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Diffstat (limited to 'util/nvramtool/nvramtool.8')
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diff --git a/util/nvramtool/nvramtool.8 b/util/nvramtool/nvramtool.8 new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..985d1a6fae --- /dev/null +++ b/util/nvramtool/nvramtool.8 @@ -0,0 +1,254 @@ +.\"***************************************************************************\ +.\" nvramtool.8 +.\"*************************************************************************** +.\" Copyright (C) 2002, 2003 The Regents of the University of California. +.\" Produced at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. +.\" Written by David S. Peterson <dsp@llnl.gov> <dave_peterson@pobox.com>. +.\" UCRL-CODE-2003-012 +.\" All rights reserved. +.\" +.\" This file is part of nvramtool, a utility for reading/writing coreboot +.\" parameters and displaying information from the coreboot table. +.\" For details, see http://coreboot.org/nvramtool. +.\" +.\" Please also read the file DISCLAIMER which is included in this software +.\" distribution. +.\" +.\" This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it +.\" under the terms of the GNU General Public License (as published by the +.\" Free Software Foundation) version 2, dated June 1991. +.\" +.\" This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but +.\" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the IMPLIED WARRANTY OF +.\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the terms and +.\" conditions of the GNU General Public License for more details. +.\" +.\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along +.\" with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., +.\" 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA. +.\"***************************************************************************/ +.TH NVRAMTOOL 8 "September 2008" +.SH NAME +nvramtool \- read/write coreboot-related information +.SH SYNOPSIS +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] [-n] -r NAME" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -e NAME" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -a" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -w NAME=VALUE" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -p INPUT_FILE" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -i" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -c [VALUE]" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -l [ARG]" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -d" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -Y" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -b OUTPUT_FILE" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -B INPUT_FILE" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -x" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -X DUMPFILE" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -v" +.br +.B "nvramtool [OPTS] -h" +.SH DESCRIPTION +.B "nvramtool" +is a utility for reading/writing coreboot parameters and displaying +information from the coreboot table. + +The coreboot table resides in low physical memory. It is created at boot +time by coreboot, and contains various system information such as the type +of mainboard in use. It specifies locations in the CMOS (nonvolatile RAM) +where the coreboot parameters are stored. + +This program is intended for (x86-based) systems that use coreboot. For +information about coreboot, see +.br +http://www.coreboot.org/. +.SH PARAMETERS +.TP +.B "[-n] -r NAME" +Show the value of the coreboot parameter given by +.B "NAME." +If +.B "-n" +is specified, show only the value. Otherwise show both parameter name and +value. +.TP +.B "-e NAME" +Show all possible values for parameter given by +.B "NAME." +.TP +.B "-a" +Show the names and values for all coreboot parameters. +.TP +.B "-w NAME=VALUE" +Assign +.B "VALUE" +to coreboot parameter given by +.B "NAME." +.TP +.B "-p INPUT_FILE" +Assign values to coreboot parameters according to the contents of +.B "INPUT_FILE." +The format of this file is described below. +.TP +.B "-i" +This is similar to the +.B "-p" +option, except that the contents of the input file are taken from standard +input. +.TP +.B "-c [VALUE]" +If +.B "VALUE" +is present then set the CMOS checksum for the coreboot parameters to +.B "VALUE." +Otherwise, show the checksum value. +.TP +.B "-l [ARG]" +If +.B "ARG" +is present then show information from the coreboot table as specified by +.B "ARG." +Otherwise show all possible values for +.B "ARG." +.TP +.B "-d" +Do a low-level dump of the coreboot table. +.TP +.B "-Y" +Write CMOS layout information to standard output. If redirected to a file, +the layout information may be used as input for the +.B "'-y LAYOUT_FILE'" +option (see below). +.TP +.B "-b OUTPUT_FILE" +Write the contents of CMOS memory to the binary file +.B "OUTPUT_FILE." +The first 14 bytes of +.B "OUTPUT_FILE" +do not contain actual CMOS data, and are always written as zeros. This is +because the first 14 bytes of the CMOS area do not contain CMOS memory. These +bytes are involved with the functioning of the real time clock. +.TP +.B "-B INPUT_FILE" +Read binary data from +.B "INPUT_FILE" +and write the data to CMOS memory. The first 14 bytes of +.B "INPUT_FILE" +are skipped and data is written to CMOS starting at the 15th byte of the CMOS +area. This is because the first 14 bytes of the CMOS area do not contain CMOS +memory. These bytes are involved with the functioning of the real time clock. +.TP +.B "-x" +Show a hex dump of all CMOS data. The first 14 bytes of the dump do not +contain actual CMOS data, and are always shown as zeros. This is because the +first 14 bytes of the CMOS area do not contain CMOS memory. These bytes are +involved with the functioning of the real time clock. +.TP +.B "-X DUMPFILE" +Read binary data from +.B "DUMPFILE" +(presumably a CMOS dumpfile created using the +.B "-b OUTPUT_FILE" +option) and show a hex dump of the data. +.TP +.B "-v" +Show version information for this program. +.TP +.B "-h" +Show a help message for this program. +.SH "OPTIONS" +In all cases above, +.B "[OPTS]" +evaluates to the following: + +.B " [-y LAYOUT_FILE | -t]" + +The +.B "'-y LAYOUT_FILE'" +option tells nvramtool to obtain CMOS layout information from the contents of +.B "LAYOUT_FILE." +Likewise, the +.B "'-t'" +option tells nvramtool to obtain CMOS layout information from the CMOS option +table (contained within the coreboot table). If neither option is +specified, the CMOS option table is used by default. +.B "LAYOUT_FILE" +follows the format of the +.B "cmos.layout" +files provided by coreboot. + +If the coreboot installed on your system was built without specifying +.B "HAVE_OPTION_TABLE," +then the coreboot table will not contain a CMOS option table. In this case, +the +.B "'-y LAYOUT_FILE'" +option must be used. + +These two options are silently ignored when used in combination with other +options (such as +.B "-h," +for instance) for which they are not applicable. +.SH FILE FORMAT +For the +.B "-p" +option, +.B "INPUT_FILE" +must consist of a sequence of lines such that each line is either a blank +line, a comment, or an assignment. A blank line consists only of zero or +more whitespace characters (spaces and tabs). A comment is constructed as +follows: + +.B " [ws]#[text]" + +Here, +.B "[ws]" +indicates optional whitespace characters and +.B "[text]" +indicates optional text. Blank lines and comments are both ignored. An +assignment is constructed as follows: + +.B " [ws]NAME[ws]=[ws]VALUE[ws]" + +Here, +.B "NAME" +is the name of a coreboot parameter and +.B "VALUE" +is the value that will be assigned to +.B "NAME." +.B "VALUE" +is allowed to contain whitespace characters, but it must begin and end with +nonwhitespace characters. Note that each comment must appear on a line by +itself. If you attempt to add a comment to the end of an assignment, then the +comment will be interpreted as part of +.B "VALUE." +It is useful to observe that the output produced by both the +.B "-a" +and the +.B "'[-n] NAME'" +options (without +.B "-n" +specified) adheres to this file format. +.SH BUGS +This program does not implement any type of synchronization to ensure that +different processes don't stomp on each other when trying to access the +nonvolatile RAM simultaneously. Therefore, corruption of the BIOS parameter +values may occur if multiple instances of this program are executed +concurrently. +.SH AUTHORS +David S. Peterson <dsp@llnl.gov> <dave_peterson@pobox.com> +.br +Stefan Reinauer <stepan@coresystems.de> |