ASUS KGPE-D16 server/workstation board

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W+: Works without vendor firmware; 
N: Doesn't work; 
W*: Works with vendor firmware; 
U: Untested; 
P+: Partially works; 
P*: Partially works with vendor firmware
?: UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME

Download from release

Build from source

./mk -b coreboot asus_kgpe_d16_2mb

Replacable and upgradeble flash chip sizes possible, if done, adjust the 2mb (max 16mb) to it

Default Libreboot firmwares updatable.

The default ASUS firmware write-protects the flash, so you have to remove the chip and re-flash it using external hardware.

It has a 25XX NOR flash (SPI protocol) in a P-DIP 8 socket, which looks like this:

The default chip is a 2MiB one, but we recommend upgrading it to a 16MiB chip.

The basic guide is not enough for this board, read the full guide as well.

Physically backup up vendor firmware

Dumping the factory bios, then hot-swapping the flash to keep to flash libreboot on it, and keep the original too.

Form factor

• SSI EEB 3.61 (12“x13”)

IPMI iKVM module add-on

IPMI iKVM module (optional add-on card) uses proprietary firmware. Since it’s for remote out-of-band management, it’s theoretically a backdoor similar to the Intel Management Engine. Fortunately, unlike the ME, this firmware is unsigned which means that a free replacement is theoretically possible. For now, the libreboot project recommends not installing the module. This project might be interesting to derive from, for those who want to work on a free replacement. In practice, out-of-band management isn’t very useful anyway (or at the very least, it’s not a major inconvenience to not have it).

Flash chips

2MiB flash chips are included by default, on these boards. It’s on a P-DIP 8 slot (SPI chip). The flash chip can be upgraded to higher sizes: 4MiB, 8MiB or 16MiB. With at least 8MiB, you could feasibly fit a compressed linux+initramfs image (BusyBox+Linux system) into CBFS and boot that, loading it into memory (and nowadays there is LinuxBoot, for which we would recommend a 16MiB boot flash)

DO NOT hot-swap the chip with your bare hands. Use a P-DIP 8 chip extractor. These can be found online. See http://www.coreboot.org/Developer_Manual/Tools#Chip_removal_tools

Ideally, you should not hot-swap. Only remove the IC when the system is powered down and disconnected from mains.

Graphics

Text-mode works with ast2050. See #graphics

SPDX-License-Identifier: GFDL-1.3-or-later

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