I recently did a review of the beloved RWEverything utility.  RWEverything is an easy to use and powerful utility for BIOS developers that runs on Windows.  But, what happens when you either do not want to, or cannot, use Windows?  There is a solution — RU.EXE and RU.EFI!

RU.EXE (DOS version) and RU.EFI/RU32.EFI (EFI shell versions for 64-bit and 32-bit shells) offer a toolset roughly comparable to RWEverything but without the need to boot into Windows.  The RU user interface and feature set is the same for both the DOS and EFI shell versions.

Features:

  • interrogate the following buses: PCI, ISA, SMBus
  • memory:  read/write MMIO, IO space; view E820 table, memory dump, read SPD via SMBus
  • mass storage devices, LBA
  • super IO support
  • CPU MSRs
  • ACPI
  • SMBIOS
  • read UEFI variables
  • comprehensive System Information dump
  • Miscellaneous features:  taking screenshots, saving/loading to text file, searching, hot key support, integrated help facility, search capability, hexadecimal, ASCII, and binary display

RU is extremely sophisticated and well-thought out.  I’m really impressed at how well the text-mode interface is designed.  You won’t miss a GUI or using a mouse with this program.  The hot keys (and there are many of them) make navigating this complex utility a breeze.  Don’t worry about forgetting the hot keys:  there is integrated help at every step.

The following subsections present some screenshots of what the program looks like, in order to give you a better appreciation for what it offers.  Of course, you should download it and test it out for yourself!

Memory

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MSRs

image

ACPI

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SMBIOS

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E820 table

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PCI Devices

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Conclusion

RU is written by AMI-TW programmer James Wang (JamesWang@ami.com.tw), since 1993!  Thank you James!  It is a free download—see more at his website:  http://ruexe.blogspot.tw/.  Another must-have tool for the BIOS developer!

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