[coreboot] ThinkPad x220 - Status

Wed May 25 13:06:09 CEST 2016

Hello Zoran, Hello everybody,

Thanks for your reply Zoran.
I'll try to give all the details about it. Maybe you are missing some
important detail.

1 - Laptop was with official BIOS_1.29 / EC_1.20;
2 - From windows, updated to official BIOS_1.40 / EC_1.24;
3 - From windows, installed custom 8duj26us_NWL_ADV_AES_PM_Speedo;
4 - Custom BIOS unlocked Advanced Menu (with tons of chipset related
options);
5 - 2x8GB DDR3-1866Mhz modules installed. Changed RAM speed to 1866Mhz in
BIOS;
6 - Booted to Archlinux and dmidecode reported 1333Mhz as RAM speed;
7 - I went back to BIOS and changed RAM speed to Auto and noticed that
SR-IOV was not activated for PCI, so I decided to activate it since I plan
to play a little with kvm and stuff (If I recall correctly, these were the
only 2 changes that bricked the system).
8 - Save and exit: BIOS bricked. Infinite boot/restart loop until I remove
ac/battery;
9 - Tried to remove all the hardware and clear CMOS. Nothing worked. Always
in boot loop.

I still have the flashrom read dump of this bricked unofficial BIOS.
Let me know i you want the dump. Maybe you can get some info from it.

*Possible stupid question:* I tried to find a solution to recover this
bricked BIOS and flash it back but I don't have the know how to do it. Do
you think it is possible to unbrick the BIOS from the dump and flash it
back?

*PS:* I've made some progress with coreboot in the meantime (good and bad
news). Will reply to the mailing-list after complete other tests.

Thanks in advance.
--sigkill

On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 8:27 PM, Zoran Stojsavljevic <
zoran.stojsavljevic at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello Nuno,
>
> Very interesting use case, I should say.
>
> *> 1) Init:*
> > --------
> > Recently I bought a refurbished x220 and flashed it with a custom BIOS
> (Lenovo ThinkPad
> > x220_1.40-(8DET70WW)-8duj26us_NWL_ADV_AES_PM_Speedo) because I wanted
> to unlock the RAM speed
> > to be 1866MHz (max RAM speed is locked to 1333Mhz in official BIOS),
> white-list some Wi-Fi
> > cards, Advanced Chipset Config menu, etc.
> >
> > This custom BIOS worked perfectly until I changed some settings related
> with Intel VT-x. If
> > I recall correctly, I activated SR-IOV for PCI-E, saved and exited and
> after that x220 =
> > BRICKED.
> >
> > I tried every typical troubleshooting/workaround (Removing as much HW as
> possible, unplug
> > BIOS battery for hours, etc), nothing worked.
>
> This is peculiar... How SR-IOV feature can break the BIOS??? Never saw
> such or similar brick.
>
> Taking to account that introduced custom BIOS (Lenovo ThinkPad
>  x220_1.40-(8DET70WW)-8duj26us_NWL_ADV_AES_PM_Speedo) added (probably)
> additional few Memory Reference Code algorithms to make DDR3 work @
> 1866MHz, I have no clue how these two parameters are connected/in
> relations.
>
> But I'll try to investigate this use case. Not (at all) in connection with
> Coreboot, rather I would like to understand why SNB BIOS behaves like this?
> Maybe I can learn much more out of this?!
>
> I'll move this to other (BIOS based) forum, and try to see if there are
> more experienced BIOS people to put some light on/demystify this problem?
>
> It is, after all, Sandy Bridge CORe:
> http://thinkwiki.de/X220#Technische_Daten
>
> http://ark.intel.com/products/52229/Intel-Core-i5-2520M-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_20-GHz
>
> Let me see what I can dig out of this? ;-)
>
> Best Regards,
> Zoran
>
> On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 3:00 PM, Nuno Moreira <naomoreira at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hello, everyone.
>>
>> First of all, I would like to thanks and to congratulate all the
>> community who helps to develop and to optimize this great project. Keep it
>> up :)
>>
>> I would appreciate if you can give me some opinions or point me to
>> someone who will, regarding the Open Issues I present below (3.1 and 3.2).
>> Trying to give you a brief contextualization of my status before and
>> after Coreboot.
>>
>> *1) Init:*
>> --------
>> Recently I bought a refurbished x220 and flashed it with a custom BIOS
>> (Lenovo ThinkPad x220_1.40-(8DET70WW)-8duj26us_NWL_ADV_AES_PM_Speedo)
>> because I wanted to unlock the RAM speed to be 1866MHz (max RAM speed is
>> locked to 1333Mhz in official BIOS), white-list some Wi-Fi cards, Advanced
>> Chipset Config menu, etc.
>>
>> This custom BIOS worked perfectly until I changed some settings related
>> with Intel VT-x. If I recall correctly, I activated SR-IOV for PCI-E, saved
>> and exited and after that x220 = BRICKED.
>>
>> I tried every typical troubleshooting/workaround (Removing as much HW as
>> possible, unplug BIOS battery for hours, etc), nothing worked.
>> x220 BIOS never booted again and the machine was in a constant boot loop.
>> Don't know why/how this happened in the first place, but since it is a
>> custom BIOS and it is very hard to reach the developer, I knew I could
>> never get it to work without an intrusive method...
>>
>> *2) Coreboot as Salvation:*
>> -------------------------
>> I started to look for alternatives, and luckily, Coreboot supports x220
>> since a couple of months ago :)
>> After dealing with all the learning curve to understand the minimal
>> requirements to compile and install Coreboot (tricky part is basically the
>> need for HW flashing) I managed to get a working BIOS and x220 is now
>> (almost 100%) operational :)
>> I've read and used the blobs from the "damaged" custom BIOS. I'm not sure
>> if this can affect the functionality of Coreboot. Apparently, it does not.
>>
>> *(Let me know if anyone of you need details/help about/with the HW
>> flashing in this type of chip (MX25L6406E/MX25L6408E)).*
>> *3) Coreboot rocks but... Current Open issues:*
>> ---------------------------------------------
>> I decided to use coreboot-4.4 release instead of git-master.
>> As payload I'm using SeaBIOS (booting Archlinux with Syslinux as
>> bootloader).
>>
>> *3.1) RAM speed:*
>> ---------------
>> I've 2 x 8GB DRR3-1866MHz installed. The 16GB are detected but the speed
>> reported is just 667MHz.
>> With the official BIOS, the max speed was 1333Mhz. Don't know how
>> Coreboot is handling this subject in this particular main-board...
>> DDR timings are a little bit confusing to me, I guess...
>>
>> Before, with dmidecode -t 17 the speed was 1333Mhz and now it is just
>> 667Mhz...
>> This 667MHz speed I get with coreboot is 2x667=1333Mhz or in reality is
>> 2x333MHz?
>> In "northbridge/intel/sandybridge/raminit.c" we can see the following
>> statement:
>>
>>     /* Maximum supported DDR3 frequency is 1066MHz (DDR3 2133) so make
>> sure
>>      * we cap it if we have faster DIMMs.
>>      * Then, align it to the closest JEDEC standard frequency */
>>
>> *=> So, if I'm understanding it correctly, current 667 Mhz is not the
>> maximum *
>> *speed supported.Any idea on how I can get higher speeds?*
>>
>> *3.2) TP-SMAPI: *
>> --------------
>> Looks like tp-smapi is not available using Coreboot. It was OK with the
>> official and custom BIOS before.
>> From what I've read, this is not a Coreboot limitation... Not sure if the
>> blobs/EC are not ok for tp-smapi now...
>> I use tp-smapi for battery threshold, etc. TLP
>> <http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/tlp.html>also uses tp-smapi. So it is kinda
>> of important to me.
>>
>> *=> Anyone using tp-smapi with no problems out there?*
>>
>> *3.3) Config files:*
>> ------------------
>> coreboot - http://pastebin.com/9ymtxLBW
>> seabios - http://pastebin.com/rUU7ajRH
>> cmos.default - http://pastebin.com/Pm5vS15R
>>
>> Thanks in advance, guys.
>> All the best \o
>>
>> --sigkill
>>
>> --
>> coreboot mailing list: coreboot at coreboot.org
>> https://www.coreboot.org/mailman/listinfo/coreboot
>>
>
>

-- 
Cumprimentos / Best Regards

Nuno Moreira
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