flashrom failure on Shuttle barebone

[Ulf Mehlig]

I courageously tried to flash my Shuttle xpc SN25P10-H3Ih00-13's
bios via flashrom after writing my original bios to a file ("flashrom -r
test.img"). Then, I tried to write the most recent flash image provided
by Shuttle to the bios, which failed. Writing back the previously saved
file failed, too, with a different error message. The machine is still
switched on.

Of course, _any_ help is appreciated!
Ulf

ulf-pc:~# flashrom
flashrom v0.9.1-r706
No coreboot table found.
Found chipset "NVIDIA CK804", enabling flash write... OK.
This chipset supports the following protocols: Non-SPI.
Calibrating delay loop... OK.
Found chip "SST SST49LF004A/B" (512 KB, FWH) at physical address
0xfff80000.
No operations were specified.
ulf-pc:~# flashrom -w /tmp/floppy/fn25s02a.bin 
flashrom v0.9.1-r706
No coreboot table found.
Found chipset "NVIDIA CK804", enabling flash write... OK.
This chipset supports the following protocols: Non-SPI.
Calibrating delay loop... OK.
Found chip "SST SST49LF004A/B" (512 KB, FWH) at physical address
0xfff80000.
Flash image seems to be a legacy BIOS. Disabling checks.
Writing flash chip... Programming page: 0007 at address: 0x00070000
COMPLETE.
Verifying flash... VERIFY FAILED at 0x00005455! Expected=0xff,
Read=0xaa, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x0007ffff: 0x50d2
Your flash chip is in an unknown state.
Get help on IRC at irc.freenode.net channel #flashrom or
mail [e-mail]
------------------------------------------------------------
DO NOT REBOOT OR POWEROFF!
ulf-pc:~# flashrom -w test.img 
flashrom v0.9.1-r706
No coreboot table found.
Found chipset "NVIDIA CK804", enabling flash write... OK.
This chipset supports the following protocols: Non-SPI.
Calibrating delay loop... OK.
Found chip "SST SST49LF004A/B" (512 KB, FWH) at physical address
0xfff80000.
Flash image seems to be a legacy BIOS. Disabling checks.
Writing flash chip... ERASE FAILED at 0x0006b000! Expected=0xff,
Read=0x00, failed byte count from 0x00060000-0x0006ffff: 0x3e21
ERASE FAILED!
ERASE FAILED!
ERASE FAILED!
ERASE FAILED!
FAILED!
Your flash chip is in an unknown state.
Get help on IRC at irc.freenode.net channel #flashrom or
mail [e-mail]
------------------------------------------------------------
DO NOT REBOOT OR POWEROFF!

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

Hi Ulf,

it looks like we can recover this machine, but it's difficult to do that
over e-mail. Can you join #flashrom at irc.freenode.net ? If joining IRC
directly is not possible at your place, you can try
http://webchat.freenode.net/

On 22.09.2009 23:03, Ulf Mehlig wrote:
> I courageously tried to flash my Shuttle xpc SN25P10-H3Ih00-13's
> bios via flashrom after writing my original bios to a file ("flashrom -r
> test.img"). Then, I tried to write the most recent flash image provided
> by Shuttle to the bios, which failed. Writing back the previously saved
> file failed, too, with a different error message. The machine is still
> switched on.

Good. As long as the machine is on, we can try to fix it.

I have edited the log below to show the most important parts.
> ulf-pc:~# flashrom -w /tmp/floppy/fn25s02a.bin 
> flashrom v0.9.1-r706
> Found chipset "NVIDIA CK804", enabling flash write... OK.
> Found chip "SST SST49LF004A/B" (512 KB, FWH)
> Writing flash chip... Programming page: 0007 at address: 0x00070000
> COMPLETE.
> Verifying flash... VERIFY FAILED at 0x00005455! Expected=0xff,
> Read=0xaa, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x0007ffff: 0x50d2

I have never seen the above message combination before: Apparently
working erase, but still the old contents there. Unless there is some
magic thing (odd timing) happening, I can't explain this.
> ulf-pc:~# flashrom -w test.img 
> flashrom v0.9.1-r706
> No coreboot table found.
> Found chipset "NVIDIA CK804", enabling flash write... OK.
> This chipset supports the following protocols: Non-SPI.
> Calibrating delay loop... OK.
> Found chip "SST SST49LF004A/B" (512 KB, FWH)
> Writing flash chip... ERASE FAILED at 0x0006b000! Expected=0xff,
> Read=0x00, failed byte count from 0x00060000-0x0006ffff: 0x3e21

Now this I can explain. We need a board enable and you're good to go.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel

[ron minnich]

first test: do a flashrom -v test.img.

Maybe the flash part is untouched.

If that's not it, then we are going to have to search for the magic
flash write enable, which I just had to do on a dell s150 so am used
to doing.

ron