flashrom

Copying the notes from meeting on 27/06/2024

As the time goes, chip vendors are producing newer models, which sometimes re-use model IDs of old versions. Old versions are considered as "end of life", and replaced with newer models with more features. However flashchips.c accumulates everything and with time we get more and more duplicate model IDs. This makes adding new models harder, but also increases the chance users need to manually specify the chip model.

Question: How can we avoid old chip models dragging down adding new ones, without completely removing them from the database (some users might still be using end-of-life chips)?

• probably wasn't an issue 20 years ago when flashchips.c was designed, but now it is

• have a flag "end of life" for chip definition? by default, given multiple definitions of the same model ID, the definition without a flag be selected?

  • vendors adding new model can mark old one end-of-life, in the same patch

• [joursoir] It doesn't bother me. maybe it's not a big problem? but just having a flag "end-of-life" for information might be useful

  • need to be a good clear name, because flashrom still supports everything!

• separate file flashchips_legacy.c for old chips?

  • bad: moving definitions from one file to another is pita

• CONCLUSION: maybe we can add a flag to flashchip struct and no changes to probing logic yet.