Category: Tech Stuff

Updating SuperMicro motherboard BIOS via IPMI using FreeDos bootable ISO

So I struggled to come up with a working solution for updating the SuperMicro motherboard bios using the IPMI with FreeDos.

One method I tried is creating a custom bootable FreeDos ISO and allowing the live environment in the boot menu. -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik_PlhwZaTk

The method does have it’s potentials, I was able to get everything to boot and add the files to the ISO. However, after the ISO is booted up, I cannot access the content on the ISO itself.

The author of the video mentioned that in order the ISO to work in an IPMI environment, it need to make adjustment to the memdsk image due to the USB cdrom driver. But didn’t elaborate further on his comment… So I eventually gave up.

The second method is using this premaid ISO of FreeDos 1.1 I’ve found-> https://pingtool.org/bootable-dos-iso-bios-upgrade/

Everything is good, I’m able to put my custom files on the ISO and see the content. However, the issue comes when trying to execute the .exe file. FreeDos 1.1 have some sort of memory limitation that the SuperMicro updater (AMI_1.bat / AFUDOSU.EXE) cannot run. Tried a few things with the ISO, but couldn’t get it to update to 1.2. So gave up on this method.

I eventually found this fully working premaid ISO -> https://github.com/Starttoaster/SuperMicro-BIOS-Upgrade-Image

This ISO is based on FD1.2 and can access the content on the ISO without issue.

To load your custom files onto the ISO, simply

  1. Download and install MagicISO
  2. Open the downloaded ISO with MagicISO
  3. Drag your custom files into the BIOS folder
  4. Save the ISO

Note that if your updated is based off AFUDOSU and it complains that it cannot find it. You need to rename AFUDOSU.SMC to AFUDOSU.EXE

Then once you have it ISO booted up, run the binary manually

AFUDOSU.EXE BIOSFILENAME /P /B /N /K /R

That’s it.

Flashing Yi 1080p Home Camera with custom firmware 2020 edition (ALLWINNER Chipset)

There are other guides on flashing the yi home camera, so I’m not going to reinvent the wheels.

This guide is for Yi 1080p home cameras that’s been manufacturerd in 2020, you will need the Yi-hack ALLWINNER edition.

The installation are the same as other Yi-hacks.

To check if you have the ALLWINNER version, look at the back of the camera and you should see a small sticker.

CameraFirmwareFile prefixRemarks
Yi 1080p Home 9FUS8.2.0*y20ga–
Yi 1080p Home BFUS8.2.0*y20ga–
Yi 1080p Home 9FUS8.3.0*y25ga–

You will need this version if it is 9FUS, or BFUS.

That’s all for this guide.

Quick install of anonymous Samba share for Centos &

yum install samba samba-client samba-common

Then clear the samba config

cat /dev/null > /etc/samba/smb.conf

Now paste the following into /etc/samba/smb.conf

[global]
workgroup = WORKGROUP
server string = Samba Server %v
netbios name = centos
security = user
map to guest = bad user
dns proxy = no
#============================ Share Definitions ============================== 
[Anonymous]
path = /samba/anonymous
browsable =yes
writable = yes
guest ok = yes
read only = no

Start and enable the Samba service

mkdir -p /samba/anonymous
systemctl enable smb.service
systemctl enable nmb.service
systemctl restart smb.service
systemctl restart nmb.service

Recovering ESXi root Login

  1. Boot the server up with a linux disc, such as CentOS 7 in recovery mode
  2. Once booted, mount 250MB partition. Usually /dev/sda5. mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
  3. cd to /mnt
  4. Copy state.tgz to /tmp cp state.tgz /tmp
  5. cd to /tmp, then extract state.tgz. cd /tmp; tar -zxvf state.tgz
  6. Extract local.tgz. tar -zxvf local.tgz
  7. Open the /tmp/etc/shadow file using your favorite text editor. nano /tmp/etc/shadow
  8. Under your root (or account with root), remove the shadow password. The resulting row may look like this. root::13358:0:99999:7:::
  9. Now repack all the files back in. cd /tmp; tar -zcvf local.tgz etc; tar -zcvf state.tgz local.tgz
  10. Copy the state.tgz back into /mnt. cp /tmp/state.tgz /mnt;
  11. Now reboot the server. Once ESXi is booted back online, you will be able to log into your root with a blank password.