Member Avatar for C0ding

Hello everyone,

First of all, i am not a Ubunto, Linux, or any of these OS user.
But i tried to dump a Bios ROM using Ubunto platform, but i'am
getting this error: ERROR: FlashROM tool not found!
then i get this alert: Try: 'sudo apt-get install flashrom'
in debian-based linux distros. so since the application is not in
the CD/DVD am using, i downloaded: "Flashrom-0.9.5.2.tar.bz2"
Now this is my question, am i doing it right? should this take care
my problem? could this let me install this application and then try
again? thank you guys, will be nice is some one could give me a hand.
thanks in advance.

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Dani AI

Generated

For future readers landing here: you do not need to rebuild the Ubuntu CD to add flashrom. In a live session, packages install into RAM and disappear after reboot. That is why saw the tools vanish each time. If you want them to stick, use a live USB with persistence or install to a spare disk/VM. And yes, as hints, using the distro packages is the simplest path when you have a network connection.

If you grabbed a flashrom tarball, you can build and run it directly without installing system-wide. First make sure typical build deps are present (build-essential, pkg-config, libpci-dev; add libusb-1.0-0-dev and libftdi1-dev if you plan to use USB/SPI programmers). Then:

tar xf flashrom-*.tar.bz2
cd flashrom-*/
make
sudo ./flashrom -p internal

If the last command prints your chipset/flash chip, you can dump a backup safely:

sudo ./flashrom -p internal -r backup.bin
sha256sum backup.bin
sudo ./flashrom -p internal -v backup.bin

Notes and gotchas:

  • Laptops and some OEM firmware block internal flashing. If you see errors like cannot mmap /dev/mem, try booting with the kernel parameter iomem=relaxed, or use an external SPI programmer instead of the internal one.
  • UPX is not required by flashrom itself; it is sometimes useful only to unpack a vendor-provided BIOS EXE to extract the raw image. Often 7z or cabextract work too.
  • Always read and verify before writing. Keep multiple backups. If verification fails, do not attempt a write.
  • dmidecode is optional; it is handy for identifying the exact board model (e.g., sudo dmidecode -t baseboard) but not required for dumping with flashrom.

Stay safe: a failed write can brick the board. Test detection and verification first, then proceed only if everything looks clean.

Member Avatar for C0ding

NOTE: Sorry for posting the same comment, but the "Edit Article"
was not showing the "Save Changes".

Edited by C0ding because: Adding extra content
Member Avatar for C0ding

Hello everyone,

First of all, i am not a Ubuntu, Linux, or any of these OS user.
But i tried to dump a Bios ROM using Ubuntu platform, but i'am
getting this error: ERROR: FlashROM tool not found! then i get
this alert: "Try: 'sudo apt-get install flashrom'
in debian-based linux distros." so since the application is not
in the CD, i downloaded: "Flashrom-0.9.5.2.tar.bz2" Now this is
my question, am i doing it right? should this take care my problem?
could this let me install this application and then try again?

In other words, how could i add the "Flashrom-0.9.5.2.tar.bz2"
to the CD, or how could i install it? cuz even that i'am running
the Ubuntu Desktop CD, it let me remove, install, and so on, not
like the Windows Live CD, so if this is the case, could i install
"Flashrom-0.9.5.2" instead of adding it to the CD?

Will be nice is some one could give me a hand.
Thanks in advance.

Member Avatar for C0ding

Okay! Got it :-)

1.) I was able to install Flashrom
2.) There was something else to take care, UPX which i achieves!
3.) I was able to dump and decrypt the Bios ROM which i wanted!

Thank you anyway

Member Avatar for mike_2000_17

You open the terminal window and issue this command:

$ sudo apt-get install flashrom upx

That's all.

Member Avatar for C0ding

Hello again Mike,

Yeah, i tried that, but since everytime i ran the CD,
i have to install these three items, what i've been doing
is just click on the three of them and the installation start right away,
which i like it better that way instead of open terminal and type that in.
hey btw do you know where can i download the latest version of dmidecode.deb
Thanks Mike

Member Avatar for mike_2000_17
Member Avatar for C0ding

Hey big thanks Mike :-)

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