[coreboot] Where to get ME image/flash descriptors for the x220?

cb at imap.cc cb at imap.cc
Sun Mar 5 15:44:10 CET 2017


There's a lot of useful info here relating to X230 ECs, which may help.
Mostly applicable to the X220 too.


https://github.com/hamishcoleman/thinkpad-ec





On Sun, 5 Mar 2017, at 14:31, qma ster wrote:

> It should be possible to reflash EC internal firmware through a
> keyboard port, - or maybe through some other debug port that may or
> may not be soldered by default... For example, here is a guide that
> describes how to reflash EC KB9012 internal firmware on Lenovo G505S -
> "AMD based laptop that is supported by coreboot project" ,
> http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Flashing_KB9012_with_Bus_Pirate .
> Thanks to this method it is possible to flash a completely clean EC
> KB9012 firmware image, which: 1) does not contain any "secret configs"
> (could be stored in the free place after the firmware) 2) does not
> contain any serial numbers or other specific laptop information ...
> For any EC it is guaranteed that it IS possible to reflash a firmware
> through In-System Programming (direct flashing) - otherwise, 1) how
> the manufacturers flash EC for the first time? ;) 2) if some laptop's
> EC is burned, how do repair shops flash a firmware to a new
> replacement EC?
> Sadly, for this direct flashing method you may need to buy a
> proprietary programmer (closed source hardware/software) , because a
> flashrom does not support every EC in existence
> 

> 2017-03-05 13:20 GMT+03:00 Arthur Heymans <arthur at aheymans.xyz>:

>> "Taiidan at gmx.com" <Taiidan at gmx.com> writes:
>>
>>  > Well I managed to download the latest BIOS from the lenovo site,
>>  > which includes an ME update now the issue is that I can't seem to
>>  > figure out how to extract it from the .FL1 and .FL2 files.
>>  >
>> Those might have a length too long to fit a flash so you need to trim
>>  those down before using ifdtool on those (If they contain and ifd of
>>  course)

>>  so depending on size of rom

>>  dd if=FL1(or 2)file of=vendor_bios.rom bs=1 count=xM

>> 

>>  and then ifdtool -x vendor_bios.rom

>>
>>  > I would also like to know as to how I can re-flash the EC firmware
>>  > if that could potentially cause problems, I of course do not know
>>  > if it has DMA.
>>  >
>>
>> Only existing tool to flash EC is using vendor tool.
>>  EC are only accessed trough port mapped IO (or on newer ones
>>  also via
>>  memory mapped IO). EC itself does not have DMA afaik.

>> 
>>  --
>>  Arthur Heymans

>> 

>> --

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