Firmware upgrade using Linux tool, requires no hardware

Adjusting BENQ Blur Reduction and DyAc (Dynamic Acceleration) including Blur Busters Strobe Utility. Supports most BenQ/Zowie Z-Series monitors (XL2411, XL2420, XL2720, XL2735, XL2540, XL2546)
Falkentyne
Posts: 2793
Joined: 26 Mar 2014, 07:23

Re: Firmware upgrade using Linux tool, requires no hardware

Post by Falkentyne » 15 Sep 2016, 21:22

Did you check 1 post above yours? It's right there.

And the instructions on page 5 use the wrong flashrom build. Use the instructions on page 21 that I wrote.

desrock2203
Posts: 2
Joined: 24 Sep 2016, 21:53

Re: Firmware upgrade using Linux tool, requires no hardware

Post by desrock2203 » 24 Sep 2016, 22:01

HI,
I need some help, I follow the instruction to update the firmware to v2 but that fail so I try a second time and fail again now my monitor won t work and during the 3 try I got a new message of error

ubuntu@ubuntu:~/flashrom$ sudo modprobe i2c-dev
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/flashrom$ sudo i2cdetect 1
WARNING! This program can confuse your I2C bus, cause data loss and worse!
I will probe file /dev/i2c-1.
I will probe address range 0x03-0x77.
Continue? [Y/n] y
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f
00: 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0a 0b 0c 0d 0e 0f
10: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1a 1b 1c 1d 1e 1f
20: 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f
30: 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 3a 3b 3c 3d 3e 3f
40: 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 4a 4b 4c 4d 4e 4f
50: 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 5a 5b 5c 5d 5e 5f
60: 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 6a 6b 6c 6d 6e 6f
70: 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/flashrom$ sudo i2cdump -r 0-127 1 0x50
No size specified (using byte-data access)
WARNING! This program can confuse your I2C bus, cause data loss and worse!
I will probe file /dev/i2c-1, address 0x50, mode byte
Probe range limited to 0x00-0x7f.
Continue? [Y/n] y
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f 0123456789abcdef
00: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
10: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
20: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
30: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
40: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
50: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
60: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
70: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-1:49
flashrom v0.9.7-r1846 on Linux 4.4.0-21-generic (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org

Calibrating delay loop... OK.
Info: Will try to use device /dev/i2c-1 and address 0x49.
Info: WILL reset the device at the end.
Found Generic flash chip "unknown SPI chip (RDID)" (0 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
===
This flash part has status NOT WORKING for operations: PROBE READ ERASE WRITE
The test status of this chip may have been updated in the latest development
version of flashrom. If you are running the latest development version,
please email a report to [email protected] if any of the above operations
work correctly for you with this flash chip. Please include the flashrom log
file for all operations you tested (see the man page for details), and mention
which mainboard or programmer you tested in the subject line.
Thanks for your help!
No operations were specified.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/flashrom$

Can I flash again my monitor or it s dead and Can I update my monitor with http://www.yoycart.com/Product/52781882 ... ment_tool/ don t forget for now my monitor is dead

Falkentyne
Posts: 2793
Joined: 26 Mar 2014, 07:23

Re: Firmware upgrade using Linux tool, requires no hardware

Post by Falkentyne » 24 Sep 2016, 22:43

Turn off the monitor and unplug it for 10 minutes.
Then plug it back in and try again.

Also make sure you are not querying the wrong bus.
The last person a few posts above who tried this, was querying the wrong bus/port and was querying the EDID bus, not the flash chip bus.

Are you sure the monitor was on bus "1"?
Did you try bus 0, 2, 3, 4, 5? (do this after unplugging it from the wall for 10 minutes, first).

The person who I helped (on Steam) flash his monitor was getting the same error about the "Probe firmware write erase not supported" thing, because he was trying to write the EDID chip instead of the firmware chip. But make sure you do the unplug first. Even try changing to a different computer, change to DVI or VGA, etc.

I can't really help with Linux problems as I don't use Linux. Flashing my monitor was the first time I ever even knew any Linux instructions. Sorry :( good luck!

desrock2203
Posts: 2
Joined: 24 Sep 2016, 21:53

Re: Firmware upgrade using Linux tool, requires no hardware

Post by desrock2203 » 25 Sep 2016, 12:09

I unplug my monitor and wait a moment fater that solve my probelm but I after that an other problem appear after veryfieng flash so I decide do to a try with v4 and that work !

Margusx
Posts: 10
Joined: 11 Nov 2016, 10:44

Re: Firmware upgrade using Linux tool, requires no hardware

Post by Margusx » 12 Nov 2016, 07:13

Idk i flashed v4 fimware to 2 its feels mutch better because monitor came with v4 hopfully i can try later v5 of 2411 zowie version seems switched from v4 to v2 improved lot in input lag flashed under linux over dvi turned off in bios fastboot and turned legacy on and booted linux in legacy als changed uefi to other os from uefi mode flash went good and succsess

Flashing takes bit time and you only have to wait because sometimes feels something went wrong if monitor turned off itself you have ony wait unil its finish verify and you able to use monitor again. Process is automatic you not have to unpug or restart anything or turn off.

If verify complited and flash finished you have to exit burn mode and you good

redbull2k
Posts: 20
Joined: 12 Jan 2016, 10:16

Re: Firmware upgrade using Linux tool, requires no hardware

Post by redbull2k » 30 Nov 2016, 14:16

Hi, gosh this thread is fully loaded, very hard to read, that is why i need some help as im not sure what information is useful. Not sure if its old or new.
I have the xl2720z with firmware v4 i would like to upgrade this to v5, so i can then assist a friend who is on v1 firmware.
what i have is a 16gb usb and a year old laptop. I dont have v5 firmware or Linux. However I can follow the instructions to the point of installing Linux, and thats where i get lost with all the posted code. any one able to assist?

Falkentyne
Posts: 2793
Joined: 26 Mar 2014, 07:23

Re: Firmware upgrade using Linux tool, requires no hardware

Post by Falkentyne » 30 Nov 2016, 14:47

These instructions still work. If you have problems with errors after it actually starts flashing, you will need to either change to a different port (VGA or DVI) or use a different computer. There is some risk with the DVI EDID getting corrupted after a fully successful flashing on boards with UEFI bioses, and that is just a guess because every issue I've seen with the EDID has been with people using UEFI, so that is just a guess. If your DVI EDID does get corrupted after a successful flash, you can either get a working EDID from someone with the Linux EDID-RW tool (which is hard to use), or reflash the monitor with the Mstar ISP device (which is 100% guaranteed to work) or the RT809F flasher (which also will work).

First grab a USB flash drive. 8 GB+ works best, though I did use an empty 2 GB one.
Get the ISO for Linux (Ubuntu)
http://releases.ubuntu.com/14.04/
I used the i386 one for my core i7.

Download the easy to use USB installer here:
"http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal- ... -as-1-2-3/"

Install it then boot to the flash drive and run the try Ubuntu mode.
When it finishes loading, open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T);
type "sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list" without the quotes to bring up the editor.
At the end of the second line, add "Universe Multiverse" so the line looks exactly iike this:

"deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty main restricted universe multiverse"
Save and exit the sources.list file.

Then type "sudo apt-get update"
That should download some updates.
Then type:
sudo apt-get install i2c-tools subversion libpci-dev
That should update and install some package lists.

You MIGHT also need this command too.
sudo apt-get install libusb-dev

If everything installs correctly, great.
But now things get tricky.

Using the instructions on this website, you need to find and backup the V4 firmware. The hard part is actually finding the i2c bus where it's located.

"http://boeglin.org/blog/index.php?entry ... -free(dom)"

Type these commands: Remove any quotes I put, though, including the quotes in the wget command (trying to bypass link creation).

"svn co svn://flashrom.org/flashrom/trunk@1846 flashrom"
"cd flashrom"
wget -O- "http://boeglin.org/static/benq/0001-Add ... ocol.patch | patch -p1" (<---the | is the shifted \ key, aka the "Pipe" symbol). On this website, that link shows up truncated with "...." unless you mouse over it. The full link without truncation is on the main site: "http://boeglin.org/blog/index.php?entry ... -free(dom)"
Remove the quote before http and after -p1.

make -j (<-this should make the flashrom patcher with the data for the mstar scaler)

sudo modprobe i2c-dev

sudo i2cdetect -l <--this lists all i2c buses

sudo i2cdetect 1 <---this lists al i2c buses on bus 1.

sudo i2cdump -r 0-127 1 0x50 <--- get EDID (0x50) from bus 1. You are looking for an EDID dump that shows the monitor name in it. You may have to change the 1 to a 0, if your monitor is on bus 0, or to a higher value, seen up to 5 on 290x DVI ports, or more ( 0 0x50 instead of 1 0x50, or 5 0x50). Once you find the dump that says "XL2411Z/XL2420Z/XL2430T/XL2720Z" etc, then you're good to go.

(edit):
If you are using a laptop through VGA, you SHOULD be able to find the monitor i2c identifier name easily. If you are using a desktop through DVI and flashing through the desktop and you can not find the monitor bus or get random data where the monitor 'should' be located (or in the rare case that the laptop can't see it through VGA, reboot the host computer back to windows and install the monitor driver from the DVD (device manager or displays in control panel); this has been confirmed to have helped people who kept getting "Unknown" data on the i2c bus. (0x50 buses 0-4 usually). Not sure why this works; maybe Linux has access to installed inf data.

sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-1:49 <----# identify flash chip, on bus 1 (/dev/i2c-1) at address 0x49. Change the 1 to a 0 if you are on bus 0. Change the 1 to a 5 if you re on bus 5, and so on.

(dump current firmware)
sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-1:49 -c "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" -r backup.bin <--again change the 1 to a 0 if you are on bus 0.

This should take about 5 minutes to dump. Once that's done, copy backup.bin to a folder on the local hard drive (NOT the USB drive) so you can can upload it somewhere. The dumped file should be 2 mb in size. We can easily verify if you dumped the right thing by a hex editor.

(Funny enough I forgot the actual flash command for flashing the firmware itself; the above is for finding the Benq and backing up the current firmware).

Copy the EXTRACTED Version 4 firmware into the flashrom folder. If you renamed it in windows (I suggest this), copy the renamed file. I suggest renaming XL2411Z's V4 (if you downloaded whitestar's backup.bin dump) to XL2411Z_V4.BIN, XL2420Z to XL2420Z_V4.BIN and the XL2720Z file to XL2720Z_V5.BIN

DO NOT RENAME IT TO FIRMWARE.BIN !!!!!

# extend firmware to 2MB, to match the flash chip size
(this step is important; the flash chip is 2 MB, but the raw firmware is 800k'ish. In order to flash with this flashrom patcher (the MSTAR ISP unit does not have this limitation), the other 1.2 MB must be filled with "empty/dummy" bytes to make the file 2 MB in total size. This is a limitation of flashrom itself).

tr '\000' '\377' < /dev/zero | dd of=firmware.bin bs=1k count=2k
dd if=XL2411Z_V2_20131209_8B72.BIN of=firmware.bin conv=notrunc (# < important !--REPLACE XL2411Z_V2_20131209_8B72.BIN with your firmware you are flashing!! Example: XL2411Z_V4.BIN or XL2420Z_V5.BIN or XL2720Z_V5.bin (as I suggested above).

(What this did was, it created a DUMMY empty 2 MB file called firmware.bin.
Then it MERGED the raw 830k file you downloaded (for this example only, in your case it will be the V5 file or v4, etc) with the 2 MB dummy file, a new 2 MB V5 file, that will be called firmware.bin

# write firmware
sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-1:49 -c "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" -w firmware.bin

(this will take between 5-20 minutes).

redbull2k
Posts: 20
Joined: 12 Jan 2016, 10:16

Re: Firmware upgrade using Linux tool, requires no hardware

Post by redbull2k » 02 Dec 2016, 09:10

I dont see the instructions i have to follow from here
"http://boeglin.org/blog/index.php?entry ... -free(dom)"

i have already downloaded v5 as i know i need this.

Margusx
Posts: 10
Joined: 11 Nov 2016, 10:44

Re: Firmware upgrade using Linux tool, requires no hardware

Post by Margusx » 11 Dec 2016, 05:16

Can somebody dump Zowie 2411 firmware? if somebody have it. Or i ask friend todo this but its harder.

Falkentyne
Posts: 2793
Joined: 26 Mar 2014, 07:23

Re: Firmware upgrade using Linux tool, requires no hardware

Post by Falkentyne » 11 Dec 2016, 11:26

If someone dumps it I'll upload it on onedrive.
I'm also looking for the "Zowie" XL2720 firmware if anyone manages to dump that too, as I'm rather curious if there were ANY undocumented changes done. The firmwares are rather easy to dump with Linux; just follow those instructions on page 210 or 220 (I forgot) and stop at backup existing firmware.

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