was updating my coreboot tree, rebuild after rebuild, etc

pretty sure i nuked one of the flash chips on the motherboard by keeping the clip connected (and powered & all) while powercycling.

i got away with it before, but i guess i rolled snake eyes this time. those are the bad ones, right?

edit: now that i think about it, i was able to read both flash chips without issue, and reflash them. it might just be a firmware issue, after all!

  • FireWire400@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    Is there an easier way to mod the BIOS that doesn’t require taking the whole thing apart? AFAIK there was an IvyRain-esque mod in the works

    • spv.shOPAEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      if already flashed, one can use flashprog -p internal. on the stock bios, at most you may be able to hack together a method to flash coreboot, but you can’t neuter the ME, nor recover the megabytes of flash the ME firmware uses.

      not sure about the t540p, but the t440p isn’t too hard to externally flash. two screws to get inside, then the various internal screws (most of which are identical), remove the keyboard & trackpad, the VGA port screws, and then your flash chips are exposed. hook up an SOIC8 clip (on ebay for ~$5) to a pi pico, flash pico-serprog, and then use flashprog on another machine to flash the chips.

      once successfully flashed, you can easily update coreboot from within the OS. however, if you flash a broken build, – whether it’s a lack of vendor blobs, like for the (neutered) ME, or simply a BIOS that can’t get you to your OS (or a rescue USB) – you will need to reflash externally before the machine will be usable again.

      • FireWire400@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        You pretty much have to fully take apart the T540p and flip the mainboard over to get to the BIOS chip. Same for CPU upgrades.

        • spv.shOPAEnglish
          2·
          2 days ago

          i didn’t believe you, so i looked it up that is so fucking moronic LMAO

            • spv.shOPAEnglish
              1·
              24 hours ago

              i don’t think i’ve ever needed to see the bottom of my t440p’s board. i have, but that’s because i was either a: fucking around, or b: doing a full rebuild (best components out of 2 or 3 machines to build the best machine i could)