[coreboot] BIOS upgrade before flashing coreboot

[Martin Kepplinger]

Am 07.06.2018 18:46 schrieb 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.
> 

Right. Not the ME, but the EC software is why I'd definitely upgrade in 
your
case. Changing that after you've flashed coreboot is quite annoying.

I'm not sure how their support for the X220 (it's been targeting the 
x230) is,
but may be worth having a look:
This project downloads the official iso image, can apply a patch to the
EC firmware to enable using unofficial 3rd-party batteries, and generate 
an
iso or USB image: https://github.com/hamishcoleman/thinkpad-ec

Especially if you plan to apply me_cleaner to your image, all the rest 
doesn't
really matter I guess.

                            martin