Unusual BIOS DIY help request PHOENIX

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by b166er, Sep 9, 2009.

  1. b166er

    b166er MDL Junior Member

    Sep 9, 2009
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    #1 b166er, Sep 9, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2017
  2. engage16

    engage16 MDL Junior Member

    Jul 30, 2009
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    can you post the 2.0 bin and i'll see what i can do?
     
  3. b166er

    b166er MDL Junior Member

    Sep 9, 2009
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  4. sebus

    sebus MDL Guru

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  5. 911medic

    911medic MDL Guru

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    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..:D:D

    The link to the bios you posted is not good....
     
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  6. b166er

    b166er MDL Junior Member

    Sep 9, 2009
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    #6 b166er, Sep 9, 2009
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2009
    (OP)
    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?
     

    Attached Files:

  7. sebus

    sebus MDL Guru

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    #7 sebus, Sep 9, 2009
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2009
    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
     
  8. b166er

    b166er MDL Junior Member

    Sep 9, 2009
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    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.
     
  9. 911medic

    911medic MDL Guru

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    #9 911medic, Sep 9, 2009
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  10. b166er

    b166er MDL Junior Member

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    #10 b166er, Sep 9, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
    (OP)
  11. 911medic

    911medic MDL Guru

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    #11 911medic, Sep 10, 2009
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  12. engage16

    engage16 MDL Junior Member

    Jul 30, 2009
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    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...
     
  13. sebus

    sebus MDL Guru

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    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
     
  14. b166er

    b166er MDL Junior Member

    Sep 9, 2009
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    #14 b166er, Sep 10, 2009
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2009
    (OP)
    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 :mad:
    After very busy day earning money :p

    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 :D

    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 :D, just curious what would happen.
     
  15. engage16

    engage16 MDL Junior Member

    Jul 30, 2009
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    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.
     
  16. sebus

    sebus MDL Guru

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    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
     
  17. b166er

    b166er MDL Junior Member

    Sep 9, 2009
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    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? :confused:
     
  18. Ruley

    Ruley MDL Junior Member

    Jul 26, 2009
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    Only the slic and cert need to be a match. So you can have a hp slic and cert while using a dell key.
     
  19. engage16

    engage16 MDL Junior Member

    Jul 30, 2009
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    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.
     
  20. sebus

    sebus MDL Guru

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    Yes, that is correct