WARNING

(X) READ THIS FIRST (X)

THIS IS AN INCOMPLETE DRAFT.

I CANNOT RECOMMEND TO FOLLOW THIS APPROACH UNLESS YOU CAN SAFELY BRICK YOUR DEVICE

NO ONE BUT YOU CAN BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR BRICKED DEVICES AS A RESULT OF FOLLOWING THIS APPROACH.

This said, if you can safely brick your device, feel free to contact me directly to discuss more details.


Introduction

Insyde Software is one of the companies producing mainboard firmware development frameworks, which are licensed by mainboard hardware manufacturers to produce firmware for a given mainboard model.

Hardware using Insyde firmware

The following mainboard and laptop vendors are known to (not necessarily exclusively) use Insyde mainboard (UEFI) firmware:

  • Acer
  • HP
  • Lenovo
  • Toshiba
  • Udoo

To verify that a mainboard uses an Insyde firmware, run:

sudo dmidecode | grep -i insyde

Upgrading Insyde firmware

Unfortunately, to date, most companies selling hardware with Insyde firmware, only provide a firmware upgrade path for the 'InsydeH2O UEFI BIOS' for the Windows platform. I.e. neither MS-DOS nor UEFI nor Linux upgrade methods are supported by them.

As a result, alternative firmware upgrade approaches, such as those discussed here, will void warranty.

Requirements

  • The hardware model (and hardware revision, if any) specific firmware upgrade files, as provided by your mainboard / laptop vendor, in their support area, for your hardware model. These consist of two files:
    • platform.ini

    • A file with (usually) a .FD file extension, containing the actual firmware wrapped in an MS-DOS executable

  • A copy of the isfl_drv.c / isfl.h Linux module source code

  • A copy of H2OFFT-Lx64, the Insyde Software Linux amd64 platform flash utility, which was released at the same time or later than the firmware file

  • A copy of the configuration files platform.ini, message.ini, command.ini, usually provided with the flash utility.

The latter two are not available as a free download from Insyde Software. but included in mainboard firmware upgrades from Linux friendly hardware vendors. At the time of writing, a recent copy is available in the UDOO UEFI BIOS + and Update Utility.

Carrying out the upgrade

This paragraph is yet to be written.

See Also

External Links


CategoryHardware

FimwareUpgrade/Insyde (last edited 2021-01-09 19:06:47 by tomreyn)