Meltdown and Spectre Patched BIOS for X58 Motherboards

[Regeneration]

I have updated the Intel RAID O-ROM, but left other O-ROMs untouched. Should be safe for your array.

 

[Kbird]

Oh great , which OROM is now used then ?

thanks again for the time put in...

 

[Regeneration]

Depends on the vendor/model.

IIRC, v11.6 for yours, the latest official version for ICH10R.

 

[Kbird]

Depends on the vendor/model.

IIRC, v11.6 for yours, the latest official version for ICH10R.

Ok thanks for the info it is on 11.6.0.1702 now so , I think your are correct the Array should be okay.....

Gotta go look up my Notes , been a while since I Flashed a Board this Old I think it has EZFlash 2 (or 3) though....

Will Report back when I do it ...... , Cheers

 

[tbob22]

P6T6 updated without issue.

 

[Melana]

Came across this on google and had to create an account to upvote.

First of all, thank you very much @Regeneration for the effort you put in, very much appreciated!

If you don't mind I'd like to know more about how you go about patching the ROMs. From what I understand from an earlier post is that you simply use a hex-editor and the Intel-provided microcode and drop that into the old vendor ROMs. But how do you know where you have to plop which microcode for which ROM? I'd assume that say an MSI BIOS is different from an Asus BIOS, even if both come from AMI. Do you search for the old microcode that the specific ROM uses and try to find that within the ROM?

I'm planning to try your image for the Asus P6T Deluxe V2 on my board, together with a C0 i7 920. Also because I'm thinking about upgrading the CPU to a Xeon X56xx I looked at the latest microcode file for Westmere-EP (06-2c-02) from Intel's latest Linux microcode package (20180807) and found the matching blob in your image for the Asus P6T Deluxe V2, but not in the original vendor ROM, so I assume that's just dropped in. However also the surrounding area of the ROM was different, compared to the stock version, so I assume those are probably option ROMS/checksums/..?

Did you have to do some reverse-engineering of the BIOS or do you just happen to know how they are structured? In the latter case, can you point me to any resources regarding that topic?

I'm just asking out of curiosity btw. With projects like coreboot/libreboot/heads, etc. that replace the entire mess that is the outdated vendor firmware (on a few select platforms), being able to drop in fresh microcode into proprietary vendor images seems like a great first step to save old hardware from becoming obsolete from a security standpoint.

Cheers!

 

[Regeneration]

All of AMI and Award BIOSes from 2010 share a similar structure and leave the microcode uncompressed.

ucodes normally start with the following hex 01 00 00 00 XX.

However, there are a few rules, the ROM itself must remain in same size, some have checksum checks, AMI require ucodes to be in a specific size, and some motherboards are more sensitive to checksum errors.

There are a few 3rd party apps for BIOS modification and microcode extraction/injection (MCExtractor, CBROM, MMTool), but from my experience, can corrupt the ROM's structure and lead to POST issues.

My advice is to use those apps to learn about the procedure, but to do it manually.

 

[Bokito38]

Well thx for the hard work !

I updated my Bios (Asus P6XD58-Premium / Core i7 970) yesterday.
Was easy to update, I have just used the built in Asus flashing utlility trough the bios..
I suppose this will also be the case for other Asus X58 owners...

I ran SpectreMeltdownCheck and InSpectre before and after applying this modded bios.
And they see no difference, and it looks like i'm still vulnerable for spectre ??

See screenshots bellow, before and after.

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong here.
(also running latest Windows 10 Pro build with updates)

Thanks again for all the hard work, great to see some love for x58 systems !

 

[Regeneration]

InSpectre seems to cache the results. Try to disable protection, reboot, re-enable, and reboot again. Also make sure the microcode revision is 1F, and try to power cycle the system.

 

[Zyll Goliat]

Well thx for the hard work !

I updated my Bios (Asus P6XD58-Premium / Core i7 970) yesterday.
Was easy to update, I have just used the built in Asus flashing utlility trough the bios..
I suppose this will also be the case for other Asus X58 owners...

I ran SpectreMeltdownCheck and InSpectre before and after applying this modded bios.
And they see no difference, and it looks like i'm still vulnerable for spectre ??

See screenshots bellow, before and after.

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong here.
(also running latest Windows 10 Pro build with updates)

Thanks again for all the hard work, great to see some love for x58 systems !

I have the same mobo and I can confirm that this bios working flawlessly.....

 

[Bokito38]

@Regeneration ,

Thanks this fix my issue, disabling and renabling meltdown protecion..
I'm all good now

Keep it going !

 

[Regeneration]

Glad to hear it solved the problem. Seems like a bug in Windows.

I've added the registry entries to disable/enable both protections to the 1st post, along with the latest official chipset and AHCI drivers for X58.

 

[Probotector]

Hi, this is the last BIOS for Asus P6X58D-E BIOS V8.03 with marvell 1.0.0.1038 :

https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-P6X58D-E-Marvell-Update?pid=102799#pid102799

Direct link: https://goo.gl/4VOonr

Can you add the last patches for meltdown and spectre?

Thanks for you effort and greetings from Spain

 

[Regeneration]

@Probotector

Its better not to inject random upper versions of option ROMs. Doesn't always work as intended.

Besides, sometimes Intel's ICH10R performs better than all those Marvell/Jmicron PCIe x1 onboard controllers.

 

[Regeneration]

Added ROMs for Elitegroup (ECS), Shuttle, XFX and Zotac.

If you have old X58 motherboard somewhere in the closet, feel free to put a Xeon in it now.

 

[PurSpyk!!]

Is it better to use the built in Windows 10 chipset drivers, or the official Intel version?

 

[Regeneration]

Intel chipset driver isn't significant and the latest version is for Windows 7. It's probably will work just fine on Windows 10. RST driver is more important (AHCI/RAID) and it's compatible with Windows 10.

 

[PurSpyk!!]

Thanks, is the RST driver still required if you don't use RAID?

 

[Regeneration]

RST delivers better performance for SATA AHCI mode.

 

[PurSpyk!!]

Thanks, in all these years since I have had the motherboard I have never installed the RST drivers. Suppose time to install.

 

[PurSpyk!!]

Installed only the RST drivers, and now Windows 10 refuses to boot, gets top logo and then pc restarts continues in this loop, and eventually the repair options appear. Even trying Safe Mode does not work. Had to do System Restore. Hard drivers are set to AHCI mode in the bios. So I am back to the default drivers which have always worked. Ant idea why this would be happening? I have not updated my BIOS still using the last official version, could this be the problem?

 

[Regeneration]

Installed only the RST drivers, and now Windows 10 refuses to boot, gets top logo and then pc restarts continues in this loop, and eventually the repair options appear. Even trying Safe Mode does not work. Had to do System Restore. Hard drivers are set to AHCI mode in the bios. So I am back to the default drivers which have always worked. Ant idea why this would be happening? I have not updated my BIOS still using the last official version, could this be the problem?

Did you install Windows with SATA IDE or SATA AHCI? Try to install the RST driver manually via device manager.

 

[Caring1]

Thanks, in all these years since I have had the motherboard I have never installed the RST drivers. Suppose time to install.

Rapid Storage Technology IS NOT REQUIRED.
The best Chipset drivers are those supplied by the Motherboard manufacturer.

 

[PurSpyk!!]

Did you install Windows with SATA IDE or SATA AHCI? Try to install the RST driver manually via device manager.

Windows was installed with SATA AHCI, and the driver was installed via Device Manager, I didn't want any unnecessary Intel apps installed.

 

[Regeneration]

Windows was installed with SATA AHCI, and the driver was installed via Device Manager, I didn't want any unnecessary Intel apps installed.

Perhaps some 3rd party software (like DVD burning or SPTD) is interfering with the change of SATA drivers.

In the device manager, open one of your disk drives, navigate to details, and look for class upper/lower filters.

If some 3rd party driver/filter is assigned to a controller, changing the driver would result in BSOD at Windows' startup.