Trying to fix ESXi 6.7.0 boot issue, part one
Published at March 4, 2020 · Krystian Hebel · 14 min read
First mentions that updated versions of VMware's ESXi 6.7.0 installer doesn't start on PC Engines platforms come from the beginning of 2019. Older versions of ESXi worked fine. 'Shutting down firmware services...' is the last line printed before hang or reboot....
Easy way to stay secure - XEN on the PC Engines apu2
Published at February 5, 2020 · Norbert Kamiński · 3 min read
Xen Project creates a software system that allows the execution of multiple virtual guest operating systems simultaneously on a single physical machine. In this case, it is a PC Engines apu2 platform....
Categories: manufacturing os-dev security
Meltdown and Spectre on PC Engines apu2
Published at May 29, 2019 · Michał Żygowski · 9 min read
As a continuation the Meltdown and Spectre blog post, this post present the vulnerability status and mitigation with microcode update on PC Engines apu2. Read the post and get to know the open source tools for vulnerability and mitigation checks, as well as exploiting proof of concepts....
How to enable Core Performance Boost on AMD platforms?
Published at February 14, 2019 · Michał Żygowski · 13 min read
Pushing hardware to its limits In the epoch of efficient and fast processors, performance becomes one of the most crucial aspects when choosing and working with hardware. We want our computers to execute their tasks with possibly highest speeds. But what really influences the performance of our platforms? It’s the processor’s manufacturer design one may say. In this post, I will show You how firmware may boost Your silicon to higher performance level....
Categories: firmware
Enabling ECC on PC Engines platforms
Published at October 16, 2018 · Krystian Hebel · 14 min read
In this post I want to share some findings about ECC on PC Engines apu platforms. I’ll try to shortly describe what ECC is, why is it so desired, what problems with enabling this feature were encountered and how to test whether ECC works or not using MemTest86. Introduction Sometimes a bit in RAM changes its value spontaneously due to electrical or magnetic interference. It can be caused by background radiation, cosmic rays or recently attacks using row hammering....
Categories: firmware
Installing OpenWRT on APU3 platform
Published at May 12, 2017 · Kamil Wcisło · 13 min read
This guide should be considered as a simple walk-through for using APU3 platform in some generic use-cases. I’m trying to explain how to work with the device and use it in a generic manner. There is a part about the coreboot firmware, which could be used as a reference of how to start customizing it for own purposes. Configuring the hardware At first, let’s figure out some basic requirements for our new device:...
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