Requests for extensions

[tinypoodle]

It is a popular (and new) utility to flash your BIOS chip in the motherboard.

Any references to popularity?

[agrypa1]

It might be a little of an overstatement on my part about it.
It does not change the fact that it is being used by a community of developers and users alike for experimenting with BIOSes.

I'd be happy to see it in the repo. Microcore boots so fast and is most suited for booting and flashing.

regards,
Agryppa

[tinypoodle]

It might be a little of an overstatement on my part about it.
It does not change the fact that it is being used by a community of developers and users alike for experimenting with BIOSes.

I'd be happy to see it in the repo. Microcore boots so fast and is most suited for booting and flashing.

regards,
Agryppa

I'm aware this is getting a bit OT for thread subject...

Your current statement is more like it, "experimenting"
Neither is flashrom new as you claimed in your former post - "coreboot" is just the new name for what was formerly known as LinuxBIOS, but it is under development since more than 10 years and has not reached a stable state yet.

flashrom theoretically supports only about 3 rather exotic notebook chipsets and issues big fat warnings against use on notebooks, while the market trend since many years tends to notebooks and since a few years also to netbooks, so that alone would disqualify it from being or becoming popular at current state.

While it is a most fascinating and essential project with a great potential - the "last mile" of free software - recommending it to end users which are not very much aware of the risks and prepared to possibly end up bricking their hardware would not be most responsible, IMHO.

[agrypa1]

flashrom theoretically supports only about 3 rather exotic notebook chipsets and issues big fat warnings against use on notebooks, while the market trend since many years tends to notebooks and since a few years also to netbooks, so that alone would disqualify it from being or becoming popular at current state.

We must be talking about different projects, flashrom supports these:
cat flashrom_supported.txt
flashrom v0.9.2-r1178 on Linux 2.6.35-rc2-git4 (x86_64), built with libpci 3.1.4, GCC 4.3.4, little endian
flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org


Supported flash chips (total: 261):
Supported chipsets (total: 151):
Known boards (good: 256, bad: 18):
Known laptops (good: 2, bad: 7):
Supported PCI devices flashrom can use as programmer:

3COM 3C90xB: PCI 10/100 Mbps; shared 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX [10b7:9055]
3COM 3C90xB: PCI 10/100 Mbps; shared 10BASE-T/100BASE-T4 [10b7:9001] (untested)
3COM 3C90xB: PCI 10BASE-T (TPO) [10b7:9004]
3COM 3C90xB: PCI 10BASE-T/10BASE2/AUI (COMBO) [10b7:9005] (untested)
3COM 3C90xB: PCI 10BASE-T/10BASE2 (TPC) [10b7:9006] (untested)
3COM 3C90xB: PCI 10BASE-FL [10b7:900a] (untested)
3COM 3C90xB: PCI 10BASE-FX [10b7:905a] (untested)
3COM 3C905B: Cyclone 10/100/BNC [10b7:9058]
3COM 3C905C: EtherLink 10/100 PCI (TX) [10b7:9200]
3COM 3C980C: EtherLink Server 10/100 PCI (TX) [10b7:9805] (untested)
Realtek RTL8139/8139C/8139C+ [10ec:8139]
SMC2 1211TX [1113:1211]
NVIDIA Mutara V08 [NV2] [10de:10] (untested)
NVIDIA RIVA 128 [10de:18] (untested)
NVIDIA RIVA TNT [10de:20] (untested)
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro [10de:28] (untested)
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Ultra [10de:29] (untested)
NVIDIA Vanta/Vanta LT [10de:2c] (untested)
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro [10de:2d]
NVIDIA Aladdin TNT2 [10de:a0] (untested)
NVIDIA GeForce 256 [10de:100] (untested)
NVIDIA GeForce DDR [10de:101] (untested)
NVIDIA Quadro [10de:103] (untested)
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX [10de:110] (untested)
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX [10de:111] (untested)
NVIDIA GeForce2 GO [10de:112] (untested)
NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR [10de:113] (untested)
NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS/Pro [10de:150] (untested)
NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS [10de:151] (untested)
NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra [10de:152] (untested)
NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro [10de:153] (untested)
NVIDIA GeForce 3 nFX [10de:200] (untested)
NVIDIA GeForce 3 nFX [10de:201] (untested)
NVIDIA GeForce 3 nFX Ultra [10de:202] (untested)
NVIDIA Quadro 3 DDC [10de:203] (untested)
Dr. Kaiser PC-Waechter (Actel FPGA) [1803:5057]
Silicon Image PCI0680 Ultra ATA-133 Host Ctrl [1095:680]
Silicon Image SiI 3112 [SATALink/SATARaid] SATA Ctrl [1095:3112]
Silicon Image SiI 3114 [SATALink/SATARaid] SATA Ctrl [1095:3114]
Silicon Image SiI 3124 PCI-X SATA Ctrl [1095:3124]
Silicon Image SiI 3132 SATA Raid II Ctrl [1095:3132]
Silicon Image SiI 3512 [SATALink/SATARaid] SATA Ctrl [1095:3512]
Intel 82541PI Gigabit Ethernet Controller [8086:107c]

but I will not insist if there's no general opproval of it. The thought that it can be used for many other things besides "experimenting" is tempting, though, and that calls for inclusion in a distro that seems perfect for such things.
I just don't seem to figure out how you arrived at the conclusion that flashrom "theorically" support maybe 3 rather exotic chipsets in laptops...

Agryppa

[aus9]

hi

I am aware that http://www.flashrom.org/Flashrom can be used within a working system. The trouble is people may wipe their bios as the package offers that option and so we still have the issue of recovery?

flashrom is a utility for identifying, reading, writing, verifying and erasing flash chips


2) you can create cds, or floppies in linux to use....ms style files to flash your bios...if interested consider

http://www.linuxinsight.com/how-to-flash-motherboard-bios-from-linux-no-dos-windows-no-floppy-drive.html

and more graphical easy to use?
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net            .......using the freedos

Naturally you will need to download and maybe unpack any bios zip file your motherboard releases

3) some bios makers use certain archive tools that might include RAR.

In order to know how to unpack any pesky archive....try running

strings filetobetested.exe

strings command is obtained by downloading the binutils package

4) I did look and my cheap mobo.....ECS is not in the attached text file. ECS is a cheap mobo and is my defining characteristic...heh heh

good luck

[tinypoodle]

We must be talking about different projects

I can't understand why you would say so, when you had posted a svn url in your first post, and i refer to same project with accurate details in my last post...

From the README at the url of the svn trunk which you posted:

Do not use flashrom on laptops! The embedded controller (EC) present in many
laptops interacts badly with any flash attempts and can brick your laptop
permanently.

You yourself say it:

Known laptops (good: 2, bad: 7):

Here are some references I invite you and everyone interested to read:

http://www.flashrom.org/Supported_hardware#Supported_laptops.2Fnotebooks
http://www.flashrom.org/Supported_hardware#Unsupported_Laptops.2FNotebooks.2FNetbooks
http://www.flashrom.org/Laptops

I was never opposed to inclusion as an extension if there is an interest; I am opposed to calling an experimental utility which has not reached a stable state and bears a high risk for end users to brick their hardware popular, because that could mislead someone to act without being aware of the potential risks.

[tinypoodle]

strings command is obtained by downloading the binutils package

strings (busybox applet) is in base 

[beroje]

WARNING: Your ClamAV installation is OUTDATED!
WARNING: Local version: 0.96.2 Recommended version: 0.96.3
DON'T PANIC! Read http://www.clamav.net/support/faq

[Jason W]

I will try to get to clamav this week.  0.96.3 was released a couple days ago, so using 0.96.2 after updating the database with "freshclam" is quite safe, for those who may not know, despite the apparent urgency of that warning.

[Jason W]

clamav updated.

[tinypoodle]

Request for mp3blaster
http://mp3blaster.sourceforge.net/

A lot has been mentioned lately in forum about complications and bugginess of various console audio players/streaming clients...

From a user comment on http://freshmeat.net/projects/mp3blaster/

Code: [Select]

I run mp3blaster 24/7, there is no mp3 player capable of doing that without crashing sometime, but mp3blaster.
BTW, I tried the debian package of mp3blaster, but it is compiled with a dependency of libsidplay.so.1 which I can't seem to find in repo.

Edit: nvm, getting libsidplay.so.1 from deb repo as well, mp3blaster works.
At least for mp3's. I can't figure out why it wouldn't work over the LAN as a streaming client of edna server with .m3u playlists (single mp3's work).

[t_d_c]

I noticed the repository includes tor, but there is no suitable HTTP proxy to go along with it. That is why I kindly request Polipo, a caching HTTP proxy often used with tor.

http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/polipo/

[TaoTePuh]

@tinypoodle

[...]
BTW, I tried the debian package of mp3blaster, but it is compiled with a dependency of libsidplay.so.1 which I can't seem to find in repo.
[...]

I built the libs for sidplay2 last week. They are included in sidplay2-lib.tcz

[tinypoodle]

I built the libs for sidplay2 last week. They are included in sidplay2-lib.tcz

Thanks, but sidplay2 != sidplay1 (which is required in this case).
Doesn't matter much I guess, as long as libsidplay1 is not required as a dependency by any other extension in TC repos.

[evilbob]

Would love to see a tn5250 emulator.
http://tn5250.sourceforge.net/

This would make my life easy.

Please...
Request for tn5250.
Would allow tinycore to be a fully functional IBM AS400 terminal!

Thanks.