APu1C latest BIOS?

joea

I have a netgate branded box with APU1C.

While installing pfSense 2.7, rather than attempting to update 2.43, noticed the Bios is dated April 5 2014.

PCengines apparently no longer support open source bios but I see lots of versions on github.

Binary only seems available. Anyone know which one works?

I've not found how to flash the BIOS either. A pointer to the update procedure as well would be appreciated.

stephenw10

4.17.03 appears to be the most recent version for APU1: https://pcengines.github.io/#mr-62

I have one running 4.17.02 currently. You can upgrade it from pfSense directly using flashrom, see: https://forum.netgate.com/post/777287

Steve

stephenw10

Seems good:

[23.05.1-RELEASE][admin@apu.stevew.lan]/root: kenv | grep smbios
smbios.bios.reldate="08/22/2022"
smbios.bios.revision="4.13"
smbios.bios.vendor="coreboot"
smbios.bios.version="v4.17.0.3"
smbios.chassis.maker="PC Engines"
smbios.chassis.type="Desktop"
smbios.memory.enabled="4194304"
smbios.planar.maker="PC Engines"
smbios.planar.product="apu1"
smbios.planar.serial="904132"
smbios.planar.version="1.0"
smbios.socket.enabled="1"
smbios.socket.populated="1"
smbios.system.maker="PC Engines"
smbios.system.product="apu1"
smbios.system.serial="904132"
smbios.system.sku="4 GB"
smbios.system.version="1.0"
smbios.version="3.0"

joea

@stephenw10

Flashrom is something I have to download and compile?

joea

@joea said in APu1C latest BIOS?:

@stephenw10

Flashrom is something I have to download and compile?

I found a windows version of the installer and after backing up bios and trying to flash, got this:

coreboot table found at 0x7efdf000.
Found chipset "AMD SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0".
Enabling flash write... OK.
Identifying board "PC Engines apu1"... OK.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E/MX25L1608E" (2048 kB, SPI) mapped at physical address 0xffe00000.
This coreboot image (PC Engines:apu1) does not appear to
be correct for the detected mainboard (PC Engines:APU).
Aborting. You can override this with -p internal:boardmismatch=force.

Which, I gather is expected and must be over ridden?

joe a.

joea

@joea said in APu1C latest BIOS?:

@joea said in APu1C latest BIOS?:

@stephenw10

Flashrom is something I have to download and compile?

I found a windows version of the installer and after backing up bios and trying to flash, got this:

coreboot table found at 0x7efdf000.
Found chipset "AMD SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0".
Enabling flash write... OK.
Identifying board "PC Engines apu1"... OK.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E/MX25L1608E" (2048 kB, SPI) mapped at physical address 0xffe00000.
This coreboot image (PC Engines:apu1) does not appear to
be correct for the detected mainboard (PC Engines:APU).
Aborting. You can override this with -p internal:boardmismatch=force.

Which, I gather is expected and must be over ridden?

joe a.

Seems to work. Booted up pfSense anyway.

Thanks for the help.

stephenw10

@joea said in APu1C latest BIOS?:

I found a windows version of the installer

Not entirely sure what that would be. flashrom is a FreeBSD pkg that we have in our repo. For reference you can install it in pfSense at the command line if it's not already:
pkg-static install flashom

Anyway glad you were able to get the BIOS flashed.

joea

@stephenw10 said in APu1C latest BIOS?:

@joea said in APu1C latest BIOS?:

I found a windows version of the installer

Not entirely sure what that would be. flashrom is a FreeBSD pkg that we have in our repo. For reference you can install it in pfSense at the command line if it's not already:
pkg-static install flashom

Anyway glad you were able to get the BIOS flashed.

Ah, my description was poor, probably should have turned in by that time. It was actually a means to create, via Windows, a bootable USB stick to perform the flash.

I found the "windows installer" here: https://pcengines.ch/howto.htm#TinyCoreLinux

Thanks for the additional info.