[adding flashrom@flashrom.org to CC] On 03.10.2009 18:40, Peter Stuge wrote:

Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:

...

Given that flashrom already has a generic image layout feature, I propose to have cbfstool spit out an image layout file which is then read by flashrom. This makes flashrom independent of CBFS and that's a good thing (think upgrade).

This is trivial to implement and might be a good first step, but it's absolutely horrible from a usability perspective;

The user would need to keep track of and understand no less than two tools, AND an intermediary layout file, in order to perform the single task of partial firmware update.

The user has to understand cbfstool and lar anyway right now if he/she wants to do anything useful with fallback/normal. The user also has to understand flashrom to flash the resulting image. The user will not directly inspect the ROM image, nor will he/she directly inspect the layout file.

I think it is quite neccessary for flashrom to understand CBFS (and LAR, for v3 users).

What about WPH and other formats from proprietary BIOS vendors? Flashrom has more users who deal with WPH and related formats than it has users who deal with CBFS or LAR. IIRC the Unix philosophy is roughly "Create programs that do one thing and do it well. Use simple programs together." I like that philosophy. One option would be to have cbfstool and lar execute the flashrom binary. Regards, Carl-Daniel -- http://www.hailfinger.org/