Hello Ron,
Here is my take after reading the documentation (the documentation seems to be identical for the 440bx).
Intel (or some other BIOS maker) write a BIOS. This BIOS has the SMI handler in it. The SMI handler has a signature that it expects from the Flash software (written by the said BIOS maker). The signature is something that they won't want to divulge to keep people from inadvertently (maliciously) flashing BIOS.
So how can you get around this? The following steps seem logical: 1. Write your own BIOS that has an SMI handler with your own signature. 2. Use the Flash update utility for your Board to flash your BIOS into place 3. Write your own Flash update utility which supplies your signature to your BIOS
Or the following sequence of steps: 1. Write your own BIOS that has an SMI handler with your own signature. 2. Use LoadBios to put your BIOS in place (NOTE: you will be redefining the SMI handler at this point to be your own) 3. Proceed to write your BIOS to FLASH
Now that sounds simple enough but I suspect the tricky part is the SMI handler.
I really don't think the signature is that magical but rather a hand-shaking/security feature.
Wallace
-----Original Message----- From: Ronald G. Minnich [SMTP:rminnich@lanl.gov] Sent: Monday, February 07, 2000 4:32 PM To: openbios@elvis.informatik.uni-freiburg.de Subject: Re: [OpenBIOS] l440gx+ nvram writing ...
On Mon, 7 Feb 2000, Edwin Rhodes wrote:
Well if thats the case, lets hope to god that freedos will do the trick!
:)
not that simple. You'll still have to solve the problem for freedos of unlocking the key.
Go to intel and get doc # 245141-001 of 3/1999. Check page 19, para 2.3.2 We need to see how that is handled. I've got requests in to Intel and VALinux now. We'll see how it goes.
ron
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