Read the latest availability update for this book in this post
This is the first ever book that I wrote. It's roughly 500 pages long. I'll talk more about it later. For now, you can order it at Amazon.com, in the following URL:
http://www.amazon.com/BIOS-Disassembly-Ninjutsu-Uncovered/dp/1931769605
The Russian version of this book will be available in August this year. My chief editor said that the translation has been finished and they are working on the printing subsequently ;-).
Advertising of the Russian version of the book is at http://www.bhv.ru/books/book.php?id=180728
Anyway, the open discussion regarding the book contents is open now.
I would like to thank Mr. David Feustel for his review on this book. Mr. Feustel described an issue that he face as follows:
This book and its cdrom are
heavily Microsoft Windows-centric.
Doing things with the files on the cdrom
using linux or *bsd instead of Microsoft
Windows, while not difficult, will be
accompanied by a certain amount of pain
as the doer massages file formatting to
make the files work with the gcc
toolchain. It's even worse in my case
since I am running 64-bit OpenBSD and I
can't run any 32-bit software (eg Fasm)
on the 64-bit version of OpenBSD.
This issue, particularly the fasm issue that might be faced by other Unix users, can be resolved easily by using the suitable version of Fasm which can be downloaded at http://flatassembler.net/download.php. To do so, download the Unix version of Fasm (flat assembler 1.67.21 for Unix/libc) and then use it as a replacement for the Fasmw mentioned in the book.
I'll try to evaluate another issues regarding Unix compatibility of the source code in the book when I have enough time quite soon.
Recently, I've been contacted by numerous people asking about the bios_probe source code from my book (BIOS Disassembly Ninjutsu Uncovered).
Here's what I have to say:
First, to be honest with you, the original source code is included in the accompanying CDROM. I think the megaupload link has long been dead.
Second, bios_probe development has been stopped for a while because I have made a replacement utility called winflashrom which is a remake of the bios_probe with a significantly different architecture and updated chip support. winflashrom source code is available for download in the following link:
http://google-summer-of-code-2007-coresystems.googlecode.com/files/DarmawanMappatutu_Salihun.tar.gz
Third, it has been almost a year since the last time I updated winflashrom. Therefore you have quite a lot of homework to do if you want leading edge motherboard support.
Anyway, about bios_probe and flash_n_burn. Both of them used to be derived from the very same code base, i.e. the flash_n_burn utility which comes from the first LinuxBIOS source code. FYI, the LinuxBIOS project has been renamed to Coreboot, a while ago. So, this bios_probe was derived from the very old LinuxBIOS utility to flash BIOS in Linux and other *NIX.
When I joined Google Summer of Code (GSoC) in 2007, I dismissed the old bios_probe and start a new similar utility which then named winflashrom as the original flash_n_burn utility in the LinuxBIOS project was renamed to flashrom about a year or two before that.
So, if you want the brand new flash_n_burn, just go to the LinuxBIOS/Coreboot download site at http://www.coreboot.org/Download_coreboot and download it from the subversion repository. It should be in the utility directory after you downloaded the source code of LinuxBIOS/coreboot. Don't forget that now it has been renamed to
flashrom utility.
As for the Windows version which is now named winflashrom, it's available in the GSoC link above (DarmawanMappatutuSalihun.tar.gz). I haven't got the time to update this utility to support Windows Vista.
UPDATE
------------
I have received the contract termination for the English edition of BIOS Disassembly Ninjutsu Uncovered. Please read this post for further details.
