FAQ

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This wiki is retired

Our website is https://www.flashrom.org, instructions on how to add or update documentation are here

All wiki content available in read-only mode at wiki.flashrom.org

flashrom doesn't work on my board, what can I do?

  • First of all, check if your chipset, ROM chip, and mainboard are supported (see Supported hardware, or use flashrom -L).
  • If your board has a jumper for BIOS flash protection (check the manual), disable it.
  • Should your BIOS menu have a BIOS flash protection option, disable it.
  • If you run flashrom on a Linux system with kernels >= 2.6.27 there are two issues you have to check:
    • See next question: X86_PAT and nopat
    • See next question: CONFIG_STRICT_DEVMEM
  • If you run flashrom on OpenBSD, you might need to obtain raw access permission by setting securelevel=-1 in /etc/rc.securelevel and rebooting, or rebooting into single user mode.
  • See this page for instructions on how to test flashrom support properly (this may be risky, make sure you have a working backup flash chip).

I get 'Can't mmap memory using /dev/mem: Invalid argument'

  • The easiest fix is to update to latest flashrom from svn. It has less strict requirements and works on more systems without having to change the kernel.
  • CONFIG_IO_STRICT_DEVMEM can make flashrom stop working, in that case you can try adding "iomem=relaxed" to your kernel parameters.

How do I use flashrom?

Please see the flashrom(8) manpage.

Is there a flashrom Live CD?

See Live CD.