Were you able to get anywhere with your contact?
After providing an admittedly long (but organized) bullet point list of questions / issues to address, I basically heard nothing back since August 9th.
Iām waiting for the 2weeks mark to consider it ghosting and start sending some follow-up request.
Knowing they effectively ākilledā the product (not that much stock, no technical documentation beyond a basic setup manual, no proper public firmware downloads on the very page of the product, some un-excusable BSĀ¤ and some other things), Iām trying not to harass them to retain some chance of ever getting some answers.
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Hereās the answer Iāve got so far to my tall order of candid requests (in green). Iāll follow up on some and keep you updated.
That list is what made the email trail go cold with previous support person, whoās go-to answer was RTFM, despite the information I was looking for not being in the manual, and I realized that if
I blanked out the login information for their FTP, since looking at what permissions this credentials entail, itās not fit to be shared.
Hereās the firmware I was advised to get:
PAUL_L1.09.02.ima.zip (25.1 MB)
Its modification timestamp on the FTP was 24.04.2023 @ 6:01:09 AM, which is surprisingly the most recent, L1.10.00 is 8 months older.
Could be worth wondering if itās better running the L1.09.02 than the L1.10.00.
In my follow-up, hereās where Iām gonna go:
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Points 1-4 : Iāll ask about the customization of pins, that could be very handy, if we could unlock/add some features on the āfreeā pins
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Point 5 : Ask what exactly they mean by āBMC has cancelled idle functionā and see if we could still leverage some pins for the Unit ID LED. I havenāt tried the L1.09.02 firmware yet, itās possible the functionās mention will be flat out removed from the web interface when I do so I guess?
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Point 6 : Ask about the in-house tests. Was it plug&play or is there some setup to do, especially since I own two PDB-PT825-S8824 boards, with both a pair of 1R and a pair of SQ PSUs, itās unlikely they would all be duds on IĀ²C talk and yet still working perfectly for the rest?
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Points 7 and 8 , well they acknowledge the issue, I donāt see what more to ask until they resolve it (or donāt)
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Point 9 : I donāt care that much about the webUI, Iām personally very content with being handed the ASRR OEM commands. Iām going to ask if they wouldnāt have some kind of cheat-sheet, that could come handy!
If thereās something precise you want me to ask while Iāve got hold of someone whoās not trying to just redirect me to the public (lacking) documentation, feel free to let me know!
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Thank you very much for all your time and hard work!
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If itās what Iām thinking that it is - should we be thankful for ASRock Rack being so open and transparent?
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Is it enough to build your own BIOSes? I would like to have an AM4 X470D4U BIOS that has the latest AGESA for the various security and bug fixes
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If I had seen there the sources for the PAULās firmware, I would have mentioned it. Sadly it didnāt seem to be in the [ā¦]/PAUL/ folder.
Havenāt seen the necessary stuff to build bioses, though I canāt say for sure itās not there since I havenāt combed through the 485 top level folders, let alone all subfolders.
Thing is, Iām not trying to snoop! Iām trying to have them answer my email so we can use our AsrockRack Paul at least to a fraction of the power they were meant to have.
But that could be a thing.
Amongst whatās on the ftp, there is bioses and BMC firmwares, some with the name of some cloudhosting/datacenter vendors appended to them, indicating possibly some customized BIOS for them, which very much could expose some management backdoors/credentials.
Thatās, amongst other things, why I quickly determined that this access really shouldnāt be shared.
I was really given access to that FTP to download some BMC firmware, so Iām not going to try and download the whole thing.
I did do the right thing though, and warned them about the credential they kindly provided having somewhat of a too ābroadā range, so it will likely soon be changed.
In the mean time, you could confirm though which X470D4U you're speaking of exactly.
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I have vanilla X470D4U models.
https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=X470D4U#Download
The latest public non-Beta BIOS is 4.20 with an ancient AGESA 1200 and a public Beta version 4.26 with AGESA 1207 thatās over a year old.
There have been various security updates with newer AGESA versions 1208, after that 120A and recently new AGESA updates where released to address the latest discovered security issues (donāt know off the top of the hat which AGESA version the most recent one is, ASUS released BIOS updates at the end of August 2023.
What youāre witnessing is why Iām laughing when people say something like that for serious systems you ought to go with the enterprise manufacturers ASRock Rack, Supermicro et al.*
āSir, may I have some more of these security updates, pleaseā¦?!ā
*Get a high-volume motherboard from one of the big retail manufacturers, youāll have less headaches with getting updates even critical bug fixes.
I might have what youāre looking for, beware though, no guarantee it wonāt break something, but thatās what I could find for you.
BIOS
No clue about what the GPU/USB version mean.
BIOS.zip (94.0 MB)
BMC
Sometimes on their FTP some files are in a subfolder called āSpecialā, no clue why though.
There is a more recent BMC version technically, but given it has a service providerās name in itā¦ nah, aint gonna touch that.
yeah I wonāt comment on the seriousness of some things I came across there.
exactly why I was interested in the AsrockRack PAUL. To run an off the shelf consumer board. Also the perk of paying for IPMI once, instead of each board upgrade/swap.
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Interesting, is there anything new (>4.14) for the X470D4U2-2T?
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(click me) Nope, sorry!
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Thatās unfortunate,
It strengthens my gut feeling to always buy the ālikely highest volumeā variant of a model and add my own dedicated components to increase the likelyhood of getting firmware fixes more frequently and for a longer period of time 
Hey hey, apparently thereās something I missed (because it wasnāt in the BIOS folderā¦ tsk tsk, untidy!) , but that might be an alpha/beta/failed build.
The file seem more recent than the 4.14ās at least, but the .09 would seem to indicate itās an older version, but since itās in the wrong folder it might as well be with the wrong name.
Still Iām putting it down there in case itās actually different, the 4.09 bios not being publicly available currently if it ever was published.
/!\ Warning: could brick stuff hard? Untested.
X47D1N14.zip (9.7 MB)
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Could you please stop offering their FTP Server this open? I know its hideous, but there is only a hand full of access accounts and we (service providers) are probably using the same one.
Im not saying to not share the firmware, Im saying please do not advertise it this publicly or otherwise all of us could loose our accessā¦
Thank you
I understand your sentiment.
ā¦but ASRock Rack behaving in such a way will most likely lead to a security-related catastrophe sooner or later.
Itās bad enough that they donāt offer timely (security) firmware/BIOS updates on their public websites but then having their users have to āfend for themselvesā makes the whole thing even worse.
I donāt trust ASRock Rack anymore. Similar to @Sheelyuu I had tried to help address ASRock Rack the many firmware issues on the X470D4U or PAUL, for example. After a while they just stopped replying.
I had been doing product testing for them for free (even I have something nicer to do) since they obviously havenāt taken this part of product support seriously and thatās the route they are choosing?
As a business I wouldnāt want anything to do with ASRock Rack, neither as a seller nor as an enterprise customer.
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Yeah, trying not to raise a stink or cause trouble is why I have not downloaded or combed through the whole thing, and that I made sure not to give out any file that carries the name of some service providers, Iām trying to keep it clean.
Thatās also why I havenāt peeped a word about all of it outside of this post. I just said that if people wanted me to relay some question about the AsrockRackPaul while Iām managing to get some answers theyāre welcome to.
I havenāt advertised it, but when I got asked if newer firmware was available (which, if it exist, should already be available), I made it available. The reason I provided screenshots of some file lists was for the LastModified timestamps, since in the zip files they all carry the download date instead. Discretion is why I always put downloads and file list screenshots in hide detail tags.
Do note though that if you ever loose access, I might be to blame, but not for the reason you think.
When I saw the broad access the credentials they gave out to me in an email had (top security there again), in my follow up email addressing each point for more info, I warned them about it, because Iām this nice/stupid. Soā¦ oops?
Though we might be in luck!
Since itās the second time they seem to ghost me, itās possible they will never read this email.
(basically I email their āmainā support address, an other address answers me, but when trying to follow up with this person, they donāt answer)
At this point itās a gamble on incompetence.
Computer Tech companies all seem to be working towards a big bang.
Yup, had that experience with them too.
Hi,
I have a problem. My paul card canāt get IP adress while using BMC rom1. I change the jump to use BMC rom2, it dose work perfectly. Because i open the spi 16pin receptacle and use programmer back up ROM. Unfortunately, i forget take photo first, i donāt know the right ROM postion. could anybody help me check the ic postion?
Hi
The dot should align with the markings on the holder.
See https://www.asrockrack.com/support/faq.asp?kind=Other ā Guide to replace a ROM chip
I also just checked on one of my PAUL units and the chip is seated the same way as in your photograph.
Hi there !
I am waiting for my PAUL to arrive so Iāve found this forum !
Until then, I hope you could help me if you have acces to Asrock Rack FTP site !
I have a motherboard C3558D4I-4L and it seems that the official BMC firmware from Asrock Rack site is buggy.
Could you please help me with a new BMC firmware for this board?
Thank you in advance !
Iām just curious how it has been going dealing with asrock rack. My paul has been giving me issues talking with the PSU. Works for about an hour then loses sensors. Also on that Paul L1.09.02 what was the default passwod and username. because admin admin isnt working. Thanks