Any tool to downgrade ME BIOS Firmware

[sayantan_majumdar]

Hi,

Could you please suggest (if there is any) any dev (test) toolto revert the ME BIOS firmware changes. The release note says that the firmware upgrade is a one way procedure and cannot be downgraded. But I was wandering if there is any tool used for testing to actually downgrade the ME firmware.

To be specific I want to downgrade from ME 2.2 to 2.1 for my dev environment testing..

[Andrew_S_Intel2]

Quoting - sayantan_majumdar

Hi,

When I upgraded the ME firmware version to 2.2.10.1034 from 2.1, provisioning wroked. Is it expected?

ME firmware upgrade 2.1 --> 2.2.10.1034 - Provosioning works
ME firmware upgrade 2.1 --> 2.2.10.1039 - Provosioning does not work

Meanwhile could you please suggest (if there is any) any dev (test) toolto revert the frimware changes. I know that release note says that the firmware upgrade is a one way procedure and cannot be downgraded. But I was wandering if there is any tool used for testing to actually downgrade the ME firmware.

It is expected that when you upgrade the firmware from 2.1 to 2.2, PKI provisioning will work (PKI support was only added in the 2.2 firmware). It is definitely not expected that PKI provisioning doesn't work with a version of the 2.2 firmware (you mentioned 2.2.10.1039), I'll need to escalate that. It might be some time before there is a response, since we're close to the holidays.

Where did you obtain the two firmware versions you mentioned? You previously mentioned that you were working with an HP DC7700, but unfortunately when your post was edited I lost some of the details.

And no, there isn't a dev tool that I'm aware of that downgrades firmware. I've never needed to do so, if I did I would most likely just image the system with an older version of the firmware.

[sayantan_majumdar]

Quoting - Andrew Schiestl (Intel)

It is expected that when you upgrade the firmware from 2.1 to 2.2, PKI provisioning will work (PKI support was only added in the 2.2 firmware). It is definitely not expected that PKI provisioning doesn't work with a version of the 2.2 firmware (you mentioned 2.2.10.1039), I'll need to escalate that. It might be some time before there is a response, since we're close to the holidays.

Where did you obtain the two firmware versions you mentioned? You previously mentioned that you were working with an HP DC7700, but unfortunately when your post was edited I lost some of the details.

And no, there isn't a dev tool that I'm aware of that downgrades firmware. I've never needed to do so, if I did I would most likely just image the system with an older version of the firmware.

Hi Andrew,

Sorry for the mess up in editing the initial message. My bad. :(

I was working with HP DC7700 with initial ME version as 2.1. Then I upgraded the ME version to 2.2.10.1039, and upgraded HECI version to 2.1.22.1026. I downloaded both packages from http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3232108&prodTypeId=12454&prodSeriesId=3232029&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1093 . But provisioning did not work at this stage.

After that I upgraded the ME BIOS firmware from 2.1 to 2.2.10.1034 in another HP DC 7700 system along with the same version HECI driver. This time provisioning worked fine.

The server side error that I got was : Intel AMT configuration failed. Failed while calling Soap call GetCoreVersion. AMT Connection Error 4020: A TCP error occurred. Make sure that the destination settings are correct and that a network connection exists to the target, error in discover 4020 Status:3221227474

[sayantan_majumdar]

Quoting - Andrew Schiestl (Intel)

And no, there isn't a dev tool that I'm aware of that downgrades firmware. I've never needed to do so, if I did I would most likely just image the system with an older version of the firmware.

Hi Andrew,

In this context, could you please point me to some document, that would tell me how I could reimage with older firmware. I am out of systems now. Thanks for any suggestion.

Sayantan

[Andrew_S_Intel2]

Quoting - sayantan_majumdar

Hi Andrew,

In this context, could you please point me to some document, that would tell me how I could reimage with older firmware. I am out of systems now. Thanks for any suggestion.

Sayantan

I think if you want to change a system to the older firmware, you would have to talk to HP about this system in particular(there will be OEM specific elements, the tools I use for development platforms would probably not work with an OEM system). It's not typically a supported model since newer firmware versions sometimes fix bugs, and that's one of the reasons that there are warnings that the firmware can't be downgraded.

Also, I had a question about what you posted previously. You mentioned a 2.2.10.1034 firmware image, but I followed the link you attached and only saw two firmware downloads: 2.2.10.1039 and 2.1.5.1034. You had previously mentioned getting PKI provisioning working with 2.2.10.1034, but I didn't see that version of the firmware. And PKI provisioning should not work with 2.1.5.1034, like I mentioned previously PKI provisioning was only introduced in 2.2.

Is PKI provisioning absolutely needed? Or could PSK provisioning be substituted for systems with older firmware?

[sayantan_majumdar]

Quoting - Andrew Schiestl (Intel)

I think if you want to change a system to the older firmware, you would have to talk to HP about this system in particular(there will be OEM specific elements, the tools I use for development platforms would probably not work with an OEM system). It's not typically a supported model since newer firmware versions sometimes fix bugs, and that's one of the reasons that there are warnings that the firmware can't be downgraded.

Also, I had a question about what you posted previously. You mentioned a 2.2.10.1034 firmware image, but I followed the link you attached and only saw two firmware downloads: 2.2.10.1039 and 2.1.5.1034. You had previously mentioned getting PKI provisioning working with 2.2.10.1034, but I didn't see that version of the firmware. And PKI provisioning should not work with 2.1.5.1034, like I mentioned previously PKI provisioning was only introduced in 2.2.

Is PKI provisioning absolutely needed? Or could PSK provisioning be substituted for systems with older firmware?

Hi,

Yes PKI provisioning is required.

I used 2.2.10.1034 ME BIOS version. If you download the BIOS version 3.05 (Not ME BIOS) from the same link, it has the ME BIOS 2.2.10.1034 along with this BIOS. I used that.