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

[Brabbelbla]

Nope, it is just a traditional option ROM, run through the CSM. I once experimented with a real UEFI driver (https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-U...7#pid70577), but never got it working. That was the 'my thing' in my previous post.

Did you actually ever see the OROM being run, yourself?

[follow_me]

@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?

I've got some success with modules , but there was a problem with inserting new ones into image , all apps I've used were unable to rebuild image after new module insertion. I think I will have to write utility to rebuild ours image, but I don't have much spare time right now 

about my bcfg - it was ported from recent shell version and it is requires EnglishDxe.efi to be loaded before it can be used 

Did you actually ever see the OROM being run, yourself?

I did, actualy I was able to boot it and even installed system on this array, everythig is working as it should except TRIM for my multi-ssd setup 

[kasar]

Nope, it is just a traditional option ROM, run through the CSM. I once experimented with a real UEFI driver (https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-U...7#pid70577), but never got it working. That was the 'my thing' in my previous post.

Did you actually ever see the OROM being run, yourself?

CSM?


oh, and I never got that menu working.
Intel rapid storage menu deosnt looks avalible for me.
everything related raid I saw was the aditional menu in the hdd menu when I selected the RAID option instead ATA and AHCI



@follow_me

relating TRIM, did you tested any of the modded roms from this topic?

http://www.win-raid.com/t7f13-AHCI-amp-R...dules.html

[Brabbelbla]

@kasar
The CSM: Compatibility Support Module, for providing legacy functions in a UEFI BIOS. And what do you mean by 'that menu'? If you mean the menu in the pic in my post, of course, it was just an experiment replacing the legacy RAID OROM with a real UEFI driver and adding references to its form on a setup page.

The way it should be, when the RAID option is selected, on every boot the Intel RST splash screen like below should show, allowing you to configure RAID. Also never seen that one?

[kasar]

with this menu, yes, I mean that menu

also I never got able to access this previous screen, I didnt tried yet, but if determo13 asks it doesnt works using my modified, it probably will not work for me either.

[determo13]

Yes the intel RST splash screen would not appear...
here is the options I have in BIOS and the load screen


boot menu
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ecoUy...sp=sharing

hdd, once saved and restarted NO SATA devices will be available......
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ecoUy...sp=sharing

Tried to enable/disable all options available etc....
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ecoUy...sp=sharing

and here is the boot screen
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ecoUy...sp=sharing

Just a though, no disrespect, but maybe @kasars custom logo does something with the RST splash screen?

[kasar]

cant see your images determo13

anyway, I dont think the custom logo or custom diagnosis screen does anything with that.

I just replaced text on the diagnosis screen, and on the normal boot screen just replaced a image.

the logo module is also exactly the same the L702X uses, so all I did for the L702X was just replace it and it seems also working for the L702X users.

(hex compared both L702X and L502X unmodded logo modules and they are 100% identical.)

anyway, I replaced some stuff on other modules like the security tab adding more options and the ability of change the asset tag and disable/reenable the computrace once set.

the module I most focused is the advanced options tab. wich have many changes compared with the original one.

anyway I followed all of the steps discused on this topic to unlock the hidden menus.

relating the L502X and L702X differences, the only important difference relating raid, is that L702X have two internal hdd bays and the L502X have just one.

anyway both units can have an aditional hdd by replacing the optical drive with a hdd caddy.

I'm using one of those caddys since the optical drive is almost useless for me, I just use it some rare times to burn discs via a esata adapter wich I plug on the right usb/esata combo port.

[determo13]

Just replaced images with links....
Actually I've use the same configuration as you, replaced optical with ssd caddy.
Right now I've use
HDD + SSD(optical driver replaced with SSD kingfast)
AS much as I know, there is no need to setup RAID array to make RST working, but I just want to prove the concept....
In general I need to boot with SATA = RAID.... so maybe I need to experiment more with UEFI console....

I've read that some people had problems with Intel rapid storage splash screen appearance and to fix that they just plugged devices in different SATA ports . In our case there is no more ports to experiment with.... 

@kasar have you tried to change SATA to RAID and check if that splash screen would appear?

P.S. that would not kill your OS, so going back and changing SATA to AHCI would make everything back to normal....

[kasar]

I use the diagnosis boot instead (wich looks more than a fully desktop machine showing detected devices instead just a progress bar)





here is my boot config



hdd drives detected (On AHCI mode only, on RAID mode they dont get detected.)





so yes, we are experiencing the same issue.

I have to admit I wasnt worried about SATA when I applied the changes to the BIOS, but wanted to add the functionality for others, but since I didnt tested I couldn't confirm it worked or not.

so, lets wait some input from brabellbla and follow_me, maybe they can give us a hand.

I have some pending changes for the next BIOS version, but since they wasn't big changes alone I was waiting for more features to relase an update, so I think I will update the bioses on the NBR forums when I get the RAID feature working.

[determo13]

So more info here when getting output from dh -b -p BlockIO

when in AHCI
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ecoUy...sp=sharing

when in RAID
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ecoUy...sp=sharing

Some device missing....?