Board Testing HOWTO - Revision history

Stefanct at 14:05, 2 April 2013

2013-04-02T14:05:19Z

Hailfinger: /* Flashrom */

2009-08-24T10:37:52Z

‎Flashrom

Hailfinger: /* Flashrom */

2009-06-22T16:40:36Z

‎Flashrom

Stepan at 16:13, 14 January 2008

2008-01-14T16:13:56Z

Uwe: /* On-board hardware */ On-board USB.

2007-11-18T00:40:15Z

‎On-board hardware: On-board USB.

Uwe: /* Parallel port */

2007-11-02T18:17:13Z

‎Parallel port

Uwe: /* Parallel port */

2007-11-02T18:07:53Z

‎Parallel port

Uwe: /* Miscellaneous */ How to check if flashrom works on your board.

2007-11-02T18:04:35Z

‎Miscellaneous: How to check if flashrom works on your board.

Uwe: /* PC Speaker */

2007-11-02T17:49:00Z

‎PC Speaker

Uwe at 13:49, 2 November 2007

2007-11-02T13:49:40Z

@@ Line 40: / Line 40: @@
 * If that doesn't work, check that you actually have a speaker correctly attached and also try '''modprobe pcspkr'''.
-== Miscellaneous ==
+== Flashrom ==
-−
-=== Flashrom ===
-−
-* <div style="color:red">DO NOT ATTEMPT TO FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! THIS CAN RENDER YOUR MAINBOARD TOTALLY UNUSABLE! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!</div>
-* To check whether [[flashrom]] knows about your chipset and ROM chip, run '''flashrom'''.
-* If it says "Found chipset CHIPSETNAME..." and "CHIPNAME found at..." that's a good first sign.
-* To check if you can read the existing BIOS image from the chip, run '''flashrom -r backup.bin'''. Make sure that '''backup.bin''' contains a useful BIOS image. (Some chipsets will return 0xff for large areas of flash without any error messages.)
-* Now the really important part, checking if ''writing'' an image on the chip works:
-** First make sure you have a backup chip containing the original BIOS. Also, you should have verified that it actually boots your system successfully. Put away that backup chip somewhere safe.
-** Try inserting a ROM chip which you can safely overwrite (e.g. an empty one you bought). Then write an image onto the chip, which is ''different'' from what's on the chip right now: '''flashrom -w new.bin'''. If this works and flashrom reports "VERIFIED" your board is supported by flashrom.
-** If not, you might try to enable the "Enable BIOS Update" or "Write-protect BIOS" or similar options in your BIOS CMOS menu first, or set a jumper on your board (this is highly board-dependent). Also, you might have to use the flashrom <tt>--mainboard</tt> switch for some boards.
-** If none of the above helps (but flashrom still ''does'' detect your chipset and ROM chip), there's quite likely a board-specific initialization required in flashrom, which is non-trivial to add (e.g. toggling certain custom GPIO lines etc). In that case, contact us as we may be able to help.
-** If you can't risk a write on a given chip and if the chip is SPI, the following guidelines may help:
-*** Try probing.
-*** For ICH/VIA SPI, lockdown can mean probe works, but write/erase doesn't. It can also mean that probe does not work, but write/read/erase (or any subset thereof) would work. For all other SPI chipsets, there is no such lockdown, so you can issue any erase/write/read command.
-*** However, some SPI chips have a WP# pin which causes the block protection bits to become readonly. Now if flashrom had a generic block protection checker, we'd be able to figure out if write/erase is possible. Basically, you can check if you need a board enable by setting all block protection bits, then unsetting them. If either of the operations fail, you need a board enable. If they succeed, erase and write are guaranteed to work.
-* Please tell us about your results by mailing flashrom@flashrom.org and we'll check/update the [[Flashrom#Supported_mainboards|list of boards supported by flashrom]] accordingly (whether it works or does not work on your board).
 {{GPL}}

@@ Line 47: / Line 47: @@
 * To check whether [[flashrom]] knows about your chipset and ROM chip, run '''flashrom'''.
 * If it says "Found chipset CHIPSETNAME..." and "CHIPNAME found at..." that's a good first sign.
-* To check if you can read the existing BIOS image from the chip, run '''flashrom -r backup.bin'''.
+* To check if you can read the existing BIOS image from the chip, run '''flashrom -r backup.bin'''. Make sure that '''backup.bin''' contains a useful BIOS image. (Some chipsets will return 0xff for large areas of flash without any error messages.)
 * Now the really important part, checking if ''writing'' an image on the chip works:
 ** First make sure you have a backup chip containing the original BIOS. Also, you should have verified that it actually boots your system successfully. Put away that backup chip somewhere safe.
-** Try inserting a ROM chip which you can safely overwrite (e.g. an empty one you bought). Then write an image onto the chip, which is ''different'' from what's on the chip right now: '''flashrom -wv new.bin'''. If this works and flashrom reports "VERIFIED" your board is supported by flashrom.
+** Try inserting a ROM chip which you can safely overwrite (e.g. an empty one you bought). Then write an image onto the chip, which is ''different'' from what's on the chip right now: '''flashrom -w new.bin'''. If this works and flashrom reports "VERIFIED" your board is supported by flashrom.
 ** If not, you might try to enable the "Enable BIOS Update" or "Write-protect BIOS" or similar options in your BIOS CMOS menu first, or set a jumper on your board (this is highly board-dependent). Also, you might have to use the flashrom <tt>--mainboard</tt> switch for some boards.
-** If none of the above helps (but flashrom still ''does'' detect your chipset and ROM chip), there's quite likely a board-specific initialization required in flashrom, which is non-trivial to add (e.g. toggling certain custom GPIO lines etc).
+** If none of the above helps (but flashrom still ''does'' detect your chipset and ROM chip), there's quite likely a board-specific initialization required in flashrom, which is non-trivial to add (e.g. toggling certain custom GPIO lines etc). In that case, contact us as we may be able to help.
 ** If you can't risk a write on a given chip and if the chip is SPI, the following guidelines may help:
 *** Try probing.
 *** For ICH/VIA SPI, lockdown can mean probe works, but write/erase doesn't. It can also mean that probe does not work, but write/read/erase (or any subset thereof) would work. For all other SPI chipsets, there is no such lockdown, so you can issue any erase/write/read command.
 *** However, some SPI chips have a WP# pin which causes the block protection bits to become readonly. Now if flashrom had a generic block protection checker, we'd be able to figure out if write/erase is possible. Basically, you can check if you need a board enable by setting all block protection bits, then unsetting them. If either of the operations fail, you need a board enable. If they succeed, erase and write are guaranteed to work.
-* Please check/update the [[Flashrom#Supported_mainboards|list of boards supported by flashrom]] accordingly (whether it works or does not work on your board).
+* Please tell us about your results by mailing flashrom@flashrom.org and we'll check/update the [[Flashrom#Supported_mainboards|list of boards supported by flashrom]] accordingly (whether it works or does not work on your board).
 {{GPL}}

@@ Line 53: / Line 53: @@
 ** If not, you might try to enable the "Enable BIOS Update" or "Write-protect BIOS" or similar options in your BIOS CMOS menu first, or set a jumper on your board (this is highly board-dependent). Also, you might have to use the flashrom <tt>--mainboard</tt> switch for some boards.
 ** If none of the above helps (but flashrom still ''does'' detect your chipset and ROM chip), there's quite likely a board-specific initialization required in flashrom, which is non-trivial to add (e.g. toggling certain custom GPIO lines etc).
 * Please check/update the [[Flashrom#Supported_mainboards|list of boards supported by flashrom]] accordingly (whether it works or does not work on your board).
 {{GPL}}

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-This page gives you hints on how to test the LinuxBIOS support for your mainboard and all components present on the board.
+This page gives you hints on how to test the coreboot support for your mainboard and all components present on the board.
-We try to maintain one build tutorial / status page for every supported LinuxBIOS mainboard. The status table is always implemented using the [[Template:Status|status template]] in this wiki. A [[Template:Status#Usage_Example|usage example]] is available, but you can also look at existing status pages.
+We try to maintain one build tutorial / status page for every supported coreboot mainboard. The status table is always implemented using the [[Template:Status|status template]] in this wiki. A [[Template:Status#Usage_Example|usage example]] is available, but you can also look at existing status pages.
 For each item in the status table, this page describes how you can test the respective hardware part.

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:40, 18 November 2007
Line 19:		Line 19:

	==== IDE-to-CF ====		==== IDE-to-CF ====
		+
		+	=== On-board USB ===
		+
		+	* Test at least one "full-speed" (USB 1.1) device (e.g. USB keyboard) and one "hi-speed" (USB 2.0) device (e.g. DVB-T adapter).
		+	* Test both of the above devices on all available USB connectors. This includes the usual on-board connectors, but there may also be pin headers on the board where you can add further USB connectors.

	== Add-on slots/cards ==		== Add-on slots/cards ==

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 * Try loading the '''ppdev''' and '''parport_pc''' kernel modules: '''modprobe ppdev; modprobe parport_pc'''. Check if there were errors using <tt>dmesg</tt>.
 * Try to actually use a parallel port device (e.g. a printer).
-* If there are errors/problems, please post the '''superiotool -dV''' output on the [[Mailinglist|mailing list]] and ask the developers for help.
+* If there are errors/problems, please post the '''[[Superiotool|superiotool -dV]]''' output on the [[Mailinglist|mailing list]] and ask the developers for help.
 === PC speaker ===

@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 * Try to actually use a parallel port device (e.g. a printer).
-=== PC Speaker ===
+=== PC speaker ===
 * Try to create a beep on the PC speaker. There are various ways to do that, e.g. you can use the Debian package '''beep''' ('''apt-get install beep''').

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:49, 2 November 2007
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	This page gives you hints how to test the LinuxBIOS support for your mainboard and all components present on the board.	+	This page gives you hints on how to test the LinuxBIOS support for your mainboard and all components present on the board.
		+
		+	We try to maintain one build tutorial / status page for every supported LinuxBIOS mainboard. The status table is always implemented using the [[Template:Status\|status template]] in this wiki. A [[Template:Status#Usage_Example\|usage example]] is available, but you can also look at existing status pages.
		+
		+	For each item in the status table, this page describes how you can test the respective hardware part.
		+

	== RAM ==		== RAM ==