Help Updating NVraid and NVPXE roms

jbrukardt · Sun Feb 26, 2006 5:18 am

Good Evening,

This being my first post on Wim's after a lot of reading i feel somewhat bad that its a question, however i am having some trouble.

I have this motherboard: http://www.foxconnchannel.com/products_ ... K8AA-8EKRS

Its a relatively rare breed of board, with a full 40 pci-e lanes for socket 940 opteron processors. However, Foxconn is rather loath to update their bioses (i believe they stick to the, if its working, dont update it model).

I would like to update my nvraid and nvpxe option roms to the latest, and its appears i can do that no problem with awdbedit. Herein lies my problem.

This is my current bios: http://www.foxconnchannel.com/biosbase/NFPIK8AA.ZIP

It opens fine with awdbedit. The source of my new NVraid and NVpxe bioses is where the issue lies though. They are from the tyan K8WE bios (a board utilizing the same nforce pro chipset).

New Tyan K8WE bios: ftp://ftp.tyan.com/bios/2895_102.zip

This tyan bios contains three features which i want

* Updated nVida nForce SATA/RAID firmware to v5.53.07
* Added RAID 5 support for the nVidia nForce SATA/RAID
chipset
* Updated nVidia PXE to version 2.17

These are much updated versions from my current bios and will resolve an issue with a SATA dvd burner i have. Also the ability to have raid5 which is not currently supported in my nvraid option rom will be greatly helpful.

Unfortunately the tyan bios is a Firstware phoenix bios, one of their new revisions, so the trial of Phoenix bios editor wont open it properly to extract the nvraid and nvpxe option roms.

Questions:

#1) Can anyone intruct me on how to extract these option roms (it could even be from another source, however i couldnt find any other bioses other than the tyan which had this version or newer of the roms)

#2) Since im new at bios modding, is there anything inherintely wrong with what im planning on doing (ie, it wont work, etc). I assumed it would work since both board are based on the same chipset (although they do have different number of sata ports, i dont know if that would be an issue)

Thank you very much in advance, i greatly appreciate you guys forum and all the helpful information it has already given me. Any insight will be greatly appreciated.

sunbirds · Sun Feb 26, 2006 10:50 am

jbrukardt wrote:).

This is my current bios: http://www.foxconnchannel.com/biosbase/NFPIK8AA.ZIP

.

ok I open it.

the TYAN k8we bios's nvraid rom is option0.rom.

jbrukardt · Sun Feb 26, 2006 11:13 pm

Okay, looking at it with Phoenix Bios Editor 2.0.18E i dont see an option0.rom. I do however see OPROM0.rom which is listed as nvidia IDE in the description. This looks promising.

The problem still lies in that i have many errors when i open this k8we bios in phoenix bios editor. I cant extract this rom from the bios, what program did you use to view it as "option0.rom" and do you know if that program will extract it.

jbrukardt · Sun Feb 26, 2006 11:40 pm

Ahha, was reading around and found out that the Phoenix BIOS Editor extracts the file to /temp within its working directory. I was able to pull the files i need from there. Working on integrating them with my Foxconn Award bios now.

Is there any way to confirm that the bios is good once im done modifying it? or is the only way to flash it and see if it works?

jbrukardt · Mon Feb 27, 2006 12:16 am

Ok, yet another snag. Something im sure thats very simple

I cant figure out how to inject the new nvraid.com into my current Foxconn bios

http://s54.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1ISH ... ETTTHRVL6Q

^^ thats the new 5.xx nvraid module, its the exact same size as the old one, so there shouldnt be checksum issues.

Modbin6 says my foxconn bios isnt openable, what should i use to open and inject the new nvraid.rom into my current foxconn bios.

Once again i apologize for the newbish questions, but if i could get a sort of walkthrough for the nvraid.rom, i would try to do the nvpxe.rom myself.

Thanks in advance

sunbirds · Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:05 am

you can use cbrom to insert raid module into the foxconn bios.

jbrukardt · Mon Feb 27, 2006 5:39 am

Okay, injected both the nvraid.rom and nvpxes.nic into my foxconn bios.

Here is the commands i used cbrom606.exe 4A6W1P28.BIN /pci release

i removed both the current nvraid.rom and the nvpxes.nic

Then i used

cbrom606.exe 4A6W1P28.BIN /pci nvraid.rom (nvraid.rom being the one i ripped out of the tyan bios)

then

cbrom606.exe 4A6W1P28.BIN /pci nvpxes.nic (that being the oprom1.rom i ripped from the tyan bios)

(i hope this is actually the updated PXE, its labeled as Nvidia other in Phoenix bios editor)

i did cbrom606.exe 4A6W1P28.bin /d before and after i modded the roms, here are the results

Now for three questions

#1) the filesize is clearly different due to the OPROM1.rom from the tyan bios being a different filesize. Will this cause CRC or corruption issues within the bios?

#2) Both PCI roms in my modded bios are now labeled pci[a] whereas the nvpxes.nic was labeled pci in the original bios, is this a problem and ifso what can i do to fix it.

#3) nvraid.rom and nvpxes.nic are now lowercase in the modified bios, whereas they were uppercase in the original, will this make a difference

Also, is there any way to confirm that the OPROM1.rom that i pulled from the tyan bios and renamed to nvpxes.nic is actually the pxe boot rom (since its a different filesize and all i was a bit skeptical).

Ive uploaded it here: http://s54.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1WBW ... KEYHWFGR16

Thanks in advance, i really appreciate everyones (namely sunbirds's) help

maman · Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:26 am

jbrukardt wrote: #1) the filesize is clearly different due to the OPROM1.rom from the tyan bios being a different filesize. Will this cause CRC or corruption issues within the bios?

I don't think so, CBROM fixes the checksums for you.

jbrukardt wrote: #2) Both PCI roms in my modded bios are now labeled pci[a] whereas the nvpxes.nic was labeled pci in the original bios, is this a problem and ifso what can i do to fix it.

no, not an error afterall. That's how CBROM does that insertion stuff. It's normal.

jbrukardt wrote: #3) nvraid.rom and nvpxes.nic are now lowercase in the modified bios, whereas they were uppercase in the original, will this make a difference

not really. That's fine.

jbrukardt wrote: Also, is there any way to confirm that the OPROM1.rom that i pulled from the tyan bios and renamed to nvpxes.nic is actually the pxe boot rom (since its a different filesize and all i was a bit skeptical).

Different file sizes since they are different versions and have different routines (added and removed) in some of the sections. That shouldn't be a problem. If you want to check out the expansion/option ROM, you have to know the expansion ROM structure. I hope this article can help you. It has indepth explanation on expansion ROM, even comes with an example . You need a disassembler and a hex editor though.

have a nice day.

greetz,
a.k.a Pinczakko

jbrukardt · Mon Feb 27, 2006 2:36 pm

Excellent, ive got IDA Pro and winhex handy, so ill dig through that article and learn what i can. Thanks for your help, ive been reading your guides to get a better understanding throughout this process

jbrukardt · Tue Feb 28, 2006 5:52 am

Hmmm, so no go on the first try. Modded it with cbrom, dropped the pxe and the nvraid modules in. Then flashed. The PXE seems to have updated fine, however the nvraid isnt functioning, i cant get the raid config to show up or launch. Although, oddly enough, when i boot into ERD commander the raids are still present. Just cant manually boot from them or get into the configurator.

Anyone have any ideas?. The k8we bios i pulled the module from only has 4 sata slots onboard and mine has 8, could that make a difference?

jbrukardt · Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:47 pm

Hmm, messed around a bit more, same thing. Anyone know another manufacturer that uses the 5.53 nvraid module (maybe one who makes a board with 8 ports). Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

maman · Thu Mar 02, 2006 3:54 am

yeah, I think the problem is the different number of the SATA ports. Actually you can try disassembling both of the RAID module and see the differences, but that would take too much time. Maybe you can find what you are looking for in some other server/workstation vendor, such as Iwill, Supermicro or others.

jbrukardt · Sat Mar 04, 2006 4:45 am

Gah, contacted foxconn and they were very uncooperative. Said no further bios updates are necessary. Managed to dig up the email of a chief bios engineer at nvidia who does a lot of with the the nforce. Maybe he'll be able to help me out.

My problem lies in that i need a nvraid OPROM from a board with 8 sata ports (four on the nforce pro 2200 and four of the nforce pro 2050 southbridge). And those boards are far and few between. Only ones i can find are my current board, and the supermicro h8dce, which is only updated to 4.81. which doesnt help me

Anyone skilled enough with decompiling that they might be able to try to mod the 4 port nvraid.rom from the tyan k8we to support 8 ports?