README

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Flashrom README
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Flashrom is a utility for reading, writing, and erasing flash ROM chips.
It's often used to flash BIOS/coreboot/firmware images.

It supports a wide range of DIP32, PLCC32, DIP8, and TSOP chips, which use
various protocols such as LPC, FWH, parallel flash, or SPI.

(see http://coreboot.org for details on coreboot)


Build Requirements
------------------

To build the flashrom utility you need to install the following packages:

* pciutils
* pciutils-devel / pciutils-dev / libpci-dev
* zlib-devel / zlib1g-dev


Usage
-----

 $ flashrom [-rwvEVfLhR] [-c chipname] [-s exclude_start] [-e exclude_end]
            [-m [vendor:]part] [-l file.layout] [-i imagename] [file]
   -r | --read:                      read flash and save into file
   -w | --write:                     write file into flash (default when
                                     file is specified)
   -v | --verify:                    verify flash against file
   -E | --erase:                     erase flash device
   -V | --verbose:                   more verbose output
   -c | --chip <chipname>:           probe only for specified flash chip
   -s | --estart <addr>:             exclude start position
   -e | --eend <addr>:               exclude end postion
   -m | --mainboard <[vendor:]part>: override mainboard settings
   -f | --force:                     force write without checking image
   -l | --layout <file.layout>:      read rom layout from file
   -i | --image <name>:              only flash image name from flash layout
   -L | --list-supported:            print supported devices
   -h | --help:                      print this help text
   -R | --version:                   print the version (release)

 If no file is specified, then all that happens
 is that flash info is dumped and the flash chip is set to writable.


Exit status
-----------

Flashrom exits with 0 on success, 1 on most failures but with 2 if /dev/mem
(/dev/xsvc on Solaris) can not be opened and with 3 if a call to mmap() fails.


coreboot Table and Mainboard Identification
--------------------------------------------

Flashrom reads the coreboot table to determine the current mainboard. If no
coreboot table could be read or if you want to override these values, you can
specify -m, e.g.:

 $ flashrom -w --mainboard AGAMI:ARUMA agami_aruma.rom

See the 'Supported mainboards' 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.


ROM Layout Support
------------------

Flashrom supports ROM layouts. This allows you to flash certain parts of
the flash chip only. A ROM layout file looks like follows:

  00000000:00008fff gfxrom
  00009000:0003ffff normal
  00040000:0007ffff fallback

  i.e.:
  startaddr:endaddr name

  All addresses are offsets within the file, not absolute addresses!
  
If you only want to update the normal image in a ROM you can say:

  flashrom -w --layout rom.layout --image normal agami_aruma.rom
     
To update normal and fallback but leave the VGA BIOS alone, say:

  flashrom -w -l rom.layout -i normal -i fallback agami_aruma.rom
 
Currently overlapping sections are not supported.

ROM layouts should replace the -s and -e option since they are more 
flexible and they should lead to a ROM update file format with the 
ROM layout and the ROM image in one file (cpio, zip or something?).


Supported Flash Chips / Chipsets / Mainboards
---------------------------------------------

Please check the output of 'flashrom -L' for the list of supported
flash chips, chipsets/southbridges, and mainboards.

See also http://coreboot.org/Flashrom for more details.