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NVRAMTOOL(8)		     System Manager's Manual		    NVRAMTOOL(8)

NAME
     nvramtool - read/write coreboot-related information

SYNOPSIS
     nvramtool [OPTS] [-n] -r NAME
     nvramtool [OPTS] -e NAME
     nvramtool [OPTS] -a
     nvramtool [OPTS] -w NAME=VALUE
     nvramtool [OPTS] -p INPUT_FILE
     nvramtool [OPTS] -i
     nvramtool [OPTS] -c [VALUE]
     nvramtool [OPTS] -l [ARG]
     nvramtool [OPTS] -d
     nvramtool [OPTS] -Y
     nvramtool [OPTS] -b OUTPUT_FILE
     nvramtool [OPTS] -B INPUT_FILE
     nvramtool [OPTS] -x
     nvramtool [OPTS] -X DUMPFILE
     nvramtool [OPTS] -v
     nvramtool [OPTS] -h

DESCRIPTION
     nvramtool is a utility for reading/writing coreboot parameters and display-
     ing 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
     http://www.coreboot.org/.

PARAMETERS
     [-n] -r NAME
	    Show  the  value  of the coreboot parameter given by NAME.	If -n is
	    specified, show only the value.  Otherwise show both parameter  name
	    and value.

     -e NAME
	    Show all possible values for parameter given by NAME.

     -a     Show the names and values for all coreboot parameters.

     -w NAME=VALUE
	    Assign VALUE to coreboot parameter given by NAME.

     -p INPUT_FILE
	    Assign  values  to	coreboot parameters according to the contents of
	    INPUT_FILE.  The format of this file is described below.

     -i     This is similar to the -p option, except that the  contents  of  the
	    input file are taken from standard input.

     -c [VALUE]
	    If	VALUE is present then set the CMOS checksum for the coreboot pa-
	    rameters to VALUE.	Otherwise, show the checksum value.

     -l [ARG]
	    If ARG is present then show information from the coreboot  table  as
	    specified by ARG.  Otherwise show all possible values for ARG.

     -d     Do a low-level dump of the coreboot table.

     -Y     Write  CMOS layout information to standard output.	If redirected to
	    a file, the layout information may be used as input for the '-y LAY-
	    OUT_FILE' option (see below).

     -b OUTPUT_FILE
	    Write the contents of CMOS memory to the  binary  file  OUTPUT_FILE.
	    The  first	14 bytes of 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  in-
	    volved with the functioning of the real time clock.

     -B INPUT_FILE
	    Read  binary data from INPUT_FILE and write the data to CMOS memory.
	    The first 14 bytes of 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.

     -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.

     -X DUMPFILE
	    Read  binary  data from DUMPFILE (presumably a CMOS dumpfile created
	    using the -b OUTPUT_FILE option) and show a hex dump of the data.

     -v     Show version information for this program.

     -h     Show a help message for this program.

OPTIONS
     In all cases above, [OPTS] evaluates to the following:

	 [-y LAYOUT_FILE | -t]

     The '-y LAYOUT_FILE' option tells nvramtool to obtain CMOS layout	informa-
     tion  from  the  contents	of LAYOUT_FILE.  Likewise, the '-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.  LAYOUT_FILE follows the format of
     the cmos.layout files provided by coreboot.

     If the coreboot installed on your system was built without specifying  CON-
     FIG_HAVE_OPTION_TABLE,  then the coreboot table will not contain a CMOS op-
     tion table.  In this case, the '-y LAYOUT_FILE' option must be used.

     These two options are silently ignored when used in combination with  other
     options (such as -h, for instance) for which they are not applicable.

FILE FORMAT
     For the -p option, 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:

	 [ws]#[text]

     Here, [ws] indicates optional whitespace characters  and  [text]  indicates
     optional  text.   Blank lines and comments are both ignored.  An assignment
     is constructed as follows:

	 [ws]NAME[ws]=[ws]VALUE[ws]

     Here, NAME is the name of a coreboot parameter and VALUE is the value  that
     will  be  assigned to NAME.  VALUE is allowed to contain whitespace charac-
     ters, 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 com-
     ment  to  the end of an assignment, then the comment will be interpreted as
     part of VALUE.  It is useful to observe that the output  produced	by  both
     the  -a  and the '[-n] NAME' options (without -n specified) adheres to this
     file format.

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  parame-
     ter  values  may  occur  if multiple instances of this program are executed
     concurrently.

AUTHORS
     David S. Peterson <dsp@llnl.gov> <dave_peterson@pobox.com>
     Stefan Reinauer <stepan@coresystems.de>

				 September 2008 		    NVRAMTOOL(8)

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