VMware UEFI firmware modding (impossible ?) I'm trying to mod the vmware EFI firmware (not the legacy vmware bios440) to add SLIC 2.1 and so far it appear that andyp's tool does not work on it or I'm doing something wrong. The tool detect vmware rom as EFI / Insyde Bios, but fail to add the slic. I've tried all methods. module method = fail with insufficient space to insert module dynamic method = No complete SLIC table found SSV2 = Unable to add slic code The vmware EFI boot is activated while inserting the following line in your .vmx file : Code: firmware = "efi" You apparently can add theses 2 lines to customize your EFI firmware whith your own files Code: efi32.filename = "efi32.rom" efi64.filename = "efi64.rom" The roms appear to be embedded within vmware-vmx.exe. Open this with 7zip for exemple and you will find them in ".rsrc/BINRES". I believe they are files 6020 and 6021 I'd like to know if someone already managed to patch theses EFI roms and how. All constructive comments welcome !
You should really use a resource editor to extract the files, but any way do not select Dell as manufacturer select other and I tried dynamic method = No complete SLIC table found then selected Yes when choice came up to continue.
I've already tried what you suggested, ignoring "No complete SLIC table found" message, then click yes to continue but when vmware rebooted, there was no slic detected. Selecting other mfg does not seem to help either.
Are you certain your modded bios is even getting used when calling it from your .vmx file, why don't you add it back into the vmware-vmx.exe with a resource editor. I loaded the modded bios back into andyp's tool and verified it with dell certificate.
Hi urie andyp's tool doesn't apply slic to the firmware, the supposed slic'ed bios have exactly the same md5 checksum than the original bios file. When you load the supposed modded bios back, your not checking the bios itself but the loaded SLIC file against the loaded certificate. Thats why you have a match Anyway, it seems I either missed something here or this VMware EFI firmware is not patchable with the tool.
Can you please upload the vmware-vmx.exe. I want to play with it and will provide an idea if got one.
Hi Yen, What do you have in mind ? In the meantime, I have installed windslic and it works on vmware EFI, but for educational purposes, I'd like to find a way with nice rom modding here is the RW vmware EFI report, made in a fresh win8crap RP install... View attachment EFI_vmware_AcpiTbls.zip
To check the matter. The vmware-vmx.exe contains a Phoenix BIOS old structure and a EFI or at least EFI FV (firmware volumes). So I needed an rw report. It seems the active ACPITables come from the Phoenix BIOS, though. RW vmware EFI report shows ACPITables of the Phoenix BIOS -There is more knowlegde. We weren't able to decompose he entire EFI that time. There is no hybrid use. The tables completely reside in the EFI. So do you want the mod the 'inactive' EFI or just activate? For the latter just load the entire vmware-vmx.exe. into andy's tool and mod it. And yes the EFI cannot be modded yet, since there is no space to add the module and other methods don't work since there is no instance of a SLIC present, no DMI and NVRAM found. Wind SLIC applied at the Phoenix BIOS then I guess...
thanks Yen, that explain why the mod failed; As I said, it doesn't really matter coz there are others solutions. The purpose here was to learn efi modding through experimentation, without risking my mainboard firmware especially when I've no SPI programmer yet.