for taking screenshots in the firmware](https://docs.dasharo.com/dev-proc/screenshots/#taking-screenshots)
+
+Taking screenshots may be very useful, especially in the firmware where there
+is no fancy GUI like in OS. Sometimes catching an unexpected event or a bug
+may require taking a screenshot. Doing it with a phone will result in bad
+quality. On the other hand capturing the content directly from framebuffer
+will result in 1 to 1 reflection of what is in the screen. Here is a short
+guide [how to take screenshots](https://docs.dasharo.com/dev-proc/screenshots/#taking-screenshots).
+
+Implementation is based on [CrScreenshotDxe](https://github.com/LongSoft/CrScreenshotDxe)
+
+### [RAM Disk support (EXPERIMENTAL)](https://github.com/Dasharo/dasharo-issues/issues/277)
+
+OVMF in EDK2 supports RAM Disks for some time already. As the community
+expressed a need for RAM Disk support, we have added an experimental support
+for it in our Dasharo firmware. There is no documentation associated with the
+feature, so we looking forward for community contributions in that matter.
+
+## Changed
+
+### [Switched to the Raptor Lake-S Client FSP; refer to SBOM section below](https://github.com/intel/FSP/tree/481ea7cf0bae0107c3e14aa746e52657647142f3/RaptorLakeFspBinPkg/Client/RaptorLakeS)
+
+Intel released the new FSP for 13th generation Intel Core processors on 19th
+September. For even better compatibility with 14th generation processors we
+decided to switch to the new FSP on both Z690 and Z790 boards.
+
+### Get SMBIOS serial number and UUID from ROMHOLE region instead of CBFS
+
+The unique SMBIOS data like serial numbers and UUID is stored in the MSI
+ROMHOLE region. The same region which was required for FlashBIOS feature to
+work. When using M-Flash or FlashBIOS button, the ROMHOLE region is
+copied/preserved during update. This ensures the unique data is not lost. We
+have added support in coreboot for reading serial numbers and UUIDs from the
+ROMHOLE. Previous support for Serial Number and UUID in CBFS has been
+disabled.
+
+### Rebased coreboot on 4.21 tag
+
+Previous releases were based on coreboot 4.18. We have rebased the coreboot
+repository to 4.21 to ensure we are up to date with other developments and bug
+fixes for our platforms.
+
+### Reduced the amount of microcode blobs included in the build, due to redundancy
+
+The reduced amount of microcode blobs does not always mean lesser CPU
+compatibility. Intel CPU microcode containers may support multiple CPUIDs.
+Such situation takes place with 12th, 13th and 14th generation of Intel
+processors. The files on Intel microcode repository designated for different
+generations of processors have the same SHA sum (i.e. they are identical), so
+the redundant blobs have been dropped to save flash space.
+
+### UEFI Secure Boot improvements
+
+A small redesign of UEFI Secure Boot menu has been conducted during [Qubes OS
+Summit 2023](https://www.qubes-os.org/news/2023/08/25/qubes-os-summit-2023/).
+The main goal was to improve the user experience of enabling the feature and
+managing the keys.
+
+Additionally we have implemented a detection of booting with default
+configuration (e.g. first boot after deployment or full update) and  enroll
+default UEFI Secure Boot keys in such case. Previously one had to enter Secure
+Boot menu and select `Reset Secure Boot keys` option in order to enroll the
+keys and unlock the Secure Boot enable option, which was not intuitive.
+
+We have also added the new Microsoft and Windows 2023 UEFI Secure Boot
+certificates to our Dasharo images to ensure compatibility with the most
+recent bootloaders and shims.
+
+### Scope of reset to default hotkey to global in firmware setup
+
+Previously the behavior of F9 key used to reset the settings was working only
+in a scope of a currently browsed form. It means that pressing F9 did not
+reset all settings, but only a handful, e.g. only Dasharo System Features
+(while Boot Timeout was unaffected). It has been changed to restore defaults
+globally.
+
+## Fixed
+
+### [No audio playback via headset](https://github.com/Dasharo/dasharo-issues/issues/483)
+
+It has been observed that sometimes the machines boot with to OS without audio
+output. We have added the missing audio device initialization bits to
+coreboot, which fixed the problem.
+
+### [Auto Boot Time-out is reset to 0 when F9 is pressed](https://github.com/Dasharo/dasharo-issues/issues/513)
+
+A small bug that caused the boot timeout value to be reset to 0 when F9 was
+pressed to restore defaults. The default value for boot timeout was not
+provided to the forms, that is why the incorrect value was restored.
+
+### [Some RPL-S CPUs ( 0xB06F2 (RPL-S C0) or 0xB06F5 (RPL-S H0)) have a problem with booting on v1.1.2](https://github.com/Dasharo/dasharo-issues/issues/496)
+
+This is one of the most serious problems of v1.1.2 release. Depending on the
+CPU model used, it could or could not work. The 13th generation CPUID
+recognition has been fixed, which resolved the issue.
+
+### [Change boot order menu is confusing](https://github.com/Dasharo/dasharo-issues/issues/422)
+
+A trivial bug where current boot order was not displayed on the 4K screens
+when trying to change the boot order. The solution was pretty unexpected,
+since it was related to the maximum string length. The list of boot option in
+the boot order is preallocated for 100 entries. The maximum length of each
+entry to be displayed is dependent on the screen resolution. With 4K
+resolution the total list length was over default allowed 10000000 characters
+(1MB long string). The limit has been increased to accommodate the list on 4K
+displays.
+
+### [The setup menu does not issue a reset, resulting in saved but unapplied settings](https://github.com/Dasharo/dasharo-issues/issues/398)
+
+Another improvement to firmware setup. This time we have added flags to
+options that require a reset in order to b applied properly. Now when some
+options are changed, firmware will refuse to continue booting and enforce a
+reset first.
+
+### P2SB BAR not properly reserved in ACPI
+
+A bug detected by coreboot developer, where one of the chipset devices did not
+reserve its resources in ACPI. The resource has been properly added in
+coreboot.
+
+### Power LED not blinking during S3 sleep
+
+Dasharo support S3 sleep for quite long time already on MSI boards. However,
+visually it was no different from a powered off state. All LEDs were going off
+during sleep, like on shutdown. It was impossible to determine whether the PC
+was sleeping or simply shut down, unless one remembered putting the machine to
+sleep. Now the power LED will be blinking when the machine is put to sleep.
+
+### PS/2 controller not enabled at first boot after flashing
+
+Due to incorrect default value for PS/2 controller option, the PS/2 keyboard
+and mice did not work at first boot. Proper default has been applied to
+coreboot, which fixed the problem.
+
+### Incorrect C-states reported in ACPI unsupported by HW
+
+Fixes a bug where Linux dmesg would say: \[Firmware Bug\] ACPI MWAIT C-state
+not supported by HW. The proper supported C-state is now reported in ACPI and
+the message is now gone.
+
+### Incorrect first timestamp format in ACPI FPDT
+
+coreboot uses TimeStampCounter (TSC) to measure the coreboot's boot
+performance. EDK2 UEFIPayload will use whatever timer library was compiled for
+the performance measurement libraries. This caused a mismatch in the
+timestamps between coreboot and EDK2 resulting in incorrect performance
+reported in ACPi FPDT table. The solution was to use the CPU timer library in
+EDK2 (which relies on TSC too).
+
+## Upstream
+
+### Raptor Lake-S CPU support
+
+A part of the work for the previous v1.1.2 release was the upstream process of
+13th generation Intel Core processors support. We have successfully merged the
+[patch series enabling the CPU support in coreboot](https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/69798).
+
+### MSI PRO Z790-P board support
+
+The v0.9.0 Dasharo release compatible with MSI PRO Z790-P is the first
+open-source firmware release running on that board. The support has also been
+upstreamed to official coreboot repository in [this patch](https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/76325).
+
+## Conclusion
+
+Each feature in the v1.1.3 release compatible with MSI PRO Z690-A is crafted
+with the user's experience at the forefront, aiming to bring value by enhancing
+the reliability, security, and user-friendliness of your system. We invite you
+to explore these features and experience the tangible benefits they offer in
+optimizing your system's performance and safeguarding its operations.
+
+We encourage users to explore these new features and share feedback through
+[GitHub issues](https://github.com/Dasharo/dasharo-issues/issues/), or [Dasharo
+HCL reports via
+DTS](https://docs.dasharo.com/dasharo-tools-suite/documentation/#hcl-report).
+
+We look forward to hearing your experiences with this new release and remain
+committed to fostering a collaborative and innovative environment. Thank you
+for being a part of the Dasharo Community.

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