[flashrom] Just asking some basic advice before I flash the BIOS.

Joshua Roys roysjosh at gmail.com
Wed Feb 15 14:39:21 CET 2012


On 02/15/2012 07:58 AM, Sergio Cipolla wrote:
> Hello. First of all, thank you for flashrom.
> I have an ECS k7vta3 mobo with VT8233A southbridge.
>
> # flashrom -r bios.old

First, save this backup somewhere.  If you want to be really 
paranoid/safe also save it on external media.

> I have the latest BIOS (k7vta330d.exe) here. To write it I would simply run
>
> # flashrom -wv k7vta330d.exe
>
> right?
> Should I add any -V just in case too?
>

You'll need to get the bios out of the exe.  Try all of these:

unzip
cabextract
unshield
7za

Then find the file with an appropriate size.  It will be the exact 
number of bytes as the backup you have made.

Then, recent versions of flashrom automatically verify after writing so 
you do not need a little v.  A big V would be nice for debugging any 
issues that occur.

Now, make sure that you have time (at least a day, maybe more) to leave 
the machine running in case the flash fails.  If it does fail, it is 
likely some software protection that can be disabled with some 
investigation (some reverse engineering by a developer, a patch being 
written, applied by you and a new flashrom being compiled by you).

Also keep in mind that all flash updates have some amount of risk.

So the command you'll want to run is:
# flashrom -Vw $newfile
where $newfile is the image you find after uncompressing/extracting the 
.exe provided by the bios vendor.

Good luck (and please send success/failure reports to this list),

Josh





More information about the flashrom mailing list