coreboot and its users/developers are more than welcome to exchange knowledge. User CodeRush (from pmpatch thread) would love to talk to some devs from there im sure.
thank you for a warm welcome. lets get this post and or this topic rolling. i will pour in with more information as an when requried. i hope you understand we might reply late, but someone will reply. user coderush is more than welcome to meet us and talk to us. and we will see what we got in store for him. and others users like mdl forum members are always welcome to post their valueable insight. we appriciate user input/feedbacks. thanks -duh
I have a Lenovo X131e Chromebook (with celeron 1007u cpu). I would like to remove chromeos and instead just run Debian Wheezy linux. I have set the chromebook in developer mode, and also opened the laptop and set a switch to the "write-enable" position. Is there a coreboot version that I should use. On the Coreboot site I see some versions developed for the Acer C7 chromebooks, but nothing specifically for Lenovo X131e chromebook. Thanks
I really like this project. I tried to scan my motherboard but because the components are of different height the chip labels are out of focus. They are also too small to read with the naked eye. How do you normally do this(component identification)?
I have no compatible devices to test coreboot, but it's definitely a very nice and usefull project. Will digg into it later, when I have a bit of free time for that.
sorry i been away for a long time. I been extremely busy all these while, which is why i couldn't update. I a now porting coreboot to thinkpad t410 and t420 and t430. i am also planning to include the slic tables. so windows server xxxx Rx (xxxx M$'s whim and fancyful names & Rx --- s**tttttttttttttt! ;-) ) i am mostly planning to include all the functions of coreboot, but if you guys must insist, i can also include a few windows features. i am open to ideas, i will try to be frequent here in the forum hence forth. but dont expect miracle overnight. its not easy. i am very close to actual porting at the moment. i have pushed the code to bios chip via bus pirate, which is why i need help with those brave ones who can offer help -> #1. may be use a windows client to unlock the ME lock and install the firmware using windows, because in linux using flashrom i got 0 success. #2. slic.... wtf! i have no idea about slic. i am planning because i think it may help the M$ domain users, i dont think i will personally use M$ products... thanks! -paul p.s. this is not an overnight project, while porting, i almost brick my laptops daily and i use the buspirate to brick it back to life. so dont expect results and no ETA and lastly even in M$ platform also i think you may need the help of buspirate. ideas please, i am open to all, good, bad and ugly! ;-)
Hi duh, This is a very interesting project. How is it working out with those thinkpads? I also have a t420 and would like to flash it with coreboot, but my knowledge with bios programming and such is very limited. Please let me know whats-up.
i have a T410 but screen is bad.. im about to order one from newegg soon. i also have spi USB programmer to make backups. unlocking ME sounds important.
Can u use a spi usb programmer on a soldered bios chip? p.s they got a screen for $50 but it's only 1366x768
first off sorry for this new ID duh1. i forgot my mdl password, and i tried to recover my password via email password recovery and i did learn that i forgot my email id too, lets not mention the email ID password which will help me recover the "duh" id password. and now back to topic. I have started to experiment with the thinkpad t410 and t420 and t430. I have had little success with t410 and t430 but t420 i am yet to rewrite everything. the bootblock is giving me tonnes of pathetic issues, which i am yet to solve. t410, i can boot, but its very unstable. I dont have a usb debugger, so i converted my nokia n900 as a usb debugger its attitude/aptitude is same as that of a beaglebone. Which is also used a usb debugger. as you can see these devices dont have the serial debug interface like thinkpad t60 and x60 so it leaves me with no choice but use the usb debugger. the status us same with thinkpad t430. Bootblock is giving me issues. it goes on a boot loop. I am trying to fix it. i am right now 70% done with the porting with respect to t410 and t430. t420 is only 25% i will touch the t420 once i am done with t410 and t430. here is something you need to have before you plan to port coreboot to your laptop. 1. patience and time and faith in yourself. 2. bare minimum skills in linux 3. compiler with x86 tool chain (can be built in coreboot with xcrossbuild) 4. loads of time and a good search engine and loads of coffee. 5. buspirate v3 atleast v4 is even better or an in-situ debugger. 6. soic debug cable (pomona soic-8 debug cable) 7. screw driver and a towel (to wipe your sweat) and a static (electricity) band. 8. another laptop/desktop/smart phone by which you can revert back to old bios/firmware incase you fsck it up mercilessly. 9. warranty still available or warranty extended, so if you fsck up, you can pretend to be innocent and call up lenovo and ask them for a free motherboard replacement, all lies and lies and lies, which you me an everyone does every minute every time, and cry a river to lenovo support team that the mobo is faulty and you dont know and it stopped working. (OPTIONAL) 10. dictionary with loads of swear which you can use on FOSS community, linux, unix, bsd, lenovo, microsoft, intel, everything and everybody and me and lastly swear on yourself or a knife to kill yourself if things are in a severe FUBAR state. (OPTIONAL) but a towel to wipe your sweat is mandatory. 11. some knowledge in math especially binary, you will need this very much to do some calculations, if you get initial success and then you wish to build more better and finer coreboot firmwares. (NEEDED) 12. replacement soic-8 chips, copy the old bios into the replacement chip and pull out the original chip (JUST IN CASE, see point 9 and 10). (OPTIONAL) 13. smd workstation where you may need to replace the original soic-8 chips. (OPTIONAL) 14. if you are a greedy bastid like how i am and you wish to upsize the soic-8 chips (currently OEM chip size is 8 M and the intel amt code takes 5 M, but you wish to upsize it and put a 16 M chip so you can put a whole working kernel or even better a complete embedded distro) (OPTIONAL) if you have these 14 things in you then wait till i complete the porting process and i will update the corebook wiki once i am done. since porting is not easy and its a very complicated process. i am working on it. see ya on mdl on this saturday which is 20 th sept, 2014. thanks! -paul
is it a buspirate? if so which verson v3 or v4? v3 will take a long 30-40 minutes to reprogram the chip. if you have a dediprog then it will take a few minutes. ME region is a mess. dont touch it. we havent figured out anything on the ME region. backing up via in-situ programmer is an excellent idea. unlocking ME. i am not in that league. screen should not be an issue. you need to enable the usb debugging port. which is more or less a cat and mouse game. since you need to hunt for the usb debug port. check the coreboot wiki for a script by stefan fo finding and activating the usb debug port. and then the trial and error and too many reboots as in to check which usb port is the usb debug port for you. ****and lastly aarghhhhh my duh ID is what i need.... i forgot the email ID also and its password and also mdl's duh user's password. wish some admin/mod solves this issue and help me get back my original duh ID. if it happens i can delete this ID.*** thanks! -paul
yes you will need programmer either an in-situ programmer like buspirate or a dediprog, and the pomona soic-8 cable. because the bios flash chip is soic-8 and not soic-16. you can stick on the clips on the legs of the chip and you can see your old bios/firmware vanish away. ****and lastly aarghhhhh my duh ID is what i need.... i forgot the email ID also and its password and also mdl's duh user's password. wish some admin/mod solves this issue and help me get back my original duh ID. if it happens i can delete this ID.*** thanks! -paul
Hey nice, I have been looking into core boot as a replacement for my current bios what doesn't let me do anything I want on this computer. The problem is my chipset north and south are not supported by core boot. If you could put in a word for me it would be much appreciated. My chipset is: North Bridge: Intel Crestline-GML GL960 South Bridge: ICH8 Manufacturer/Model: HP Compaq Presario C700 Thanks for your help.
holy fscking s**t! i have the same laptop. c734tu, i.e. c700 family series. if i recall correctly? then there were some plans to port coreboot to gm960/gm965 chipset. will take a look once t410 and t430 are done and then will touch t420 and other laptops. thanks! -paul p.s. oh well i figured out the mail ID and also password and recovered every bits and details. now i am again incharge of the ID.
Hi, duh! i am very interested in this port, so I'd like to help you as much as I can. I have experience in electronics design and embedded uC systems (but no experience so far with Coreboot). I do use T410 as my main laptop (with GNU/Linux on board). I also have separate mostly functional (dead battery charger circuit) T410 system board available for testing (currently used as a home "server" and wifi router). I would like to participate as much as I can in testing/porting. Could you please share your development repo of coreboot?
I just learned about your effort and I'm intrigued since I have a T420. Just wondering: Is it possible to build a BIOS for a base address in RAM, load it and start it up from a boot disk, at the end of the 640K or between 640K and 1M by mapping some RAM there? This brings back memories of the late 80s/early 90s when I did such things on 286 and 386 If it's safe and the BIOS can be flashed back to the original code (if necessary) I can do some testing.