Update supermicro X10SLH-F firmware BIOS under Linux with the SUM cli

As you can see our product is:

product: X10SLH-F/X10SLM+-F

The same string is in our KVM IPMI: “Product Name: X10SLH-F/X10SLM+-F” and in the BIOS, but if you go the supermicro site you will find that

  • X10SLH-F has C226 chipset (supports video in the CPU)
  • X10SLM+-F has C224 chipset

and because we use the video in the CPU we know our motherboard is X10SLH-F and we downloaded the BIOS firmware for it. You also could check your chipset with lshw command.

STEP 1) Download and unpack the SUM (Supermicro Update Manager) and the BIOS zip file

Unpack the SUM (Supermicro Update Manager), here you can find a detail information about SUM – Update supermicro server’s firmware BIOS under linux with the SUM cli

[root@srv1 ~]# tar xzvf sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64_20171108.tar.gz 
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/ReleaseNote.txt
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/sum
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/ExternalData/
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/ExternalData/VENID.txt
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/ExternalData/SMCIPID.txt
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/driver/
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/driver/RHL4_x86_64/
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/driver/RHL4_x86_64/sum_bios.ko
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/driver/RHL6_x86_64/
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/driver/RHL6_x86_64/sum_bios.ko
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/driver/RHL5_x86_64/
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/driver/RHL5_x86_64/sum_bios.ko
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/driver/RHL7_x86_64/
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/driver/RHL7_x86_64/sum_bios.ko
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/SUM_UserGuide.pdf
[root@srv1 ~]# unzip x10slh8_510.zip
Archive:  x10slh8_510.zip
   creating: x10slh8.510/
  inflating: x10slh8.510/AFUDOSU.SMC  
  inflating: x10slh8.510/ami.bat     
  inflating: x10slh8.510/Readme for AMI BIOS.txt  
  inflating: x10slh8.510/x10slh8.510  
[root@srv1 ~]# cd sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64
sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64/                 sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64_20171108.tar.gz  
[root@conv1 ~]# cd sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64

STEP 2) Flash the BIOS file with sum cli.

Here you can see what to expect flashing the BIOS firmware.

[root@srv1 sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64]# ./sum -c UpdateBios --file ../x10slh8.510/x10slh8.510 
Supermicro Update Manager (for UEFI BIOS) 2.0.0 (2017/11/08) (x86_64)
Copyright©2017 Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved
Reading BIOS flash ..................... (100%)
Checking BIOS ID ...
Writing BIOS flash ..................... (100%)
Verifying BIOS flash ................... (100%)
Checking ME Firmware ...
Putting ME data to BIOS ................ (100%)
Writing ME region in BIOS flash ...
 - Update success for /FDT!!
 - Updated Recovery Loader to OPRx
 - Updated FPT, MFSB, FTPR and MFS
 - ME Entire Image done
WARNING:Must power cycle or restart the system for the changes to take effect!
[root@srv1 sum_2.0.0_Linux_x86_64]# reboot

During the BIOS flashing your console could have seemed unresponsive for several minutes, but it is OK, the flash process is about 10 minutes. Then reboot and wait for several automatic resets of your system and after that when your system reaches the OS boot you should reboot again and reset your BIOS to the optimized defaults and then you can tune it as it was before.

In some rear cases you could receive “Critical Error” – “FDT is different.” you should reboot and repeat the procedure, more information here – Update supermicro server’s firmware BIOS under linux with the SUM cli

Bonus

Some commands to find the exact information for the server motherboard.

[root@srv1 ~]# lshw|grep -A 14 "core$"
  *-core
       description: Motherboard
       product: X10SLH-F/X10SLM+-F
       vendor: Supermicro
       physical id: 0
       version: 1.01
       serial: ZM1111111111
       slot: To be filled by O.E.M.
     *-firmware
          description: BIOS
          vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
          physical id: 0
          version: 3.0a
          date: 12/17/2015
          size: 64KiB
[root@srv1 ~]# lspci |grep -i c226
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation C226 Series Chipset Family Server Advanced SKU LPC Controller (rev 05)
conv2 ~ # lspci -vvv|grep -i c226
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation C226 Series Chipset Family Server Advanced SKU LPC Controller (rev 05)
        Subsystem: Super Micro Computer Inc C226 Series Chipset Family Server Advanced SKU LPC Controller

Supermicro server cannot enter BIOS with F2, DEL or other when UEFI mode OS is installed

If you happen to have a supermicro server (X10SLH-F) and install Linux in UEFI mode in our case CentOS 7 and you want to enter the BIOS you’ll be surprised that you cannot with the keys provided in the very same BIOS boot screen – F2, DEL. The F11 and F12 also does not work for menu selection and network boot!

Even if you manage to press the DEL key and you see on the screen “Entering BIOS setup…” – the server WON’T enter BIOS, but will continue with the UEFI BIOS boot drive!

So what to do? Ammm break temporary your system by removing (renaming or moving) the EFI directory in your efi boot partition, resetting your server and holding pressed DEL key (again) on all start up screens of the server. When the UEFI BIOS boot entry is not valid any more and there are no other boot devices (and probably because we pressed DEL key) we were able to enter in the BIOS without remote hands on the collocation side or any other intervention on the server.

[root@srv ~]# mv /boot/efi/EFI/ /boot/efi/EFI_org
[root@srv ~]# reboot

This is the path in CentOS 7 and our standard partition layout:

[root@srv ~]# df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3         26G  4.5G    20G  19% /
devtmpfs         7.8G     0   7.8G   0% /dev
tmpfs            7.8G     0   7.8G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs            7.8G  8.5M   7.8G   1% /run
tmpfs            7.8G     0   7.8G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda2        976M   98M   812M  11% /boot
/dev/sda1        200M  9.8M   191M   5% /boot/efi
tmpfs            1.6G     0   1.6G   0% /run/user/0

DO NOT forget to remove all other (virtual) CD/DVD ROM Devices and temporary disable your network PXE Server (if you have any in the network)

Because it when the UEFI BIOS cannot find the EFI file saved in the UEFI BIOS BOOT drive it might follow the boot order before entering the BIOS!

Enter the bios by remote console on our X9 boards with UEFI bios

Apparently there is an issue with X8 and X9 supermicro boards in UEFI mode BIOS: https://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=14029
So for someone it could be useful pressing and holding “ESC” + “-” or F4 to enter the UEFI BIOS, but we could not make it because of the IPMI KVM we used to manage the server.

Update BIOS motherboard ASUS Zenith Extreme x399

This time we show what to expect when updating your UEFI BIOS of your ASUS Zenith Extreme (chipset x399) – a pretty good and performance setup! Here we update the UEFI BIOS from the BIOS itself – in fact, no OS is needed! This motherboard has a built-on utility called

Asus EZ Flash 3 Utility

which is started from the BIOS and it could read your NTFS or FAT filesystem to locate the update firmware file or the easy way to get connected to the Internet, check, download and install the update if any!
So here some screenshots to how to perform the update from 1003 to 1402 – it is easy and safe just couple of reboots needed – total of 4 (but in your case may vary).

STEP 1) Press DEL or F2 to enter your UEFI BIOS

main menu
Enter UEFI BIOS

Keep on reading!