[flashrom] [PATCH] ichspi.c: warn user when a protected region is detected

[David Hendricks]

On Sat, Nov 26, 2011 at 3:35 PM, Stefan Tauner <
stefan.tauner at student.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:

> This includes the notorious read-only flash descriptors and locked ME
> regions.
> ---
> non-verbose sample output from my laptop:
> […]
> Found chipset "Intel QS57". Enabling flash write... WARNING: SPI
> Configuration Lockdown activated.
> WARNING: Flash Descriptor region is not fully accessible and flashrom can
> not deal with this correctly yet. Intel does not provide us the necessary
> documention to support this.


To be fair, I think Intel documents it fine. I think what we've got to do
is checking the flash descriptor override pin strap status (FDOPSS). If it
is cleared then we can ignore the descriptor, otherwise if it is set then
we need to avoid locked regions.

It's really just a pain in the ass and, as you pointed out, may leave the
BIOS/ME firmware blobs in an inconsistent or incompatible state. So the
onus is on the user to ensure a safe upgrade path if only part of the ROM
can be updated. It's probably worth displaying a warning and requiring
"--force" or something in that scenario.
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