[Libreboot] flashing the c201

[Rendov Norra]

This is a continuation of an email I sent paulk, since he suggested I post
here as well.

I checked all of his suggestions except maybe if all the required pins are
getting 3.3v. I'm not entirely clear on how to measure that. I get ~2v when
measuring from the power source to the pin, and the ground connected.
Measuring straight from the power to ground gives me 3.3v.

The power, hold, and wp pins are all bridged and receiving power from
{pin1,pin17} of the rpi, which is documented to provide 3.3v.

I'm wiring it according to the following documents (pdf warning):

https://www.winbond.com/resource-files/w25q32bv_revi_100413_wo_automotive.pdf

https://github.com/bibanon/Coreboot-ThinkPads/wiki/Hardware-Flashing-with-Raspberry-Pi


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Paul Kocialkowski* <address@hidden>
Date: Monday, August 8, 2016
Subject: On flashing the c201
To: Rendov Norra <address@hidden>


Hi,

Le dimanche 07 août 2016 à 19:45 -0400, Rendov Norra a écrit :
> This is a bit of a longshot, but I'm pretty desperate.
>
> I managed to make chromeos boot on the c201, and external device boot is
off,
> and the chromebook recovery images fail after ~5 minutes, so as far as I
can
> tell, using internal spi to flash is out of the question. I've resorted to
> hardware flashing, but I can't get it (RasPi 3) talking to the chip. And
it
> boots into the firmware (and into recovery), so I know I haven't managed
to
> fry it.. At least I hope.
>
> I've set the pins according to multiple sources, and re-checked them God
knows
> how many times. I've tried different configurations of powering the hold
and
> write protect pins. I've checked continuity between the RPi and the legs
of
> the chip too many times. The write protect screw is out. I've even tried
> having it sit in the developer/recovery screens and use the power
supplied by
> the board. I've tried using upstream Flashrom, and I've tried using
google's
> Flashrom. No matter what I do, it returns "Unknown SPI chip".
>
> I figured if anyone knew anything about this, it'd be you. Thanks for your
> time.

Please consider posting this to the Libreboot mailing list as well. This
way,
more people can help you and answer your inquiry while others can benefit
from
the question and its answers as well.

Some notes and suggestion that may help you:
* Make sure you've followed https://libreboot.org/docs/install/c201.html
  and especially "Installing Libreboot externally, with a SPI flash
programmer"
* Check that the VDD, #WP and #HOLD of the chip are +3.3V during activity
* Make sure that you're not using 1.8V logic, the chip seems to accept 3.3V
only
* Make sure you've disconnected the device's battery
* Make sure you've disconnected any source of power
* Maybe try with the battery connected, just in case

Note that I'll be providing a recovery SPI flash image and rootfs with
Debian
that should allow recovering from these kinds of situations. Of course, your
device is not irremediably bricked.

Cheers,

--
Paul Kocialkowski, developer of low-level free software for embedded devices

Website: https://www.paulk.fr/
Coding blog: https://code.paulk.fr/
Git repositories: https://git.paulk.fr/ https://git.code.paulk.fr/