flashrom.8.tmpl

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.TH FLASHROM 8 "" ""
.SH NAME
flashrom \- detect, read, write, verify and erase flash chips
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B flashrom \fR[\fB\-h\fR|\fB\-R\fR|\fB\-L\fR|\fB\-z\fR|\
\fB\-p\fR <programmername>[:<parameters>]
               [\fB\-E\fR|\fB\-r\fR <file>|\fB\-w\fR <file>|\fB\-v\fR <file>] \
[\fB\-c\fR <chipname>]
               [\fB\-l\fR <file> [\fB\-i\fR <image>]] [\fB\-n\fR] [\fB\-f\fR]]
         [\fB\-V\fR[\fBV\fR[\fBV\fR]]] [\fB-o\fR <logfile>]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B flashrom
is a utility for detecting, reading, writing, verifying and erasing flash
chips. It's often used to flash BIOS/EFI/coreboot/firmware images in-system
using a supported mainboard. However, it also supports various external
PCI/USB/parallel-port/serial-port based devices which can program flash chips,
including some network cards (NICs), SATA/IDE controller cards, graphics cards,
the Bus Pirate device, various FTDI FT2232/FT4232H/FT232H based USB devices, and more.
.PP
It supports a wide range of DIP32, PLCC32, DIP8, SO8/SOIC8, TSOP32, TSOP40,
TSOP48, and BGA chips, which use various protocols such as LPC, FWH,
parallel flash, or SPI.
.SH OPTIONS
.B IMPORTANT:
Please note that the command line interface for flashrom will change before
flashrom 1.0. Do not use flashrom in scripts or other automated tools without
checking that your flashrom version won't interpret options in a different way.
.PP
You can specify one of
.BR \-h ", " \-R ", " \-L ", " \-z ", " \-E ", " \-r ", " \-w ", " \-v
or no operation.
If no operation is specified, flashrom will only probe for flash chips. It is
recommended that if you try flashrom the first time on a system, you run it
in probe-only mode and check the output. Also you are advised to make a
backup of your current ROM contents with
.B \-r
before you try to write a new image. All operations involving any chip access (probe/read/write/...) require the
.B -p/--programmer
option to be used (please see below).
.TP
.B "\-r, \-\-read <file>"
Read flash ROM contents and save them into the given
.BR <file> .
If the file already exists, it will be overwritten.
.TP
.B "\-w, \-\-write <file>"
Write
.B <file>
into flash ROM. This will first automatically
.B erase
the chip, then write to it.
.sp
In the process the chip is also read several times. First an in-memory backup
is made for disaster recovery and to be able to skip regions that are
already equal to the image file. This copy is updated along with the write
operation. In case of erase errors it is even re-read completely. After
writing has finished and if verification is enabled, the whole flash chip is
read out and compared with the input image.
.TP
.B "\-n, \-\-noverify"
Skip the automatic verification of flash ROM contents after writing. Using this
option is
.B not
recommended, you should only use it if you know what you are doing and if you
feel that the time for verification takes too long.
.sp
Typical usage is:
.B "flashrom \-p prog \-n \-w <file>"
.sp
This option is only useful in combination with
.BR \-\-write .
.TP
.B "\-v, \-\-verify <file>"
Verify the flash ROM contents against the given
.BR <file> .
.TP
.B "\-E, \-\-erase"
Erase the flash ROM chip.
.TP
.B "\-V, \-\-verbose"
More verbose output. This option can be supplied multiple times
(max. 3 times, i.e.
.BR \-VVV )
for even more debug output.
.TP
.B "\-c, \-\-chip" <chipname>
Probe only for the specified flash ROM chip. This option takes the chip name as
printed by
.B "flashrom \-L"
without the vendor name as parameter. Please note that the chip name is
case sensitive.
.TP
.B "\-f, \-\-force"
Force one or more of the following actions:
.sp
* Force chip read and pretend the chip is there.
.sp
* Force chip access even if the chip is bigger than the maximum supported \
size for the flash bus.
.sp
* Force erase even if erase is known bad.
.sp
* Force write even if write is known bad.
.TP
.B "\-l, \-\-layout <file>"
Read ROM layout from
.BR <file> .
.sp
flashrom supports ROM layouts. This allows you to flash certain parts of
the flash chip only. A ROM layout file contains multiple lines with the
following syntax:
.sp
.B "  startaddr:endaddr imagename"
.sp
.BR "startaddr " "and " "endaddr "
are hexadecimal addresses within the ROM file and do not refer to any
physical address. Please note that using a 0x prefix for those hexadecimal
numbers is not necessary, but you can't specify decimal/octal numbers.
.BR "imagename " "is an arbitrary name for the region/image from"
.BR " startaddr " "to " "endaddr " "(both addresses included)."
.sp
Example:
.sp
  00000000:00008fff gfxrom
  00009000:0003ffff normal
  00040000:0007ffff fallback
.sp
If you only want to update the image named
.BR "normal " "in a ROM based on the layout above, run"
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p prog \-\-layout rom.layout \-\-image normal \-w some.rom"
.sp
To update only the images named
.BR "normal " "and " "fallback" ", run:"
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p prog \-l rom.layout \-i normal -i fallback \-w some.rom"
.sp
Overlapping sections are not supported.
.TP
.B "\-i, \-\-image <imagename>"
Only flash region/image
.B <imagename>
from flash layout.
.TP
.B "\-L, \-\-list\-supported"
List the flash chips, chipsets, mainboards, and external programmers
(including PCI, USB, parallel port, and serial port based devices)
supported by flashrom.
.sp
There are many unlisted boards which will work out of the box, without
special support in flashrom. Please let us know if you can verify that
other boards work or do not work out of the box.
.sp
.B IMPORTANT:
For verification you have
to test an ERASE and/or WRITE operation, so make sure you only do that
if you have proper means to recover from failure!
.TP
.B "\-z, \-\-list\-supported-wiki"
Same as
.BR \-\-list\-supported ,
but outputs the supported hardware in MediaWiki syntax, so that it can be
easily pasted into the
.URLB https://flashrom.org/Supported_hardware "supported hardware wiki page" .
Please note that MediaWiki output is not compiled in by default.
.TP
.B "\-p, \-\-programmer <name>[:parameter[,parameter[,parameter]]]"
Specify the programmer device. This is mandatory for all operations
involving any chip access (probe/read/write/...). Currently supported are:
.sp
.BR "* internal" " (default, for in-system flashing in the mainboard)"
.sp
.BR "* dummy" " (virtual programmer for testing flashrom)"
.sp
.BR "* nic3com" " (for flash ROMs on 3COM network cards)"
.sp
.BR "* nicrealtek" " (for flash ROMs on Realtek and SMC 1211 network cards)"
.sp
.BR "* nicnatsemi" " (for flash ROMs on National Semiconductor DP838* network \
cards)"
.sp
.BR "* nicintel" " (for parallel flash ROMs on Intel 10/100Mbit network cards)
.sp
.BR "* gfxnvidia" " (for flash ROMs on NVIDIA graphics cards)"
.sp
.BR "* drkaiser" " (for flash ROMs on Dr. Kaiser PC-Waechter PCI cards)"
.sp
.BR "* satasii" " (for flash ROMs on Silicon Image SATA/IDE controllers)"
.sp
.BR "* satamv" " (for flash ROMs on Marvell SATA controllers)"
.sp
.BR "* atahpt" " (for flash ROMs on Highpoint ATA/RAID controllers)"
.sp
.BR "* atavia" " (for flash ROMs on VIA VT6421A SATA controllers)"
.sp
.BR "* it8212" " (for flash ROMs on ITE IT8212F ATA/RAID controller)"
.sp
.BR "* ft2232_spi" " (for SPI flash ROMs attached to an FT2232/FT4232H/FT232H family \
based USB SPI programmer), including the DLP Design DLP-USB1232H, \
FTDI FT2232H Mini-Module, FTDI FT4232H Mini-Module, openbiosprog-spi, Amontec \
JTAGkey/JTAGkey-tiny/JTAGkey-2, Dangerous Prototypes Bus Blaster, \
Olimex ARM-USB-TINY/-H, Olimex ARM-USB-OCD/-H, TIAO/DIYGADGET USB
Multi-Protocol Adapter (TUMPA), TUMPA Lite, and GOEPEL PicoTAP.
.sp
.BR "* serprog" " (for flash ROMs attached to a programmer speaking serprog, \
including Arduino-based devices as well as various programmers by Urja Rannikko, \
Juhana Helovuo, Stefan Tauner and others)."
.sp
.BR "* buspirate_spi" " (for SPI flash ROMs attached to a Bus Pirate)"
.sp
.BR "* dediprog" " (for SPI flash ROMs attached to a Dediprog SF100)"
.sp
.BR "* rayer_spi" " (for SPI flash ROMs attached to a parallel port by one of various cable types)"
.sp
.BR "* pony_spi" " (for SPI flash ROMs attached to a SI-Prog serial port "
bitbanging adapter)
.sp
.BR "* nicintel_spi" " (for SPI flash ROMs on Intel Gigabit network cards)"
.sp
.BR "* ogp_spi" " (for SPI flash ROMs on Open Graphics Project graphics card)"
.sp
.BR "* linux_spi" " (for SPI flash ROMs accessible via /dev/spidevX.Y on Linux)"
.sp
.BR "* usbblaster_spi" " (for SPI flash ROMs attached to an Altera USB-Blaster compatible cable)"
.sp
.BR "* nicintel_eeprom" " (for SPI EEPROMs on Intel Gigabit network cards)"
.sp
.BR "* mstarddc_spi" " (for SPI flash ROMs accessible through DDC in MSTAR-equipped displays)"
.sp
.BR "* pickit2_spi" " (for SPI flash ROMs accessible via Microchip PICkit2)"
.sp
Some programmers have optional or mandatory parameters which are described
in detail in the
.B PROGRAMMER-SPECIFIC INFORMATION
section. Support for some programmers can be disabled at compile time.
.B "flashrom \-h"
lists all supported programmers.
.TP
.B "\-h, \-\-help"
Show a help text and exit.
.TP
.B "\-o, \-\-output <logfile>"
Save the full debug log to
.BR <logfile> .
If the file already exists, it will be overwritten. This is the recommended
way to gather logs from flashrom because they will be verbose even if the
on-screen messages are not verbose and don't require output redirection.
.TP
.B "\-R, \-\-version"
Show version information and exit.
.SH PROGRAMMER-SPECIFIC INFORMATION
Some programmer drivers accept further parameters to set programmer-specific
parameters. These parameters are separated from the programmer name by a
colon. While some programmers take arguments at fixed positions, other
programmers use a key/value interface in which the key and value is separated
by an equal sign and different pairs are separated by a comma or a colon.
.SS
.BR "internal " programmer
.TP
.B Board Enables
.sp
Some mainboards require to run mainboard specific code to enable flash erase
and write support (and probe support on old systems with parallel flash).
The mainboard brand and model (if it requires specific code) is usually
autodetected using one of the following mechanisms: If your system is
running coreboot, the mainboard type is determined from the coreboot table.
Otherwise, the mainboard is detected by examining the onboard PCI devices
and possibly DMI info. If PCI and DMI do not contain information to uniquely
identify the mainboard (which is the exception), or if you want to override
the detected mainboard model, you can specify the mainboard using the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p internal:mainboard=<vendor>:<board>"
syntax.
.sp
See the 'Known boards' or 'Known laptops' section in the output
of 'flashrom \-L' for a list of boards which require the specification of
the board name, if no coreboot table is found.
.sp
Some of these board-specific flash enabling functions (called
.BR "board enables" )
in flashrom have not yet been tested. If your mainboard is detected needing
an untested board enable function, a warning message is printed and the
board enable is not executed, because a wrong board enable function might
cause the system to behave erratically, as board enable functions touch the
low-level internals of a mainboard. Not executing a board enable function
(if one is needed) might cause detection or erasing failure. If your board
protects only part of the flash (commonly the top end, called boot block),
flashrom might encounter an error only after erasing the unprotected part,
so running without the board-enable function might be dangerous for erase
and write (which includes erase).
.sp
The suggested procedure for a mainboard with untested board specific code is
to first try to probe the ROM (just invoke flashrom and check that it
detects your flash chip type) without running the board enable code (i.e.
without any parameters). If it finds your chip, fine. Otherwise, retry
probing your chip with the board-enable code running, using
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p internal:boardenable=force"
.sp
If your chip is still not detected, the board enable code seems to be broken
or the flash chip unsupported. Otherwise, make a backup of your current ROM
contents (using
.BR \-r )
and store it to a medium outside of your computer, like
a USB drive or a network share. If you needed to run the board enable code
already for probing, use it for reading too.
If reading succeeds and the contens of the read file look legit you can try to write the new image.
You should enable the board enable code in any case now, as it
has been written because it is known that writing/erasing without the board
enable is going to fail. In any case (success or failure), please report to
the flashrom mailing list, see below.
.sp
.TP
.B Coreboot
.sp
On systems running coreboot, flashrom checks whether the desired image matches
your mainboard. This needs some special board ID to be present in the image.
If flashrom detects that the image you want to write and the current board
do not match, it will refuse to write the image unless you specify
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p internal:boardmismatch=force"
.TP
.B ITE IT87 Super I/O
.sp
If your mainboard is manufactured by GIGABYTE and supports DualBIOS it is very likely that it uses an
ITE IT87 series Super I/O to switch between the two flash chips. Only one of them can be accessed at a time
and you can manually select which one to use with the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p internal:dualbiosindex=chip"
.sp
syntax where
.B chip
is the index of the chip to use (0 = main, 1 = backup). You can check which one is currently selected by
leaving out the
.B chip
parameter.
.sp
If your mainboard uses an ITE IT87 series Super I/O for LPC<->SPI flash bus
translation, flashrom should autodetect that configuration. If you want to
set the I/O base port of the IT87 series SPI controller manually instead of
using the value provided by the BIOS, use the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p internal:it87spiport=portnum"
.sp
syntax where
.B portnum
is the I/O port number (must be a multiple of 8). In the unlikely case
flashrom doesn't detect an active IT87 LPC<->SPI bridge, please send a bug
report so we can diagnose the problem.
.sp
.TP
.B AMD chipsets
.sp
Beginning with the SB700 chipset there is an integrated microcontroller (IMC) based on the 8051 embedded in
every AMD southbridge. Its firmware resides in the same flash chip as the host's which makes writing to the
flash risky if the IMC is active. Flashrom tries to temporarily disable the IMC but even then changing the
contents of the flash can have unwanted effects: when the IMC continues (at the latest after a reboot) it will
continue executing code from the flash. If the code was removed or changed in an unfortunate way it is
unpredictable what the IMC will do. Therefore, if flashrom detects an active IMC it will disable write support
unless the user forces it with the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p internal:amd_imc_force=yes"
.sp
syntax. The user is responsible for supplying a suitable image or leaving out the IMC region with the help of
a layout file. This limitation might be removed in the future when we understand the details better and have
received enough feedback from users. Please report the outcome if you had to use this option to write a chip.
.sp
An optional
.B spispeed
parameter specifies the frequency of the SPI bus where applicable (i.e.\& SB600 or later with an SPI flash chip
directly attached to the chipset).
Syntax is
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p internal:spispeed=frequency"
.sp
where
.B frequency
can be
.BR "'16.5\ MHz'" ", " "'22\ MHz'" ", " "'33\ MHz'" ", " "'66\ MHz'" ", " "'100\ MHZ'" ", or " "'800\ kHz'" "."
Support of individual frequencies depends on the generation of the chipset:
.sp
* SB6xx, SB7xx, SP5xxx: from 16.5 MHz up to and including 33 MHz
.sp
* SB8xx, SB9xx, Hudson: from 16.5 MHz up to and including 66 MHz
.sp
* Yangtze (with SPI 100 engine as found in Kabini and Tamesh): all of them
.sp
The default is to use 16.5 MHz and disable Fast Reads.
.TP
.B Intel chipsets
.sp
If you have an Intel chipset with an ICH8 or later southbridge with SPI flash
attached, and if a valid descriptor was written to it (e.g.\& by the vendor), the
chipset provides an alternative way to access the flash chip(s) named
.BR "Hardware Sequencing" .
It is much simpler than the normal access method (called
.BR "Software Sequencing" "),"
but does not allow the software to choose the SPI commands to be sent.
You can use the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p internal:ich_spi_mode=value"
.sp
syntax where
.BR "value " "can be"
.BR auto ", " swseq " or " hwseq .
By default
.RB "(or when setting " ich_spi_mode=auto )
the module tries to use swseq and only activates hwseq if need be (e.g.\& if
important opcodes are inaccessible due to lockdown; or if more than one flash
chip is attached). The other options (swseq, hwseq) select the respective mode
(if possible).
.sp
ICH8 and later southbridges may also have locked address ranges of different
kinds if a valid descriptor was written to it. The flash address space is then
partitioned in multiple so called "Flash Regions" containing the host firmware,
the ME firmware and so on respectively. The flash descriptor can also specify up
to 5 so called "Protected Regions", which are freely chosen address ranges
independent from the aforementioned "Flash Regions". All of them can be write
and/or read protected individually. If flashrom detects such a lock it will
disable write support unless the user forces it with the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p internal:ich_spi_force=yes"
.sp
syntax. If this leads to erase or write accesses to the flash it would most
probably bring it into an inconsistent and unbootable state and we will not
provide any support in such a case.
.sp
If you have an Intel chipset with an ICH2 or later southbridge and if you want
to set specific IDSEL values for a non-default flash chip or an embedded
controller (EC), you can use the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p internal:fwh_idsel=value"
.sp
syntax where
.B value
is the 48-bit hexadecimal raw value to be written in the
IDSEL registers of the Intel southbridge. The upper 32 bits use one hex digit
each per 512 kB range between 0xffc00000 and 0xffffffff, and the lower 16 bits
use one hex digit each per 1024 kB range between 0xff400000 and 0xff7fffff.
The rightmost hex digit corresponds with the lowest address range. All address
ranges have a corresponding sister range 4 MB below with identical IDSEL
settings. The default value for ICH7 is given in the example below.
.sp
Example:
.B "flashrom \-p internal:fwh_idsel=0x001122334567"
.TP
.B Laptops
.sp
Using flashrom on laptops is dangerous and may easily make your hardware
unusable (see also the
.B BUGS
section). The embedded controller (EC) in these
machines often interacts badly with flashing.
More information is
.URLB https://flashrom.org/Laptops "in the wiki" .
For example the EC firmware sometimes resides on the same
flash chip as the host firmware. While flashrom tries to change the contents of
that memory the EC might need to fetch new instructions or data from it and
could stop working correctly. Probing for and reading from the chip may also
irritate your EC and cause fan failure, backlight failure, sudden poweroff, and
other nasty effects. flashrom will attempt to detect if it is running on a
laptop and abort immediately for safety reasons if it clearly identifies the
host computer as one. If you want to proceed anyway at your own risk, use
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p internal:laptop=force_I_want_a_brick"
.sp
We will not help you if you force flashing on a laptop because this is a really
dumb idea.
.sp
You have been warned.
.sp
Currently we rely on the chassis type encoded in the DMI/SMBIOS data to detect
laptops. Some vendors did not implement those bits correctly or set them to
generic and/or dummy values. flashrom will then issue a warning and bail out
like above. In this case you can use
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p internal:laptop=this_is_not_a_laptop"
.sp
to tell flashrom (at your own risk) that it is not running on a laptop.
.SS
.BR "dummy " programmer
.IP
The dummy programmer operates on a buffer in memory only. It provides a safe and fast way to test various
aspects of flashrom and is mainly used in development and while debugging.
It is able to emulate some chips to a certain degree (basic
identify/read/erase/write operations work).
.sp
An optional parameter specifies the bus types it
should support. For that you have to use the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p dummy:bus=[type[+type[+type]]]"
.sp
syntax where
.B type
can be
.BR parallel ", " lpc ", " fwh ", " spi
in any order. If you specify bus without type, all buses will be disabled.
If you do not specify bus, all buses will be enabled.
.sp
Example:
.B "flashrom \-p dummy:bus=lpc+fwh"
.sp
The dummy programmer supports flash chip emulation for automated self-tests
without hardware access. If you want to emulate a flash chip, use the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p dummy:emulate=chip"
.sp
syntax where
.B chip
is one of the following chips (please specify only the chip name, not the
vendor):
.sp
.RB "* ST " M25P10.RES " SPI flash chip (RES, page write)"
.sp
.RB "* SST " SST25VF040.REMS " SPI flash chip (REMS, byte write)"
.sp
.RB "* SST " SST25VF032B " SPI flash chip (RDID, AAI write)"
.sp
.RB "* Macronix " MX25L6436 " SPI flash chip (RDID, SFDP)"
.sp
Example:
.B "flashrom -p dummy:emulate=SST25VF040.REMS"
.TP
.B Persistent images
.sp
If you use flash chip emulation, flash image persistence is available as well
by using the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p dummy:emulate=chip,image=image.rom"
.sp
syntax where
.B image.rom
is the file where the simulated chip contents are read on flashrom startup and
where the chip contents on flashrom shutdown are written to.
.sp
Example:
.B "flashrom -p dummy:emulate=M25P10.RES,image=dummy.bin"
.TP
.B SPI write chunk size
.sp
If you use SPI flash chip emulation for a chip which supports SPI page write
with the default opcode, you can set the maximum allowed write chunk size with
the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p dummy:emulate=chip,spi_write_256_chunksize=size"
.sp
syntax where
.B size
is the number of bytes (min.\& 1, max.\& 256).
.sp
Example:
.sp
.B "  flashrom -p dummy:emulate=M25P10.RES,spi_write_256_chunksize=5"
.TP
.B SPI blacklist
.sp
To simulate a programmer which refuses to send certain SPI commands to the
flash chip, you can specify a blacklist of SPI commands with the
.sp
.B "  flashrom -p dummy:spi_blacklist=commandlist"
.sp
syntax where
.B commandlist
is a list of two-digit hexadecimal representations of
SPI commands. If commandlist is e.g.\& 0302, flashrom will behave as if the SPI
controller refuses to run command 0x03 (READ) and command 0x02 (WRITE).
commandlist may be up to 512 characters (256 commands) long.
Implementation note: flashrom will detect an error during command execution.
.sp
.TP
.B SPI ignorelist
.sp
To simulate a flash chip which ignores (doesn't support) certain SPI commands,
you can specify an ignorelist of SPI commands with the
.sp
.B "  flashrom -p dummy:spi_ignorelist=commandlist"
.sp
syntax where
.B commandlist
is a list of two-digit hexadecimal representations of
SPI commands. If commandlist is e.g.\& 0302, the emulated flash chip will ignore
command 0x03 (READ) and command 0x02 (WRITE).  commandlist may be up to 512
characters (256 commands) long.
Implementation note: flashrom won't detect an error during command execution.
.sp
.TP
.B SPI status register
.sp
You can specify the initial content of the chip's status register with the
.sp
.B "  flashrom -p dummy:spi_status=content"
.sp
syntax where
.B content
is an 8-bit hexadecimal value.
.SS
.BR "nic3com" , " nicrealtek" , " nicnatsemi" , " nicintel", " nicintel_eeprom"\
, " nicintel_spi" , " gfxnvidia" , " ogp_spi" , " drkaiser" , " satasii"\
, " satamv" , " atahpt", " atavia " and " it8212 " programmers
.IP
These programmers have an option to specify the PCI address of the card
your want to use, which must be specified if more than one card supported
by the selected programmer is installed in your system. The syntax is
.sp
.BR "  flashrom \-p xxxx:pci=bb:dd.f" ,
.sp
where
.B xxxx
is the name of the programmer,
.B bb
is the PCI bus number,
.B dd
is the PCI device number, and
.B f
is the PCI function number of the desired device.
.sp
Example:
.B "flashrom \-p nic3com:pci=05:04.0"
.SS
.BR "atavia " programmer
.IP
Due to the mysterious address handling of the VIA VT6421A controller the user can specify an offset with the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p atavia:offset=addr"
.sp
syntax where
.B addr
will be interpreted as usual (leading 0x (0) for hexadecimal (octal) values, or else decimal).
For more information please see
.URLB https://flashrom.org/VT6421A "its wiki page" .
.SS
.BR "nicintel_eeprom " programmer
.IP
This is the first programmer module in flashrom that does not provide access to NOR flash chips but EEPROMs
mounted on gigabit Ethernet cards based on Intel's 82580 NIC. Because EEPROMs normally do not announce their
size nor allow to be identified, the controller relies on correct size values written to predefined addresses
within the chip. Flashrom follows this scheme but assumes the minimum size of 16 kB (128 kb) if an unprogrammed
EEPROM/card is detected. Intel specifies following EEPROMs to be compatible: Atmel AT25128, AT25256, Micron (ST)
M95128, M95256 and OnSemi (Catalyst) CAT25CS128.
.SS
.BR "ft2232_spi " programmer
.IP
An optional parameter specifies the controller
type and channel/interface/port it should support. For that you have to use the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p ft2232_spi:type=model,port=interface"
.sp
syntax where
.B model
can be
.BR 2232H ", " 4232H ", " 232H ", " jtagkey ", " busblaster ", " openmoko ", " \
arm-usb-tiny ", " arm-usb-tiny-h ", " arm-usb-ocd ", " arm-usb-ocd-h \
", " tumpa ", " tumpalite ", or " picotap
and
.B interface
can be
.BR A ", " B ", " C ", or " D .
The default model is
.B 4232H
and the default interface is
.BR A .
.sp
If there is more than one ft2232_spi-compatible device connected, you can select which one should be used by
specifying its serial number with the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p ft2232_spi:serial=number"
.sp
syntax where
.B number
is the serial number of the device (which can be found for example in the output of lsusb -v).
.sp
All models supported by the ft2232_spi driver can configure the SPI clock rate by setting a divisor. The
expressible divisors are all
.B even
numbers between 2 and 2^17 (=131072) resulting in SPI clock frequencies of
6 MHz down to about 92 Hz for 12 MHz inputs. The default divisor is set to 2, but you can use another one by
specifying the optional
.B divisor
parameter with the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p ft2232_spi:divisor=div"
.sp
syntax.
.SS
.BR "serprog " programmer
.IP
A mandatory parameter specifies either a serial device (and baud rate) or an IP/port combination for
communicating with the programmer.
The device/baud combination has to start with
.B dev=
and separate the optional baud rate with a colon.
For example
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p serprog:dev=/dev/ttyS0:115200"
.sp
If no baud rate is given the default values by the operating system/hardware will be used.
For IP connections you have to use the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p serprog:ip=ipaddr:port"
.sp
syntax.
In case the device supports it, you can set the SPI clock frequency with the optional
.B spispeed
parameter. The frequency is parsed as hertz, unless an
.BR M ", or " k
suffix is given, then megahertz or kilohertz are used respectively.
Example that sets the frequency to 2 MHz:
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p serprog:dev=/dev/device:baud,spispeed=2M"
.sp
More information about serprog is available in
.B serprog-protocol.txt
in the source distribution.
.SS
.BR "buspirate_spi " programmer
.IP
A required
.B dev
parameter specifies the Bus Pirate device node and an optional
.B spispeed
parameter specifies the frequency of the SPI bus. The parameter
delimiter is a comma. Syntax is
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p buspirate_spi:dev=/dev/device,spispeed=frequency"
.sp
where
.B frequency
can be
.BR 30k ", " 125k ", " 250k ", " 1M ", " 2M ", " 2.6M ", " 4M " or " 8M
(in Hz). The default is the maximum frequency of 8 MHz.
.sp
An optional pullups parameter specifies the use of the Bus Pirate internal pull-up resistors. This may be
needed if you are working with a flash ROM chip that you have physically removed from the board. Syntax is
.sp
.B "  flashrom -p buspirate_spi:pullups=state"
.sp
where
.B state
can be
.BR on " or " off .
More information about the Bus Pirate pull-up resistors and their purpose is available
.URLB "http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Practical_guide_to_Bus_Pirate_pull-up_resistors" \
"in a guide by dangerousprototypes" .
Only the external supply voltage (Vpu) is supported as of this writing.
.SS
.BR "pickit2_spi " programmer
.IP
An optional
.B voltage
parameter specifies the voltage the PICkit2 should use. The default unit is Volt if no unit is specified.
You can use
.BR mV ", " millivolt ", " V " or " Volt
as unit specifier. Syntax is
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p pickit2_spi:voltage=value"
.sp
where
.B value
can be
.BR 0V ", " 1.8V ", " 2.5V ", " 3.5V
or the equivalent in mV.
.sp
An optional
.B spispeed
parameter specifies the frequency of the SPI bus. Syntax is
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p pickit2_spi:spispeed=frequency"
.sp
where
.B frequency
can be
.BR 250k ", " 333k ", " 500k " or " 1M "
(in Hz). The default is a frequency of 1 MHz.
.SS
.BR "dediprog " programmer
.IP
An optional
.B voltage
parameter specifies the voltage the Dediprog should use. The default unit is
Volt if no unit is specified. You can use
.BR mV ", " milliVolt ", " V " or " Volt
as unit specifier. Syntax is
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p dediprog:voltage=value"
.sp
where
.B value
can be
.BR 0V ", " 1.8V ", " 2.5V ", " 3.5V
or the equivalent in mV.
.sp
An optional
.B device
parameter specifies which of multiple connected Dediprog devices should be used.
Please be aware that the order depends on libusb's usb_get_busses() function and that the numbering starts
at 0.
Usage example to select the second device:
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p dediprog:device=1"
.sp
An optional
.B spispeed
parameter specifies the frequency of the SPI bus. The firmware on the device needs to be 5.0.0 or newer.
Syntax is
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p dediprog:spispeed=frequency"
.sp
where
.B frequency
can be
.BR 375k ", " 750k ", " 1.5M ", " 2.18M ", " 3M ", " 8M ", " 12M " or " 24M
(in Hz). The default is a frequency of 12 MHz.
.sp
An optional
.B target
parameter specifies which target chip should be used. Syntax is
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p dediprog:target=value"
.sp
where
.B value
can be
.BR 1 " or " 2
to select target chip 1 or 2 respectively. The default is target chip 1.
.SS
.BR "rayer_spi " programmer
.IP
The default I/O base address used for the parallel port is 0x378 and you can use
the optional
.B iobase
parameter to specify an alternate base I/O address with the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p rayer_spi:iobase=baseaddr"
.sp
syntax where
.B baseaddr
is base I/O port address of the parallel port, which must be a multiple of
four. Make sure to not forget the "0x" prefix for hexadecimal port addresses.
.sp
The default cable type is the RayeR cable. You can use the optional
.B type
parameter to specify the cable type with the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p rayer_spi:type=model"
.sp
syntax where
.B model
can be
.BR rayer " for the RayeR cable, " byteblastermv " for the Altera ByteBlasterMV, " stk200 " for the Atmel \
STK200/300, " wiggler " for the Macraigor Wiggler, or " xilinx " for the Xilinx Parallel Cable III (DLC 5)."
.sp
More information about the RayeR hardware is available at
.URLB "http://rayer.g6.cz/elektro/spipgm.htm" "RayeR's website" .
The Altera ByteBlasterMV datasheet can be obtained from
.URLB "http://www.altera.co.jp/literature/ds/dsbytemv.pdf" Altera .
For more information about the Macraigor Wiggler see
.URLB "http://www.macraigor.com/wiggler.htm" "their company homepage" .
The schematic of the Xilinx DLC 5 was published in
.URLB "http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/user_guides/xtp029.pdf" "a Xilinx user guide" .
.SS
.BR "pony_spi " programmer
.IP
The serial port (like /dev/ttyS0, /dev/ttyUSB0 on Linux or COM3 on windows) is
specified using the mandatory
.B dev
parameter. The adapter type is selectable between SI-Prog (used for
SPI devices with PonyProg 2000) or a custom made serial bitbanging programmer
named "serbang". The optional
.B type
parameter accepts the values "si_prog" (default) or "serbang".
.sp
Information about the SI-Prog adapter can be found at
.URLB "http://www.lancos.com/siprogsch.html" "its website" .
.sp
An example call to flashrom is
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p pony_spi:dev=/dev/ttyS0,type=serbang"
.sp
Please note that while USB-to-serial adapters work under certain circumstances,
this slows down operation considerably.
.SS
.BR "ogp_spi " programmer
.IP
The flash ROM chip to access must be specified with the
.B rom
parameter.
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p ogp_spi:rom=name"
.sp
Where
.B name
is either
.B cprom
or
.B s3
for the configuration ROM and
.B bprom
or
.B bios
for the BIOS ROM. If more than one card supported by the ogp_spi programmer
is installed in your system, you have to specify the PCI address of the card
you want to use with the
.B pci=
parameter as explained in the
.B nic3com et al.\&
section above.
.sp
More information about the hardware is available at
.nh
.BR http://wiki.opengraphics.org .
.SS
.BR "linux_spi " programmer
.IP
You have to specify the SPI controller to use with the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidevX.Y"
.sp
syntax where
.B /dev/spidevX.Y
is the Linux device node for your SPI controller.
.sp
In case the device supports it, you can set the SPI clock frequency with the optional
.B spispeed
parameter. The frequency is parsed as kilohertz.
Example that sets the frequency to 8 MHz:
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidevX.Y,spispeed=8000"
.sp
Please note that the linux_spi driver only works on Linux.
.SS
.BR "mstarddc_spi " programmer
.IP
The Display Data Channel (DDC) is an I2C bus present on VGA and DVI connectors, that allows exchanging
informations between a computer and attached displays. Its most common uses are getting display capabilities
through EDID (at I2C address 0x50) and sending commands to the display using the DDC/CI protocol (at address
0x37). On displays driven by MSTAR SoCs, it is also possible to access the SoC firmware flash (connected to
the Soc through another SPI bus) using an In-System Programming (ISP) port, usually at address 0x49.
This flashrom module allows the latter via Linux's I2C driver.
.sp
.B IMPORTANT:
Before using this programmer, the display
.B MUST
be in standby mode, and only connected to the computer that will run flashrom using a VGA cable, to an
inactive VGA output. It absolutely
.B MUST NOT
be used as a display during the procedure!
.sp
You have to specify the DDC/I2C controller and I2C address to use with the
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-X:YY"
.sp
syntax where
.B /dev/i2c-X
is the Linux device node for your I2C controller connected to the display's DDC channel, and
.B YY
is the (hexadecimal) address of the MSTAR ISP port (address 0x49 is usually used).
Example that uses I2C controller /dev/i2c-1 and address 0x49:
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-1:49
.sp
It is also possible to inhibit the reset command that is normally sent to the display once the flashrom
operation is completed using the optional
.B noreset
parameter. A value of 1 prevents flashrom from sending the reset command.
Example that does not reset the display at the end of the operation:
.sp
.B "  flashrom \-p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-1:49,noreset=1
.sp
Please note that sending the reset command is also inhibited in the event an error occured during the operation.
To send the reset command afterwards, you can simply run flashrom once more, in chip probe mode (not specifying
an operation), without the
.B noreset
parameter, once the flash read/write operation you intended to perform has completed successfully.
.sp
Please also note that the mstarddc_spi driver only works on Linux.
.SH EXAMPLES
To back up and update your BIOS, run
.sp
.B flashrom -p internal -r backup.rom -o backuplog.txt
.br
.B flashrom -p internal -w newbios.rom -o writelog.txt
.sp
Please make sure to copy backup.rom to some external media before you try
to write. That makes offline recovery easier.
.br
If writing fails and flashrom complains about the chip being in an unknown
state, you can try to restore the backup by running
.sp
.B flashrom -p internal -w backup.rom -o restorelog.txt
.sp
If you encounter any problems, please contact us and supply
backuplog.txt, writelog.txt and restorelog.txt. See section
.B BUGS
for contact info.
.SH EXIT STATUS
flashrom exits with 0 on success, 1 on most failures but with 3 if a call to mmap() fails.
.SH REQUIREMENTS
flashrom needs different access permissions for different programmers.
.sp
.B internal
needs raw memory access, PCI configuration space access, raw I/O port
access (x86) and MSR access (x86).
.sp
.B atavia
needs PCI configuration space access.
.sp
.BR nic3com ", " nicrealtek " and " nicnatsemi "
need PCI configuration space read access and raw I/O port access.
.sp
.B atahpt
needs PCI configuration space access and raw I/O port access.
.sp
.BR gfxnvidia ", " drkaiser " and " it8212
need PCI configuration space access and raw memory access.
.sp
.B rayer_spi
needs raw I/O port access.
.sp
.BR satasii ", " nicintel ", " nicintel_eeprom " and " nicintel_spi
need PCI configuration space read access and raw memory access.
.sp
.B satamv
needs PCI configuration space read access, raw I/O port access and raw memory
access.
.sp
.B serprog
needs TCP access to the network or userspace access to a serial port.
.sp
.B buspirate_spi
needs userspace access to a serial port.
.sp
.BR dediprog ", " ft2232_spi ", " usbblaster_spi " and " pickit2_spi
need access to the USB device via libusb.
.sp
.B dummy
needs no access permissions at all.
.sp
.BR internal ", " nic3com ", " nicrealtek ", " nicnatsemi ", "
.BR gfxnvidia ", " drkaiser ", " satasii ", " satamv ", " atahpt" and " atavia
have to be run as superuser/root, and need additional raw access permission.
.sp
.BR serprog ", " buspirate_spi ", " dediprog ", " usbblaster_spi ", " ft2232_spi " and " pickit2_spi
can be run as normal user on most operating systems if appropriate device
permissions are set.
.sp
.B ogp
needs PCI configuration space read access and raw memory access.
.sp
On OpenBSD, you can obtain raw access permission by setting
.B "securelevel=-1"
in
.B "/etc/rc.securelevel"
and rebooting, or rebooting into single user mode.
.SH BUGS
Please report any bugs to the
.MTOB "flashrom@flashrom.org" "flashrom mailing list" .
.sp
We recommend to subscribe first at
.URLB "https://flashrom.org/mailman/listinfo/flashrom" "" .
.sp
Many of the developers communicate via the
.B "#flashrom"
IRC channel on
.BR chat.freenode.net .
If you don't have an IRC client, you can use the
.URLB http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=flashrom "freenode webchat" .
You are welcome to join and ask questions, send us bug and success reports there
too. Please provide a way to contact you later (e.g.\& a mail address) and be
patient if there is no immediate reaction. Also, we provide a
.URLB https://paste.flashrom.org "pastebin service"
that is very useful when you want to share logs etc.\& without spamming the
channel.
.SS
.B Laptops
.sp
Using flashrom on laptops is dangerous and may easily make your hardware
unusable. flashrom will attempt to detect if it is running on a laptop and abort
immediately for safety reasons. Please see the detailed discussion of this topic
and associated flashrom options in the
.B Laptops
paragraph in the
.B internal programmer
subsection of the
.B PROGRAMMER-SPECIFIC INFORMATION
section and the information
.URLB "https://flashrom.org/Laptops" "in our wiki" .
.SS
One-time programmable (OTP) memory and unique IDs
.sp
Some flash chips contain OTP memory often denoted as "security registers".
They usually have a capacity in the range of some bytes to a few hundred
bytes and can be used to give devices unique IDs etc.  flashrom is not able
to read or write these memories and may therefore not be able to duplicate a
chip completely. For chip types known to include OTP memories a warning is
printed when they are detected.
.sp
Similar to OTP memories are unique, factory programmed, unforgeable IDs.
They are not modifiable by the user at all.
.SH LICENSE
.B flashrom
is covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2. Some files are
additionally available under the GPL (version 2, or any later version).
.SH COPYRIGHT
.br
Please see the individual files.
.SH AUTHORS
Andrew Morgan
.br
Carl-Daniel Hailfinger
.br
Claus Gindhart
.br
David Borg
.br
David Hendricks
.br
Dominik Geyer
.br
Eric Biederman
.br
Giampiero Giancipoli
.br
Helge Wagner
.br
Idwer Vollering
.br
Joe Bao
.br
Joerg Fischer
.br
Joshua Roys
.br
Ky\[:o]sti M\[:a]lkki
.br
Luc Verhaegen
.br
Li-Ta Lo
.br
Mark Marshall
.br
Markus Boas
.br
Mattias Mattsson
.br
Michael Karcher
.br
Nikolay Petukhov
.br
Patrick Georgi
.br
Peter Lemenkov
.br
Peter Stuge
.br
Reinder E.N. de Haan
.br
Ronald G. Minnich
.br
Ronald Hoogenboom
.br
Sean Nelson
.br
Stefan Reinauer
.br
Stefan Tauner
.br
Stefan Wildemann
.br
Stephan Guilloux
.br
Steven James
.br
Uwe Hermann
.br
Wang Qingpei
.br
Yinghai Lu
.br
some others, please see the flashrom svn changelog for details.
.br
All still active authors can be reached via
.MTOB "flashrom@flashrom.org" "the mailing list" .
.PP
This manual page was written by
.MTOB "uwe@hermann-uwe.de" "Uwe Hermann" ,
Carl-Daniel Hailfinger, Stefan Tauner and others.
It is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL (version 2 or later).