[flashrom] ITE 8518 flashing through keyboard port

[Mike Banon]

> Directly flashing the SPI chip maybe be dangerous since the EC can interfere unless the SPI chip is desoldered.

EC will not interfere if the board will be powered off, and you could
directly flash a SPI chip without desoldering by attaching a test clip
to it (which is connected to a flashrom-supported programmer like a
cheap CH341A). Examples of the instruction:
https://www.flashrom.org/ISP ,
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Flashing_a_BIOS_chip_with_Bus_Pirate
(for CH341A its the same, just a connection scheme and flashrom
commands are a little bit different)

On Fri, May 25, 2018 at 9:06 AM, Curi0 <zkqri0 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> I have a laptop with ITE 8518 and I want to try to port coreboot. The SPI
> flash chip is shared between the EC and BIOS and is connected to the ITE
> 8518. Directly flashing the SPI chip maybe be dangerous since the EC can
> interfere unless the SPI chip is desoldered.
>
> The ITE 8518 has a mode where the keyboard connector can be used a parallel
> port for flashing
> (http://www.recomb-omsk.ru/published/SC/html/scripts/doc/94689_datasheet_IT8512E_F_V0.4.1.pdf
> similar chip) but there isn't any information on the software required. This
> video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYedPOLiUOo) shows flashing the BIOS
> using a proprietary programmer software so it should be possible.
>
> So is there any way I could reverse engineer the parallel port if I don't
> have access to the ITE flashing software and the programmer in the video
> costs $150 and even if it could be reverse engineered there won't be any way
> to see the raw parallel port commands it sends.Possibly there are some
> documents floating on the internet with the information.
>
> Curi0
>
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