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Help on Updating my HP ME Firmware

SWood7
Novice
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Can anyone offer some help on command-line options to update my ME Firmware to 3.2.1? I've downloaded the firmward from HP along with the FWUpdLcl.exe file to do the actual update. I can't find any docs on how to run this thing silently. Has anyone done this?

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Matthew_R_Intel
Employee
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Here is the excerpt from the HP ME Flash Update from the Firmware update.

DOS ME Updating

FWUpdLcl.exe is a utility which is designed to update the ME firmware within a local DOS environment. For more information, view ReadMe.txt located in the ME Flash\Local-DOS folder. The ME can be updated by executing the following command "FWUpdLcl.exe <XXX_bbbb.bin>". The ME Flash folder contains a binary update image for the ME. The binary image file is named XXX_bbbb.bin where "XXX" is the abbreviated ME firmware version and "bbbb" is the build version number. For example, 210_1028.bin is the ME update file version 2.1.0 with the build number of 1028. The update binary image and the Local-DOS folder contents can be copied to any DOS media such as a USB flash media device, including HP Drive Key and M-Systems DiskOnKey®.

Windows ME Updating

Another FWUpdLcl.exe utility in the ME Flash\Local-Win directory is designed to update the ME firmware within a local Windows environment. For more information and utility options, view ReadMe.txt located in the ME Flash\Local-Win folder. The ME can be updated by executing the following command "FWUpdLcl.exe <XXX_bbbb.bin> -generic". The ME Flash folder contains a binary update image for the ME. The binary image file is named XXX_bbbb.bin where "XXX" is the abbreviated ME firmware version and "bbbb" is the build version number. For example, 210_1028.bin is the ME update file version 2.1.0 with the build number of 1028. The update binary image and the Local-Win folder contents can be copied to any Windows accessible media such as a CD/DVD or USB flash media device, including HP Drive Key and M-Systems DiskOnKey®.

Once you decompress the Firmware update file for 3.2.1, it stores the content in the C:\SWSetup\SP39025 directory by default. If you take the FWUpdLcl.exe (from either .\ME Flash\Local-DOS or .\ME Flash\Local-Win depending on which way you OS you are doing the update in) and run it with the 321_1022.BIN located in the ./ME Flash directory, that should do it.

To make it easy on yourself, just copy the appropriate FWUpdLcl.exe (dos or windows) and the 321_1022.BIN file into the same directory. After that just run... FWUpdLcl.exe 321_1022.BIN

Matt Royer

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SWood7
Novice
3,789 Views

Matt,

Thanks for the note on my issue. I've been able to get as far as you mention, however it still remains to be discovered how to 'silently' update a system or systems with FWUpdLcl.exe. I've got many new HP systems that I don't have the luxury of visiting one-by-one and would love to be able to push the update out using our exsiting update infrastructure.

From what it looks like, however, we may be stuck doing just that. A return to sneakernet to update the ME firmware. Thanks for the assistance.

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Matthew_R_Intel
Employee
3,789 Views

Whether using SMS or SCCM, you should be able to create a Software Distribution package that contains the firmware update. Using the In-Band agent, the client will pull the package down and execute.

Matt Royer

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SWood7
Novice
3,789 Views

Yes, we'd like to use SCCM to roll the update out, silently. Where can I find this In-Band agent? Is it an Intel piece?

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Matthew_R_Intel
Employee
3,789 Views

The in-band agent that I was referring to is the SMS or SCCM client agent; this is a core component of the Microsoft's SMS and SCCM product. How are you doing software package deployment and windows client updates today?

Matt Royer

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SWood7
Novice
3,789 Views

Oh, I'm sorry, I see what you mean. We use SCCM today to deploy and update software. That's where I'm having my issue. I can't seem to determine the command-line switches to use that will do a "silent' install/update of the ME firmware. There doesn't appear to be a -s switch that I can see. I've tried HP and they don't seem to know either.

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idata
Employee
3,789 Views

ConfigMgr will let you set the program to run "silent" - even if the program itself sends out information. This will prevent the user from seeing anything.

When I used the windows version of the fwupdlcl.exe, i added the '-generic' option and was able to get it to work.

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SWood7
Novice
3,789 Views

Excellant! I'll give it a try and see how I do!

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SWood7
Novice
3,789 Views

An update on how I did. I ran the update my System BIOs to 1.24 as well as the ME updater for 3.2.1. The System BIOS went well and the ME update appeared to go well but when I rebooted and accessed the ME BIOS (CTL+P), it still says "Intel Management Engine BIOS Extension v3.0.2.0004" . Is there another place that shows the upgrade? I ran FWUpdLcl.exe 321_1022.BIN -generic as a command-line.

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idata
Employee
3,789 Views

I think it's an issue with the MEBx. I see the same version on my MEBx for my DC7800, but in fact, the firmware is at 3.2.1. You should be OK.

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JoshHilliker
Employee
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HI Sandy.. you can hit the web ui for the given box & it will read the right version at the bottom of the screen.. i.e. HTTPs://ipaddress:16993/ as I believe you are in Enterprise mode. There is a tool you can use as well, however I need to check if I have that posted yet that you can run on the given platform to see the exact version of each of the components i.e. HECI, LMS, MEBx, etc..

Josh H

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SWood7
Novice
3,789 Views

Hey Josh,

A tool would be good - something about being able to see the new rev makes me feel good. I don't think I'll be able to hit the web ui yet as we're not provisioned so far. One other question, has the ME version been stored in WMI anywhere? I'd like to be able to pull it with our current SCCM agents to keep inventory of what machines have what versions.

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idata
Employee
3,789 Views

ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 includes a WMI provider for the HECI driver. It'll grab the actual firmware version for you and report it through hardware inventory. Or, you could use software inventory with ConfigMgr to inventory the HECI driver itself (although it won't necessarily tell you the firmware version).

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SWood7
Novice
3,789 Views

That will be good to have in SP1. At this point it appears that there's not a good way to be sure the firmware is 3.2.1. Is this correct? I would love to be able to pull the version with our current SCCM agent however it appears that without a tool/utility to run on the client machine, we can only be sure it's updated by the success of the firmware update.

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idata
Employee
3,789 Views

Speaking of a tool that provides information about provisioning state and firmware versions... isn't there a tool called MEINFO that provides that?

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SWood7
Novice
3,789 Views

I think it may be called MEinfowin.exe also. I've been trying to contact HP (without much luck) to see if they can get the tool for me.....

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Brian_Cockrell
Employee
3,789 Views

Obtain meinfowin.exe by going here http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-67953.html and downloading the management engine firmware update. The firmware update extracts the data to C:\DRIVERS\WIN\ME which contains meinfowin.exe.

Meinfowin.exe must be run from the command line and requires statusstrings.dll which is also included in the extracted data.

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SWood7
Novice
3,792 Views

Thanks to everyone who made this available. It works like a charm and tells us what AMT Firmware we're really at.

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JoshHilliker
Employee
3,792 Views
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