The IGEL M340C has a BIOS that identifies itself as InsydeH20.
Hit the DEL key on power-up in order get into the BIOS setup screens. Initially I had some difficulty breaking into the start-up sequence, but subsequently things improved. What eventually seemed to work was:
I have two examples of the M340C and the BIOSs are different. In the Linux dmesg output they report as:
IGEL Technology GmbH M340C/M340C, BIOS M340C V:3.4.13-02032016 02/03/2016
IGEL Technology GmbH M340C/M340C, BIOS M340C V:3.A.13-11202017 11/20/2017
The significant difference between them is that the 2017 version supports UEFI whilst the 2016 does not. With the earlier BIOS the DEL key takes you straight into the BIOS setup screens. With the latter you get opening screen as described below.
On the opening screen you are presented with six self explanatory icons:
Continue carries on normally.
Boot Manager lets you select your boot device and method.
Device Management doesn't do a lot.
Boot From File I was uncertain as to what this was for but in May 2023 a correspondent provided an explanation:
This is a kind of a manual boot manager option. It lets you browse through a devices' readable filesystems to select an EFI-formated executable to boot from. This way it's possible to boot the computer with an executable that resides in a non-standard location, has no boot manager entry or is otherwise not picked up automatically by the standard boot manager. For example this can be useful for putting EFI programs on a USB stick and launching them without having to create boot entries in the EFI boot manager.
Secure Boot Option I think is just do a 'Secure Boot' (UEFI).
SCU gets you into the normal BIOS pages. I take SCU to stand for System Configuration Utility.
As you would expect the Boot Manager screen lists your boot options:
Here there are various ways of boot from the fitted 4GB SATA SSD along with the SanDisk USB pen drive I had plugged into one of the USB ports. If the 'Network Stack' is enabled in the BIOS you'll find it in this list as well.
Selecting SCU gets you to the more familiar setup screens:
In May 2021 I heard from Tuan who wished to use the CPU's AMD-V virtualisation feature but discovered that the BIOS provided no way to enable this. However he was able to achieve his ends by following this guide on YouTube.
This led me on to discover that there are various tools around for manipulating an InsydeH20 BIOS.
From an Insyde Press Release from 2014:
Insyde Software has strengthened its existing UEFI BIOS tools offerings in numerous ways, including the addition of an improved Binary Editor (H2OEZE) tool, an overhauled Register & Table Editor (H2ORTE) tool, a new UEFI Variable Editor (H2OUVE) tool, a new power-cycle manager (H2OPCM) tool, improved command line support, as well as adding Linux support to the majority of its UEFI BIOS tools.
Personally I know nothing about these tools. The toolkit is obviously intended for BIOS developers and I assume some have 'leaked' into the public domain.
As with any BIOS toolkit like this it only takes one inadvertent key press or wrong parameter to brick your hardware.
In May 2022 I heard from Denis who had worked out how to enable hardware virtualisation just by using Arch Linux. There is no need to use any strange/hard to get tools to modify the BIOS. Hardware virtualisation (AMD-V) support on Igel M340C (AMD GX-424CC) describes how. Note: You need to be running a later version of the BIOS that supports UEFI booting.
The M340C was once part of Igel's UD3 line of thin clients. It was offered in various forms and I tracked down this list:
| Model Name | Launch Firmware | End of Life | End of Maintenance (Firmware) |
|---|---|---|---|
| IZ3-HDX50 / IZ3-RFX50 / IZ3-HORIZON50 | 5.08.500 | 2017-12-30 | 2017-12-31 |
| IZ3-HDX50 / IZ3-RFX50 / IZ3-HORIZON50 | 10.01.100 | 2018-02-28 | 2018-02-28 |
| IZ3-HDX51 / IZ3-RFX51 / IZ3-HORIZON51 | 10.03.100 | 2019-07-31 | 2019-07-31 |
| UD3-LX 51 | 10.03.100 | 2019-07-31 | 2022-07-31 |
| UD3-W10 50c | 4.01.120 | 2018-02-28 | 2021-03-01 |
| UD3-LX 50 | 10.01.100 | 2018-02-28 | 2021-03-01 |
| UD3-LX 50 | 5.08.500 | 2017-12-30 | 2020-12-31 |
| UD3-W7+ 50 | 3.11.100 | 2017-10-20 | 2020-10-21 |