Firmware upgrade using Linux tool, requires no hardware

[RonsonPL]

That makes sense.
Thanx

[csreades]

This is a good guide, although can see how it can be very intimidating, are there any records of permanently bricked monitors?

[RonsonPL]

I've read all the posts in this thread. None. Only the cases of successful un-bricking.

You check how long it takes to read FW. It takes 3 minutes? 7? OK, go ahead. It takes 15? Don't try.
With this precaution, the only way (I GUESS!) to brick the monitor requires having bad luck and problems with electricity. Power outage during flashing might ruin the hardware. And it might not. I didn't tested that and I don't plan to

[kamill]

Bricked monitor is still flashable and unbrickable in 99,9%.

[Dings3]

So I accidentally bricked my monitor as well...

I was trying to flash my XL2420Z using Debian and having it connected with DVI cable to my Nvidia GTX 770.
However as I was trying to backup my old firmware from the monitor, I got a read/write error and my monitor didn't start anymore.

Now I booted Ubuntu on my Notebook and connected the monitor directly with VGA. It worked without a problem and my monitor is successfully unbricked.
So maybe Debian or my graphics card is a problem I don't know.
Thanks for the guides so I didn't have to spend money.

[Flare04]

Hello,

i cant upgrade my Benq XL2720z. I have so often tried to flash my monitor, but it always fails to hit now. I'm beginning to despair. I have my monitor on the last attempt with a VGA cable + DVI adapter it tries to flash. A gtx 570 is installed in my PC.


Here I want to show you my last try to show you ...

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo modprobe i2c-dev
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo i2cdetect -l
i2c-0 i2c i915 gmbus ssc I2C adapter
i2c-1 i2c i915 gmbus vga I2C adapter
i2c-2 i2c i915 gmbus panel I2C adapter
i2c-3 i2c i915 gmbus dpc I2C adapter
i2c-4 i2c i915 gmbus dpb I2C adapter
i2c-5 i2c i915 gmbus dpd I2C adapter
i2c-6 i2c DPDDC-B I2C adapter
i2c-7 i2c DPDDC-D I2C adapter
i2c-8 i2c nouveau-0000:01:00.0-0 I2C adapter
i2c-9 i2c nouveau-0000:01:00.0-1 I2C adapter
i2c-10 i2c nouveau-0000:01:00.0-2 I2C adapter
i2c-11 i2c nouveau-0000:01:00.0-5 I2C adapter
i2c-12 i2c nouveau-0000:01:00.0-6 I2C adapter
i2c-13 i2c nouveau-0000:01:00.0-7 I2C adapter
i2c-14 i2c nouveau-0000:01:00.0-8 I2C adapter
i2c-15 i2c nouveau-0000:01:00.0-9 I2C adapter
i2c-16 i2c nouveau-0000:01:00.0-10 I2C adapter
i2c-17 i2c nouveau-0000:01:00.0-11 I2C adapter
i2c-18 i2c nouveau-0000:01:00.0-12 I2C adapter
i2c-19 i2c nouveau-0000:01:00.0-13 I2C adapter
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo i2cdetect 8
WARNING! This program can confuse your I2C bus, cause data loss and worse!
I will probe file /dev/i2c-8.
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: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
20: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
30: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 49 -- -- -- -- -- --
50: 50 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 59 -- -- -- -- -- --
60: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
70: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo i2cdump -r 0-127 8 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-8, 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 ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 09 d1 28 7f 45 54 00 00 ........??(?ET..
10: 0b 18 01 03 0e 3c 22 78 2e 14 d1 a5 58 52 a2 26 ?????<"x.???XR?&
20: 0c 50 54 a5 6b 80 d1 c0 45 7c 61 7c 81 80 81 bc ?PT?k???E|a|????
30: 95 3c 31 7c 01 01 02 3a 80 18 71 38 2d 40 58 2c ?<1|???:??q8-@X,
40: 45 00 55 50 21 00 00 1e 00 00 00 ff 00 36 33 45 E.UP!..?.....63E
50: 30 31 36 35 36 53 4c 30 0a 20 00 00 00 fd 00 18 01656SL0? ...?.?
60: 78 0f 87 15 00 0a 20 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 fc x???.? ...?
70: 00 42 65 6e 51 20 58 4c 32 37 32 30 5a 0a 00 f4 .BenQ XL2720Z?.?
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ cd flashrom
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-8:49
flashrom v0.9.7-r1850 on Linux 3.13.0-24-generic (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org

Calibrating delay loop... yOK.
Info: Will try to use device /dev/i2c-8 and address 0x49.
Info: WILL reset the device at the end.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605D/MX25L1608D/MX25L1673E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Multiple flash chip definitions match the detected chip(s): "MX25L1605", "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E", "MX25L1605D/MX25L1608D/MX25L1673E"
Please specify which chip definition to use with the -c <chipname> option.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/flashrom$
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-8:49 -c "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" -r backup.bin
flashrom v0.9.7-r1850 on Linux 3.13.0-24-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-8 and address 0x49.
Info: WILL reset the device at the end.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Block protection could not be disabled!
Reading flash... done.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-8:49 -c "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" -w firmware.bin
flashrom v0.9.7-r1850 on Linux 3.13.0-24-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-8 and address 0x49.
Info: WILL reset the device at the end.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Block protection could not be disabled!
Reading old flash chip contents... done.
Erasing and writing flash chip... FAILED at 0x0000d000! Expected=0xff, Found=0x00, failed byte count from 0x0000d000-0x0000dfff: 0x1
ERASE FAILED!
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
FAILED at 0x0000d000! Expected=0xff, Found=0x00, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x0000ffff: 0x3
ERASE FAILED!
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
FAILED at 0x0000d000! Expected=0xff, Found=0x00, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x0000ffff: 0x3
ERASE FAILED!
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
FAILED at 0x0000d000! Expected=0xff, Found=0x00, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x001fffff: 0x1f3
ERASE FAILED!
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
FAILED at 0x0000d000! Expected=0xff, Found=0x00, failed byte count from 0x00000000-0x001fffff: 0x1f3
ERASE FAILED!
Looking for another erase function.
No usable erase functions left.
FAILED!
Uh oh. Erase/write failed. Checking if anything has changed.
Reading current flash chip contents... done.
Good, writing to the flash chip apparently didn't do anything.
Please check the connections (especially those to write protection pins) between
the programmer and the flash chip. If you think the error is caused by flashrom
please report this on IRC at chat.freenode.net (channel #flashrom) or
mail [email protected], thanks!

Hopefully, someone can help me with my trouble, greetings from Germany.

[zefs]

Just registered to say a big thanks to pipomolo42 for his work, to Bishi for his post: http://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic ... t=40#p5953 and to the site admin for his efforts and the strobe utility.

I was able to flash to V2 firmware on my XL2411z (got it from amazon.de) using a vga cable on a second PC using the ubuntu USB boot.

[Xadras]

Hey guys,
unfortunately I'm stuck at :

tristan@tristan-E5010:~/flashrom/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=dev/i2c-0:49
sudo: ./flashrom: command not found

I don't know what i could have done wrong???

[Xadras]

Ok I got a bit further after 4 hours. Now after the
# dump current firmware
sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-0:49 -c "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" -r backup.bin
command I get:

reading flash... Error sending write command: errno 5.
read operation failed!
FAILED.
Info:reset command was not send. Either the noreset_1 option was used,or an error occured.

[Xadras]

Here is a more complete list of where I'm stuck. Please help me


ubuntu@ubuntu-Aspire-6935:~/flashrom$ sudo i2cdetect 0
WARNING! This program can confuse your I2C bus, cause data loss and worse!
I will probe file /dev/i2c-0.
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: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
20: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
30: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 37 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 49 -- -- -- -- -- --
50: 50 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 59 -- -- -- -- -- --
60: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
70: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
ubuntu@ubuntu-Aspire-6935:~/flashrom$ sudo i2cdump -r 0-127 0 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-0, 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 ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 09 d1 30 7f 45 54 00 00 ........??0?ET..
10: 0b 18 01 03 0e 35 1e 78 2e 9d e1 a6 54 54 9f 26 ?????5?x.???TT?&
20: 0d 50 54 a5 6b 80 d1 c0 45 7c 61 7c 81 80 81 bc ?PT?k???E|a|????
30: 95 3c 31 7c 01 01 02 3a 80 18 71 38 2d 40 58 2c ?<1|???:??q8-@X,
40: 45 00 13 2a 21 00 00 1e 00 00 00 ff 00 33 33 45 E.?*!..?.....33E
50: 30 30 39 37 34 53 4c 30 0a 20 00 00 00 fd 00 18 00974SL0? ...?.?
60: 78 0f 87 15 00 0a 20 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 fc x???.? ...?
70: 00 42 65 6e 51 20 58 4c 32 34 31 31 5a 0a 00 cd .BenQ XL2411Z?.?
ubuntu@ubuntu-Aspire-6935:~/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-0:49
flashrom v0.9.7-r1852 on Linux 3.13.0-24-generic (i686)
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-0 and address 0x49.
Info: WILL reset the device at the end.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605D/MX25L1608D/MX25L1673E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Multiple flash chip definitions match the detected chip(s): "MX25L1605", "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E", "MX25L1605D/MX25L1608D/MX25L1673E"
Please specify which chip definition to use with the -c <chipname> option.
ubuntu@ubuntu-Aspire-6935:~/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-0:49 -c "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" -r backup.bin
flashrom v0.9.7-r1852 on Linux 3.13.0-24-generic (i686)
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-0 and address 0x49.
Info: WILL reset the device at the end.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Reading flash... Error sending write command: errno 5.
Read operation failed!
FAILED.
Info: Reset command was not sent. Either the noreset=1 option was used, or an error occured.
ubuntu@ubuntu-Aspire-6935:~/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-0:49 -c MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E -r backup.bin
flashrom v0.9.7-r1852 on Linux 3.13.0-24-generic (i686)
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-0 and address 0x49.
Info: WILL reset the device at the end.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Reading flash... Error sending write command: errno 5.
Read operation failed!
FAILED.
Info: Reset command was not sent. Either the noreset=1 option was used, or an error occured.
ubuntu@ubuntu-Aspire-6935:~/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-0:49 -c MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E -r backup1.bin
flashrom v0.9.7-r1852 on Linux 3.13.0-24-generic (i686)
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-0 and address 0x49.
Info: WILL reset the device at the end.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Reading flash... Error sending read command: errno 5.
Read operation failed!
FAILED.
Info: Reset command was not sent. Either the noreset=1 option was used, or an error occured.
ubuntu@ubuntu-Aspire-6935:~/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-0:49, noreset=1
flashrom v0.9.7-r1852 on Linux 3.13.0-24-generic (i686)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org

Error: Extra parameter found.
Please run "flashrom --help" for usage info.
ubuntu@ubuntu-Aspire-6935:~/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-0:49,noreset=1
flashrom v0.9.7-r1852 on Linux 3.13.0-24-generic (i686)
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-0 and address 0x49.
Info: WILL NOT reset the device at the end.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605D/MX25L1608D/MX25L1673E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Multiple flash chip definitions match the detected chip(s): "MX25L1605", "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E", "MX25L1605D/MX25L1608D/MX25L1673E"
Please specify which chip definition to use with the -c <chipname> option.
Info: Reset command was not sent. Either the noreset=1 option was used, or an error occured.
ubuntu@ubuntu-Aspire-6935:~/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-0:49 -c MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E -r backup.bin
flashrom v0.9.7-r1852 on Linux 3.13.0-24-generic (i686)
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-0 and address 0x49.
Info: WILL reset the device at the end.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Reading flash... done.
ubuntu@ubuntu-Aspire-6935:~/flashrom$ tr '\000' '\377' < /dev/zero | dd of=firmware.bin bs=1k count=2k
2048+0 Datensätze ein
2048+0 Datensätze aus
2097152 Bytes (2,1 MB) kopiert, 0,0143371 s, 146 MB/s
ubuntu@ubuntu-Aspire-6935:~/flashrom$ dd if=XL2411Z_V2_20131209_8B72.BIN of=firmware.bin conv=notrunc
1664+0 Datensätze ein
1664+0 Datensätze aus
851968 Bytes (852 kB) kopiert, 0,00860375 s, 99,0 MB/s
ubuntu@ubuntu-Aspire-6935:~/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-0:49 -c "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" -w firmware.bin
[sudo] password for ubuntu:
flashrom v0.9.7-r1852 on Linux 3.13.0-24-generic (i686)
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-0 and address 0x49.
Info: WILL reset the device at the end.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Reading old flash chip contents... done.
Erasing and writing flash chip... Error sending write command: errno 5.
spi_nbyte_program failed during command execution at address 0x4500
Reading current flash chip contents... Error sending write command: errno 5.
Can't read anymore! Aborting.
FAILED!
Uh oh. Erase/write failed.Checking if anything has changed.
Reading current flash chip contents... Error sending read command: errno 5.
Can't even read anymore!
Your flash chip is in an unknown state.
Please report this on IRC at chat.freenode.net (channel #flashrom) or
mail [email protected], thanks!
Info: Reset command was not sent. Either the noreset=1 option was used, or an error occured.
ubuntu@ubuntu-Aspire-6935:~/flashrom$