Why not just request a bios mod until the tool comes out..shouldn't be too much longer. PBE has an extremely high rate of failure and brick...Give me a link to yuor bios and a rweverything report (Not the slic dump toy) and I can get you a mod.. The link to the bios you posted is not good....
I really want to understand 911medic: I always like to understand what I'm doing and why and I don't feel this is above my comprehension (some things are ). Sure a tool for everything is the easy way, and sometimes the best way, but this is something that particularly interests me. As regards PBE, I read that elsewhere, I was just walking myself through engage16's tut to familiarize myself with things a bit better before asking the question. As you point out, using a tool (particularly one you don't understand) is fraught with danger which is why I would like to understand ;-p. You says the link to the Bios is not good, do you mean the Intel hosted original, or the one I upped? I've attached the RW report from ACPITables in my current BIOS. sebus: Would I need to be in Vista to get the cert? SLIC_DUMP_Toolkit didn't provide one from within XP (I triple-boot). Presumably you did a copy from DELL_DONOR_SLIC.BIN '53 4c 49' to '67 BA 1C' paste over the same into DSGLTDDSGVISTA_V2.0.bin and changed the marker to read DELLSOMETHING instead of DSGLTDDSGCVISTA as per engage16's guide but how does that then get integrated into the Bios? Or am I misunderstanding? Thanks for your interest and shared knowledge, truly invaluable. EDIT: Sebus, thanks for the length-corrected file the is accepted by PBE. How did you do that and why was it wrong?
Of course you need to be in Vista for the certificate to be extracted! Compared both files in HxD searching for differences from the bottom UP You will see that there is a bit "missing" at offset 100000 BCÖñ.11....0h..P........... (just copied it from Intel BIOS to your extracted one and it worked, otherwise the files are identical but the SLIC data) Replaced pubkey 156 bytes starting at offset F000 and marker 182 bytes at offset F100 Remember: Each pubkey starts with "00 00 00 00 9C" and is 156 bytes long (9Ch). It contains the RSA1 sting. Each marker starts with "01 00 00 00 B6" and is of course 182 bytes long (B6h) It's named with OEM table and table ID plus "WINDOWS". sebus
Sebus, thank you, I'm starting to 'get it' I think?! As the current BIOS (PC352) I supplied has the SLICV2 already in it, it is a simple task to replace the pubkey and marker with those from a suitable donor at the correct offsets. Presumably this would work in any BIOS file that already has a SLIC? However, when searching for either 'WINDOWS' or 'RSA1' in the Intel original BIOS(3C91) from the Intel site, nothing is found. Does this mean that the Intel file doesn't have a SLIC? If I flashed that later BIOS (from Intel) would that remove the SLIC or does flashing only replace certain parts of a BIOS? When the above is true, IE there is no SLIC, how does one go about adding one? Presumably there is a particular area in the BIOS for adding a SLIC table and then modifying another area to point to the added SLIC table? Am I on the right track? EDIT: Next time I boot into Vista (probably tomorrow night) I'll get the cert and upload it.
Is the BIOS from the Intel site the one you'd like to run when you have everything modified? Because if so, I would update to that one first (providing you'll probably lose your SLIC 2.0), then mod it... Or you can stay with the older one, and just update the SLIC...
Stay with the original extracted BIOS with replaced pubkey/marker from post 4. Flash it, no harm can be done. If you do not like it you can reflash it back, again no harm You do not try you will not learn sebus
Thanks Argghhh painful, I just typed out what I wanted to say, went to post and found the cookie had been eaten and I must sign in losing all I'd written After very busy day earning money Basically I want to summarize the steps involved in modding a BIOS. Consider it an index to all the information I or any reader would need in order to embark on the great learning adventure! 1) Check if you BIOS already has SLIC1 for XP/2003 (SMBIOS/DMI) or SLIC2/2.1 for Vista/7/2008 (ACPI) using RWEverything. 2) Get a BIOS from manufacturer or dump your current one. 3) If you're modding for XP/2003, change the OEM String in SMBIOS/DMI to read the correct manufacturer using dmicfg?? 4) If you already have SLIC2, disassemble BIOS into component ROMs, identify which ROM has pubkey/marker in and copy SLIC2.1 Bin pubkey/marker over the top? 5) To insert SLIC2/2.1, disassemble BIOS into its component ROMs, introduce the SLIC Bin as a new ROM (ACPIn) and let BIOS know about the addition by changing RSDT/DSDT?????? Obviously different here for each BIOS type. 6) Reassemble the BIOS and flash. 7) For XP/2003, build OEM disk replacing OEMBIOS files etc with correct ones for the manufacturer and use the manufacturers OEM SLP key. 8) For Vista/7/2008, build OEM disk using correct cert for the manufacturer and using the manufacturers OEM SLP key. Is that all roughly correct? I am assuming, that when you modded my BIOS sebus, you did step 4? Step 5 is where all the reading needs to get done, but am I on the right track? If I can't figure this out for myself, I will flash the modded BIOS based on the one I'm using currently (and mod the Award BIOS using the tool). I can see no reason to upgrade to the newer one on the Intel site. Utmost thanks for all your input. PS I saw your PM sebus, thanks. Saves my booting into Vista EDIT: engage16, if I used the newer BIOS from Intel and lost the SLIC2 as you point out, would that f*ck up Vista? Would adding SLIC2.1 modded BIOS f*ck up Vista? Not that I'm too bothered about Vista, as I would be replacing it with 7 , just curious what would happen.
Any modfication to the slic or bios is going to mess up your vista activation due to a change in the slic and the fact that the certificate won't match it... As we all know/ should know, the slic and certificate need to match (same OEM). so yea you can update to whichever bios you want but when you want to install the OS you just need the matching cert to the slic that has been injected.
ALL 3 are needed SLIC+SLP key+certificate (that mateches the SLIC)=ACTIVATION No, did not do 4 or 5. Just edited the actual .wph directly in HxD (the latest Intel & the extracted one) are IDENTICAL BIOS' sebus
Thanks engage16, so, if I booted into Vista and changed the key and cert for Dell ones after flashing the BIOS sebus supplied, Vista would be OK? sebus, you are saying the BIOS I extracted using Winflash and the BIOS on the Intel site are identical, but the Intel one doesn't have the pubkey/marker in it does it?
Only the slic and cert need to be a match. So you can have a hp slic and cert while using a dell key.
Yes it should be no problem, then when you upgrade to 7 you use the same 2.1 cert and the appropriate SLP key for the version you want to install... When you install 7 don't enter a key in during installation. Install it once you have the cert installed and whatnot.