[coreboot] C720 swapparoo

[John Lewis]

On 29/01/14 20:54, Duncan Laurie wrote:
 >
 > - The SPI flash descriptor, which lives at the bottom 4K of the SPI
 > chip in the SI_DESC region of the flashmap.  It is readable from the
 > host but not writable.
 > - The Management Engine binary, which lives at the bottom 2MB (-4K for
 > the descriptor) of the SPI chip in the SI_ME region of the flashmap.
 > It is neither readable or writable from the host.

Okay, I have the descriptor and ME binaries already (I guess it doesn't 
matter too much about the ME anyway, since it being missing wouldn't 
prevent boot, just cause half-hourly power-off).

 >
 > For the basic coreboot+payload (BOOT_STUB region in flashmap) the
 > binaries are all in CBFS and can be read out with the usual 'cbfstool
 > bios.bin extract -n NAME -f NAME'
 >
 > - The mainboard-specific DIMM SPDs, stored as "spd.bin" (also checked
 > in to the mainboard directory in coreboot)
 > - The reference code binary, which is stored as "mrc.bin"
 > - The Video BIOS, which is stored as "pci8086,0406.rom"
 > - The microcode, which is stored as "cpu_microcode_blob.bin"  (with
 > recent changes this may be handled differently upstream now)
 >

This is where we reach the crux of the matter - In the stock/shellball 
firmware, extracting BOOT_STUB doesn't yield a file which cbfstool in 
upstream coreboot or CrOS coreboot can decipher. Looking at the file in 
hexedit it appears to be almost identical to a CBFS that is recognised, 
but that's it. I have managed to extract the SVGA binary from the CBFS 
in the RW_LEGACY slot, and I've made an educated guess as to where the 
system-agent begins and ends in the unrecognised CBFS (section beginning 
"LARCHIVE mrc.bin" or similar with the binary itself following, 
surrounded by FF's) copying and pasting it to a file. I would like to 
know if I am correct in my assumptions about extracting that file 
manually and what size it should be, in bytes?

Further more, trying to use upstream coreboot to compile with that 2 MB 
management engine yields:

Created CBFS image (capacity = 8386544 bytes)
E: Not enough space for content.
E: Could not add [c720-me.bin, 2093056 bytes (2044 KB)@0x7a0000]; too big?
E: Failed to add 'c720-me.bin' into ROM image.

I have tried 2, 4, 6, and 8 MB CBFS in coreboot menuconfig. Not sure why 
building for Peppy tries to put the ME in CBFS when other builds don't. 
Building using CrOS coreboot works, but I am loath to recommend someone 
foolhardy with a C720 try it, unless I know there is a reasonable chance 
the binaries are okay/correct.

John.