[LinuxBIOS] RD1 BIOS Savior [was Re: No known linux compatable BIOS programmer ?]

Luc Verhaegen libv at skynet.be
Mon Jun 4 20:42:56 CEST 2007


On Mon, Jun 04, 2007 at 05:39:37PM +0200, Peter Stuge wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 02, 2007 at 03:29:08PM -0400, Jeremy Jackson wrote:
> > Sorry to jump in a bit late here, but for parallel flash, what
> > about using a NIC with a boot ROM socket?  I've used that for both
> > PLCC32 and DIP32 parts.
> 
> You mean for salvaging flash parts? They're usually small. 128kb.
> 
> The flash chip on those cards isn't reachable until after PCI init
> has set an address for it so it's not that handy for booting.
> 
> Sorry - what are you suggesting? :)
> 
> 
> //Peter

Well, this is just for flashrom i think, you only tend to run flashrom 
when running an operating system :)

This is a good idea, and somebody on irc recently brought it up (too?).  

ctflasher has some (oddly licensed) code to this end, and there is no 
need to copy this code, as the actual functionality is limited to 
knowing which BAR to use and what offset address. ctflasher and author 
should of course be mentioned for good measure.

Now, the code in there is for:
* via rhine
* 3com vortex
* those intel 100base cards
* those common realtek chips.

I currently have all but the intel cards, and these sadly all have DIP
roms, but this should be enough to get such an implementation started.

Also, uniflash has some code for some graphics cards. I sadly only have 
one graphics card with a PLCC flash, and i'm not sure if flashing 
through that is supported by the hardware, let alone me finding out how 
to pull it off. But i will hopefully, in time, be able to add support 
for many graphics cards.

If somebody wants to have a crack at implementing any of this before me, 
please, by all means, do, i have so many things piling up now that it 
ain't fun any more :)

Also, implementation wise, we might want flashrom to take in a pcitag 
for this sort of flashing to be enabled. This is a reasonably idiot 
proof solution as to not accidentally flash the wrong rom to the wrong 
place.

Luc Verhaegen.




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