Re: flashrom package needs update

[Kei Kebreau]

ng0 <address@hidden> writes:

> Kei Kebreau <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> [ Unknown signature status ]
>>
>> ng0 <address@hidden> writes:
>>
>>> ng0 <address@hidden> writes:
>>>
>>>> Someone should update flashrom to 0.9.9. 
>>>> (https://www.flashrom.org/Flashrom/0.9.9)
>>>> I tried and do not understand enough of flashrom to update the patch we 
>>>> need.
>>>
>>> Additionally we need to check what's different about GuixSD that this
>>> happens:
>>>
>>> address@hidden /home/ng0# flashrom -p internal -w 
>>> libreboot_latest_stable.rom
>>> flashrom v0.9.7-r1711 on Linux 4.7.0-gnu (x86_64)
>>> flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org
>>>
>>> Calibrating delay loop... OK.
>>> Error accessing high tables, 0x100000 bytes at 0x000000007dad6000
>>> /dev/mem mmap failed: Operation not permitted
>>> Failed getting access to coreboot high tables.
>>> ========================================================================
>>> WARNING! You seem to be running flashrom on an unsupported laptop.
>>> Laptops, notebooks and netbooks are difficult to support and we
>>> recommend to use the vendor flashing utility. The embedded controller
>>> (EC) in these machines often interacts badly with flashing.
>>> See the manpage and http://www.flashrom.org/Laptops for details.
>>>
>>> If flash is shared with the EC, erase is guaranteed to brick your laptop
>>> and write may brick your laptop.
>>> Read and probe may irritate your EC and cause fan failure, backlight
>>> failure and sudden poweroff.
>>> You have been warned.
>>> ========================================================================
>>> Aborting.
>>> Error: Programmer initialization failed.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I value that GuixSD seems to be more protective than any other system in
>>> that regard where I could just become root and run flashrom, but maybe
>>> we need to make an exception for flashrom and similar software.
>>> Booting into ubuntu-live and running a statically linked binary of
>>> flashrom just made me flash libreboot stable. I want to do this from
>>> within GuixSD.
>>
>> This is mentioned in Libreboot's documentation (top of the page here:
>> https://libreboot.org/docs/install/index.html). The GuixSD Linux-libre
>> kernel is configured with CONFIG_STRICT_DEVMEM enabled, which I presume
>> Libreboot uses for software-based flashing.
>>
>> If you add linux to the list "use-package-modules" in your system
>> configuration and add (kernel-arguments '("iomem=relaxed")) to your
>> "operating-system" configuration, the flashing utility will work correctly.
>
> Oh, interesting. Thanks for the explanation. Do you think we should add
> a pointer to this somewhere in the documentation, or add a link pointing
> to this email thread?
> I feel like this needs to be explained or be visible somewhere at our
> side.
>
I agree. It should probably be mentioned in the "System Configuration"
section of the manual. I would take me some time to write it up, as my
schedule is just starting to calm itself and I have no experience with
texinfo, so if someone else picked it up before me, I wouldn't complain.

> I think I want to keep this feature, and reconfigure the system only for
> updating libre/coreboot.
>
I agree here, too.

> Thanks
You're welcome! :-)

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