[coreboot] Burn 2MB coreboot.rom on 8MB flash chip

Fri Oct 5 20:46:01 CEST 2018

Hi Jose, Mariusz, All,

The vendor is Adlink. The board is called LEC-BTS
https://www.adlinktech.com/Products/Computer_on_Modules/SMARC/LEC-BTS?lang=en
The CPU is Intel's Bay Trail.

According to the help of flashrom, it works with bin files only.
So I should take coreboot.rom and stitch it to the parts of the original
vendor's bin file.
Am I right?

Thank you,
Zvika

On Fri, Oct 5, 2018 at 12:12 PM Mariusz Szafrański via coreboot <
coreboot at coreboot.org> wrote:

> Also have no idea :(
> My solution should work when vendor`s utility just put unmodified whole 5M
> coreboot.rom.new at top of the flash chip space.
> But this could not be true and vendor`s utility is doing something else :(
> (e.g. put it on other location, split it and place chunks on non
> continuous areas or injects some kind of "id" or "keys" before flashing)
>
> Mariusz
> W dniu 05.10.2018 o 10:50, Jose Trujillo pisze:
>
> I have no idea bro....
> I cannot help you with that.
> I am just curious....  Which brand and model of board are you using?
>
> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
> On Friday, October 5, 2018 6:05 AM, Zvi Vered <veredz72 at gmail.com>
> <veredz72 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Jose, Mariusz,All,
>
> The vendor's rom file size is: 5,242,880 bytes
>
> After running:
> dd if=coreboot.rom of=coreboot.rom.new bs=1M skip=3
>
> I got a new file with the same size.
>
> I tried to program this new file and got the following message from the
> vendor's utlity:
>
> WARNING !
> This Image file doesn't match current System design!
> Force update it will destroy the System's Activation Key.
> We do not recommend flashing your BIOS.
>   Press "Y" to force update BIOS.
>   Press "N" to quit flash.
> - Please select one of the options:
>
> I ignored the warning and programmed the BIOS.
>
> After reset, I got nothing.
>
> What is "System's Activation Key" ?
> I'm sure that FSP (and other files) for my board are not properly
> configured yet.
> But I suspect this is not the reason for the message.
>
> Thank you,
> Zvika
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 4, 2018 at 9:47 PM Zvi Vered <veredz72 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Jose,
>>
>> I probably made a mistake and erased the main BIOS chip (and also the
>> secondary one)
>> Currently my target is not booting OS at all.
>> So I can not try Mariusz procedure.
>> Hope to have an identical target soon.
>>
>> Thank you very much for your help,
>> Zvika
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 4, 2018 at 6:31 PM Jose Trujillo <ce.autom at protonmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Zvika:
>>> Doing a full flash doesn't work for you, this is what I been doing.
>>> Try to use flashrom from linux if you want to do the full flash (may be
>>> it will work).
>>>
>>> An external programmer would be the optimal choice.
>>>
>>> Did you tried what Mariusz said?
>>> Jose.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>>> On Thursday, October 4, 2018 6:20 PM, Zvi Vered <veredz72 at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Mariusz, Jose, All,
>>>
>>> Mariusz - Thank you very much for the solution.
>>> Jose - You wrote "I have never done this way...".
>>> Can you please suggest a better alternative ?
>>>
>>> Thank you,
>>> Zvika
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Oct 3, 2018 at 8:39 PM Mariusz Szafrański via coreboot <
>>> coreboot at coreboot.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Jose,
>>>>
>>>> In your case set:
>>>> ROM chip size = 8MB (your case)
>>>> CBFS_SIZE <= 5MB (your specific case)
>>>>
>>>> This will build 8M file. After that just cut last 5M of this 8M file
>>>> (using any hexeditor) or use something like below from command line:
>>>>
>>>> dd if=coreboot.rom of=corebootout.rom bs=1M skip=3
>>>>
>>>> (before doing that double check if original vendor`s rom file size is
>>>> 5242880 bytes long)
>>>>
>>>> Mariusz
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> W dniu 03.10.2018 o 08:53, Jose Trujillo via coreboot pisze:
>>>>
>>>> You can do that but I have never done this way and I cannot help you
>>>> with that.
>>>>
>>>> Someone else can advise on this?
>>>>
>>>> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>>>> On Tuesday, October 2, 2018 9:39 PM, Zvi Vered <veredz72 at gmail.com>
>>>> <veredz72 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi Jose, All,
>>>>
>>>> Highly appreciate your answers.
>>>> It seems the vital information in your replies are not documented.
>>>>
>>>> The original vendor's rom file size is 5MB.
>>>> Do you think I can create a 5MB coreboot.rom ?
>>>>
>>>> It seems that AfuEfix64.efi supplied by vendor is looking for 5MB rom
>>>> file like the original one. For any other file size, AfuEfix64 fails.
>>>>
>>>> Thank you,
>>>> Zvika
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Oct 1, 2018 at 2:08 PM Jose Trujillo <ce.autom at protonmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Zvika:
>>>>>
>>>>> There are 2 ways to build coreboot: (choose one)....
>>>>> 1.- Including IFD, TXE, GBE etc.... inside coreboot CBFS.
>>>>> 2.- Using the original firmware(FW) with IFD, TXE, GBE already in
>>>>> flash and just rewrite coreboot on top of the BIOS block.
>>>>>
>>>>> Your original computer Firmware = Intel FW + "BIOS"
>>>>>
>>>>> Intel FW = IFD +PD+ME/TXE+GBE
>>>>> BIOS=AMI-Phoenix etc...
>>>>>
>>>>> IFD=Intel Firmware Descriptor Table.
>>>>> PD=Parameters
>>>>> ME=Management Engine (For "Core" kind of processors).
>>>>> TXE=Trusted Execution Engine (For "Atom" kind of processors).
>>>>> GBE=Network card firmware.
>>>>>
>>>>> Zvika said:
>>>>> "After creating coreboot.rom should I always use the original BIOS
>>>>> with ifdtool to convert rom to bin ?"
>>>>> Answer:
>>>>> No, there are other methods and tools that can do the merge....
>>>>> (ifdtool and Intel's FIT are working fine for me)
>>>>>
>>>>> After the creation of the coreboot build you have 2 ways of doing the
>>>>> flashing for your case: (with fpt).
>>>>> 1.- Flash the full 8MB (Intel FW+coreboot) if the SPI flash is blank
>>>>> or have unknown firmware.
>>>>>      Use IFDTool in this case to inject coreboot to Intel FW..... then
>>>>> flash it with fpt .
>>>>> 2.- Flash only the BIOS block (5MB your specific case) in this case
>>>>> ask someone else how to do it with fpt....
>>>>>
>>>>> I hope this answered your questions.
>>>>> Jose..
>>>>>
>>>>> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>>>>> On Saturday, September 29, 2018 12:24 AM, Zvi Vered <
>>>>> veredz72 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Jose,
>>>>>
>>>>> You wrote:
>>>>> "My recommended approach is using the original Intel FW with already
>>>>> included the FD, TXE".
>>>>>
>>>>> What is "original intel FW" ?
>>>>> What is FD, TXE ?
>>>>>
>>>>> After creating coreboot.rom should I always use the original BIOS with
>>>>> ifdtool to convert rom to bin ?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thank you,
>>>>> Zvika
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 7:27 PM Jose Trujillo <ce.autom at protonmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> You are right Nico,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I just forgot the troubles this caused me.
>>>>>> I am sorry Vika... My mistake.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I can confirm with Nico:
>>>>>> ROM chip size = 8MB (your case)
>>>>>> CBFS_SIZE = 2 to 5MB (your specific case)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> My recommended approach is using the original Intel FW with already
>>>>>> included the FD, TXE.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I never tested adding regions to coreboot but you can try.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> To have better chances of success you should be dumping hardware
>>>>>> settings booting with your original "BIOS" (look for the attached file).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Check if the system is "Memory down"or/and ECC because it will be
>>>>>> needed to edit FSP (if using it).
>>>>>> Dump memory settings with the following commands:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> sudo dnf install i2c-tools-perl
>>>>>> sudo modprobe eeprom
>>>>>> decode-dimms
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If you have not done this already there is still a long way to go.
>>>>>> Don't get intimidated, just do it, if you have questions just ask....
>>>>>> I will try to help
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Good luck,
>>>>>> Jose.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>>>>>> On Wednesday, September 26, 2018 6:28 PM, Nico Huber <nico.h at gmx.de>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> > Hi,
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > On 9/26/18 9:19 AM, Jose Trujillo via coreboot wrote:
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > > No, don't change it, you change the size of coreboot only if
>>>>>> during the
>>>>>> > > building process "make" complain that there is not enough space
>>>>>> but in
>>>>>> > > your case your build was already successful leave it like that.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > this advice seems very weird to me. I'm not experienced with Bay
>>>>>> Trail.
>>>>>> > But unless there is a bug in the Bay Trail code, you should always
>>>>>> set
>>>>>> > the correct ROM_SIZE (to the full flash chip size). Otherwise you
>>>>>> may
>>>>>> > introduce bugs in code that relies on this setting (e.g. saving the
>>>>>> > MRC cache might fail and so would S3 resume).
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > CBFS_SIZE however is the setting to adjust according to your needs.
>>>>>> It
>>>>>> > should be at most the size of the BIOS region.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > > In the rare circumstance that more space is required you can
>>>>>> increase
>>>>>> > > coreboot size to 4MB and istill will fit into your system 5MB of
>>>>>> space
>>>>>> > > available.
>>>>>> > > "ifdtool" will inject coreboot in the top of the BYT_orig.bin and
>>>>>> save
>>>>>> > > as BYT_orig.bin.new that you can flash to your system.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > I assume this doesn't work oob if you set ROM_SIZE correctly. But
>>>>>> it is
>>>>>> > unnecessary to craft a single file by hand. You can either only
>>>>>> flash
>>>>>> > the BIOS region (recommended) or add the other regions in coreboot's
>>>>>> > config (HAVE_{IFD,ME,GBE}_BIN).
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Nico
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  --
>>>> coreboot mailing list: coreboot at coreboot.org
>>>> https://mail.coreboot.org/mailman/listinfo/coreboot
>>>>
>>>
>>>
> --
> Pozdrawiam, Regards
> AKUMAT Mariusz Szafrański
> +48 501786602mariusz.szafranski at akumat.plwww.akumat.pl
>
> --
> coreboot mailing list: coreboot at coreboot.org
> https://mail.coreboot.org/mailman/listinfo/coreboot
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