[flashrom] [PATCH] Move ntested board enable documentation to manpage

Carl-Daniel Hailfinger c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006 at gmx.net
Sun Mar 7 21:40:40 CET 2010


Hi Michael,

On 07.03.2010 17:24, Michael Karcher wrote:
> This also checks the testedness of boards in all cases, not just for
> PCI/DMI detection.
>
> Signed-off-by: Michael Karcher <flashrom at mkarcher.dialup.fu-berlin.de>
>   

Acked-by: Carl-Daniel Hailfinger <c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006 at gmx.net>

> Hello Carl-Daniel,
>
> This should address all the issues you raised in your review.
>   

Thanks! One minor comment, otherwise it looks OK. No need to repost,
just commit the updated version.

> Regards,
>   Michael Karcher
>
> diff --git a/board_enable.c b/board_enable.c
> index d28490c..7381940 100644
> --- a/board_enable.c
> +++ b/board_enable.c
> @@ -1411,30 +1411,6 @@ static struct board_pciid_enable *board_match_pci_card_ids(void)
>  			}
>  		}
>  
> -		if (board->status == NT) {
> -			if (!force_boardenable)
> -			{
> -				printf("WARNING: Your mainboard is %s %s, but the mainboard-specific\n"
> -				       "code has not been marked as working. To help flashrom development, please\n"
> -				       "test flashrom on your board. As the code to support your board is untested,\n"
> -				       "we strongly recommend that as an additional safety measure you make\n"
> -				       "store backup of your current ROM contents (obtained by flashrom -r) on\n"
> -				       "a medium that can be accessed from a different computer (like an USB\n"
> -				       "drive or a network share of another system) before you try to erase or\n"
> -				       "write.\n"
> -				       "The untested code does not run unless you specify the\n"
> -				       " \"-p internal:boardenable=force\" command line option. Depending on your\n"
> -				       "hardware environment, erasing, writing or even probing can fail without\n"
> -				       "running the board specific code. Running the board-specific code might\n"
> -				       "cause your computer to behave erratically if it is wrong.\n"
> -				       "Please report the results of running the board enable code to\n"
> -				       "flashrom at flashrom.org.\n",
> -				       board->vendor_name, board->board_name);
> -				continue;
> -			}
> -			printf("NOTE: Running an untested board enable procedure.\n"
> -			       "Please report success/failure to flashrom at flashrom.org\n");
> -		}
>  		return board;
>  	}
>  
> @@ -1452,6 +1428,23 @@ int board_flash_enable(const char *vendor, const char *part)
>  	if (!board)
>  		board = board_match_pci_card_ids();
>  
> +        if (board->status == NT) {
> +                if (!force_boardenable)
> +                {
> +                        printf("WARNING: Your mainboard is %s %s, but the mainboard-specific\n"
> +                               "code has not been tested, and thus will not not be executed by default.\n"
> +                               "Depending on your hardware environment, erasing, writing or even probing\n"
> +                               "can fail without running the board specific code.\n\n"
> +                               "Please see the man page (section PROGRAMMER SPECIFIC INFO, subsection\n"
> +                               "\"internal programmer\" for details\n",
> +                               board->vendor_name, board->board_name);
> +                        board = NULL;
> +                }
> +                else
> +                        printf("NOTE: Running an untested board enable procedure.\n"
> +                               "Please report success/failure to flashrom at flashrom.org\n");
> +        }
> +
>  	if (board) {
>  		if (board->max_rom_decode_parallel)
>  			max_rom_decode.parallel =
> diff --git a/flashrom.8 b/flashrom.8
> index 696aba2..46dca21 100644
> --- a/flashrom.8
> +++ b/flashrom.8
> @@ -175,6 +175,46 @@ colon. While some programmers take arguments at fixed positions, other
>  programmers use a key/value interface in which the key and value is separated
>  by an equal sign and different pairs are separated by a comma or a colon.
>  .TP
> +.BR "internal " programmer
> +Some mainboards require to run mainboard specific code to enable erase and
>   

... to enable chip erase and ...


> +write support (on old systems with parallel flash even probe support). The
>   

... (and probe support on old systems with parallel flash).


> +type of the mainboard (if it requires specific code) is usually autodetected
>   

The mainboard brand and model (....


> +using one of the following mechanisms: If your system is running coreboot,
> +the mainboard type is determined from the coreboot table, otherwise, the
> +mainboard is detected by examining the onboard PCI devices and possibly DMI
> +info. If PCI and DMI do not contain information to uniquely identify the
> +mainboard (which is the exception), it might be needed to specify the
>   

... might be necessary to specify ...


> +mainboard using the \-m switch (see above).
> +.sp
> +Some of these board-specific flash enabling functions (called board enables)
> +in flashrom have not yet been tested. If your mainboard is detected needing an untested
>   

untested untested?
[Kill one of them]


> +untested board-enable function, a warning message is printed and the board
>   

... untested board enable ...
[remove -]


> +enable is not executed, because a wrong board enable function might cause the
> +system to behave erratically, as board enable functions touch the low-level
> +internals of a mainboard. This might cause detection or erasing
>   

Not executing a board enable function (if one is needed) might cause ...


> +failure. If your board protects only part of the flash (commonly the top
> +end, called boot block), flashrom might encounter the error only after
>   

...encounter an error ...


> +erasing the other part, so running without the board-enable function might
>   

...erasing the unprotected part...


> +be dangerous for erase and write (which includes erase).
> +.sp
> +The suggested procedure for a mainboard with untested board specific code is
> +to first try to probe the ROM (just invoke flashrom and check that it detects
> +your flash chip type) without running the board enable code (i.e. without any
> +parameters). If it finds your chip, fine, otherwise, retry probing your chip
> +with the board-enable code running, using
> +.sp
> +.B "flashrom -p internal:boardenable=force"
> +.sp
> +If your chip is still not detected, the board enable code seems to be broken
> +or the chip unsupported. Otherwise, make a backup of your current ROM
>   

... or the flash chip is unsupported.


> +contents (using \-r) and store it to a medium outside of your computer, like
> +an USB drive or a network share. If you needed to run the board enable code
> +already for probing, use it for reading too. Now you can try to write the
> +new image. You should enable the board enable code in any case now, as it
> +has been written because it is known that writing/erasing without the board
> +enable is going to fail. In any case (success or failure), please report
> +to the flashrom mailing list, see below.
> +.sp
>  .BR "dummy " programmer
>  An optional parameter specifies the bus types it
>  should support. For that you have to use the
>   

Looks good otherwise. I'm not a native speaker, so I might have
overlooked something. Still, your text is way better than what we have
now, so go ahead.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel

-- 
"I do consider assignment statements and pointer variables to be among
computer science's most valuable treasures."
-- Donald E. Knuth





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