rXg Knowledge Base

NVIDIA BlueField2 cross flash

May 14, 2024

If you happen to have acquired one of the BlueField-2 DPU200GbE (BF2M515A) DPU's, this unit can be cross flashed using the MBF2M516A firmware to get 2x100GbE ports instead of only a single useable 200GbE port.

First, download the flash utility onto the host system.
https://network.nvidia.com/products/adapter-software/firmware-tools/

I downloaded the latest version for FreeBSD running AMD64. NOTE, the DPU itself is ARM64, but we want to download the flash utility that is going to run on the HOST system.

image.png 66.49 KB


This package expects bash to live in /bin. If you are using an rXg, then create a link so the installer will succeed and the tools will function:
# become root
cd /bin
ln -s /usr/local/bin/bash .

Extract the tarball and run the install script.

On the host system we need to identify the device using:
pciconf -lv | grep -B1 Mellanox

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In my case, the device ID is pci0:101:0:0. Run: 
flint -d pci0:101:0:0 query
Validate that the flash tool sees the card. The PSID value should be MT_0000000750.

Now we need to download the firmware for the 2x100 card. I downloaded the MBF2M516A-CEE0 version. It has a PSID of MT_0000000561.
https://network.nvidia.com/support/firmware/bluefield2/

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Download and copy that firmware to your HOST system where you downloaded the firmware tools earlier. unzip the file.

Now we can run the command to flash the new firmware:
# flint --allow_psid_change -d pci0:101:0:0 -i fw-BlueField-2-rel-24_41_1000-MBF2M516A-CEEO_Ax_Bx-NVME-20.4.1-UEFI-21.4.13-UEFI-22.4.13-UEFI-14.34.12-FlexBoot-3.7.400.bin burn
Done.
    Current FW version on flash:  24.31.2006
    New FW version:               24.41.1000


    You are about to replace current PSID on flash - "MT_0000000750" with a different PSID - "MT_0000000561".
    Note: It is highly recommended not to change the PSID.

 Do you want to continue ? (y/n) [n] : y

Assuming this is successful, reboot your system, it will come back with 2x100GbE ports.


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