[flashrom] GSOC 2011

[Joshua Roys]

On 03/19/2011 01:00 PM, Stefan Tauner wrote:
> hello
>
> since no one on irc even replied with "go away intel nazi!!11", i have
> to propose my idea here ;)
>
> i tried to get flashrom to work on my two main computers[1], but they
> don't work because of the EC/Intel's management engine (ME).
> i don't know for sure how the vendor tools do the flashing, but i
> presume that they talk to the ME via HECI to coordinate the process.
> There _was_ an attempt to get basic HECI and QST (intel quiet system
> technology) into the kernel to allow temperature readings etc. Intel
> abandoned it in 2009 [2].
> my (project) idea is to try to reverse engineer some vendor tools to
> see how they work and try to reproduce it in flashrom to eventually
> support ME enabled motherboards in flashrom. i dunno how big the impact
> would be, but i guess this would allow even many laptops to be
> supported?
> what do you think about this idea and its feasibility? any volunteers
> for mentoring? :)
>

Hello,

My 2 cents are that this would be very useful...  There are a few ICH10 
systems at work that are fairly locked down through the chipset 
restrictions.  Other than flashing externally or attempting to 
circumvent the chipset, your plan is the only other option.  I don't 
think Intel will remove restrictions in the future (although they may 
convince BIOS folk to use less restrictive defaults) so it would be a 
good idea, I think, to learn to play nice with them.

Josh