[flashrom] [PATCH] revamp the warning of failing to set BIOS write enable in enable_flash_ich

[Feldschmid, Ingo]

Uhm, the idea of this mechanism is to prevent flashing of the bios chip. Whenever the bios write enable bit is changed, an SMI is generated, and the SMI code from the bios is executed. Within this code, the original bios vendor can do anything, including preventing the changing of said bit. Normally, this can be used to make sure that the bios chip can only be written through a "bios-vendor-approved" update mechanism. 

Looking at the Dell website, it seems that the optiplex includes a feature called "computrace". This is an advance thief protection which includes, among other things, a bios module which helps preventing the removal of the thief protection from the board. This might be the reason that Dell tries to prevent flashing the bios through the means described above. 

To update this computer's bios through flashrom, the user might first have to contact Dell to disable the Computrace/Lojack mechanism on the board. After that, bios updates through non-dell programs might be possible.

Best regards,
Ingo



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-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: flashrom-bounces at flashrom.org [mailto:flashrom-bounces at flashrom.org] Im Auftrag von Stefan Tauner
Gesendet: Freitag, 9. September 2011 14:47
An: Uwe Hermann
Cc: flashrom at flashrom.org
Betreff: Re: [flashrom] [PATCH] revamp the warning of failing to set BIOS write enable in enable_flash_ich

On Fri, 9 Sep 2011 11:47:35 +0200
Uwe Hermann <uwe at hermann-uwe.de> wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 02:41:44PM +0200, Stefan Tauner wrote:
> >  - introduce a new variable 'wanted' that is used instead of 'new'
> >  - use 'new' for the actual value contained in BIOS_CNTL after we tried to write it
> >  - rephrase the warning which now also includes the old and new values besides the wanted one
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Stefan Tauner <stefan.tauner at student.tuwien.ac.at>
> 
> Acked-by: Uwe Hermann <uwe at hermann-uwe.de>
> 
> Doesn't apply anymore, but should be easy to forward-port. Not
> compile-tested by me.

thanks, r1435.

someone with smi/smm knowledge should look at the second mail from me
in this thread.. please :)

-- 
Kind regards/Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Stefan Tauner

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