1FLASHROM(8) 2017-06-14 FLASHROM(8)
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6 flashrom - detect, read, write, verify and erase flash chips
7
9 flashrom [-h|-R|-L|-z|-p <programmername>[:<parameters>]
10 [-E|-r <file>|-w <file>|-v <file>] [-c <chipname>]
11 [(-l <file>|--ifd) [-i <image>]] [-n] [-N] [-f]]
12 [-V[V[V]]] [-o <logfile>]
13
15 flashrom is a utility for detecting, reading, writing, verifying and
16 erasing flash chips. It's often used to flash BIOS/EFI/core‐
17 boot/firmware images in-system using a supported mainboard. However, it
18 also supports various external PCI/USB/parallel-port/serial-port based
19 devices which can program flash chips, including some network cards
20 (NICs), SATA/IDE controller cards, graphics cards, the Bus Pirate
21 device, various FTDI FT2232/FT4232H/FT232H based USB devices, and more.
22 It supports a wide range of DIP32, PLCC32, DIP8, SO8/SOIC8, TSOP32,
24 TSOP40, TSOP48, and BGA chips, which use various protocols such as LPC,
25 FWH, parallel flash, or SPI.
26
28 IMPORTANT: Please note that the command line interface for flashrom
29 will change before flashrom 1.0. Do not use flashrom in scripts or
30 other automated tools without checking that your flashrom version won't
31 interpret options in a different way.
32 You can specify one of -h, -R, -L, -z, -E, -r, -w, -v or no operation.
34 If no operation is specified, flashrom will only probe for flash chips.
35 It is recommended that if you try flashrom the first time on a system,
36 you run it in probe-only mode and check the output. Also you are
37 advised to make a backup of your current ROM contents with -r before
38 you try to write a new image. All operations involving any chip access
39 (probe/read/write/...) require the -p/--programmer option to be used
40 (please see below).
41 -r, --read <file>
43 Read flash ROM contents and save them into the given <file>. If
44 the file already exists, it will be overwritten.
45 -w, --write <file>
47 Write <file> into flash ROM. This will first automatically erase
48 the chip, then write to it.
49 In the process the chip is also read several times. First an in-
51 memory backup is made for disaster recovery and to be able to
52 skip regions that are already equal to the image file. This copy
53 is updated along with the write operation. In case of erase
54 errors it is even re-read completely. After writing has finished
55 and if verification is enabled, the whole flash chip is read out
56 and compared with the input image.
57 -n, --noverify
59 Skip the automatic verification of flash ROM contents after
60 writing. Using this option is not recommended, you should only
61 use it if you know what you are doing and if you feel that the
62 time for verification takes too long.
63 Typical usage is: flashrom -p prog -n -w <file>
65 This option is only useful in combination with --write.
67 -N, --noverify-all
69 Skip not included regions during automatic verification after
70 writing (cf. -l and -i). You should only use this option if
71 you are sure that communication with the flash chip is reliable
72 (e.g. when using the internal programmer). Even if flashrom is
73 instructed not to touch parts of the flash chip, their contents
74 could be damaged (e.g. due to misunderstood erase commands).
75 This option is required to flash an Intel system with locked ME
77 flash region using the internal programmer. It may be enabled by
78 default in this case in the future.
79 -v, --verify <file>
81 Verify the flash ROM contents against the given <file>.
82 -E, --erase
84 Erase the flash ROM chip.
85 -V, --verbose
87 More verbose output. This option can be supplied multiple times
88 (max. 3 times, i.e. -VVV) for even more debug output.
89 -c, --chip <chipname>
91 Probe only for the specified flash ROM chip. This option takes
92 the chip name as printed by flashrom -L without the vendor name
93 as parameter. Please note that the chip name is case sensitive.
94 -f, --force
96 Force one or more of the following actions:
97 * Force chip read and pretend the chip is there.
99 * Force chip access even if the chip is bigger than the maximum
101 supported size for the flash bus.
102 * Force erase even if erase is known bad.
104 * Force write even if write is known bad.
106 -l, --layout <file>
108 Read ROM layout from <file>.
109 flashrom supports ROM layouts. This allows you to flash certain
111 parts of the flash chip only. A ROM layout file contains multi‐
112 ple lines with the following syntax:
113 startaddr:endaddr imagename
115 startaddr and endaddr are hexadecimal addresses within the ROM
117 file and do not refer to any physical address. Please note that
118 using a 0x prefix for those hexadecimal numbers is not neces‐
119 sary, but you can't specify decimal/octal numbers. imagename is
120 an arbitrary name for the region/image from startaddr to
121 endaddr (both addresses included).
122 Example:
124 00000000:00008fff gfxrom
126 00009000:0003ffff normal
127 00040000:0007ffff fallback
128 If you only want to update the image named normal in a ROM based
130 on the layout above, run
131 flashrom -p prog --layout rom.layout --image normal -w
133 some.rom
134 To update only the images named normal and fallback, run:
136 flashrom -p prog -l rom.layout -i normal -i fallback -w
138 some.rom
139 Overlapping sections are not supported.
141 --ifd Read ROM layout from Intel Firmware Descriptor.
143 flashrom supports ROM layouts given by an Intel Firmware
145 Descriptor (IFD). The on-chip descriptor will be read and used
146 to generate the layout. If you need to change the layout, you
147 have to update the IFD only first.
148 The following ROM images may be present in an IFD:
150 fd the IFD itself
152 bios the host firmware aka. BIOS
153 me Intel Management Engine firmware
154 gbe gigabit ethernet firmware
155 pd platform specific data
156 -i, --image <imagename>
158 Only flash region/image <imagename> from flash layout.
159 -L, --list-supported
161 List the flash chips, chipsets, mainboards, and external pro‐
162 grammers (including PCI, USB, parallel port, and serial port
163 based devices) supported by flashrom.
164 There are many unlisted boards which will work out of the box,
166 without special support in flashrom. Please let us know if you
167 can verify that other boards work or do not work out of the box.
168 IMPORTANT: For verification you have to test an ERASE and/or
170 WRITE operation, so make sure you only do that if you have
171 proper means to recover from failure!
172 -z, --list-supported-wiki
174 Same as --list-supported, but outputs the supported hardware in
175 MediaWiki syntax, so that it can be easily pasted into the sup‐
176 ported hardware wiki page ⟨https://flashrom.org/Supported_hard‐
177 ware⟩. Please note that MediaWiki output is not compiled in by
178 default.
179 -p, --programmer <name>[:parameter[,parameter[,parameter]]]
181 Specify the programmer device. This is mandatory for all opera‐
182 tions involving any chip access (probe/read/write/...). Cur‐
183 rently supported are:
184 * internal (for in-system flashing in the mainboard)
186 * dummy (virtual programmer for testing flashrom)
188 * nic3com (for flash ROMs on 3COM network cards)
190 * nicrealtek (for flash ROMs on Realtek and SMC 1211 network
192 cards)
193 * nicnatsemi (for flash ROMs on National Semiconductor DP838*
195 network cards)
196 * nicintel (for parallel flash ROMs on Intel 10/100Mbit network
198 cards)
199 * gfxnvidia (for flash ROMs on NVIDIA graphics cards)
201 * drkaiser (for flash ROMs on Dr. Kaiser PC-Waechter PCI cards)
203 * satasii (for flash ROMs on Silicon Image SATA/IDE controllers)
205 * satamv (for flash ROMs on Marvell SATA controllers)
207 * atahpt (for flash ROMs on Highpoint ATA/RAID controllers)
209 * atavia (for flash ROMs on VIA VT6421A SATA controllers)
211 * atapromise (for flash ROMs on Promise PDC2026x ATA/RAID con‐
213 trollers)
214 * it8212 (for flash ROMs on ITE IT8212F ATA/RAID controller)
216 * ft2232_spi (for SPI flash ROMs attached to an
218 FT2232/FT4232H/FT232H family based USB SPI programmer).
219 * serprog (for flash ROMs attached to a programmer speaking ser‐
221 prog, including some Arduino-based devices).
222 * buspirate_spi (for SPI flash ROMs attached to a Bus Pirate)
224 * dediprog (for SPI flash ROMs attached to a Dediprog SF100)
226 * rayer_spi (for SPI flash ROMs attached to a parallel port by
228 one of various cable types)
229 * pony_spi (for SPI flash ROMs attached to a SI-Prog serial port
231 bitbanging adapter)
232 * nicintel_spi (for SPI flash ROMs on Intel Gigabit network
234 cards)
235 * ogp_spi (for SPI flash ROMs on Open Graphics Project graphics
237 card)
238 * linux_spi (for SPI flash ROMs accessible via /dev/spidevX.Y on
240 Linux)
241 * usbblaster_spi (for SPI flash ROMs attached to an Altera USB-
243 Blaster compatible cable)
244 * nicintel_eeprom (for SPI EEPROMs on Intel Gigabit network
246 cards)
247 * mstarddc_spi (for SPI flash ROMs accessible through DDC in
249 MSTAR-equipped displays)
250 * pickit2_spi (for SPI flash ROMs accessible via Microchip
252 PICkit2)
253 * ch341a_spi (for SPI flash ROMs attached to WCH CH341A)
255 Some programmers have optional or mandatory parameters which are
257 described in detail in the PROGRAMMER-SPECIFIC INFORMATION sec‐
258 tion. Support for some programmers can be disabled at compile
259 time. flashrom -h lists all supported programmers.
260 -h, --help
262 Show a help text and exit.
263 -o, --output <logfile>
265 Save the full debug log to <logfile>. If the file already
266 exists, it will be overwritten. This is the recommended way to
267 gather logs from flashrom because they will be verbose even if
268 the on-screen messages are not verbose and don't require output
269 redirection.
270 -R, --version
272 Show version information and exit.
273
275 Some programmer drivers accept further parameters to set programmer-
276 specific parameters. These parameters are separated from the programmer
277 name by a colon. While some programmers take arguments at fixed posi‐
278 tions, other programmers use a key/value interface in which the key and
279 value is separated by an equal sign and different pairs are separated
280 by a comma or a colon.
281 internal programmer
283 Board Enables
284 Some mainboards require to run mainboard specific code to enable
286 flash erase and write support (and probe support on old systems
287 with parallel flash). The mainboard brand and model (if it
288 requires specific code) is usually autodetected using one of the
289 following mechanisms: If your system is running coreboot, the
290 mainboard type is determined from the coreboot table. Other‐
291 wise, the mainboard is detected by examining the onboard PCI
292 devices and possibly DMI info. If PCI and DMI do not contain
293 information to uniquely identify the mainboard (which is the
294 exception), or if you want to override the detected mainboard
295 model, you can specify the mainboard using the
296 flashrom -p internal:mainboard=<vendor>:<board> syntax.
298 See the 'Known boards' or 'Known laptops' section in the output
300 of 'flashrom -L' for a list of boards which require the specifi‐
301 cation of the board name, if no coreboot table is found.
302 Some of these board-specific flash enabling functions (called
304 board enables) in flashrom have not yet been tested. If your
305 mainboard is detected needing an untested board enable function,
306 a warning message is printed and the board enable is not exe‐
307 cuted, because a wrong board enable function might cause the
308 system to behave erratically, as board enable functions touch
309 the low-level internals of a mainboard. Not executing a board
310 enable function (if one is needed) might cause detection or
311 erasing failure. If your board protects only part of the flash
312 (commonly the top end, called boot block), flashrom might
313 encounter an error only after erasing the unprotected part, so
314 running without the board-enable function might be dangerous for
315 erase and write (which includes erase).
316 The suggested procedure for a mainboard with untested board spe‐
318 cific code is to first try to probe the ROM (just invoke
319 flashrom and check that it detects your flash chip type) without
320 running the board enable code (i.e. without any parameters). If
321 it finds your chip, fine. Otherwise, retry probing your chip
322 with the board-enable code running, using
323 flashrom -p internal:boardenable=force
325 If your chip is still not detected, the board enable code seems
327 to be broken or the flash chip unsupported. Otherwise, make a
328 backup of your current ROM contents (using -r) and store it to a
329 medium outside of your computer, like a USB drive or a network
330 share. If you needed to run the board enable code already for
331 probing, use it for reading too. If reading succeeds and the
332 contens of the read file look legit you can try to write the new
333 image. You should enable the board enable code in any case now,
334 as it has been written because it is known that writing/erasing
335 without the board enable is going to fail. In any case (success
336 or failure), please report to the flashrom mailing list, see
337 below.
338 Coreboot
341 On systems running coreboot, flashrom checks whether the desired
343 image matches your mainboard. This needs some special board ID
344 to be present in the image. If flashrom detects that the image
345 you want to write and the current board do not match, it will
346 refuse to write the image unless you specify
347 flashrom -p internal:boardmismatch=force
349 ITE IT87 Super I/O
351 If your mainboard is manufactured by GIGABYTE and supports Dual‐
353 BIOS it is very likely that it uses an ITE IT87 series Super I/O
354 to switch between the two flash chips. Only one of them can be
355 accessed at a time and you can manually select which one to use
356 with the
357 flashrom -p internal:dualbiosindex=chip
359 syntax where chip is the index of the chip to use (0 = main, 1 =
361 backup). You can check which one is currently selected by leav‐
362 ing out the chip parameter.
363 If your mainboard uses an ITE IT87 series Super I/O for
365 LPC<->SPI flash bus translation, flashrom should autodetect that
366 configuration. If you want to set the I/O base port of the IT87
367 series SPI controller manually instead of using the value pro‐
368 vided by the BIOS, use the
369 flashrom -p internal:it87spiport=portnum
371 syntax where portnum is the I/O port number (must be a multiple
373 of 8). In the unlikely case flashrom doesn't detect an active
374 IT87 LPC<->SPI bridge, please send a bug report so we can diag‐
375 nose the problem.
376 AMD chipsets
379 Beginning with the SB700 chipset there is an integrated micro‐
381 controller (IMC) based on the 8051 embedded in every AMD south‐
382 bridge. Its firmware resides in the same flash chip as the
383 host's which makes writing to the flash risky if the IMC is
384 active. Flashrom tries to temporarily disable the IMC but even
385 then changing the contents of the flash can have unwanted
386 effects: when the IMC continues (at the latest after a reboot)
387 it will continue executing code from the flash. If the code was
388 removed or changed in an unfortunate way it is unpredictable
389 what the IMC will do. Therefore, if flashrom detects an active
390 IMC it will disable write support unless the user forces it with
391 the
392 flashrom -p internal:amd_imc_force=yes
394 syntax. The user is responsible for supplying a suitable image
396 or leaving out the IMC region with the help of a layout file.
397 This limitation might be removed in the future when we under‐
398 stand the details better and have received enough feedback from
399 users. Please report the outcome if you had to use this option
400 to write a chip.
401 An optional spispeed parameter specifies the frequency of the
403 SPI bus where applicable (i.e. SB600 or later with an SPI flash
404 chip directly attached to the chipset). Syntax is
405 flashrom -p internal:spispeed=frequency
407 where frequency can be '16.5 MHz', '22 MHz', '33 MHz', '66 MHz',
409 '100 MHZ', or '800 kHz'. Support of individual frequencies
410 depends on the generation of the chipset:
411 * SB6xx, SB7xx, SP5xxx: from 16.5 MHz up to and including 33 MHz
413 * SB8xx, SB9xx, Hudson: from 16.5 MHz up to and including 66 MHz
415 * Yangtze (with SPI 100 engine as found in Kabini and Tamesh):
417 all of them
418 The default is to use 16.5 MHz and disable Fast Reads.
420 Intel chipsets
422 If you have an Intel chipset with an ICH8 or later southbridge
424 with SPI flash attached, and if a valid descriptor was written
425 to it (e.g. by the vendor), the chipset provides an alternative
426 way to access the flash chip(s) named Hardware Sequencing. It
427 is much simpler than the normal access method (called Software
428 Sequencing), but does not allow the software to choose the SPI
429 commands to be sent. You can use the
430 flashrom -p internal:ich_spi_mode=value
432 syntax where value can be auto, swseq or hwseq. By default (or
434 when setting ich_spi_mode=auto) the module tries to use swseq
435 and only activates hwseq if need be (e.g. if important opcodes
436 are inaccessible due to lockdown; or if more than one flash chip
437 is attached). The other options (swseq, hwseq) select the
438 respective mode (if possible).
439 ICH8 and later southbridges may also have locked address ranges
441 of different kinds if a valid descriptor was written to it. The
442 flash address space is then partitioned in multiple so called
443 "Flash Regions" containing the host firmware, the ME firmware
444 and so on respectively. The flash descriptor can also specify up
445 to 5 so called "Protected Regions", which are freely chosen
446 address ranges independent from the aforementioned "Flash
447 Regions". All of them can be write and/or read protected indi‐
448 vidually. If flashrom detects such a lock it will disable write
449 support unless the user forces it with the
450 flashrom -p internal:ich_spi_force=yes
452 syntax. If this leads to erase or write accesses to the flash it
454 would most probably bring it into an inconsistent and unbootable
455 state and we will not provide any support in such a case.
456 If you have an Intel chipset with an ICH2 or later southbridge
458 and if you want to set specific IDSEL values for a non-default
459 flash chip or an embedded controller (EC), you can use the
460 flashrom -p internal:fwh_idsel=value
462 syntax where value is the 48-bit hexadecimal raw value to be
464 written in the IDSEL registers of the Intel southbridge. The
465 upper 32 bits use one hex digit each per 512 kB range between
466 0xffc00000 and 0xffffffff, and the lower 16 bits use one hex
467 digit each per 1024 kB range between 0xff400000 and 0xff7fffff.
468 The rightmost hex digit corresponds with the lowest address
469 range. All address ranges have a corresponding sister range 4 MB
470 below with identical IDSEL settings. The default value for ICH7
471 is given in the example below.
472 Example: flashrom -p internal:fwh_idsel=0x001122334567
474 Laptops
476 Using flashrom on laptops is dangerous and may easily make your
478 hardware unusable (see also the BUGS section). The embedded con‐
479 troller (EC) in these machines often interacts badly with flash‐
480 ing. More information is in the wiki ⟨https://flashrom.org/Lap‐
481 tops⟩. For example the EC firmware sometimes resides on the
482 same flash chip as the host firmware. While flashrom tries to
483 change the contents of that memory the EC might need to fetch
484 new instructions or data from it and could stop working cor‐
485 rectly. Probing for and reading from the chip may also irritate
486 your EC and cause fan failure, backlight failure, sudden
487 poweroff, and other nasty effects. flashrom will attempt to
488 detect if it is running on a laptop and abort immediately for
489 safety reasons if it clearly identifies the host computer as
490 one. If you want to proceed anyway at your own risk, use
491 flashrom -p internal:laptop=force_I_want_a_brick
493 We will not help you if you force flashing on a laptop because
495 this is a really dumb idea.
496 You have been warned.
498 Currently we rely on the chassis type encoded in the DMI/SMBIOS
500 data to detect laptops. Some vendors did not implement those
501 bits correctly or set them to generic and/or dummy values.
502 flashrom will then issue a warning and bail out like above. In
503 this case you can use
504 flashrom -p internal:laptop=this_is_not_a_laptop
506 to tell flashrom (at your own risk) that it is not running on a
508 laptop.
509 dummy programmer
511 The dummy programmer operates on a buffer in memory only. It
512 provides a safe and fast way to test various aspects of flashrom
513 and is mainly used in development and while debugging. It is
514 able to emulate some chips to a certain degree (basic iden‐
515 tify/read/erase/write operations work).
516 An optional parameter specifies the bus types it should support.
518 For that you have to use the
519 flashrom -p dummy:bus=[type[+type[+type]]]
521 syntax where type can be parallel, lpc, fwh, spi in any order.
523 If you specify bus without type, all buses will be disabled. If
524 you do not specify bus, all buses will be enabled.
525 Example: flashrom -p dummy:bus=lpc+fwh
527 The dummy programmer supports flash chip emulation for automated
529 self-tests without hardware access. If you want to emulate a
530 flash chip, use the
531 flashrom -p dummy:emulate=chip
533 syntax where chip is one of the following chips (please specify
535 only the chip name, not the vendor):
536 * ST M25P10.RES SPI flash chip (128 kB, RES, page write)
538 * SST SST25VF040.REMS SPI flash chip (512 kB, REMS, byte write)
540 * SST SST25VF032B SPI flash chip (4096 kB, RDID, AAI write)
542 * Macronix MX25L6436 SPI flash chip (8192 kB, RDID, SFDP)
544 Example: flashrom -p dummy:emulate=SST25VF040.REMS
546 Persistent images
548 If you use flash chip emulation, flash image persistence is
550 available as well by using the
551 flashrom -p dummy:emulate=chip,image=image.rom
553 syntax where image.rom is the file where the simulated chip con‐
555 tents are read on flashrom startup and where the chip contents
556 on flashrom shutdown are written to.
557 Example: flashrom -p dummy:emulate=M25P10.RES,image=dummy.bin
559 SPI write chunk size
561 If you use SPI flash chip emulation for a chip which supports
563 SPI page write with the default opcode, you can set the maximum
564 allowed write chunk size with the
565 flashrom -p dummy:emulate=chip,spi_write_256_chunksize=size
567 syntax where size is the number of bytes (min. 1, max. 256).
569 Example:
571 flashrom -p dummy:emulate=M25P10.RES,spi_write_256_chunksize=5
573 SPI blacklist
575 To simulate a programmer which refuses to send certain SPI com‐
577 mands to the flash chip, you can specify a blacklist of SPI com‐
578 mands with the
579 flashrom -p dummy:spi_blacklist=commandlist
581 syntax where commandlist is a list of two-digit hexadecimal rep‐
583 resentations of SPI commands. If commandlist is e.g. 0302,
584 flashrom will behave as if the SPI controller refuses to run
585 command 0x03 (READ) and command 0x02 (WRITE). commandlist may
586 be up to 512 characters (256 commands) long. Implementation
587 note: flashrom will detect an error during command execution.
588 SPI ignorelist
591 To simulate a flash chip which ignores (doesn't support) certain
593 SPI commands, you can specify an ignorelist of SPI commands with
594 the
595 flashrom -p dummy:spi_ignorelist=commandlist
597 syntax where commandlist is a list of two-digit hexadecimal rep‐
599 resentations of SPI commands. If commandlist is e.g. 0302, the
600 emulated flash chip will ignore command 0x03 (READ) and command
601 0x02 (WRITE). commandlist may be up to 512 characters (256 com‐
602 mands) long. Implementation note: flashrom won't detect an
603 error during command execution.
604 SPI status register
607 You can specify the initial content of the chip's status regis‐
609 ter with the
610 flashrom -p dummy:spi_status=content
612 syntax where content is an 8-bit hexadecimal value.
614 nic3com, nicrealtek, nicnatsemi, nicintel, nicintel_eeprom, nicintel_spi,
616 gfxnvidia, ogp_spi, drkaiser, satasii, satamv, atahpt, atavia ,
617 atapromise and it8212 programmers
618 These programmers have an option to specify the PCI address of
619 the card your want to use, which must be specified if more than
620 one card supported by the selected programmer is installed in
621 your system. The syntax is
622 flashrom -p xxxx:pci=bb:dd.f,
624 where xxxx is the name of the programmer, bb is the PCI bus num‐
626 ber, dd is the PCI device number, and f is the PCI function num‐
627 ber of the desired device.
628 Example: flashrom -p nic3com:pci=05:04.0
630 atavia programmer
632 Due to the mysterious address handling of the VIA VT6421A con‐
633 troller the user can specify an offset with the
634 flashrom -p atavia:offset=addr
636 syntax where addr will be interpreted as usual (leading 0x (0)
638 for hexadecimal (octal) values, or else decimal). For more
639 information please see its wiki page
640 ⟨https://flashrom.org/VT6421A⟩.
641 atapromise programmer
643 This programmer is currently limited to 32 kB, regardless of the
644 actual size of the flash chip. This stems from the fact that, on
645 the tested device (a Promise Ultra100), not all of the chip's
646 address lines were actually connected. You may use this program‐
647 mer to flash firmware updates, since these are only 16 kB in
648 size (padding to 32 kB is required).
649 nicintel_eeprom programmer
651 This is the first programmer module in flashrom that does not
652 provide access to NOR flash chips but EEPROMs mounted on gigabit
653 Ethernet cards based on Intel's 82580 NIC. Because EEPROMs nor‐
654 mally do not announce their size nor allow themselves to be
655 identified, the controller relies on correct size values written
656 to predefined addresses within the chip. Flashrom follows this
657 scheme but assumes the minimum size of 16 kB (128 kb) if an
658 unprogrammed EEPROM/card is detected. Intel specifies following
659 EEPROMs to be compatible: Atmel AT25128, AT25256, Micron (ST)
660 M95128, M95256 and OnSemi (Catalyst) CAT25CS128.
661 ft2232_spi programmer
663 This module supports various programmers based on FTDI
664 FT2232/FT4232H/FT232H chips including the DLP Design DLP-
665 USB1232H, openbiosprog-spi, Amontec JTAGkey/JTAGkey-
666 tiny/JTAGkey-2, Dangerous Prototypes Bus Blaster, Olimex ARM-
667 USB-TINY/-H, Olimex ARM-USB-OCD/-H, OpenMoko Neo1973 Debug board
668 (V2+), TIAO/DIYGADGET USB Multi-Protocol Adapter (TUMPA), TUMPA
669 Lite, GOEPEL PicoTAP and Google Servo v1/v2.
670 An optional parameter specifies the controller type and chan‐
672 nel/interface/port it should support. For that you have to use
673 the
674 flashrom -p ft2232_spi:type=model,port=interface
676 syntax where model can be 2232H, 4232H, 232H, jtagkey, bus‐
678 blaster, openmoko, arm-usb-tiny, arm-usb-tiny-h, arm-usb-ocd,
679 arm-usb-ocd-h, tumpa, tumpalite, picotap, google-servo, google-
680 servo-v2 or google-servo-v2-legacy and interface can be A, B, C,
681 or D. The default model is 4232H and the default interface is
682 A.
683 If there is more than one ft2232_spi-compatible device con‐
685 nected, you can select which one should be used by specifying
686 its serial number with the
687 flashrom -p ft2232_spi:serial=number
689 syntax where number is the serial number of the device (which
691 can be found for example in the output of lsusb -v).
692 All models supported by the ft2232_spi driver can configure the
694 SPI clock rate by setting a divisor. The expressible divisors
695 are all even numbers between 2 and 2^17 (=131072) resulting in
696 SPI clock frequencies of 6 MHz down to about 92 Hz for 12 MHz
697 inputs. The default divisor is set to 2, but you can use another
698 one by specifying the optional divisor parameter with the
699 flashrom -p ft2232_spi:divisor=div
701 syntax.
703 serprog programmer
705 This module supports all programmers speaking the serprog proto‐
706 col. This includes some Arduino-based devices as well as various
707 programmers by Urja Rannikko, Juhana Helovuo, Stefan Tauner, Chi
708 Zhang and many others.
709 A mandatory parameter specifies either a serial device (and baud
711 rate) or an IP/port combination for communicating with the pro‐
712 grammer. The device/baud combination has to start with dev= and
713 separate the optional baud rate with a colon. For example
714 flashrom -p serprog:dev=/dev/ttyS0:115200
716 If no baud rate is given the default values by the operating
718 system/hardware will be used. For IP connections you have to
719 use the
720 flashrom -p serprog:ip=ipaddr:port
722 syntax. In case the device supports it, you can set the SPI
724 clock frequency with the optional spispeed parameter. The fre‐
725 quency is parsed as hertz, unless an M, or k suffix is given,
726 then megahertz or kilohertz are used respectively. Example that
727 sets the frequency to 2 MHz:
728 flashrom -p serprog:dev=/dev/device:baud,spispeed=2M
730 More information about serprog is available in serprog-proto‐
732 col.txt in the source distribution.
733 buspirate_spi programmer
735 A required dev parameter specifies the Bus Pirate device node
736 and an optional spispeed parameter specifies the frequency of
737 the SPI bus. The parameter delimiter is a comma. Syntax is
738 flashrom -p buspirate_spi:dev=/dev/device,spispeed=frequency
740 where frequency can be 30k, 125k, 250k, 1M, 2M, 2.6M, 4M or 8M
742 (in Hz). The default is the maximum frequency of 8 MHz.
743 An optional pullups parameter specifies the use of the Bus
745 Pirate internal pull-up resistors. This may be needed if you are
746 working with a flash ROM chip that you have physically removed
747 from the board. Syntax is
748 flashrom -p buspirate_spi:pullups=state
750 where state can be on or off. More information about the Bus
752 Pirate pull-up resistors and their purpose is available in a
753 guide by dangerousprototypes ⟨http://dangerousproto‐
754 types.com/docs/Practical_guide_to_Bus_Pirate_pull-up_resistors⟩.
755 Only the external supply voltage (Vpu) is supported as of this
756 writing.
757 pickit2_spi programmer
759 An optional voltage parameter specifies the voltage the PICkit2
760 should use. The default unit is Volt if no unit is specified.
761 You can use mV, millivolt, V or Volt as unit specifier. Syntax
762 is
763 flashrom -p pickit2_spi:voltage=value
765 where value can be 0V, 1.8V, 2.5V, 3.5V or the equivalent in mV.
767 An optional spispeed parameter specifies the frequency of the
769 SPI bus. Syntax is
770 flashrom -p pickit2_spi:spispeed=frequency
772 where frequency can be 250k, 333k, 500k or 1M (in Hz). The
774 default is a frequency of 1 MHz.
775 dediprog programmer
777 An optional voltage parameter specifies the voltage the Dediprog
778 should use. The default unit is Volt if no unit is specified.
779 You can use mV, milliVolt, V or Volt as unit specifier. Syntax
780 is
781 flashrom -p dediprog:voltage=value
783 where value can be 0V, 1.8V, 2.5V, 3.5V or the equivalent in mV.
785 An optional device parameter specifies which of multiple con‐
787 nected Dediprog devices should be used. Please be aware that
788 the order depends on libusb's usb_get_busses() function and that
789 the numbering starts at 0. Usage example to select the second
790 device:
791 flashrom -p dediprog:device=1
793 An optional spispeed parameter specifies the frequency of the
795 SPI bus. The firmware on the device needs to be 5.0.0 or newer.
796 Syntax is
797 flashrom -p dediprog:spispeed=frequency
799 where frequency can be 375k, 750k, 1.5M, 2.18M, 3M, 8M, 12M or
801 24M (in Hz). The default is a frequency of 12 MHz.
802 An optional target parameter specifies which target chip should
804 be used. Syntax is
805 flashrom -p dediprog:target=value
807 where value can be 1 or 2 to select target chip 1 or 2 respec‐
809 tively. The default is target chip 1.
810 rayer_spi programmer
812 The default I/O base address used for the parallel port is 0x378
813 and you can use the optional iobase parameter to specify an
814 alternate base I/O address with the
815 flashrom -p rayer_spi:iobase=baseaddr
817 syntax where baseaddr is base I/O port address of the parallel
819 port, which must be a multiple of four. Make sure to not forget
820 the "0x" prefix for hexadecimal port addresses.
821 The default cable type is the RayeR cable. You can use the
823 optional type parameter to specify the cable type with the
824 flashrom -p rayer_spi:type=model
826 syntax where model can be rayer for the RayeR cable, byte‐
828 blastermv for the Altera ByteBlasterMV, stk200 for the Atmel
829 STK200/300, wiggler for the Macraigor Wiggler, xilinx for the
830 Xilinx Parallel Cable III (DLC 5), or spi_tt for SPI Tiny Tools-
831 compatible hardware.
832 More information about the RayeR hardware is available at
834 RayeR's website ⟨http://rayer.g6.cz/elektro/spipgm.htm⟩. The
835 Altera ByteBlasterMV datasheet can be obtained from Altera
836 ⟨http://www.altera.co.jp/literature/ds/dsbytemv.pdf⟩. For more
837 information about the Macraigor Wiggler see their company
838 homepage ⟨http://www.macraigor.com/wiggler.htm⟩. The schematic
839 of the Xilinx DLC 5 was published in a Xilinx user guide
840 ⟨http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/user_guides/xtp029.pdf⟩.
841 pony_spi programmer
843 The serial port (like /dev/ttyS0, /dev/ttyUSB0 on Linux or COM3
844 on windows) is specified using the mandatory dev parameter. The
845 adapter type is selectable between SI-Prog (used for SPI devices
846 with PonyProg 2000) or a custom made serial bitbanging
847 programmer named "serbang". The optional type parameter accepts
848 the values "si_prog" (default) or "serbang".
849 Information about the SI-Prog adapter can be found at its
851 website ⟨http://www.lancos.com/siprogsch.html⟩.
852 An example call to flashrom is
854 flashrom -p pony_spi:dev=/dev/ttyS0,type=serbang
856 Please note that while USB-to-serial adapters work under certain
858 circumstances, this slows down operation considerably.
859 ogp_spi programmer
861 The flash ROM chip to access must be specified with the rom
862 parameter.
863 flashrom -p ogp_spi:rom=name
865 Where name is either cprom or s3 for the configuration ROM and
867 bprom or bios for the BIOS ROM. If more than one card supported
868 by the ogp_spi programmer is installed in your system, you have
869 to specify the PCI address of the card you want to use with the
870 pci= parameter as explained in the nic3com et al. section above.
871 linux_spi programmer
873 You have to specify the SPI controller to use with the
874 flashrom -p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidevX.Y
876 syntax where /dev/spidevX.Y is the Linux device node for your
878 SPI controller.
879 In case the device supports it, you can set the SPI clock
881 frequency with the optional spispeed parameter. The frequency is
882 parsed as kilohertz. Example that sets the frequency to 8 MHz:
883 flashrom -p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidevX.Y,spispeed=8000
885 Please note that the linux_spi driver only works on Linux.
887 mstarddc_spi programmer
889 The Display Data Channel (DDC) is an I2C bus present on VGA and
890 DVI connectors, that allows exchanging information between a
891 computer and attached displays. Its most common uses are getting
892 display capabilities through EDID (at I2C address 0x50) and
893 sending commands to the display using the DDC/CI protocol (at
894 address 0x37). On displays driven by MSTAR SoCs, it is also
895 possible to access the SoC firmware flash (connected to the Soc
896 through another SPI bus) using an In-System Programming (ISP)
897 port, usually at address 0x49. This flashrom module allows the
898 latter via Linux's I2C driver.
899 IMPORTANT: Before using this programmer, the display MUST be in
901 standby mode, and only connected to the computer that will run
902 flashrom using a VGA cable, to an inactive VGA output. It
903 absolutely MUST NOT be used as a display during the procedure!
904 You have to specify the DDC/I2C controller and I2C address to
906 use with the
907 flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-X:YY
909 syntax where /dev/i2c-X is the Linux device node for your I2C
911 controller connected to the display's DDC channel, and YY is the
912 (hexadecimal) address of the MSTAR ISP port (address 0x49 is
913 usually used). Example that uses I2C controller /dev/i2c-1 and
914 address 0x49:
915 flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-1:49
917 It is also possible to inhibit the reset command that is
919 normally sent to the display once the flashrom operation is
920 completed using the optional noreset parameter. A value of 1
921 prevents flashrom from sending the reset command. Example that
922 does not reset the display at the end of the operation:
923 flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-1:49,noreset=1
925 Please note that sending the reset command is also inhibited if
927 an error occurred during the operation. To send the reset
928 command afterwards, you can simply run flashrom once more, in
929 chip probe mode (not specifying an operation), without the
930 noreset parameter, once the flash read/write operation you
931 intended to perform has completed successfully.
932 Please also note that the mstarddc_spi driver only works on
934 Linux.
935 ch341a_spi programmer
937 The WCH CH341A programmer does not support any parameters currently.
938 SPI frequency is fixed at 2 MHz, and CS0 is used as per the device.
939
941 To back up and update your BIOS, run
942 flashrom -p internal -r backup.rom -o backuplog.txt
944 flashrom -p internal -w newbios.rom -o writelog.txt
945 Please make sure to copy backup.rom to some external media before you
947 try to write. That makes offline recovery easier.
948 If writing fails and flashrom complains about the chip being in an
949 unknown state, you can try to restore the backup by running
950 flashrom -p internal -w backup.rom -o restorelog.txt
952 If you encounter any problems, please contact us and supply
954 backuplog.txt, writelog.txt and restorelog.txt. See section BUGS for
955 contact info.
956
958 flashrom exits with 0 on success, 1 on most failures but with 3 if a
959 call to mmap() fails.
960
962 flashrom needs different access permissions for different programmers.
963 internal needs raw memory access, PCI configuration space access, raw
965 I/O port access (x86) and MSR access (x86).
966 atavia needs PCI configuration space access.
968 nic3com, nicrealtek and nicnatsemi need PCI configuration space read
970 access and raw I/O port access.
971 atahpt needs PCI configuration space access and raw I/O port access.
973 gfxnvidia, drkaiser and it8212 need PCI configuration space access and
975 raw memory access.
976 rayer_spi needs raw I/O port access.
978 satasii, nicintel, nicintel_eeprom and nicintel_spi need PCI
980 configuration space read access and raw memory access.
981 satamv and atapromise need PCI configuration space read access, raw I/O
983 port access and raw memory access.
984 serprog needs TCP access to the network or userspace access to a serial
986 port.
987 buspirate_spi needs userspace access to a serial port.
989 ft2232_spi, usbblaster_spi and pickit2_spi need access to the
991 respective USB device via libusb API version 0.1.
992 ch341a_spi and dediprog need access to the respective USB device via
994 libusb API version 1.0.
995 dummy needs no access permissions at all.
997 internal, nic3com, nicrealtek, nicnatsemi, gfxnvidia, drkaiser,
999 satasii, satamv, atahpt, atavia and atapromise have to be run as
1000 superuser/root, and need additional raw access permission.
1001 serprog, buspirate_spi, dediprog, usbblaster_spi, ft2232_spi,
1003 pickit2_spi and ch341a_spi can be run as normal user on most operating
1004 systems if appropriate device permissions are set.
1005 ogp needs PCI configuration space read access and raw memory access.
1007 On OpenBSD, you can obtain raw access permission by setting
1009 securelevel=-1 in /etc/rc.securelevel and rebooting, or rebooting into
1010 single user mode.
1011
1013 Please report any bugs to the flashrom mailing list
1014 ⟨flashrom@flashrom.org⟩.
1015 We recommend to subscribe first at
1017 https://flashrom.org/mailman/listinfo/flashrom.
1018 Many of the developers communicate via the #flashrom IRC channel on
1020 chat.freenode.net. If you don't have an IRC client, you can use the
1021 freenode webchat ⟨http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=flashrom⟩. You
1022 are welcome to join and ask questions, send us bug and success reports
1023 there too. Please provide a way to contact you later (e.g. a mail
1024 address) and be patient if there is no immediate reaction. Also, we
1025 provide a pastebin service ⟨https://paste.flashrom.org⟩ that is very
1026 useful when you want to share logs etc. without spamming the channel.
1027 Laptops
1029 Using flashrom on laptops is dangerous and may easily make your
1030 hardware unusable. flashrom will attempt to detect if it is running on
1031 a laptop and abort immediately for safety reasons. Please see the
1032 detailed discussion of this topic and associated flashrom options in
1033 the Laptops paragraph in the internal programmer subsection of the
1034 PROGRAMMER-SPECIFIC INFORMATION section and the information in our wiki
1035 ⟨https://flashrom.org/Laptops⟩.
1036 One-time programmable (OTP) memory and unique IDs
1038 Some flash chips contain OTP memory often denoted as "security
1039 registers". They usually have a capacity in the range of some bytes to
1040 a few hundred bytes and can be used to give devices unique IDs etc.
1041 flashrom is not able to read or write these memories and may therefore
1042 not be able to duplicate a chip completely. For chip types known to
1043 include OTP memories a warning is printed when they are detected.
1044 Similar to OTP memories are unique, factory programmed, unforgeable
1046 IDs. They are not modifiable by the user at all.
1047
1049 flashrom is covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2.
1050 Some files are additionally available under any later version of the
1051 GPL.
1052
1054 Please see the individual files.
1055
1057 Andrew Morgan
1058 Carl-Daniel Hailfinger
1059 Claus Gindhart
1060 David Borg
1061 David Hendricks
1062 Dominik Geyer
1063 Eric Biederman
1064 Giampiero Giancipoli
1065 Helge Wagner
1066 Idwer Vollering
1067 Joe Bao
1068 Joerg Fischer
1069 Joshua Roys
1070 Kyösti Mälkki
1071 Luc Verhaegen
1072 Li-Ta Lo
1073 Mark Marshall
1074 Markus Boas
1075 Mattias Mattsson
1076 Michael Karcher
1077 Nikolay Petukhov
1078 Patrick Georgi
1079 Peter Lemenkov
1080 Peter Stuge
1081 Reinder E.N. de Haan
1082 Ronald G. Minnich
1083 Ronald Hoogenboom
1084 Sean Nelson
1085 Stefan Reinauer
1086 Stefan Tauner
1087 Stefan Wildemann
1088 Stephan Guilloux
1089 Steven James
1090 Urja Rannikko
1091 Uwe Hermann
1092 Wang Qingpei
1093 Yinghai Lu
1094 some others, please see the flashrom svn changelog for details.
1095 All still active authors can be reached via the mailing list
1096 ⟨flashrom@flashrom.org⟩.
1097 This manual page was written by Uwe Hermann ⟨uwe@hermann-uwe.de⟩, Carl-
1099 Daniel Hailfinger, Stefan Tauner and others. It is licensed under the
1100 terms of the GNU GPL (version 2 or later).
1101v1.0 2017-06-14 FLASHROM(8)