[flashrom] PROBLEM, was stupid and tested "flashrom -EV", cant flash now.

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

On 12.04.2010 03:20, Magnus Alm wrote:
> sudo flashrom -f -c SST39SF040 -w BACKUP2.rom
>   

-f (--force) is always a bad idea. We will probably replace it with
--bad-idea-kill-the-machine in the future.


> flashrom v0.9.1-r993 on Linux 2.6.32-19-generic (i686), built with
> libpci 3.0.0, GCC 4.4.3
> ========================================================================
> WARNING! You seem to be running flashrom on a laptop.
> Laptops, notebooks and netbooks are difficult to support and we recommend
> to use the vendor flashing utility. The embedded controller (EC) in these
> machines often interacts badly with flashing.
> See http://www.flashrom.org/Laptops for details.
> ========================================================================
> Found chipset "VIA VT8235", enabling flash write... OK.
> This chipset supports the following protocols: Non-SPI.
> Disabling flash write protection for board "Acer Ferrari 3400"... OK.
> Calibrating delay loop... OK.
> No EEPROM/flash device found.
>   

Sure, that is expected. If you run standalone erase on your laptop, the
machine is basically dead. You didn't only tell the EC to go to sleep,
you also told it explicitly to execute garbage and crash. AFAIK the only
way to recover is to remove all power (battery and power supply) after
you reflash the chip. However, you told the EC to crash, and it is
unlikely that you can write to the chip at all right now.


> But a forced read works:
>
> sudo flashrom -f -r -c SST39SF040 crap.rom
>   

No, forced read does not work. The only thing you get is some random
garbage from upper memory. Sometimes you get some ROM contents by
accident, but very often it is just garbage.


> flashrom v0.9.1-r993 on Linux 2.6.32-19-generic (i686), built with
> libpci 3.0.0, GCC 4.4.3
> No coreboot table found.
> ========================================================================
> WARNING! You seem to be running flashrom on a laptop.
> Laptops, notebooks and netbooks are difficult to support and we recommend
> to use the vendor flashing utility. The embedded controller (EC) in these
> machines often interacts badly with flashing.
> See http://www.flashrom.org/Laptops for details.
> ========================================================================
> Found chipset "VIA VT8235", enabling flash write... OK.
> This chipset supports the following protocols: Non-SPI.
> Disabling flash write protection for board "Acer Ferrari 3400"... OK.
> Calibrating delay loop... OK.
> No EEPROM/flash device found.
> Force read (-f -r -c) requested, forcing chip probe success:
> Found chip "SST SST39SF040" (512 KB, Parallel) at physical address 0xfff80000.
> Please note that forced reads most likely contain garbage.
> Reading flash... done.
>
> I need a function added to flashrom so I can specify chip and address
> to write to.
>   

Unless someone comes up with a magic undocumented way which tells the EC
to pass through writes even in crashed state, you will have to
disassemble your laptop and desolder your flash chip, reflash it with an
external programmer, and then solder it back in.


Regards,
Carl-Daniel

-- 
http://www.hailfinger.org/