FlashROM on VIA EPIA EN12000EG

[Sebastian Schuberth]

Hi,

this is just to report that I succeeded reading the BIOS using
FlashROM 0.9.0 from my VIA EPIA EN12000EG motherboard. I haven't tried
writing the BIOS yet. The only small issue I had was that my
motherboard is reported to be from the "CN" rather than the "EN"
series:

Calibrating delay loop... OK.
No coreboot table found.
Found chipset "VIA VT8237", enabling flash write... OK.
Found board "VIA EPIA-CN", enabling flash write... OK.
Found chip "SST SST49LF004A/B" (512 KB) at physical address 0xfff80000.
Reading flash... done.

I don't know if it's even technically possible to distinguish the CN
and EN series, or if they are simply too close / almost identical from
a chipset etc. view, but I'd be happy to help out improving this, if I
can.

[Peter Stuge]

Sebastian Schuberth wrote:
> I don't know if it's even technically possible to distinguish the
> CN and EN series, or if they are simply too close / almost
> identical from a chipset etc. view,

Yep, they are.
> but I'd be happy to help out improving this, if I can.

I think the solution is to just change the string, since the code
does what it should.

//Peter

[Uwe Hermann]

On Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 03:00:22PM +0200, Peter Stuge wrote:
> Sebastian Schuberth wrote:
> > I don't know if it's even technically possible to distinguish the
> > CN and EN series, or if they are simply too close / almost
> > identical from a chipset etc. view,
>
> Yep, they are.
> > but I'd be happy to help out improving this, if I can.
>
> I think the solution is to just change the string, since the code
> does what it should.

Yeah, by now I agree that we'll want to use more generic names for the
board enable (-m) option, e.g. "epia-mxxx" or so.

However, the -L and -z flashrom output of tested/supported boards should
list the exact names of the tested boards. I have a patch in preparation
to do that, will send soonish.

Sebastian, if you have a chance to test whether write/erase works fine
on your board, please let us know so we can add "VIA EPIA EN12000EG"
as supported / not supported.

Please only try to erase/write if you have a way to recover (backup chip etc).

Uwe.

[Sebastian Schuberth]

> > I think the solution is to just change the string, since the code
> > does what it should.
>
> Yeah, by now I agree that we'll want to use more generic names for the
> board enable (-m) option, e.g. "epia-mxxx" or so.
>
> However, the -L and -z flashrom output of tested/supported boards should
> list the exact names of the tested boards. I have a patch in preparation
> to do that, will send soonish.

So will your patch avoid the need to also mention the EPIA "EN" series
where currently only the "CN" series is mentioned?
> Sebastian, if you have a chance to test whether write/erase works fine
> on your board, please let us know so we can add "VIA EPIA EN12000EG"
> as supported / not supported.
>
> Please only try to erase/write if you have a way to recover (backup chip etc).

I'm sorry, as I have no way to recover I back away from testing write
support, but I can confirm reading seems to work just fine.

PS: Please CC me in replies as I'm not subscribed to the list.