Programmers

[Keith Emery]

G'day

I read recently you were interested in expanding the list of programmers 
supported by flashrom.
I would recommend supporting those that appear on ebay; as they are 
cheap and readily available.
In Particular the following as it happens to be the one I already own.  :)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/XTW100-Programmer-USB-Motherboard-BIOS-SPI-FLASH-24-...

lsusb -v is as follows:

Bus 004 Device 002: ID 16c0:05dc Van Ooijen Technische Informatica 
shared ID for use with libusb
Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
Device Descriptor:
   bLength                18
   bDescriptorType         1
   bcdUSB               1.10
   bDeviceClass          255 Vendor Specific Class
Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
   bDeviceSubClass         0
   bDeviceProtocol         0
   bMaxPacketSize0         8
   idVendor           0x16c0 Van Ooijen Technische Informatica
   idProduct          0x05dc shared ID for use with libusb
   bcdDevice            1.00
   iManufacturer           1
   iProduct                2
   iSerial                 0
   bNumConfigurations      1
   Configuration Descriptor:
     bLength                 9
     bDescriptorType         2
     wTotalLength           18
     bNumInterfaces          1
     bConfigurationValue     1
     iConfiguration          0
     bmAttributes         0x40
       (Missing must-be-set bit!)
       Self Powered
     MaxPower               20mA
     Interface Descriptor:
       bLength                 9
       bDescriptorType         4
       bInterfaceNumber        0
       bAlternateSetting       0
       bNumEndpoints           0
       bInterfaceClass         0 (Defined at Interface level)
       bInterfaceSubClass      0
       bInterfaceProtocol      0
       iInterface              0

[Stefan Tauner]

On Sat, 29 Aug 2015 03:51:48 +1000
Keith Emery  wrote:
> G'day
>
> I read recently you were interested in expanding the list of programmers 
> supported by flashrom.
> I would recommend supporting those that appear on ebay; as they are 
> cheap and readily available.
> In Particular the following as it happens to be the one I already own.  :)
>
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/XTW100-Programmer-USB-Motherboard-BIOS-SPI-FLASH-24-...

Hi,

of course we are interested in adding support for new programmers but
this is not how it works. :) If the communication protocol is known,
then write and send a patch that adds support. If there is no public
protocol specification someone interested and skilled enough needs to
reverse engineer how communication with the programmer works first.
Don't expect anyone but yourself to do this work... in the best case
you will be pleasantly surprised if someone beats you to it.

[Keith Emery]

Fair enough.  Though I had one more question which as of yet I haven't 
been able to get a straight answer.  Is there any flashrom supported 
programmers that I can just buy?

UEFI freezing or rebooting every 40 minutes.  Usually in the middle of 
these sorts of emails.
Is getting... rather old.  :(

On 29/08/15 07:44, Stefan Tauner wrote:
> On Sat, 29 Aug 2015 03:51:48 +1000
> Keith Emery  wrote:
> > G'day
> >
> > I read recently you were interested in expanding the list of programmers
> > supported by flashrom.
> > I would recommend supporting those that appear on ebay; as they are
> > cheap and readily available.
> > In Particular the following as it happens to be the one I already own.  :)
> >
> > http://www.ebay.com/itm/XTW100-Programmer-USB-Motherboard-BIOS-SPI-FLASH-24-...
>
> Hi,
>
> of course we are interested in adding support for new programmers but
> this is not how it works. :) If the communication protocol is known,
> then write and send a patch that adds support. If there is no public
> protocol specification someone interested and skilled enough needs to
> reverse engineer how communication with the programmer works first.
> Don't expect anyone but yourself to do this work... in the best case
> you will be pleasantly surprised if someone beats you to it.

[Stefan Tauner]

On Sat, 29 Aug 2015 08:47:51 +1000
Keith Emery  wrote:
> Fair enough.  Though I had one more question which as of yet I haven't 
> been able to get a straight answer.  Is there any flashrom supported 
> programmers that I can just buy?

Various if you only need to access SPI flash chips (which is likely on
modern platforms), you may even own compatible hardware already.
Arduinos can be made to work as programmers, RaspberryPis or
BeagleBones work almost out of the box etc. See our wiki for more
details.
> UEFI freezing or rebooting every 40 minutes.  Usually in the middle of 
> these sorts of emails.
> Is getting... rather old.  :(

I knew that UEFI allows for complete network stacks in the firmware but
this is the first time I hear about an email client ;)