$OpenBSD: README,v 1.5 2020/04/23 15:06:27 sthen Exp $
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| Running ${PKGSTEM} on OpenBSD
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Programming on-board devices
============================
One common use of flashrom is to programme an on-board flash device
(e.g. for updating devices on the mainboard or a PCI device attached to
the machine you're running it on).
This requires the ability to write directly to memory, which is
INSECURE. Therefore, OpenBSD denies it under normal operating
conditions.
If you have decided to accept the risks of using this software, it is
advised to reboot into *single user mode* ("boot -s"), mount necessary
filesystems (mount -a -t nonfs), "ldconfig -m /usr/local/lib", flash
and reboot.
In single user mode, the system securelevel(8) does allow access to
write directly to system memory and, importantly, network services and
other third-party software will usually not be running at the time.
flashrom also supports some external programming devices via USB; in
those cases it can be run from a normal boot.
Special notes for PC Engines APU
--------------------------------
One common use of flashrom on OpenBSD is to update coreboot on PC Engines
APU devices.
New firmware and release notes are available at https://pcengines.github.io/
In some cases extra flags are needed to bypass warnings; see this URL
for further information:
https://github.com/pcengines/apu2-documentation/blob/master/docs/firmware_flashing.md
The setpci command mentioned in that page, if needed, is in the
pciutils package.
