Firmware upgrade using Linux tool, requires no hardware

[r80x]

You may also need this command.
Sometimes the USB packages won't download then the i2c commands won't work:

"sudo apt-get install libusb-dev"

(after the libpci.dev)

I only needed that command when i installed the wrong version of Flashrom. You need to add @1846 after flashrom like this

Code: Select all

 svn co svn://flashrom.org/flashrom/trunk@1846 flashrom 

After i did that i didn't need to istall any USB packages.

Did you do that on the laptop?
You were on the desktop before.

There is no harm at all and absolutely ZERO risk in even getting to the backup firmware stage.
I even got bored and backed up my V4 (just because "it was there") on my 2720Z using the DVI port on the r9 290x. Yes I already had the original v4 bin 832k file but now I have a 2 mb file that doesn't need to be resized

The only problem you can get with backing up the firmware is if you bricked the screen in an previous attempt. Then you will get an error because the firmware is not
complete.

[Jiigeri]

I don't need to do anything about the firmware file size when using whitestar's backup, right? If I end up trying and succeed with finding the monitor through VGA, I read that standby mode for the monitor is either required or recommended. Does this mean that the display is either powered off or something completely different?

Friend coming over tomorrow with his laptop, we'll see if we manage to finally do this.

Sorry for asking dumb questions, I just tend to get over-cautious with stuff I am not familiar with. Works wonders with avoiding "fatal" mistakes.

[Falkentyne]

I don't know if it -has- to be powered off (But it does have to be plugged in). Having it powered off is recommended, though.
I don't know where the "standby mode" comes from, though. Standby is when power save mode is entered and the power light turns orange or amber. It just should be plugged in, but powered off.

That being said that's probably not essential, just recommended. I'm guessing there's less chance of something going wrong if it's not actively in use.

After all, I *DID* flash it while USING it through the DVI port, as the primary monitor on the desktop, twice, and the screen happily sat there until the two resets (first reset while backing up the firmware, second after firmware flash was done). I didn't care if it got bricked because I knew I would have a 100% chance of unbricking through the laptop's VGA port.

And no you don't have to extend whitestar's backup. It's already the full flash chip size (2 MB).
I flashed my own backup of V4 after creating the backup, flashing to V2 then flashing the backup back to V4.

And I'm not sure why certain hardware works while some hardware requires changing to another system. It could be some BIOS related with the motherboard, UEFI Bios related or some video card hardware not exposing its i2c bus correctly. The Radeon R9 290x works perfectly through DVI, but both my desktop and laptop are both using traditional "Legacy" Bioses. I have no idea if a desktop or a laptop with a UEFI Bios will work (I was pretty sure even UEFI Bioses have a legacy mode though).

[Jiigeri]

Well shit, apparently my friend does not have a VGA port on his laptop. I just happened to wonder that last night and gave him a call. I guess I'll try with my desktop for once again in case I've missed something in the process and possibly proceed with attempting it through DVI from the laptop unless that's something I shouldn't do.

I'll be back with status updates once I've finished my lunch and start trying..

[error-id10t]

Just to add to the success stories. I've updated from Version 2 to 3 and then 4 using my desktop and it's iGPU. Note that when I first tried this, I did use my Nvidia cards back then and that did not work. I see it's not an issue on AMD so possible I did something wrong or it's different.

[Jiigeri]

Alright. Lunch over, booted up to linux with my desktop while XL2411Z was still on DVI. Nothing, same as before. Boot up again, this time with iGPU selected and using VGA only. No cigar. i2cdetect -l, i2cdetect 1 and i2cdump gives absolutely no response whatsoever, just as before. This time I did paste the commands (and yes, without quotes) so its definitely not a typo from my end.

I have put out word in case someone knows somebody with a MSTAR ISP block that I could loan (or rent), until then my best shot is to try my friends laptop and try with DVI since neither of us have DVI/VGA adapters laying around and I can not be bothered to go and buy one on a sunny friday afternoon.

Next week I can try with my girlfriends laptop aswell if everything else fails. If that doesn't work, I might have access to 1-2 more laptops but at that point it'll already be a shot in the dark to see if I get lucky with hardware that happens to work for this.

Edit: Oh, the laptop HAS VGA. Nice.
Edi2: Fuck, the iGPU of the laptop gives errors on booting to linux, UI is buggy and I can't even access the command promt/console. Nomodeset doesn't resolve this, it's just incompatible. Oh well, I'll try with my girlfriends laptop when she arrives.

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Edit: In case someone else later stumbles around here, I'll try to list a few problems and solutions I had so far:

1. Booting to linux is glitchy, especially while moving the mouse (flickering and tends to crash). Solution: Set nomodeset to launch properties, in my case I modified it right at the "try ubuntu" window by pressing tab (I think that's adviced at the bottom of the launch screen aswell).

2. Some packages fail to download. Solution for me: Added "universe multiverse" on the wrong line by accident. *read the tutorials carefully*

3. i2cdetect and other commands don't work (no feedback at all/device not found etc). Solution: Check for typos, in my case it wasn't a typo but it just won't work with my desktop PC hardware for reason X (Thanks for Falkentyne for pointing this out). I'm a newbie with this so I can not explain why it does not work on some systems.

Hopefully that's all I'm going to stumble upon. It's been slightly rocky but I guess I'll manage to deal with this over time somehow.

[Falkentyne]

Does your desktop computer have a UEFI bios or a traditional legacy Bios?

It's possible that your computer simply isn't exposing its i2c addresses for some reason, and I don't know anything else about that.
I checked the thread and only one other person had this problem and that was resolved by switching to a different system.

[Jiigeri]

Does your desktop computer have a UEFI bios or a traditional legacy Bios?

It's possible that your computer simply isn't exposing its i2c addresses for some reason, and I don't know anything else about that.
I checked the thread and only one other person had this problem and that was resolved by switching to a different system.

It's UEFI on my desktop indeed.

[Falkentyne]

Can you boot in legacy mode instead of uefi? that's probably the problem.

[Jiigeri]

I'll find out tomorrow, I'm not sure how that's done.