Coreboot/Dasharo Being Ported To The MSI PRO Z690-A DDR5 Motherboard

Earlier this year Coreboot and the Dasharo downstream were ported to the MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4 motherboard. This was very exciting in that a current-generation Intel desktop motherboard could run Coreboot and readily available through various Internet retailers. But many inquired about whether the MSI PRO Z690-A DDR5 variant would see similar support and now that too is being worked on.

The firmware consulting firm 3mdeb ported Coreboot and their Dasharo downstream over to the MSI PRO Z690-A WiFi DDR4 motherboard and ith as worked remarkably well and still happily running in my lab too. It's great finally having a ~$200 USD motherboard that works with current-generation Intel processors able to run Coreboot/Dasharo -- granted, there still are Intel blobs involved in the initialization process. But for those wanting to make use of DDR5 system memory, MSI's DDR5 board alternative is now seeing a port.

MSI PRO Z-690A DDR5 is in the lab! We are working on a project sponsored by @NLnetFDN that will deliver a couple of community-requested features, including the Dasharo (#coreboot+UEFI) port, which we will provide mid of October. pic.twitter.com/vy9SBoeHhn

— Dasharo (@Dasharo_com) October 20, 2022

The 3mdeb engineers working on Dasharo shared today that via an NLnet Foundation grant, they are working on this MSI PRO Z690-A DDR5 port and other community-requested features. Their other NLnet-sponsored work items are outlined via this GitHub issues tracker.

The MSI PRO Z690-A DDR5 motherboard is currently retailing for around $180~190 USD from Internet retailers (such as Amazon now for $179, affiliate link) and may slide a bit further given that Z790 motherboards began shipping today as part of the Intel Raptor Lake launch. There's no word yet on Intel 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" support for the Coreboot/Dasharo port.

It will be interesting to see how the latest Dasharo/Coreboot work pans out for this retail MSI motherboard, stay tuned. This week's Coreboot 4.18 release also has the upstream support now for the existing MSI PRO Z690-A WIFI DDR4.