Re: [coreboot] flashrom and list of computers

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

Hi,

does anybody have an idea what to do if ICH6 BIOS Lock is enabled and
BIOS Write is disabled? Removing the lock bit seems to fail according to
flashrom.

On 06.06.2008 16:55, walter harms wrote:
> Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> > On 06.06.2008 09:10, walter harms wrote:
> > > my idea was to use dmidecode that i can get informations like that:
> > >
> > > Handle 0x0100
> > >         DMI type 1, 25 bytes.
> > >         System Information
> > >                 Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
> > >                 Product Name: OptiPlex GX280
> > >                 Version: Not Specified
> >
> > Sometimes dmidecode also has information on BIOS size. Having that info
> > as well would be nice.
>
> Handle 0x0000
>         DMI type 0, 20 bytes.
>         BIOS Information
>                 Vendor: Dell Inc.
>                 ROM Size: 512 kB
> > If there are machines where flashrom does not find a flash chip, please
> > run flashrom -V.
>
> attached

Thanks.

Found chipset "Intel ICH6/ICH6R", enabling flash write...
BIOS Lock Enable: enabled, BIOS Write Enable: disabled, BIOS_CNTL is 0x2
tried to set 0xdc to 0x3 on Intel ICH6/ICH6R failed (WARNING ONLY)
FAILED!

Dell has locked the BIOS against writing. We try to unlock it, but we fail.

Does the BIOS have any settings like "BIOS/Flash write protection" or
something similar?
> note: please understand that i have no intention to run ./flashrom -w before i am totaly
> sure that i can revert that.

OK. Good decision.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel

flashrom and list of computers

[Stefan Reinauer]

Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> Hi,
>
> does anybody have an idea what to do if ICH6 BIOS Lock is enabled and
> BIOS Write is disabled? Removing the lock bit seems to fail according to
> flashrom.

Yes, put a magic signature somewhere, go to S3 and wake up again.

Stefan

flashrom and list of computers

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

On 06.06.2008 21:08, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > does anybody have an idea what to do if ICH6 BIOS Lock is enabled and
> > BIOS Write is disabled? Removing the lock bit seems to fail according to
> > flashrom.
>
> Yes, put a magic signature somewhere, go to S3 and wake up again.

Thanks. I'm not sure this applies to Dell machines as well, though,
because they use an in-BIOS flash updater which looks for a complete
BIOS image at a few predefined memory locations after every soft reboot.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel

flashrom and list of computers

[Stefan Reinauer]

Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> On 06.06.2008 21:08, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> > Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > does anybody have an idea what to do if ICH6 BIOS Lock is enabled and
> > > BIOS Write is disabled? Removing the lock bit seems to fail according to
> > > flashrom.
> >
> > Yes, put a magic signature somewhere, go to S3 and wake up again.
>
> Thanks. I'm not sure this applies to Dell machines as well, though,
> because they use an in-BIOS flash updater which looks for a complete
> BIOS image at a few predefined memory locations after every soft reboot.

The method is probably very similar, flashing is locked down by SMM
while in OS context. Not much you can do
(well, check whether the SMM handler is locked, too, and replace it, for
example)

flashrom and list of computers

[Darmawan Salihun]

On Sat, Jun 7, 2008 at 2:08 AM, Stefan Reinauer  wrote:
> Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > does anybody have an idea what to do if ICH6 BIOS Lock is enabled and
> > BIOS Write is disabled? Removing the lock bit seems to fail according to
> > flashrom.
>
> Yes, put a magic signature somewhere, go to S3 and wake up again.

I read about this method somewhere in Phoenix BIOS Windows flash utility
 documentation a few years ago. But, not sure yet whether it's reliable enough.

Have you test it? or is it already integrated in current flashrom?
> Stefan