From cee90ae0fce6d6aee8d78969b60c952c8890abd6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Francis Rowe Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 04:53:00 -0400 Subject: Libreboot release 6 beta 1. --- (limited to 'docs/howtos/x60_unbrick.html') diff --git a/docs/howtos/x60_unbrick.html b/docs/howtos/x60_unbrick.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..10f66b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/howtos/x60_unbrick.html @@ -0,0 +1,302 @@ + + + + + + + + + Libreboot documentation: Unbricking the ThinkPad X60 + + + + +

Unbricking the ThinkPad X60

+ +

Or go back to main index

+ +

Hardware Requirements
Software Requirements
+ Types of brick: +
- Brick type 1: bucts not reset
- Brick type 2: bad rom (or user error), machine won't boot
+

+ +

Hardware requirements

a 2nd computer (maybe another X60. any computer will do)
external flashrom-compatible programmer (I'm using the "bus pirate") +
SOIC-8 IC clip (I'm using the Pomona 5250)
Cable (programmer<>clip) - mine came with the bus pirate.
USB mini a to b cable (for buspirate<>computer connection).

+ +

Software requirements

GNU/Linux (on the 2nd computer)
flashrom software (on the 2nd computer): http://flashrom.org/ +

+ +

Brick type 1: bucts not reset.

+ 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.

+ + 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:
+

+ + *Those dd commands should be applied to all newly compiled X60 ROM's (the ROM's in libreboot binary archives already have this applied!):
+ dd if=coreboot.rom of=top64k.bin bs=1 skip=$[$(stat -c %s coreboot.rom) - 0x10000] count=64k
+ dd if=coreboot.rom bs=1 skip=$[$(stat -c %s coreboot.rom) - 0x20000] count=64k | hexdump
+ dd if=top64k.bin of=coreboot.rom bs=1 seek=$[$(stat -c %s coreboot.rom) - 0x20000] count=64k conv=notrunc
+ (doing this makes the ROM suitable for use when flashing a machine that still has Lenovo BIOS running, + using those instructions: http://www.coreboot.org/Board:lenovo/x60/Installation. +

+ +

bad rom (or user error), machine won't boot

+ 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. +

+ "Unbricking" 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). +

+ Remove those screws:
+ +

+ Push the keyboard forward (carefully):
+ +

+ Lift the keyboard up and disconnect it from the board:
+ +

+ Grab the right-hand side of the chassis and force it off (gently) and pry up the rest of the chassis:
+ +

+ You should now have this:
+ +

+ Disconnect the wifi antenna cables, the modem cable and the speaker:
+ +

+ 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:
+ +

+ Disconnect the monitor from the motherboard, and unroute the grey antenna cable, carefully lifting the tape + that holds it into place:
+ +

+ Carefully lift the remaining tape and unroute the left antenna cable so that it is loose:
+ +

+ Remove the screw that is highlighted (do NOT remove the other one; it holds part of the heatsink (other side) into place):
+ +

+ Remove those screws:
+ +

+ Carefully remove the plate, like so:
+ +

+ Remove the SATA connector:
+ +

+ Now remove the motherboard (gently) and cast the lcd/chassis aside:
+ +

+ Lift back that tape and hold it with something. Highlighted is the SPI flash chip:
+ +

+ At this point, you should wire up your programmer according to it's documentation. For me, this was (see: "SparkFun cable pin reference"):
+ http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Common_Bus_Pirate_cable_pinouts.
+ Correlating with the following information, I was able to wire up my pirate correctly:
+ http://flashrom.org/Bus_Pirate#Connections
+ And by following that advice:
+ http://www.coreboot.org/Board:lenovo/x60/Installation#Howto.
+ Note: that last page says to wire up only those 5 pins (see below) like that: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6.
+ 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).
+ Note: I ignored that advice, and wired up all 8 pins. And it worked.
+ + Here is the pinout (correlate it with your programmer's documentation):
+ +

+ +

+ My programmer, usb cable and clip:
+
+ My programmer (bus pirate):
+
+ My clip (pomona 5250):
+
+ My USB mini a to b cable:
+
+ Connecting the pomona:
+
+ Connecting the USB cable from programmer to 2nd(working/non-bricked) computer, my T60:
+
+ Programmer is now active:
+
+ Now I install flashrom on the T60 (running Trisquel GNU/Linux) and do this:
+ flashrom -p buspirate_spi:dev=/dev/ttyUSB0 -w coreboot.rom
+ Note: this is using buspirate as the programmer, so it is flashing the X60, not the T60!
+ Here's my terminal window on the T60:
+
+ So, you should see the following:
+ -- +

+			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. 
+

+ --
+ 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. +

+ Remove the programmer and put it away somewhere. Put back the tape and press firmly over it:
+ +

+ Your empty chassis:
+ +

+ Put the motherboard back in:
+ +

+ Reconnect SATA:
+ +

+ Put the plate back and re-insert those screws:
+ +

+ Re-route that antenna cable around the fan and apply the tape:
+ +

+ 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:
+ +

+ Re-insert that screw:
+ +

+ Route the black antenna cable like so:
+ +

+ Tuck it in neatly like so:
+ +

+ Route the modem cable like so:
+ +

+ Connect modem cable to board and tuck it in neatly like so:
+ +

+ Route the power connection and connect it to the board like so:
+ +

+ Route the antenna and modem cables neatly like so:
+ +

+ 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):
+ +