BIOS flash and mod within SMOS / Ubuntu
Disclaimer! You do this at your own risk. By typing this guide we do not take any responsibility for your actions, or bricked cards.
Once you’ve started your rig, and you’ve got some AMD RX cards running, you probably want to start overclocking to get the most hashing power out of your cards.
You can try to find a modded bios on the web, there are free ones and some at a cost. Downloading a BIOS from the web is risky though – please make sure that you are 100% convinced it is the correct BIOS. Personally, we won’t do that, unless we know the person who did the mod.
Either way, you will first have to find out what BIOS you need.
For a small donation for our time, we can do the “one click” BIOS mod for you, if you’re a little uneasy. Read the disclaimer, Contact us here.
We can also have a custom BIOS mod made for you, which will give you the highest hash rate your card can achieve, as well as cut your energy consumption by about 30%. This comes at a cost to be discussed, and NOT included in the below tutorial.
What you would need
- An SSH tool, I prefer MobaXterm, because copying files between your Windows machine and SMOS rig is simple. Or puTTy or similar.
- SRBPolaris editor or PolarisBiosEditor
- A Windows machine on the same internal network
Hard BIOS switch on some hardware
Some cards have a hard bios switch – visually inspect your card carefully to see of there is one. It will be marked. Sapphire RX580s is situated on the hdmi plug side, on the top. The overclock mode is closest to the HDMI plug, silent mode is away from the HDMI plug. You will see the difference in hashrate as you run your rig. Only flick the switch when your rig is powered down.
1 – Set all cards the to the same hard BIOS switch position.
Get BIOS details
1 – Did you read the disclaimer at the top? Go read it again.
2 – SSH into your rig. If you don’t know how, use our how to SSH into your rig guide. We use MobaXterm here, because it is very easy to use, and you can easily download and upload to and from your windows machine and your SMOS rig.
Install and use AMDMEMINFO to find BIOS details (for getting someone elses modded bios)<read disclaimer
*all commands can be typed or copied
*if your rig crashes or freezes during these actions type “killall screen” to stop your miner from mining before you try again.
1 – Type (or copy) “wget http://54.67.59.249/amdmeminfo.tar.gz && tar xvfz amdmeminfo.tar.gz && sudo mv amdmeminfo /usr/local/bin” to download amdmeminfo.
2 – Type “sudo amdmeminfo” to see your cards and their details. These details, like memory type is quite important here if you want to look for a pre-modded bios (against our advice…. lol).
Back up BIOSes
Before you start modding your bios, you have to back up. Because good practice.
The commands for doing this is:
| What | Command |
| Backup your bios | sudo /root/utils/atiflash -s <card number> <rom file name> |
| Write bios | sudo /root/utils/atiflash -p <card number> <rom file name> |
1 – So, type “sudo /root/utils/atiflash -s 0 gpu0.rom“.
2 – Do the same for GPU1 and however many you have.
For example, type “sudo /root/utils/atiflash -s 1 gpu1.rom“.
3 – Type “ls -l” to verify that all your bioses are saved and backed up.
4 – Verify that your backed up bioses have a file size – 0 is not good. If this happened to you, type “killall screen” and try again.
5 – Now, transfer these backups to your Windows machine by using the “download selected files” option on the left hand side of your screen.
Mod BIOSes
1 – On your Windows box, open GPU0.rom with SRBPolaris editor.
2 – Depending on the program you are using, find the “pimp my bios” or “pimp my straps” button and click it.
That’s all you do. You don’t have to click twice, or do anything else. Just accept the messages that pop up.
3 – Save the bios file with a new name, like GPU0mod.rom.
4 – Do the same for however many bioses you have.
5 – Upload your modded bioses to your rig with SSH/MobaXterm
6 – Now, flash your bios with your modded bios.
The command is “sudo /root/utils/atiflash -p <card number> <rom file name>“
So, type “sudo /root/utils/atiflash -p 0 GPU0mod.rom“
You should get a confirmation that it was successful.
7 – Do this for each of your BIOSes
8 – Restart your miner by rebooting at the miner or console, or “sudo reboot“
Stare at your hashrate in amazement, tell us your hash improvements in the comments, and send us coinz, tell your friends.
About DragonCrypto
I am definitely not an expert – I am a very passionate miner though! Mirelle Dismenol and myself strive to make mining more accessible, fun and profitable for all, even for the environment. We truly believe in the future of blockchain, and we hope our efforts contribute to the future success of blockchain and it’s technologies.