FAQ
This wiki is retired
Our website is https://www.flashrom.org, instructions on how to add or update documentation are here
All wiki content available in read-only mode at wiki.flashrom.org
flashrom doesn't work on my board, what can I do?
- First of all, check if your chipset, ROM chip, and mainboard are supported (see Supported hardware, or use flashrom -L).
- If your board has a jumper for BIOS flash protection (check the manual), disable it.
- Should your BIOS menu have a BIOS flash protection option, disable it.
- If you run flashrom on a Linux system with kernels >= 2.6.27 there are two issues you have to check:
- See next question: X86_PAT and nopat
- See next question: CONFIG_STRICT_DEVMEM
- If you run flashrom on OpenBSD, you might need to obtain raw access permission by setting securelevel=-1 in /etc/rc.securelevel and rebooting, or rebooting into single user mode.
- See this page for instructions on how to test flashrom support properly (this may be risky, make sure you have a working backup flash chip).
I get 'Can't mmap memory using /dev/mem: Invalid argument'
- The easiest fix is to update to latest flashrom from svn. It has less strict requirements and works on more systems without having to change the kernel.
- (Not needed for latest flashrom from svn) Please check that your kernel doesn't have CONFIG_STRICT_DEVMEM set, as it will stop flashrom from working.
- Another poster reported that CONFIG_X86_PAT will also stop flashrom from working. Please try booting with the nopat kernel parameter to temporarily disable it.
- CONFIG_IO_STRICT_DEVMEM can make flashrom stop working, in that case you can try adding "iomem=relaxed" to your kernel parameters.
How do I use flashrom?
Please see the flashrom(8) manpage.
Is there a flashrom Live CD?
See Live CD.