title: ASUS KCMA-D8 desktop/workstation board ...

This is a desktop board using AMD hardware (Fam10h and Fam15h CPUs available). It can also be used for building a high-powered workstation. Powered by libreboot. The coreboot port was done by Timothy Pearson of Raptor Engineering Inc. and, working with them, merged into libreboot.

Note that not all boards are compatible. See board status below to determine compatibility with your board.

Flashing instructions can be found at ../install/#flashrom - note that external flashing is required (e.g. BBB), if the proprietary (ASUS) firmware is currently installed. If you already have libreboot, by default it is possible to re-flash using software running in GNU+Linux on the kcma-d8, without using external hardware.

CPU compatibility

Opteron 4100 series: Incompatible
Opteron 4200 series: Compatible, does not require microcode updates
Opteron 4300 series: Compatible, requires microcode updates (nonfree!)

Board status (compatibility) {#boardstatus}

There are two ways to identify a supported KCMA-D8 board:

Serial number (sticker attached to the 24-pin ATX power connector)
BIOS version (sticker next to CPU slot 1, last four digits)

Supported boards begin with a serial number of B9S2xxxxxxxx or above where the first character refers to the year of manufacture (A = 2010, B = 2011, etc.) and the following character the month in hexadecimal (1...9, A, B, C). Thus, any board produced September 2011 or later are compatible with Libreboot. Boards originally shipped with BIOS version 2001 or higher are also compatible.

For help locating these identifying markers, see ASUS documentation for determining Opteron 4200 series compatibility

For more detailed information regarding the coreboot port, see https://raptorengineeringinc.com/coreboot/kcma-d8-status.php

Form factor {#formfactor}

This board is ATX form factor. While the ATX standard, version 2.2 specifies board dimensions 305mm x 244mm, this board measures 305mm x 253mm; ensure your case supports this extra ~cm in width.

IPMI iKVM module add-on {#ipmi}

Don't use it. It uses proprietary firmware and adds a backdoor (remote out-of-band management chip, similar to the Intel Management Engine. Fortunately, the firmware is unsigned (possibly to replace) and physically separate from the mainboard since it's on the add-on module, which you don't have to install.

Flash chips {#flashchips}

2MiB flash chips are included by default, on these boards. It's on a P-DIP 8 slot (SPI chip). The flash chip can be upgraded to higher sizes: 4MiB, 8MiB or 16MiB. With at least 8MiB, you could feasibly fit a compressed linux+initramfs image (BusyBox+Linux system) into CBFS and boot that, loading it into memory.

Libreboot has configs for 2, 4, 8 and 16 MiB flash chip sizes (default flash chip is 2MiB).

DO NOT hot-swap the chip with your bare hands. Use a P-DIP 8 chip extractor. These can be found online. See http://www.coreboot.org/Developer_Manual/Tools#Chip_removal_tools

Native graphics initialization {#graphics}

Only text-mode is known to work, but linux(kernel) can initialize the framebuffer display (if it has KMS - kernel mode setting).

Current issues {#issues}

Opteron 4100 series CPUs are currently incompatible
LRDIMM memory modules are currently incompatible
Memory initialization is still problematic for some modules. We recommend avoiding Kingston and Super Talent modules for this reason.
Booting from USB mass storage devices is currently broken under GRUB. Consequently, the textmode ROM with SeaBIOS is recommended otherwise in order to install an operating system you will need a hard disk with a pre-installed OS or will have to plug in another HDD or CD/DVD reader in order to boot OS installation media.
SeaBIOS lacked serial console support out-of-the-box in release 20160907 and as such a workaround using SGABIOS is necessary. You can find instructions on how to do this on the Notabug issue tracker
SAS (via PIKE 2008 module) requires non-free option ROM (and SeaBIOS) to boot from it (theoretically possible to replace, but you can put a kernel in CBFS or on SATA and use that to boot GNU, which can be on a SAS drive. The linux kernel can use those SAS drives (via PIKE module) without an option ROM).
IPMI iKVM module (optional add-on card) uses proprietary firmware. Since it's for remote out-of-band management, it's theoretically a backdoor similar to the Intel Management Engine. Fortunately, unlike the ME, this firmware is unsigned which means that a free replacement is theoretically possible. For now, the libreboot project recommends not installing the module. This project might be interesting to derive from, for those who want to work on a free replacement. In practise, out-of-band management isn't very useful anyway (or at the very least, it's not a major inconvenience to not have it).
Graphics: only text-mode works. See #graphics

Hardware specifications {#specifications}

Check the ASUS website.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front Cover Texts, and no Back Cover Texts. A copy of this license is found in ../fdl-1.3.md

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