[flashrom] Help: unable to upgrade bios

[Stefan Tauner]

On Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:09:42 +0530
Raghuramchary Jallipalli <Raghuramchary.Jallipalli at lntinfotech.com>
wrote:

> Hello Experts,
> I have tried installing the flashrom-0.9.4 in my laptop having Ubuntu 9.10. The flashchip is AT25DF321A and the chipset is QM67. When I tried to execute the flashrom utility I got the below output:
> #########################
> 
> root at ubuntu:~#
> 
> root at ubuntu:~# flashrom
> 
> flashrom v0.9.4-r1395 on Linux 2.6.31-14-generic (i686), built with libpci 3.0.0, GCC 4.4.1, little endian flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org
> 
> 
> 
> Calibrating delay loop... OK.
> 
> ========================================================================
> 
> WARNING! You seem to be running flashrom on an unsupported laptop.
> 
> Laptops, notebooks and netbooks are difficult to support and we recommend to use the vendor flashing utility. The embedded controller
> 
> (EC) in these machines often interacts badly with flashing.
> 
> See http://www.flashrom.org/Laptops for details.
> 
> 
> 
> If flash is shared with the EC, erase is guaranteed to brick your laptop and write may brick your laptop.
> 
> Read and probe may irritate your EC and cause fan failure, backlight failure and sudden poweroff.
> 
> You have been warned.
> 
> ========================================================================
> 
> Aborting.
> 
> root at ubuntu:~#
> 
> root at ubuntu:~#
> ###########################
> 
> Can anyone please help on how to proceed further?
> 

Hello Raghu!

The answer to your question can be found in the manpage of flashrom.
The warning is set up for a reason (explained in the warning itself,
the linked webpage and also in the manpage). If you understand and
accept the possible consequences go ahead with the procedure in the
manpage.

Most probably it will not work even then, because the QM67 chipset can
is probably locked down, which we can not unlock yet. We could verify
that with a verbose log (after following the manpage). It would also be
interesting to know which laptop that is (then).

This procedure is not to annoy you, but to ensure that users do not
take the warning lightly and look at it more closely.

-- 
Kind regards/Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Stefan Tauner