[LinuxBIOS] Support for Abit AV8? Suggestion for AM2 board?

[Uwe Hermann]

On Fri, Oct 20, 2006 at 11:40:54PM +0200, Dan Armak wrote:
> > You do. It's your motherboard :) 
> Yes, I know that :-) I meant I don't have special equipment for flashing the 
> chip outside the motherboard. That's why I thought it didn't matter whether 
> it was removable or not. 
> 
> The thought of buying a blank one hadn't occurred to me. I'm purely a software 
> guy. I wouldn't know what to buy...

Just buy the same one that's already in your mainboard, that's the
easiest option. The chips should be available from most electronics stores.
An example in Germany: http://www.bios-chip.de/bios-chips,_leer.htm

Some chips supported by 'flashrom' are listed here:
http://www.linuxbios.org/Supported_Chipsets_and_Devices#Flash_Devices_Supported_by_the_.22flashrom.22_Utility


> I don't want to use linuxbios if there's a non-negligible chance of trashing 
> my motherboard in the process. If there's no suitable board I can buy and 
> expect to work, and if I have to do stuff like replacing the BIOS chip, then 
> I'll probably just give it up for now.

It's not as bad as I probably made it sound :) The risk to damage your
board is very very small, AFAIK. The worst that can usually happen is
that you overwrite your BIOS chip with a bogus image and cannot boot
anymore. Or put it in the socket the wrong way(which I did once), in
which case it'll get pretty hot and will probably be damaged (usually
only the chip though, but not your board).

The solution is to pull a backup image first, and flash it to an empty
chip, test booting with that chip, and if it works put it in your bank
safe :) From there you can mess up if you want, as you can always use
that working backup BIOS chip if things go wrong.

The http://www.bios-chip.de/ website (for example) also offers BIOS
chips which are already flashed with your factory (AMI/AWARD/Phoenix)
BIOS for ca. 10 Euros, that's another easy way to get a backup...


Uwe.
-- 
Uwe Hermann 
http://www.hermann-uwe.de
http://www.it-services-uh.de  | http://www.crazy-hacks.org 
http://www.holsham-traders.de | http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org
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