[flashrom] HP Compaq dc7100 SFF

[Mattias Mattsson]

On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 11:36, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger
<c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006 at gmx.net> wrote:
> On 08.07.2010 09:44, Mattias Mattsson wrote:
>> On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 08:55, Michael Karcher
>> <flashrom at mkarcher.dialup.fu-berlin.de> wrote:
>>
>>> The important part of flashrom output is
>>>
>>>> BIOS Lock Enable: enabled, BIOS Write Enable: disabled, BIOS_CNTL is 0x2
>>>> tried to set 0xdc to 0x3 on ICH6/ICH6R failed (WARNING ONLY)
>>>> FAILED!
>>>>
>>> This means that the BIOS configured the chipset in a way that makes
>>> probing/erasing/writing of the flash chip impossible for code running
>>> normally on the system. The only way to reconfigure that would be from
>>> the system management mode of the processor, a special mode that
>>> executes BIOS code in a environment that is protected from the OS. The
>>> only way of updating your BIOS in the current configuration would be
>>> cooperating with the system management code through some vendor-specific
>>> interface and have the system management code access the flash.
>>>
>>> This kind of BIOS update is not what the flashrom project currently
>>> supports, so on your system it seems you need the vendor tools, which
>>> seems quite common on HP/Compaq systems. It might also be that there is
>>> a "enable BIOS updates" option in your BIOS setup which is disabled. In
>>> this case, please retry with that option enabled.
>>>
>>
>> OK. Thanks for the info!
>>
>> I did not find a "enable BIOS updates" option in the setup. :-(
>>
>
> Maybe "BIOS write enable", "BIOS virus protection", "Flash update" or
> something like that?

Nope :-(

Found a HP document with the following text:

"The HP BIOS uses hardware mechanisms on most HP Business Desktops to
prevent access to the BIOS flash memory by any software other than the
BIOS. This hardware traps any attempts to update the flash memory that
do not originate from the BIOS itself. BIOS images that work with HP
Windows-based BIOS update tools (flash tools), such as HPQFlash and
SSM, contain a digital signature that allows the flash tools to
authenticate the BIOS image. This ensures that the image originated
from HP and has not been corrupted or tampered with in any way."

Which seems to confirm what Michael stated earlier.


-mattias