Reflashing L15v4 externally

Librem
1

Are Librems (L15v4 specifically) designed with in-place reflashing in mind, i.e. is it safe to flash the firmware using the external SPI programmer without desoldering the chip from the motherboard? I’m going to have some fun with coreboot but not ready to desolder the chip in case of bricking the board, so I would proceed only if it is possible to restore the firmware in-place (using Pomona clip and Raspberry Pi).

Also, it looks like L15v4 has Winbond 25Q128JVSQ as a firmware storage, but I don’t see it in the list of Flashrom’s supported hardware (though there are some other modifications of W25Q128 — see https://www.flashrom.org/Supported_hardware). Does this mean that Flashrom is not guaranteed to work with this chip directly using the generic linux_spi driver instead of internal (which is used when flashing the chip from the laptop itself and, if I understand correctly, implies some level of abstraction between Flashrom and the chip itself)?

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absolutely, there is a diode protecting the vcc line from powering up other components

Also, it looks like L15v4 has Winbond 25Q128JVSQ as a firmware storage, but I don’t see it in the list of Flashrom’s supported hardware

W25Q128 is supported, the suffixes are just related to packaging not chip internals

Does this mean that Flashrom is not guaranteed to work with this chip directly using the generic linux_spi driver instead of internal

I have not tested linux_spi nor would I recommend doing so without consulting #flashrom on Freenode IRC (or their mailing list). Internal works perfectly and is the recommended programmer parameter to use.

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3

Thaks a lot, @MrChromebox!