GA-G41M-ES2L flashing tutorial

This guide is for those who want libreboot on their Intel GA-G41M-ES2L motherboard while they still have the original BIOS present.

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Flash chip size

Use this to find out:
# dmidecode | grep ROM\ Size

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Flashing instructions

Refer to bbb_setup.html for how to set up the BBB for external flashing. You can only externally reprogram one of the chips at a time, and you need to disable the chip that you're not flashing, by connecting a separate 3.3v and GND to it, so you will actually need 2 test clips.

Here is an image of the flash chip:

Internal flashing is possible. Boot with the proprietary BIOS and GNU+Linux. There are 2 flash chips (one is backup).

Flash the first chip:
./flashrom -p internal:dualbiosindex=0 -w libreboot.rom

Flash the second chip:
./flashrom -p internal:dualbiosindex=1 -w libreboot.rom

NOTE: you can still boot the system with just the main flash chip connected, after desoldering the backup chip. This has been tested while libreboot was already installed onto the main chip.

NOTE: You need the latest flashrom. Just get it on flashrom.org from their SVN or Git repos.

NOTE: due to a bug in the hardware, the MAC address is hardcoded in coreboot-libre. Therefore, you must set your own MAC address in your operating system.

Copyright © 2016 Leah Rowe <info@minifree.org>
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