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-<!DOCTYPE html>
-<html>
-<head>
- <meta charset="utf-8">
- <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
-
- <style type="text/css">
- body {
- background:#fff;
- color:#000;
- font-family:sans-serif;
- font-size:1em;
- }
- </style>
-
- <title>Libreboot documentation: Unbricking the ThinkPad X60</title>
-</head>
-
-<body>
-
- <header>
- <h1>Unbricking the ThinkPad X60</h1>
- <aside>This guide will show you how to recover from a bad flash that prevents your ThinkPad X60 from booting.</aside>
- </header>
-
- <p>Or go <a href="../index.html">back to main index</a></p>
-
- <h2>Table of Contents</h2>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#hardware_requirements">Hardware Requirements</a></li>
- <li><a href="#software_requirements">Software Requirements</a></li>
- <li>
- Types of brick:
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#bucts_brick">Brick type 1: bucts not reset</a></li>
- <li><a href="#recovery">Brick type 2: bad rom (or user error), machine won't boot</a></li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
-
- <h1 id="hardware_requirements">Hardware requirements</h1>
- <ul>
- <li>a 2nd computer (maybe another X60. any computer will do)</li>
- <li>external flashrom-compatible programmer (I'm using the "bus pirate")
- <li>SOIC-8 IC clip (I'm using the Pomona 5250)</li>
- <li>Cable (programmer<>clip) - mine came with the bus pirate.</li>
- <li>USB mini a to b cable (for buspirate<>computer connection).</li>
- </ul>
-
- <h1 id="software_requirements">Software requirements</h1>
- <ul>
- <li>GNU/Linux (on the 2nd computer)</li>
- <li>flashrom software (on the 2nd computer): <a href="http://flashrom.org/" target="_blank">http://flashrom.org/</a>
- </ul>
-
- <h1 id="bucts_brick">Brick type 1: bucts not reset.</h1>
- <p>
- You still have Lenovo BIOS, or you had libreboot running and you flashed another ROM; and you had bucts 1 set and
- the ROM wasn't dd'd.* or if Lenovo BIOS was present and libreboot wasn't flashed.<br/><br/>
-
- In this case, unbricking is easy: reset BUC.TS to 0 by removing that yellow cmos coin (it's a battery) and putting it back after a minute or two:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0004.jpg" alt="" /><br/><br/>
-
- *Those dd commands should be applied to all newly compiled X60 ROM's (the ROM's in libreboot binary archives already have this applied!):<br/>
- dd if=coreboot.rom of=top64k.bin bs=1 skip=$[$(stat -c %s coreboot.rom) - 0x10000] count=64k<br/>
- dd if=coreboot.rom bs=1 skip=$[$(stat -c %s coreboot.rom) - 0x20000] count=64k | hexdump<br/>
- dd if=top64k.bin of=coreboot.rom bs=1 seek=$[$(stat -c %s coreboot.rom) - 0x20000] count=64k conv=notrunc<br/>
- (doing this makes the ROM suitable for use when flashing a machine that still has Lenovo BIOS running,
- using those instructions: <a href="http://www.coreboot.org/Board:lenovo/x60/Installation" target="_blank">http://www.coreboot.org/Board:lenovo/x60/Installation</a>.
- </p>
-
- <h1 id="recovery">bad rom (or user error), machine won't boot</h1>
- <p>
- In this scenario, you compiled a ROM that had an incorrect configuration, or there is an actual bug preventing your machine from
- booting. Or, maybe, you set BUC.TS to 0 and shut down after first flash while Lenovo BIOS was running. In any case, your machine is bricked and will not boot at all.
- </p>
- <p>
- &quot;Unbricking&quot; means flashing a known-good (working) ROM. The problem: you can't boot the machine, making this difficult. In this situation, external hardware (see hardware requirements above) is needed which can flash the SPI chip (where libreboot resides).
- </p>
- <p>
- Remove those screws:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0000.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Push the keyboard forward (carefully):<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0001.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Lift the keyboard up and disconnect it from the board:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0002.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Grab the right-hand side of the chassis and force it off (gently) and pry up the rest of the chassis:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0003.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- You should now have this:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0004.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Disconnect the wifi antenna cables, the modem cable and the speaker:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0005.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Unroute the cables along their path, carefully lifting the tape that holds them in place. Then, disconnect the modem
- cable (other end) and power connection and unroute all the cables so that they dangle by the monitor hinge on the right-hand
- side:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0006.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Disconnect the monitor from the motherboard, and unroute the grey antenna cable, carefully lifting the tape
- that holds it into place:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0008.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Carefully lift the remaining tape and unroute the left antenna cable so that it is loose:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0009.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Remove the screw that is highlighted (do NOT remove the other one; it holds part of the heatsink (other side) into place):<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0011.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Remove those screws:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0012.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Carefully remove the plate, like so:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0013.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Remove the SATA connector:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0014.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Now remove the motherboard (gently) and cast the lcd/chassis aside:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0015.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Lift back that tape and hold it with something. Highlighted is the SPI flash chip:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0016.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- At this point, you should wire up your programmer according to it's documentation. For me, this was (see: "SparkFun cable pin reference"):<br/>
- <a href="http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Common_Bus_Pirate_cable_pinouts" target="_blank">http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Common_Bus_Pirate_cable_pinouts</a>.<br/>
- Correlating with the following information, I was able to wire up my pirate correctly:<br/>
- <a href="http://flashrom.org/Bus_Pirate#Connections" target="_blank">http://flashrom.org/Bus_Pirate#Connections</a><br/>
- And by following that advice:<br/>
- <a href="http://www.coreboot.org/Board:lenovo/x60/Installation#Howto" target="_blank">http://www.coreboot.org/Board:lenovo/x60/Installation#Howto</a>.<br/>
- Note: that last page says to wire up only those 5 pins (see below) like that: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6.<br/>
- Note: and then, for power it says (on that coreboot.org page) to connect the power jack to the board and connect the
- AC adapter (without powering on the board).<br/>
- Note: I ignored that advice, and wired up all 8 pins. And it worked.<br/>
-
- Here is the pinout (correlate it with your programmer's documentation):<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0017.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
-
- <p>
- My programmer, usb cable and clip:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0018.jpg" alt="" /><br/>
- My programmer (bus pirate):<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0019.jpg" alt="" /><br/>
- My clip (pomona 5250):<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0020.jpg" alt="" /><br/>
- My USB mini a to b cable:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0021.jpg" alt="" /><br/>
- Connecting the pomona:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0022.jpg" alt="" /><br/>
- Connecting the USB cable from programmer to 2nd(working/non-bricked) computer, my T60:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0024.jpg" alt="" /><br/>
- Programmer is now active:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0023.jpg" alt="" /><br/>
- Now I install flashrom on the T60 (running Trisquel GNU/Linux) and do this:<br/>
- <b>flashrom -p buspirate_spi:dev=/dev/ttyUSB0 -w bin/x60/libreboot_usqwerty.rom</b><br/>
- Note: there are also other ROM images for X60<br/>
- Note: this is using buspirate as the programmer, so it is flashing the X60, not the T60!<br/>
- Here's my terminal window on the T60:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0025.jpg" alt="" /><br/>
- So, you should see the following:<br/>
- --
- <pre>
- flashrom v0.9.5.2-r1517 on Linux 3.2.0-61-generic (i686), built with libpci 3.1.8, GCC 4.6.3, little endian
- flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org
-
- Calibrating delay loop... delay loop is unreliable, trying to continue OK.
- Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605" (2048 kB, SPI) on buspirate_spi.
- Reading old flash chip contents... done.
- Erasing and writing flash chip... Erase/write done.
- Verifying flash... VERIFIED.
- </pre>
- --<br/>
- At the end it says "VERIFIED", which means that the procedure worked. If you see this, it means
- that you can put your X60 back together. So let's do that now.
- </p>
- <p>
- Remove the programmer and put it away somewhere. Put back the tape and press firmly over it:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0026.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Your empty chassis:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0027.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Put the motherboard back in:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0028.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Reconnect SATA:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0029.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Put the plate back and re-insert those screws:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0030.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Re-route that antenna cable around the fan and apply the tape:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0031.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Route the cable here and then (not shown, due to error on my part) reconnect the monitor cable to the motherboard
- and re-insert the screws:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0032.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Re-insert that screw:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0033.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Route the black antenna cable like so:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0034.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Tuck it in neatly like so:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0035.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Route the modem cable like so:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0036.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Connect modem cable to board and tuck it in neatly like so:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0037.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Route the power connection and connect it to the board like so:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0038.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Route the antenna and modem cables neatly like so:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0039.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Connect the wifi antenna cables. At the start of the tutorial, this machine had an Intel wifi chip. Here you see I've replaced it with an
- Atheros AR5B95 (supports 802.11n and can be used without blobs):<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0040.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Connect the modem cable:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0041.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Connect the speaker:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0042.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- You should now have this:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0043.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Re-connect the upper chassis:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0044.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Re-connect the keyboard:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0045.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Re-insert the screws that you removed earlier:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0046.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Power on!<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0047.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Trisquel live USB menu (using GRUB's ISOLINUX parser):<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0048.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
- <p>
- Trisquel live desktop:<br/>
- <img src="x60_unbrick/0049.jpg" alt="" />
- </p>
-
-<hr/>
-
- <p>
- Copyright &copy; 2014 Francis Rowe &lt;info@gluglug.org.uk&gt;<br/>
- This document is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License and all future versions.
- A copy of the license can be found at <a href="../license.txt">../license.txt</a>.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- This document 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 <a href="../license.txt">../license.txt</a> for more information.
- </p>
-
-</body>
-</html>