Helge,
Unable to recover the server
that was corrupted yesterday. I’ve followed the procedures provided by
Supermicro and I’m going to have to send back the server to be
re-flashed. During my initial testing I back leveled the BIOS to 1.0B and with
“flashrom” I was able to move the BIOS to version 1.1 and it boot
just fine. My second test which caused the corrupted state was a change in a
setting of the 1.1 BIOS (to ensure if an maintainer makes a BIOS change I can
recover by loading up the original settings) and a reboot which work. When I
reload 1.1 with the original settings it finished correctly but now I’m
failing to boot?
Thanks again,
John
From: Johnson, Je
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 8:40 AM
To: 'Wagner, Helge (GE Intelligent Platforms)'
Cc: flashrom@flashrom.org
Subject: RE: [flashrom] Flashrom Issues
Helge,
Thanks for the information
concerning the SPI ROMs errors. I’ll test the patch this morning and let
you know the results. I’m still a little concerned that reloading the
same BIOS and rebooting caused my server to stop booting and I’m not
seeing any displays? I did run a verify after flashing the BIOS and everything
seemed fine. I’m the OS technical lead here in Manassas and I support
over 12 different programs. I’m pushing to start using the
“flashrom” program for all of our BIOS updates (as long as the
motherboards are supported).
It’s time we get away from
the floppy/CD solution of installing and updating the BIOS.
Thanks again,
John
From: Wagner, Helge (GE
Intelligent Platforms) [mailto:Helge.Wagner@ge.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 2:53 AM
To: Johnson, Je
Cc: flashrom@flashrom.org
Subject: EXTERNAL: RE: [flashrom] Flashrom Issues
You can ignore these "spi_block_erase_xx failed" errors
as for the SPI ROMs there are some erase functions defined (with different
block sizes), and when at least one of them is successful, the erase will
finally work.
And as you told it stated that it was successfully, so what you
have in the flash should be the same as in the file.
Can you try to clear the RTC/CMOS RAM? (remove battery for 10
minutes, use a jumper if available, see manual)?
If that doesn't help: follow the procedure outlined in the
"AMI BIOS Recovery" manual at http://www.supermicro.com/support/manuals/
Some additional notes about the erase error messages:
The errors occur because on the ICH SPI engines you have to program
a list of supported commands. This list is filled at program start with the
most common SPI commands, and if one of the commands used by the erase
functions is not in this list, this specific erase will fail (but as
told before: one of the erase functions defined for your SPI flash chips
should work).
I have created a patch to dynamically re-program the list of
supported commands on-the-fly, so that no command should fail after the patch
is applied. You can find the patch here: http://www.flashrom.org/pipermail/flashrom/2010-August/004331.html ("[flashrom]
Speedup SST 25VF032B and 25VF064C programming").
Regards,
Helge
From: flashrom-bounces@flashrom.org
[mailto:flashrom-bounces@flashrom.org] On Behalf Of Johnson, Je
Sent: Montag, 9. August 2010 21:38
To: flashrom@flashrom.org
Subject: [flashrom] Flashrom Issues
I’ve been working with a Supermicro X8DA3/DAI mother board
running with RHEL ES 5.4 (2.6.30.9). I compiled the latest version of
“flashrom 0.9.2) and was able to capture my current BIOS by running
“flashrom –r X8DA3.BIOS”. After capturing the BIOS I reloaded
it by issuing the following command “flashrom –w X8DA3.BIOS”.
I was told that the write was successful, but saw the following errors:
Writing flash chip… Erasing
flash before programming Erasing Flash Chip… spi_block_erase_20 failed
during command execution at address 0x0
Spi_block_erase_52 failed during
command execution at address 0x0
Since it stated that it was successfully, I simply reset the
server and now it’s failing to boot?
Any help in understanding in what went wrong or if my
motherboard is not fully support ( I did run the check initially to ensure the
chipset was support).
Thanks,
John Johnson
Lockheed Martin
Manassas, VA