Steps to resolve the USB interface initialization error when updating system's BMC using flashupdt utility
When running a Linux* distribution and updating a system's BMC with the flashupdt utility, you may see the following error:
One Boot Flash Update Utility Version 14.1 Build 28
Copyright (c) 2021 Intel Corporation
Update file Configuration: XXX S2600WF0:S2600WFC:S2600WFD:S2600WFQ:S2600WFS:S2600WFT:S2600WFV,1.0
Entering BMC Update Mode...
Using USB Interface...
Could not Initialize USB Interface...
Using KCS Interface...
Transferring BMC Firmware Image:
4%
Look in /etc/modprobe.d/ for any .conf file containing install vfat /bin/true and comment out that line to allow the BMC to create its vfat for updating purposes.
The error appears as the flashupdt utility attempts to mount a virtual USB storage device as a vfat file system. Installed vfat /bin/true tells modprobe to run /bin/true, instead of inserting vfat into the kernel. Running /bin/true is a simple way of always returning a success (0) response to the calling module.
Since vfat does not get loaded, the BMC code gets an error back from the kernel when it tries that mount method. Since BMC is unable to mount the vfat partition, and then defaults to the Keyboard Controller Style (KCS) interface.