Author: uwe Date: Mon Jul 25 23:12:57 2011 New Revision: 1387 URL: http://flashrom.org/trac/flashrom/changeset/1387
Log: Random manpage improvements and updates.
Signed-off-by: Uwe Hermann uwe@hermann-uwe.de Acked-by: Carl-Daniel Hailfinger c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006@gmx.net
Modified: trunk/flashrom.8
Modified: trunk/flashrom.8 ============================================================================== --- trunk/flashrom.8 Mon Jul 25 22:38:52 2011 (r1386) +++ trunk/flashrom.8 Mon Jul 25 23:12:57 2011 (r1387) @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -.TH FLASHROM 8 "Jun 14, 2011" +.TH FLASHROM 8 "Jul 25, 2011" .SH NAME flashrom - detect, read, write, verify and erase flash chips .SH SYNOPSIS @@ -12,13 +12,14 @@ .B flashrom is a utility for detecting, reading, writing, verifying and erasing flash chips. It's often used to flash BIOS/EFI/coreboot/firmware images in-system -using a supported mainboard, but it also supports flashing of network cards -(NICs), SATA controller cards, and other external devices which can program -flash chips. +using a supported mainboard. However, it also supports various external +PCI/USB/parallel-port/serial-port based devices which can program flash chips, +including some network cards (NICs), SATA/IDE controller cards, graphics cards, +the Bus Pirate device, various FTDI FT2232/FT4232H based USB devices, and more. .PP It supports a wide range of DIP32, PLCC32, DIP8, SO8/SOIC8, TSOP32, TSOP40, -and TSOP48 chips, which use various protocols such as LPC, FWH, parallel flash, -or SPI. +TSOP48, and BGA chips, which use various protocols such as LPC, FWH, +parallel flash, or SPI. .SH OPTIONS .B IMPORTANT: Please note that the command line interface for flashrom will change before @@ -30,7 +31,7 @@ or no operation. If no operation is specified, flashrom will only probe for flash chips. It is recommended that if you try flashrom the first time on a system, you run it -in probe only mode and check the output. Also you are advised to make a +in probe-only mode and check the output. Also you are advised to make a backup of your current ROM contents with .B -r before you try to write a new image. @@ -38,6 +39,7 @@ .B "-r, --read <file>" Read flash ROM contents and save them into the given .BR <file> . +If the file already exists, it will be overwritten. .TP .B "-w, --write <file>" Write @@ -144,7 +146,8 @@ from flash layout. .TP .B "-L, --list-supported" -List the flash chips, chipsets, mainboards, and PCI card "programmers" +List the flash chips, chipsets, mainboards, and external programmers +(including PCI, USB, parallel port, and serial port based devices) supported by flashrom. .sp There are many unlisted boards which will work out of the box, without @@ -160,8 +163,9 @@ Same as .BR --list-supported , but outputs the supported hardware in MediaWiki syntax, so that it can be -easily pasted into the wiki page at http://www.flashrom.org/. Please note -that MediaWiki output is not compiled in by default. +easily pasted into the wiki page at +.BR http://www.flashrom.org/ . +Please note that MediaWiki output is not compiled in by default. .TP .B "-p, --programmer <name>[:parameter[,parameter[,parameter]]]" Specify the programmer device. Currently supported are: @@ -489,7 +493,7 @@ four. Make sure to not forget the "0x" prefix for hexadecimal port addresses. .sp More information about the hardware is available at -http://rayer.ic.cz/elektro/spipgm.htm +.BR http://rayer.ic.cz/elektro/spipgm.htm . .TP .BR "ogp_spi " programmer The flash ROM chip to access must be specified with the @@ -517,7 +521,7 @@ section above. .sp More information about the hardware is available at -http://wiki.opengraphics.org +.BR http://wiki.opengraphics.org . .SH EXIT STATUS flashrom exits with 0 on success, 1 on most failures but with 2 if /dev/mem (/dev/xsvc on Solaris) can not be opened and with 3 if a call to mmap() fails. @@ -571,8 +575,10 @@ needs PCI configuration space read access and raw memory access. .sp On OpenBSD, you can obtain raw access permission by setting -securelevel=-1 in /etc/rc.securelevel and rebooting, or rebooting into single -user mode. +.B "securelevel=-1" +in +.B "/etc/rc.securelevel" +and rebooting, or rebooting into single user mode. .SH BUGS Please report any bugs at .sp @@ -590,6 +596,10 @@ backup. This is caused by the embedded controller (EC) present in many laptops, which interacts badly with any flash attempts. This is a hardware limitation and flashrom will attempt to detect it and abort immediately for safety reasons. +.sp +More information about flashrom on laptops is available from +.sp +.B " http://www.flashrom.org/Laptops" .SH LICENSE .B flashrom is covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2. Some files are