From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from 66.239.25.20.ptr.us.xo.net ([66.239.25.20] helo=zoot.lnxi.com) by canuck.infradead.org with esmtps (Exim 4.54 #1 (Red Hat Linux)) id 1Eosy6-0006UI-H2 for linux-mtd@lists.infradead.org; Tue, 20 Dec 2005 20:40:42 -0500 To: Dave Peterson References: <200512201642.05224.dsp@llnl.gov> From: ebiederman@lnxi.com (Eric W. Biederman) Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 18:40:13 -0700 In-Reply-To: <200512201642.05224.dsp@llnl.gov> (Dave Peterson's message of "Tue, 20 Dec 2005 16:42:05 -0800") Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: linux-mtd@lists.infradead.org Subject: Re: ichxrom driver question List-Id: Linux MTD discussion mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Dave Peterson writes: > I attempted to flash the BIOS on a machine with an Intel 82801CA > (ICH3-S) I/O Controller Hub as follows: > > # modprobe ichxrom > # modprobe mtdchar > # mtd_unlock /dev/mtd0 > # mtd_eraseall /dev/mtd0 > Erased 512 Kibyte @ 0 -- 100% complete. > # dd if=bios_image of=/dev/mtd0 > 1024+0 records in > 1024+0 records out > # dd if=/dev/mtd0 of=result > 1024+0 records in > 1024+0 records out > # mtd_lock /dev/mtd0 0 -1 > > After doing the above, I examind the file 'result' and all it > contains is a bunch of zero bytes. Thus the BIOS flashing operation > appears to have failed (I confirmed this by attempting to reboot, and > sure enough, the BIOS appears to have been wiped out). Hmm. Immediately after the erase operation you should see all f's. The only thing I can think of that might trigger what you are seeing is a cached flash chip. > I did this using the version of the ichxrom driver from the 2.6.9 > kernel. Looking briefly at this code in comparison to a more recent > version of the code from the 2.6.14.4 kernel, it looks like > substantial changes have been made. I honestly don't recall. I don't have a good handle on when changes were made versus when they were merged. > So my question is, are there known problems with the version of the > ichxrom driver in the 2.6.9 kernel, and if so, have the problems > been fixed in later kernels? The biggest practical changes was to allow it to work with other than intel flash parts. That required removing some hacks. But I don't know of any cases where things half worked. > Also, are there any known issues with > the ICH3-S that may explain the behavior I observe? When replying, > please cc dsp@llnl.gov. The ICH3-S is more of a conduit. The usual questions are: Is there motherboard specific magic that denies writes? What is the actual flash chip you are flashing. Except for the possibility of bad cache I can't think of anything that would cause the wrong data to be written. Are you certain you have a good flash image? Eric