[flashrom] [PATCH] TotalPhase Cheetah support stub

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

On 30.11.2009 00:23, Richard A. Smith wrote:
>> I remember that you once wrote that Cheetah support for flashrom would
>> be desirable. I just posted a stub patch with Cheetah support to the
>> flashrom mailing list. You may be interested in subscribing to the
>> flashrom list: http://www.flashrom.org/mailman/listinfo/flashrom
>>     
>
> Right not I just would not have time to stay current.  If there's a specific cheetah thread then you can point it out and I'll check the archives.
> Perhaps I should add the list to my mail with a filter on the word cheetah.
>   

Your choice. If you prefer to be in CC if I send any Cheetah patches, I
can do that. No need to subscribe. I have whitelisted you as sender for
the mailing list, so your mails will end up on the list without
delay/moderation.


>> The patch is available for download here:
>> http://patchwork.coreboot.org/patch/596/raw/
>>     
>
> Is there anything I can test with this patch?  I've enabled cheetah support in the makefile but If I change the #if 0 in cheetah_spi_comand I get compile errors.
>   

That's sort of expected. I wrote a support stub (doesn't compile yet,
needs a good way to detect headers) a few months ago, and then I forward
ported the patch again and again. I posted the patch now because I
wanted to gauge interest before I invest any more time into making it
actually work. I don't have the hardware, so someone will need to test.

The cheetah libraries have an apparently GPL-incompatible header license
(that's why I didn't develop further back then). It seems their API
documentation doesn't mention any licensing restrictions for the API
itself, so it should be possible to develop against the API without any
major problems. The cheetah lib itself is a legal nightmare and it is
entirely possible that flashrom may only use it if flashrom supports no
other programmers (a lawyer needs to check this).


> Also I'll need some sort of switch to enable the target voltage of the programmer.
>   

Yes, hardware initialization is missing completely.

If flashrom support is still a worthwhile target from your point of
view, I'll contact TotalPhase about the licensing of the
headers/libraries (or give you a short summary what to ask if you want
to contact them yourself as you're their customer and I'm not).


Regards,
Carl-Daniel

-- 
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"We are juggling too many chainsaws and flaming arrows and tigers."