FLASHROM(8)FLASHROM(8)NAMEflashrom - detect, read, write, verify and erase flash chips
SYNOPSISflashrom [-h|-R|-L|-z|-p <programmername>[:<parameters>]
[-E|-r <file>|-w <file>|-v <file>] [-c <chipname>]
[-l <file> [-i <image>]] [-n] [-f]]
[-V[V[V]]] [-o <logfile>]
DESCRIPTIONflashrom is a utility for detecting, reading, writing, verifying and
erasing flash chips. It's often used to flash BIOS/EFI/core‐
boot/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.
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.
OPTIONS
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.
You can specify one of -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 -r before
you try to write a new image. All operations involving any chip access
(probe/read/write/...) require the -p/--programmer option to be used
(please see below).
-r, --read <file>
Read flash ROM contents and save them into the given <file>. If
the file already exists, it will be overwritten.
-w, --write <file>
Write <file> into flash ROM. This will first automatically erase
the chip, then write to it.
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.
-n, --noverify
Skip the automatic verification of flash ROM contents after
writing. Using this option is 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.
Typical usage is: flashrom-p prog -n -w <file>
This option is only useful in combination with --write.
-v, --verify <file>
Verify the flash ROM contents against the given <file>.
-E, --erase
Erase the flash ROM chip.
-V, --verbose
More verbose output. This option can be supplied multiple times
(max. 3 times, i.e. -VVV) for even more debug output.
-c, --chip <chipname>
Probe only for the specified flash ROM chip. This option takes
the chip name as printed by flashrom-L without the vendor name
as parameter. Please note that the chip name is case sensitive.
-f, --force
Force one or more of the following actions:
* Force chip read and pretend the chip is there.
* Force chip access even if the chip is bigger than the maximum
supported size for the flash bus.
* Force erase even if erase is known bad.
* Force write even if write is known bad.
-l, --layout <file>
Read ROM layout from <file>.
flashrom supports ROM layouts. This allows you to flash certain
parts of the flash chip only. A ROM layout file contains multi‐
ple lines with the following syntax:
startaddr:endaddr imagename
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 neces‐
sary, but you can't specify decimal/octal numbers. imagename is
an arbitrary name for the region/image from startaddr to
endaddr (both addresses included).
Example:
00000000:00008fff gfxrom
00009000:0003ffff normal
00040000:0007ffff fallback
If you only want to update the image named normal in a ROM based
on the layout above, run
flashrom-p prog --layout rom.layout --image normal -w
some.rom
To update only the images named normal and fallback, run:
flashrom-p prog -l rom.layout -i normal -i fallback -w
some.rom
Overlapping sections are not supported.
-i, --image <imagename>
Only flash region/image <imagename> from flash layout.
-L, --list-supported
List the flash chips, chipsets, mainboards, and external pro‐
grammers (including PCI, USB, parallel port, and serial port
based devices) supported by flashrom.
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.
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!
-z, --list-supported-wiki
Same as --list-supported, but outputs the supported hardware in
MediaWiki syntax, so that it can be easily pasted into the wiki
page at http://www.flashrom.org/. Please note that MediaWiki
output is not compiled in by default.
-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:
* internal (default, for in-system flashing in the mainboard)
* dummy (virtual programmer for testing flashrom)
* nic3com (for flash ROMs on 3COM network cards)
* nicrealtek (for flash ROMs on Realtek and SMC 1211 network
cards)
* nicnatsemi (for flash ROMs on National Semiconductor DP838*
network cards)
* nicintel (for parallel flash ROMs on Intel 10/100Mbit network
cards)
* gfxnvidia (for flash ROMs on NVIDIA graphics cards)
* drkaiser (for flash ROMs on Dr. Kaiser PC-Waechter PCI cards)
* satasii (for flash ROMs on Silicon Image SATA/IDE controllers)
* satamv (for flash ROMs on Marvell SATA controllers)
* atahpt (for flash ROMs on Highpoint ATA/RAID controllers)
* atavia (for flash ROMs on VIA VT6421A SATA controllers)
* it8212 (for flash ROMs on ITE IT8212F ATA/RAID controller)
* 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.
* serprog (for flash ROMs attached to a programmer speaking
serprog), including AVR flasher by Urja Rannikko, AVR flasher by
eightdot, Arduino Mega flasher by fritz, InSystemFlasher by
Juhana Helovuo, and atmegaXXu2-flasher by Stefan Tauner.
* buspirate_spi (for SPI flash ROMs attached to a Bus Pirate)
* dediprog (for SPI flash ROMs attached to a Dediprog SF100)
* rayer_spi (for SPI flash ROMs attached to a parallel port by
one of various cable types)
* pony_spi (for SPI flash ROMs attached to a SI-Prog serial port
bitbanging adapter)
* nicintel_spi (for SPI flash ROMs on Intel Gigabit network
cards)
* ogp_spi (for SPI flash ROMs on Open Graphics Project graphics
card)
* linux_spi (for SPI flash ROMs accessible via /dev/spidevX.Y on
Linux)
* usbblaster_spi (for SPI flash ROMs attached to an Altera USB-
Blaster compatible cable)
* nicintel_eeprom (for SPI EEPROMs on Intel Gigabit network
cards)
* mstarddc_spi (for SPI flash ROMs accessible through DDC in
MSTAR-equipped displays)
* pickit2_spi (for SPI flash ROMs accessible via Microchip
PICkit2)
Some programmers have optional or mandatory parameters which are
described in detail in the PROGRAMMER-SPECIFIC INFORMATION
section. Support for some programmers can be disabled at compile
time. flashrom-h lists all supported programmers.
-h, --help
Show a help text and exit.
-o, --output <logfile>
Save the full debug log to <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.
-R, --version
Show version information and exit.
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.
internal programmer
Board Enables
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
flashrom-p internal:mainboard=<vendor>:<board> syntax.
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.
Some of these board-specific flash enabling functions (called
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).
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
flashrom-p internal:boardenable=force
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 -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.
Coreboot
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
flashrom-p internal:boardmismatch=force
ITE IT87 Super I/O
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
flashrom-p internal:dualbiosindex=chip
syntax where 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 chip parameter.
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
flashrom-p internal:it87spiport=portnum
syntax where 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.
AMD chipsets
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
flashrom-p internal:amd_imc_force=yes
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.
An optional 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
flashrom-p internal:spispeed=frequency
where frequency can be '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:
* SB6xx, SB7xx, SP5xxx: from 16.5 MHz up to and including 33 MHz
* SB8xx, SB9xx, Hudson: from 16.5 MHz up to and including 66 MHz
* Yangtze (with SPI 100 engine as found in Kabini and Tamesh):
all of them
The default is to use 16.5 MHz and disable Fast Reads.
Intel chipsets
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 Hardware Sequencing. It
is much simpler than the normal access method (called Software
Sequencing), but does not allow the software to choose the SPI
commands to be sent. You can use the
flashrom-p internal:ich_spi_mode=value
syntax where value can be auto, swseq or hwseq. By default (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).
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
flashrom-p internal:ich_spi_force=yes
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.
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
flashrom-p internal:fwh_idsel=value
syntax where 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.
Example: flashrom-p internal:fwh_idsel=0x001122334567
Laptops
Using flashrom on laptops is dangerous and may easily make your
hardware unusable (see also the BUGS section). The embedded
controller (EC) in these machines often interacts badly with
flashing. http://www.flashrom.org/Laptops has more information.
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
flashrom-p internal:laptop=force_I_want_a_brick
We will not help you if you force flashing on a laptop because
this is a really dumb idea.
You have been warned.
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
flashrom-p internal:laptop=this_is_not_a_laptop
to tell flashrom (at your own risk) that it is not running on a
laptop.
dummy programmer
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).
An optional parameter specifies the bus types it should support. For
that you have to use the
flashrom-p dummy:bus=[type[+type[+type]]]
syntax where type can be 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.
Example: flashrom-p dummy:bus=lpc+fwh
The dummy programmer supports flash chip emulation for automated self-
tests without hardware access. If you want to emulate a flash chip, use
the
flashrom-p dummy:emulate=chip
syntax where chip is one of the following chips (please specify only
the chip name, not the vendor):
* ST M25P10.RES SPI flash chip (RES, page write)
* SST SST25VF040.REMS SPI flash chip (REMS, byte write)
* SST SST25VF032B SPI flash chip (RDID, AAI write)
* Macronix MX25L6436 SPI flash chip (RDID, SFDP)
Example: flashrom-p dummy:emulate=SST25VF040.REMS
Persistent images
If you use flash chip emulation, flash image persistence is
available as well by using the
flashrom-p dummy:emulate=chip,image=image.rom
syntax where 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.
Example: flashrom-p dummy:emulate=M25P10.RES,image=dummy.bin
SPI write chunk size
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
flashrom-p dummy:emulate=chip,spi_write_256_chunksize=size
syntax where size is the number of bytes (min. 1, max. 256).
Example:
flashrom-p dummy:emulate=M25P10.RES,spi_write_256_chunksize=5
SPI blacklist
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
flashrom-p dummy:spi_blacklist=commandlist
syntax where 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.
SPI ignorelist
To simulate a flash chip which ignores (doesn't support) certain
SPI commands, you can specify an ignorelist of SPI commands with
the
flashrom-p dummy:spi_ignorelist=commandlist
syntax where 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.
SPI status register
You can specify the initial content of the chip's status
register with the
flashrom-p dummy:spi_status=content
syntax where content is an 8-bit hexadecimal value.
nic3com, nicrealtek, nicnatsemi, nicintel, nicintel_eeprom, nicintel_spi,
gfxnvidia, ogp_spi, drkaiser, satasii, satamv, atahpt, atavia and
it8212 programmers
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
flashrom-p xxxx:pci=bb:dd.f,
where xxxx is the name of the programmer, bb is the PCI bus number, dd
is the PCI device number, and f is the PCI function number of the
desired device.
Example: flashrom-p nic3com:pci=05:04.0
atavia programmer
Due to the mysterious address handling of the VIA VT6421A controller
the user can specify an offset with the
flashrom-p atavia:offset=addr
syntax where addr will be interpreted as usual (leading 0x (0) for
hexadecimal (octal) values, or else decimal). For more information
please see http://flashrom.org/VT6421A
nicintel_eeprom programmer
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.
ft2232_spi programmer
An optional parameter specifies the controller type and
channel/interface/port it should support. For that you have to use the
flashrom-p ft2232_spi:type=model,port=interface
syntax where model can be 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 interface can be A, B, C, or D. The
default model is 4232H and the default interface is A.
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
flashrom-p ft2232_spi:serial=number
syntax where number is the serial number of the device (which can be
found for example in the output of lsusb -v).
All models supported by the ft2232_spi driver can configure the SPI
clock rate by setting a divisor. The expressible divisors are all 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
divisor parameter with the
flashrom-p ft2232_spi:divisor=div
syntax.
serprog programmer
A mandatory parameter specifies either a serial device/baud combination
or an IP/port combination for communication with the programmer. In the
device/baud combination, the device has to start with a slash. For
serial, you have to use the
flashrom-p serprog:dev=/dev/device:baud
syntax and for IP, you have to use
flashrom-p serprog:ip=ipaddr:port
instead. In case the device supports it, you can set the SPI clock
frequency with the optional spispeed parameter. The frequency is parsed
as hertz, unless an M, or k suffix is given, then megahertz or
kilohertz are used respectively. Example that sets the frequency to 2
MHz:
flashrom-p serprog:dev=/dev/device:baud,spispeed=2M
More information about serprog is available in serprog-protocol.txt in
the source distribution.
buspirate_spi programmer
A required dev parameter specifies the Bus Pirate device node and an
optional spispeed parameter specifies the frequency of the SPI bus. The
parameter delimiter is a comma. Syntax is
flashrom-p buspirate_spi:dev=/dev/device,spispeed=frequency
where frequency can be 30k, 125k, 250k, 1M, 2M, 2.6M, 4M or 8M (in Hz).
The default is the maximum frequency of 8 MHz.
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
flashrom-p buspirate_spi:pullups=state
where state can be on or off. More information about the Bus Pirate
pull-up resistors and their purpose is available at
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Practical_guide_to_Bus_Pirate_pull-
up_resistors . Only the external supply voltage (Vpu) is supported as
of this writing.
pickit2_spi programmer
An optional voltage parameter specifies the voltage the PICkit2 should
use. The default unit is Volt if no unit is specified. You can use mV,
millivolt, V or Volt as unit specifier. Syntax is
flashrom-p pickit2_spi:voltage=value
where value can be 0V, 1.8V, 2.5V, 3.5V or the equivalent in mV.
An optional spispeed parameter specifies the frequency of the SPI bus.
Syntax is
flashrom-p pickit2_spi:spispeed=frequency
where frequency can be 250k, 333k, 500k or 1M (in Hz). The default is a
frequency of 1 MHz.
dediprog programmer
An optional voltage parameter specifies the voltage the Dediprog should
use. The default unit is Volt if no unit is specified. You can use mV,
milliVolt, V or Volt as unit specifier. Syntax is
flashrom-p dediprog:voltage=value
where value can be 0V, 1.8V, 2.5V, 3.5V or the equivalent in mV.
An optional 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:
flashrom-p dediprog:device=1
An optional spispeed parameter specifies the frequency of the SPI bus.
The firmware on the device needs to be 5.0.0 or newer. Syntax is
flashrom-p dediprog:spispeed=frequency
where frequency can be 375k, 750k, 1.5M, 2.18M, 3M, 8M, 12M or 24M (in
Hz). The default is a frequency of 12 MHz.
An optional target parameter specifies which target chip should be
used. Syntax is
flashrom-p dediprog:target=value
where value can be 1 or 2 to select target chip 1 or 2 respectively.
The default is target chip 1.
rayer_spi programmer
The default I/O base address used for the parallel port is 0x378 and
you can use the optional iobase parameter to specify an alternate base
I/O address with the
flashrom-p rayer_spi:iobase=baseaddr
syntax where 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.
The default cable type is the RayeR cable. You can use the optional
type parameter to specify the cable type with the
flashrom-p rayer_spi:type=model
syntax where model can be 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).
More information about the RayeR hardware is available at
http://rayer.ic.cz/elektro/spipgm.htm . The Altera ByteBlasterMV
datasheet can be obtained from
http://www.altera.co.jp/literature/ds/dsbytemv.pdf . For more
information about the Macraigor Wiggler see
http://www.macraigor.com/wiggler.htm . The schematic of the Xilinx DLC
5 was published in
http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/user_guides/xtp029.pdf .
pony_spi programmer
The serial port (like /dev/ttyS0, /dev/ttyUSB0 on Linux or COM3 on
windows) is specified using the mandatory 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 type parameter accepts the values "si_prog" (default) or
"serbang".
Information about the SI-Prog adapter can be found at
http://www.lancos.com/siprogsch.html .
An example call to flashrom is
flashrom-p pony_spi:dev=/dev/ttyS0,type=serbang
Please note that while USB-to-serial adapters work under certain
circumstances, this slows down operation considerably.
ogp_spi programmer
The flash ROM chip to access must be specified with the rom parameter.
flashrom-p ogp_spi:rom=name
Where name is either cprom or s3 for the configuration ROM and bprom or
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 pci= parameter as
explained in the nic3com et al. section above.
More information about the hardware is available at
http://wiki.opengraphics.org.
linux_spi programmer
You have to specify the SPI controller to use with the
flashrom-p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidevX.Y
syntax where /dev/spidevX.Y is the Linux device node for your SPI
controller.
In case the device supports it, you can set the SPI clock frequency
with the optional spispeed parameter. The frequency is parsed as
kilohertz. Example that sets the frequency to 8 MHz:
flashrom-p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidevX.Y,spispeed=8000
Please note that the linux_spi driver only works on Linux.
mstarddc_spi programmer
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.
IMPORTANT: Before using this programmer, the display 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 MUST NOT be used as
a display during the procedure!
You have to specify the DDC/I2C controller and I2C address to use with
the
flashrom-p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-X:YY
syntax where /dev/i2c-X is the Linux device node for your I2C
controller connected to the display's DDC channel, and 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:
flashrom-p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-1:49
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 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:
flashrom-p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-1:49,noreset=1
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 noreset parameter, once the
flash read/write operation you intended to perform has completed
successfully.
Please also note that the mstarddc_spi driver only works on Linux.
EXAMPLES
To back up and update your BIOS, run
flashrom-p internal -r backup.rom -o backuplog.txt
flashrom-p internal -w newbios.rom -o writelog.txt
Please make sure to copy backup.rom to some external media before you
try to write. That makes offline recovery easier.
If writing fails and flashrom complains about the chip being in an
unknown state, you can try to restore the backup by running
flashrom-p internal -w backup.rom -o restorelog.txt
If you encounter any problems, please contact us and supply
backuplog.txt, writelog.txt and restorelog.txt. See section BUGS for
contact info.
EXIT STATUSflashrom exits with 0 on success, 1 on most failures but with 3 if a
call to mmap() fails.
REQUIREMENTSflashrom needs different access permissions for different programmers.
internal needs raw memory access, PCI configuration space access, raw
I/O port access (x86) and MSR access (x86).
atavia needs PCI configuration space access.
nic3com, nicrealtek and nicnatsemi need PCI configuration space read
access and raw I/O port access.
atahpt needs PCI configuration space access and raw I/O port access.
gfxnvidia, drkaiser and it8212 need PCI configuration space access and
raw memory access.
rayer_spi needs raw I/O port access.
satasii, nicintel, nicintel_eeprom and nicintel_spi need PCI
configuration space read access and raw memory access.
satamv needs PCI configuration space read access, raw I/O port access
and raw memory access.
serprog needs TCP access to the network or userspace access to a serial
port.
buspirate_spi needs userspace access to a serial port.
dediprog, ft2232_spi and usbblaster_spiand pickit2_spi need access to
the USB device via libusb.
dummy needs no access permissions at all.
internal, nic3com, nicrealtek, nicnatsemi, gfxnvidia, drkaiser,
satasii, satamv, atahpt"and atavia have to be run as superuser/root,
and need additional raw access permission.
serprog, buspirate_spi, dediprog, usbblaster_spi and ft2232_spiand
pickit2_spi can be run as normal user on most operating systems if
appropriate device permissions are set.
ogp needs PCI configuration space read access and raw memory access.
On OpenBSD, you can obtain raw access permission by setting
securelevel=-1 in /etc/rc.securelevel and rebooting, or rebooting into
single user mode.
BUGS
Please report any bugs to the flashrom mailing list at
<flashrom@flashrom.org>
We recommend to subscribe first at
http://www.flashrom.org/mailman/listinfo/flashrom
Many of the developers communicate via the #flashrom IRC channel on
chat.freenode.net. 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 pastebin service at
http://paste.flashrom.org that is very useful when you want to share
logs etc. without spamming the channel.
Laptops
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 Laptops paragraph in the internal programmer subsection of the
PROGRAMMER-SPECIFIC INFORMATION section and the information in our wiki
at http://www.flashrom.org/Laptops .
One-time programmable (OTP) memory and unique IDs
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.
Similar to OTP memories are unique, factory programmed, unforgeable
IDs. They are not modifiable by the user at all.
LICENSEflashrom 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).
COPYRIGHT
Please see the individual files.
AUTHORS
Andrew Morgan
Carl-Daniel Hailfinger
Claus Gindhart
David Borg
David Hendricks
Dominik Geyer
Eric Biederman
Giampiero Giancipoli
Helge Wagner
Idwer Vollering
Joe Bao
Joerg Fischer
Joshua Roys
Kyösti Mälkki
Luc Verhaegen
Li-Ta Lo
Mark Marshall
Markus Boas
Mattias Mattsson
Michael Karcher
Nikolay Petukhov
Patrick Georgi
Peter Lemenkov
Peter Stuge
Reinder E.N. de Haan
Ronald G. Minnich
Ronald Hoogenboom
Sean Nelson
Stefan Reinauer
Stefan Tauner
Stefan Wildemann
Stephan Guilloux
Steven James
Uwe Hermann
Wang Qingpei
Yinghai Lu
some others, please see the flashrom svn changelog for details.
All still active authors can be reached via email at
<flashrom@flashrom.org>.
This manual page was written by Uwe Hermann <uwe@hermann-uwe.de>, Carl-
Daniel Hailfinger and others. It is licensed under the terms of the
GNU GPL (version 2 or later).
0.9.8-r1888 2015-02-08 FLASHROM(8)
