BIOS. Read failed. Transaction error.

[thirumalai kumar]

Hi,

I am trying to update BIOS using flashrom in linux. This is Intel haswell
board. i am trying to read the chipset name and download the existing BIOS
image to verify whether flashrom is supported on this board or not. After
this i am planning to use flashrom to upgrade BIOS on this. But the read
operation itself is failing. Attached the log.

*./flashrom -p internal*

*Calibrating delay loop... OK.*

*Found chipset "Intel C610/X99 (Wellsburg)".*
*This chipset is marked as untested. If you are using an up-to-date version*
*of flashrom *and* were (not) able to successfully update your firmware
with it,*
*then please email a report to [e-mail]
 including a verbose (-V) log.*
*Thank you!*
*Enabling flash write... Warning: BIOS region SMM protection is enabled!*
*Warning: Setting Bios Control at 0xdc from 0x2a to 0x09 failed.*
*New value is 0x2b.*
*Warning: SPI Configuration Lockdown activated.*
*FREG2: Warning: Management Engine region (0x00011000-0x007fffff) is
locked.*
*Not all flash regions are freely accessible by flashrom. This is most
likely*
*due to an active ME. Please see https://flashrom.org/ME
https://flashrom.org/ME for details.*
*Writes have been disabled for safety reasons. You can enforce write*
*support with the ich_spi_force programmer option, but you will most likely*
*harm your hardware! If you force flashrom you will get no support if*
*something breaks. On a few mainboards it is possible to enable write*
*access by setting a jumper (see its documentation or the board itself).*
*OK.*
*Found Winbond flash chip "W25Q128.V" (16384 kB, SPI) mapped at physical
address 0xff000000.*
*No operations were specified.*

The log for BIOS f/w download operation.

*./flashrom -p internal -r bios_backup.bin*
*flashrom v0.9.9-r1955 on Linux 2.6.32-573.el6.x86_64 (x86_64)*
*flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org
https://flashrom.org*

*Calibrating delay loop... OK.*

*Found chipset "Intel C610/X99 (Wellsburg)".*
*This chipset is marked as untested. If you are using an up-to-date version*
*of flashrom *and* were (not) able to successfully update your firmware
with it,*
*then please email a report to [e-mail]
 including a verbose (-V) log.*
*Thank you!*
*Enabling flash write... Warning: BIOS region SMM protection is enabled!*
*Warning: Setting Bios Control at 0xdc from 0x2a to 0x09 failed.*
*New value is 0x2b.*
*Warning: SPI Configuration Lockdown activated.*
*FREG2: Warning: Management Engine region (0x00011000-0x007fffff) is
locked.*
*Not all flash regions are freely accessible by flashrom. This is most
likely*
*due to an active ME. Please see https://flashrom.org/ME
https://flashrom.org/ME for details.*
*Writes have been disabled for safety reasons. You can enforce write*
*support with the ich_spi_force programmer option, but you will most likely*
*harm your hardware! If you force flashrom you will get no support if*
*something breaks. On a few mainboards it is possible to enable write*
*access by setting a jumper (see its documentation or the board itself).*
*OK.*
*Found Winbond flash chip "W25Q128.V" (16384 kB, SPI) mapped at physical
address 0xff000000.*
*Reading flash... Transaction error!*
*Read operation failed!*
*FAILED.*

Is the read operation failing due to the presence of ME region? Do i need
to use vendor provided flasher utility to upgrade BIOS?

Thanks in advance.

-Thiru