[coreboot] BIOS upgrade before flashing coreboot

[Merlin Büge]

On Thu, 7 Jun 2018 12:05:34 +0200
Akendo <akendo at akendo.eu> wrote:

> Hey everyone,
> 
> currently I working on a x220 to flash coreboot onto it. I notice that
> my x220 has a current BIOS version from 2011 (1.24 UEFI/BIOS and
> 1.13  ECP).
> 
> Within the change-log[0] variates updates and fixes are stated.
> Including changes to the ME engine. Within many documentation part of
> coreboot, it's stated, that the ME part can't be written. Here my
> question: Should I update the BIOS to the latest release before
> flashing coreboot onto it?

A little hint: The BIOS update might also be updating the EC = Embedded
Controller containing various fixes / improvements. E.g. on the X200 it
is recommended to upgrade to the latest stock BIOS before flashing
coreboot, which brings improvements in battery handling IIRC.

> 
> There is for example this note:
> 
> > If the UEFI BIOS has been updated to version 1.43 or higher, it is
> > no longer able to roll back to the version before 1.43 for security
> > improvement.  
> 
> 
> Could this cause problems? For example the CVE-2017-5715 (Spectre)
> would be fixed. I expect them to run role out the microcode update
> from Intel... so might be no problem to coreboot, right?
> 
> 
> best regards,
> akendo
> 
> [0]https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles/8duj29us.txt



-- 
Merlin Büge