Mother Board ASUS Prime z690-PLUS-D4, OS Fedora 38. Intel I7 12700KF Processor.
ASUS have a BIOS update but say to update the INTEL ME firmware before updating he BIOS
problem is ASUS only provides Windows files to do the update.
Question how does one update the Intel ME firmware without a Windows system?
The BIOS can be updated via the ASUS FLASH 3 App (pity this does not include facilities to updated the various bits of mother board firmware was well).
There was recently a thread about firmware updates that had to be done using windows.
I think the solution was to use ventoy and boot Windows PE.
I’m a bit unclear on what exactly you are trying to update (I’m not sure what Intel ME is). But, yes you can install firmware updates through Windows PE on ventoy bootable usb. I left general instructions in that link, but I can try to answer any questions you have about what exactly I did.
To create a ventoy usb, I folowed the official instructions
https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_linux_gui.html
Hirens boot cd (you can use a different bootable Windows iso, but this is what I used)
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
See Intel Management Engine - Wikipedia
IT departments use it manage a fleet of laptops and PCs, especially when they run Windows.
Unless you need its features I find it is a good idea to disable it.
One project I worked on found that the ME would stall the linux kernel for 100ms on a regular basis causing unacceptable visual glitches in animations in screen.
Thanks for the comments and links. I have tried to use the USB version of Higgens PE as suggested but when I run the windows ME firmware file from ASUS I get a message to say the Intel ME driver is not loaded.I have not found out yet how to load this driver before I try to do the firmware update.
I read somewhere that one has to do a windows update and Intel ME driver is loaded at that time. As I have downloaded the very latest Higgen PE version of 22H2 windows I have not found how to update it.
I also tried using free DOS and after finding I had to set the BIOS to legacy I still could not update ME Firmware.
So Still trying to work out where to from here. Perhaps I am doing something wrong and have missed something along the way.
As noted in post 4 just above yours by @barryascott it seems IME is not required and should not be installed if not already there.
The message appears a warning of order to do the updates if IME is already installed and not a requirement to install IME.
therer is confusing information all over the place. I contacted Intel as ASUS suggested. They did not provide any answers. All they did was say contact the mother board manufacturer. Every one is passing the buck.
Any way found out today ASUS have, for the ASUS Prime Z790-P motherboard, issued a new BIOS up date which also updates the ME firmware for systems that use the “other” OS.
that still leaves my ASUS Prime Z690-Plus -D4 and ASUS Prime Z390 boards with potential security issues if the ME Firmware is not updated (according to various comments on various Intel web sites)
Intel indicated in their email that they " do not supply Intel management Engine drivers on our Download Centre for Third party systems" “you have to contact their manufacturer for the latest updates and technical support information”
Talk about going around and around the merry go around.
I am going to persist until I can get a definitive answer from ASUS and or Intel and Linux as to wether or not updating the ME firmware is and essential security requirement. I have come across a linux file that reported looks to see if there is a requirement. I have no had time to run it as yet
As an Asus mainborad owner I guess you need to install a windows 10 on a additional disk and install some driver for your mainboard board (chipset, ME-related !!!, ?)
Hiren PE allows to install some mainboard driver, but -IIRC- not all, even those which need a reboot to become active.
Hints:
=> Windows 10, 2004 !
this ISO seems to run longer than 90 days, cause it was installed here at 31.01.2023 and is still usable (can’t adjust some things anymore though, like the desktop background)
if you love virtualbox and need a running Windows from time to time you could also start the Win just out of Fedora via vbox with a raw disk access.
to get the Win disk to slide under vbox:
something like that (consult the vbox manual):
in an terminal (linux):
VBoxManage list hostdrives
VBoxManage createmedium disk --filename ./Win_RAW.vmdk --format=VMDK --variant RawDisk --property RawDrive=/dev/sda --property Partitions=1,3 --property Relative=1
last command will create some files (less than 1 MB) what points to your additional Win disk.
chown for the created files needed !
setup a Win VM and point the Win VM Disk to the Win_RAW.vmdk