[flashrom] Flash chip in unknown state - erase failed

[Stefan Tauner]

On Sun, 22 Apr 2012 13:59:00 -0600
Dan Kern Photo <dankernphoto at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I received the following while trying to use flashrom to install an
> updated bios.
> I'm running Ubuntu 10.04. I have an ASUS M2NBP-VM CSM motherboard.
> 
> 
>         desktop2 at Desktop2:~/Downloads$ sudo flashrom -w 1101.BIN
>         flashrom v0.9.1-r946
> […]
> 
> What should I do now?

hello dan!

the most important thing is to not panic.
dont reboot or shut down until you are sure everything is ok.

if you have a backup of the original contents of the chip (made with
flashrom -r …), you can verify that nothing has changed (which is quite
probable) with flashrom -v <backup.file>.

you are using a very old version of flashrom, so please get a newer
version either by downloading the source and compiling it
manually (see http://flashrom.org/Downloads)
or by installing a package from
https://launchpad.net/~flashrom-developers/+archive/flashrom-daily.
your board should work out of the box with the current version.

if you still have problems it would be best if you would visit us on IRC
so that we can interact faster with each other. there is a webchat available here:
http://webchat.freenode.net/
we lurk in the chat room #flashrom.

-- 
Kind regards/Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Stefan Tauner