brick avoidance

[Joe Korty]

Hi and good morning,
I am new to this coreboot thing.  I would like to know
what techniques people are using to avoid bricking their
motherboard the first time they use coreboot (ie, at the
point when a person is completely ignorant about what they
are doing).

I've looked into the IOSS RD1-LPC8 Bios Savior but haven't
been able to get a response from the company.  I suspect
that the product is no longer available.  Too bad, that
looked like it was exactly what I needed.

My motherboard is the H8DME-2 with an 8 MB LPC flash.

Regards,
Joe

[Knut Kujat]

Joe Korty escribió:
> Hi and good morning,
> I am new to this coreboot thing.  I would like to know
> what techniques people are using to avoid bricking their
> motherboard the first time they use coreboot (ie, at the
> point when a person is completely ignorant about what they
> are doing).
>
> I've looked into the IOSS RD1-LPC8 Bios Savior but haven't
> been able to get a response from the company.  I suspect
> that the product is no longer available.  Too bad, that
> looked like it was exactly what I needed.
>
> My motherboard is the H8DME-2 with an 8 MB LPC flash.
>
> Regards,
> Joe

Hi,

I'm using extra flash chips and a second motherboard with the same
socket to write them (Hotflashing). And to better handle the chips, I
glued a pin head  (without the needle, of course ;)) on top of them.
http://www.coreboot.org/Developer_Manual/Tools

bye,
Knut Kujat

[Anders Jenbo]

Find or buy a spare flash ROM (you could the one from another board  
and back it up so you can restor it when you are done).
Turn on the system, pull out the original ROM and put it some where  
safe. Put in your spare and start flashing.
If you ever brick it you can always put the original back in to start  
the system.

Mvh Anders

Den 27/04/2010 kl. 16.52 skrev Knut Kujat :
> Joe Korty escribió:
> > Hi and good morning,
> > I am new to this coreboot thing.  I would like to know
> > what techniques people are using to avoid bricking their
> > motherboard the first time they use coreboot (ie, at the
> > point when a person is completely ignorant about what they
> > are doing).
> >
> > I've looked into the IOSS RD1-LPC8 Bios Savior but haven't
> > been able to get a response from the company.  I suspect
> > that the product is no longer available.  Too bad, that
> > looked like it was exactly what I needed.
> >
> > My motherboard is the H8DME-2 with an 8 MB LPC flash.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Joe
>
> Hi,
>
> I'm using extra flash chips and a second motherboard with the same
> socket to write them (Hotflashing). And to better handle the chips, I
> glued a pin head  (without the needle, of course ;)) on top of them.
> http://www.coreboot.org/Developer_Manual/Tools
>
> bye,
> Knut Kujat

[ron minnich]

buy two flash roms. Make two copies of factory bios. Save one
somewhere really really safe.

Because, sooner or later, you are going to forget and accidentally
flash over the factory bios, and then you'll be sad.

ron

[Joe Korty]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 11:50:04AM -0400, ron minnich wrote:
> buy two flash roms. Make two copies of factory bios. Save one
> somewhere really really safe.
>
> Because, sooner or later, you are going to forget and accidentally
> flash over the factory bios, and then you'll be sad.

Yes, very sad:)  The double-backup approach is now in my plans..
Thanks,
Joe

[Anders Jenbo]

Just a hint, they don't have to be the same model or even brand.

Mvh Anders

Den 27/04/2010 kl. 17.55 skrev Joe Korty :
> On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 11:50:04AM -0400, ron minnich wrote:
> > buy two flash roms. Make two copies of factory bios. Save one
> > somewhere really really safe.
> >
> > Because, sooner or later, you are going to forget and accidentally
> > flash over the factory bios, and then you'll be sad.
>
> Yes, very sad:)  The double-backup approach is now in my plans..
> Thanks,
> Joe

[Peter Stuge]

Anders Jenbo wrote:
> Just a hint, they don't have to be the same model or even brand.

But make sure that they are compatible. You mentioned that you have
8Mb LPC flash, so some candidates would be:

SST49LF080
Winbond W39V080A  (NOTE! not 080FA, which is incompatible)
PMC Pm49FL004T  (yes, only 4 Mbit)

Nothing with Intel brand, they are all incompatible.

//Peter

[Joe Korty]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 01:38:58PM -0400, Peter Stuge wrote:
> Anders Jenbo wrote:
> > Just a hint, they don't have to be the same model or even brand.
>
> But make sure that they are compatible. You mentioned that you have
> 8Mb LPC flash, so some candidates would be:
>
> SST49LF080
> Winbond W39V080A  (NOTE! not 080FA, which is incompatible)
> PMC Pm49FL004T  (yes, only 4 Mbit)
>
> Nothing with Intel brand, they are all incompatible.

Thanks.  The mb shipped with the SST49LF080A and I have
found that exact part which I just ordered a handful of.
Hope they come soon, I want to play with this!

Regards,
Joe

[Peter Stuge]

Joe Korty wrote:
> > so some candidates would be:
> >
> > SST49LF080
>
> Thanks.  The mb shipped with the SST49LF080A and I have
> found that exact part which I just ordered a handful of.

Great! I hope the suffix matches too, I guess it would be -33-4C-NHE.
Sorry, I should have mentioned that. But as long as it is PLCC, the
suffix doesn't really matter.

//Peter

[Anders Jenbo]

Good lock :)

Mvh Anders

Den 27/04/2010 kl. 21.54 skrev Peter Stuge :
> Joe Korty wrote:
> > > so some candidates would be:
> > >
> > > SST49LF080
> >
> > Thanks.  The mb shipped with the SST49LF080A and I have
> > found that exact part which I just ordered a handful of.
>
> Great! I hope the suffix matches too, I guess it would be -33-4C-NHE.
> Sorry, I should have mentioned that. But as long as it is PLCC, the
> suffix doesn't really matter.
>
> //Peter

[Christian Leber]

On Tuesday 27 April 2010 15:55:51 Joe Korty wrote:

Hi Joe
> My motherboard is the H8DME-2 with an 8 MB LPC flash.

You can either buy empty flash chips of the same type and program them 
yourself or you can buy already programmed chips from many small shops or on 
ebay. (you should also buy such a removal tool)
(just google a bit to find such a shop, probably also someone can suggest such 
a shop in the US)

For development there are LPI emulation devices, so you can save the time to 
program a chip for experimenting.

Christian