(UEFI) Dell XPS 15z L511z modded BIOS - and HOWTO

[follow_me]

Hi @determo13

First of all you should enable raid as your SATA operation mode 
then you sould see a Raid Configuration utility banner right after power on 

You should enter config utility by pressing Ctrl+i , and setup your disks to be used as array 

next you shold setup a boot entry for your array 

I'll ease your life , and point couple hints for you -

- if you are using latest firmware you should have a internal shell as boot option , use it 
- internal shell doesn't support boot config , so I've made it as standalone app 
- you should load EnglishDxe from internal shell to use app , it can be done by shell command 
load EnglishDxe.efi 

here some links that should help you with apps 
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-U...9#pid70519
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-U...2#pid70742

[determo13]

Hi @determo13

First of all you should enable raid as your SATA operation mode 
then you sould see a Raid Configuration utility banner right after power on 

You should enter config utility by pressing Ctrl+i , and setup your disks to be used as array 

next you shold setup a boot entry for your array 

I'll ease your life , and point couple hints for you -

- if you are using latest firmware you should have a internal shell as boot option , use it 
- internal shell doesn't support boot config , so I've made it as standalone app 
- you should load EnglishDxe from internal shell to use app , it can be done by shell command 
load EnglishDxe.efi 

here some links that should help you with apps 
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-U...9#pid70519
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-U...2#pid70742

Ah I see now....
I'm using L502X_A12_generic_Unlocked_Menus_v6 Kasar bios from here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps...re-22.html

here is the exact file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ene2i9mlv7voeh...d.zip?dl=0

First of all you should enable raid as your SATA operation mode 

then you sould see a Raid Configuration utility banner right after power on 

You should enter config utility by pressing Ctrl+i , and setup your disks to be used as array

And there is no such thing as Raid Configuration utility after I change SATA to RAID......
So I tried to press Ctrl+i at power on anyway and nothing showed up.....
I guess I need different l502x bios..... I volunteer to try, if someone can mod my bios with Raid Configuration utility enabled,
I will use windows 7, so maybe even TRIM can be enabled and I can test it with windows drivers......

[determo13]

@kasar

I really appreciate work you do with bioses, but maybe you can check why changing to SATA to RAID there is no Raid Configuration utility on power on? 
I'm using this one bios of yours
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ene2i9mlv7voeh...d.zip?dl=0



maybe you even can add some superb features like from here.
http://www.win-raid.com/t7f13-AHCI-amp-R...dules.html

I suppose this rom should do the trick for l502x

"Universally TRIM modified" Intel RST(e) RAID ROM v12.9.0.2006 with TRIM in RAID0 support

It would be a big help for those who wants enable raid on dell l502x!

[kasar]

@datermo13

allright

here is the L502X A12 BIOS version 7 (beta) I'm using right now

I changed some stuff to let you test.

* since I was using modded voltages for my GPU, I set back to default voltages for both 525m and gt540m (I noticed you are using generic GPU version)
* updated the RAID ROM to the "Universally TRIM modified" Intel RST(e) RAID ROM v12.9.0.2006 with TRIM in RAID0 support (checksum corrected)" from that site.

https://www.mediafire.com/?99ywwh7mds6b3q4

give this a test and let me know if that works, so I can add that module to my next public version relase.

[determo13]

@datermo13

allright

here is the L502X A12 BIOS version 7 (beta) I'm using right now

I changed some stuff to let you test.

* since I was using modded voltages for my GPU, I set back to default voltages for both 525m and gt540m (I noticed you are using generic GPU version)
* updated the RAID ROM to the "Universally TRIM modified" Intel RST(e) RAID ROM v12.9.0.2006 with TRIM in RAID0 support (checksum corrected)" from that site.

https://www.mediafire.com/?99ywwh7mds6b3q4

give this a test and let me know if that works, so I can add that module to my next public version relase.

Wow thanks for a quick reply!

I flashed it and it seemed to work fine, but "Raid Configuration utility" still not there, or maybe I'm missing something....

As @followme stated

First of all you should enable raid as your SATA operation mode 

then you sould see a Raid Configuration utility banner right after power on 

You should enter config utility by pressing Ctrl+i , and setup your disks to be used as array

As much as I know @barabbelbla and @followme used bios from L702X, don't know, but maybe they did some more changes to the bios.....

Anyway thanks for trying. Maybe @barabbelbla or @followme can comment on that, to help out resolving this issue.

[kasar]

I may add the updated raid rom if it doesnt create issues for future versions, but yes, I didnt tested a lot the raid feature or focused it, I basically just picked the changes from this topic and integrated them into the L502X bios.

relating RAID, as for the moment I just modded the advanced settings menu, so it allow that setting to be selected on the BIOS.

not sure if @barabbelbla or @followme tweaked more stuff.

I think they did some extra stuff from the efi shell to make it work, but not sure, lets wait for their input

[Brabbelbla]

@all
Happy new year indeed! Who knows what it may still bring in taming our BIOS'es

@determo
IIRC, the only actual thing required for RAID to be possible was editing the value of an option (/adding an option with value 0x02) for SATA Operation. To make an array bootable you need to follow the procedure as you already found, with bcfg (either using the shell I attached, or the vanilla shell with @follow_me's app version). Kasar's edit seems correct. What may be the issue is the RAID ROM itself. I found that pretty much any if not any other version than the stock one causes issues. I don't know if Kasar has previously updated it, might be the problem.

@follow_me
A while ago, I thought you were trying to find a way for added modules in the BIOS to load, as they don't, grrr. Have you ever succeeded there, or did you achieve some progress? Another thing was the graphics resolution, where I actually discouraged you a bit, but I am curious anyway.

EDIT: about the module loading, I have seen that, according to the UEFI specification, the boot manager should support driver entries as well, for instance from some ESP, although your bcfg app hanged when I tried that before. Maybe it could be a way to go?
EDIT2: about 'my thing', the UEFI RAID driver, I haven't tried anything anymore, but maybe there is a lead. Maybe. A lot of maybe. I found that, according to DXE dependency section of the driver, the UEFI RAID driver publishes some protocol that in the Inspiron 7720, which has the UEFI driver builtin, is present in the module PlatformPciDxe, and not in ours. But then, I do seriously worry about exchanging that module, as it seems to me PlatformPciDxe isn't just some random unimportant module and the Inspiron version comes from a newer codebase, I guess.

[determo13]

@all
Happy new year indeed! Who knows what it may still bring in taming our BIOS'es

@determo
IIRC, the only actual thing required for RAID to be possible was editing the value of an option (/adding an option with value 0x02) for SATA Operation. To make an array bootable you need to follow the procedure as you already found, with bcfg (either using the shell I attached, or the vanilla shell with @follow_me's app version). Kasar's edit seems correct. What may be the issue is the RAID ROM itself. I found that pretty much any if not any other version than the stock one causes issues. I don't know if Kasar has previously updated it, might be the problem.

@follow_me
A while ago, I thought you were trying to find a way for added modules in the BIOS to load, as they don't, grrr. Have you ever succeeded there, or did you achieve some progress? Another thing was the graphics resolution, where I actually discouraged you a bit, but I am curious anyway.

EDIT: about the module loading, I have seen that, according to the UEFI specification, the boot manager should support driver entries as well, for instance from some ESP, although your bcfg app hanged when I tried that before. Maybe it could be a way to go?
EDIT2: about 'my thing', the UEFI RAID driver, I haven't tried anything anymore, but maybe there is a lead. Maybe. A lot of maybe. I found that, according to DXE dependency section of the driver, the UEFI RAID driver publishes some protocol that in the Inspiron 7720, which has the UEFI driver builtin, is present in the module PlatformPciDxe, and not in ours. But then, I do seriously worry about exchanging that module, as it seems to me PlatformPciDxe isn't just some random unimportant module and the Inspiron version comes from a newer codebase, I guess.

Hi there! and happy new year to you too! 
Well the issue is not really in adding boot option, but in creating actual RAID array itself
@followme stated 

First of all you should enable raid as your SATA operation mode 
then you sould see a Raid Configuration utility banner right after power on 
You should enter config utility by pressing Ctrl+i , and setup your disks to be used as array

But there is no Raid Configuration utility at the power on.... Ctrl + i does not bring anything, so question is how can it be fixed? 
Can l502x be modified to bring up that Raid Configuration utility? 
Please help! 

[Brabbelbla]

As I said, a different OROM version might be the issue. Kasar probably knows best whether he updated it or not. [His last version obviously had a newer OROM, don't know about the earlier ones]

[kasar]

well, I just updated the raid rom on the last file I posted on this topic, on the all other relases on the nbr topic I use the default/stock RAID rom and just the modified advanced setup module to let the RAID option to be selected.

so I dont think that is the issue.

anyway, I remember I'm using (dont affect other versions) an app I ran from the efi shell wich enabled the internal efi shell by pressing a hoykey (F10)

that shortcut enable app has been posted on this topic previously.

so it could be posible to make something like that also for RAID utility.

else, it should be at least posible to extract the RAID utility from the BIOS and rename to something like RAIDUTIL.efi and place it on a usb stick and run it from there once so the raid can be configurated.

if someone confirms me wich file it is, I can extract from the BIOS and upload it here.

edit: I didnt found any other RAID reference in the modules name than I changed on last page.

so I will upload both modules, stock and updated one.

edit2: ok , nevermind, it doesnt work it seems those arent exactly efi exevutables, so renaming them to efi and trying to run them from the efi shell doenst work