Heads on T530

[swaybar]

Has anyone successfully built heads for the T530?

[tlaurion]

@swaybar not that im aware of but should not be too much complicated. Duplicate coreboot config of t430 to t530.

[eganonoa]

@swaybar not that im aware of but should not be too much complicated. Duplicate coreboot config of t430 to t530.

I just did this for the t520 using the Master but with coreboot 4.13 and it was incredibly easy. I just took the relevant t420 board (hotp maximized) and the corresponding coreboot config and changed references to t420 to t520. Everything built perfectly. t530 should be just as simple.

[tlaurion]

@swaybar With t430 board equivalent being the base for t530 instead of t420 for t520.

@eganonoa please share through PR your t520 board + coreboot config. Everybody loves tested board configs!

[eganonoa]

@swaybar With t430 board equivalent being the base for t530 instead of t420 for t520.

@eganonoa please share through PR your t520 board + coreboot config. Everybody loves tested board configs!

I will do!

I'm working on the t530 also. That one builds in much the same way. But I've hit a major snag in testing it. The t530 I have access to apparently reads as having two 4mb chips instead of a 4mb and an 8mb. The chip that is meant to be the 8mb one reads as a macronix MX25L3205D. Everything I've read indicates that it should rather be an MX25L6406E (8MB). Additionally, when reading flashrom says "block protection could not be disabled". Any thoughts on what I might be able to do here? I'm aiming for an hotp verification version of heads.

[tlaurion]

MX25L3205D
Is 4mb from data sheet? This is the top chip? The bottom chip?

@eganonoa You obtained those readings with an external reprogrammer? Normally, you should be able to read the content externally.

What is the exact output it is giving for both chips?

[eganonoa]

MX25L3205D
Is 4mb from data sheet? This is the top chip? The bottom chip?

@eganonoa You obtained those readings with an external reprogrammer? Normally, you should be able to read the content externally.

What is the exact output it is giving for both chips?

Yes this was with an external programmer. The exact output was that it was a Macronix "MX25L3205D/MX25L3205D" (4096kb). It could read it but could only read as a 4mb bottom chip and said "block protection could not be disabled" while doing it. Not much more than that.

I was able to successfully build and run t530-flash, but I'm hesitant to run flash.sh.

[tlaurion]

Really confused. https://doc.coreboot.org/mainboard/lenovo/Ivy_Bridge_series.html

[tlaurion]

https://doc.coreboot.org/mainboard/lenovo/ivb_internal_flashing.html?highlight=t530

Which Lenovo proprietary firmware version are you coming from?

Which flashrom version?
I cannot find information on t530 being 8mb total spi flash combined...

[eganonoa]

Really confused. https://doc.coreboot.org/mainboard/lenovo/Ivy_Bridge_series.html

Yep, it is super-confusing. I cannot find anywhere any mention of 2 x 4mb chips. I'm using flashrom on my raspberry pi. This has to-date successfully read and flashed coreboot/heads on something like 17 laptops and I have no doubt it's still working fine, including the clip. Have tried to read it, and re-seat the clip countless times, all still the same. I'm using the BIOS 2.76 (G4ETB6WW) EC 1.13 (G4HT39WW), the last ones before rollback protection was added. And in the Bios there isn't anything like computrace or a bios password enabled. I reckon I'm either looking at a problematic 8mb chip or this laptop was somehow given two 4mb chips in the factory by mistake. I'll figure it out, or may just get a used motherboard to swap in even through the laptop works great in all ways but this.

Good news is that it wasn't too difficult to get t530-flash or t530-hotp-maximized to build on coreboot 4.13. Just needed to copy t430 board, initrid/bin and coreboot config, change everything from t430 to t530, in the coreboot change LENOVO_THINKPAD_T530 to LENOVO_T530 and CONFIG_MEASURED_BOOT to CONFIG_TPM_MEASURED_BOOT. And t530_flash definitely works. Now, of course, I'll need to find a way to test the real rom!

[pgera]

T/W 530 do not have a /cs pullup. So both chips can be selected with some probability when pch is powered down. So you should hook the other chip's CS to VCC with a resistor.

Source: https://coreboot.coreboot.narkive.com/tivMH3VG/t520-vs-t530
Also: https://old.reddit.com/r/coreboot/comments/dpjm6l/problem_with_w530_and_ch341a_programmer/

[pgera]

These are the possible chip part numbers:
8 MB:
MX25L6406EM2I-12G
W25Q64CVSSIG
N25Q064A13ESE40F

4 MB:
MX25L3206EM2I-12G
W25Q32BVSSIG
N25Q032A13ESE40F

[eganonoa]

T/W 530 do not have a /cs pullup. So both chips can be selected with some probability when pch is powered down. So you should hook the other chip's CS to VCC with a resistor.

Source: https://coreboot.coreboot.narkive.com/tivMH3VG/t520-vs-t530 Also: https://old.reddit.com/r/coreboot/comments/dpjm6l/problem_with_w530_and_ch341a_programmer/

@pgera. Thanks. I read about that option. Since I use a pomona clip and not individual clips I assume I'd need to buy some new stuff to make this work? Have you done this before, any guidance you can give would be most appreciated.

Ultimately I definitely have an "unhappy" bottom (SPI1) chip. It is indeed, on its label, an MX25L6406E but reads not as that, but rather as a 4mb MX25L3205, and flashrom says that "block protection could not be disabled" when try to read it. Yet, after flashing t530-flash, I can run flashrom and it correctly identifies that there is 12MB total space between the two chips. My hope is to flash that 12MB from software in recovery mode, but I'm not having any success with that.

[eganonoa]

https://doc.coreboot.org/mainboard/lenovo/ivb_internal_flashing.html?highlight=t530

Which Lenovo proprietary firmware version are you coming from?

Which flashrom version? I cannot find information on t530 being 8mb total spi flash combined...

@tlaurion: it definitely is 12MB combined. When I run t530-flash I can run flashrom and it sees 12MB total spi flash space. Right now, I am having difficulty in successfully converting from t530-flash to t530-hotp-maximized, once I run flash.sh in Recovery Mode the system cannot post. And I'm a little trapped in trying to figure out the reason because there are three possibilities as I see it:

1. You cannot move from t530-flash straight to a maximized board: I know that I've been tripped up in the past with x230's by trying to go from non-maximized to maximized without a physical flash. Could this be the issue?

2. The t530 build isn't good: I would be surprised if this was the case. t530-flash works and I'm using much the same model (i.e. CONFIG_LENOVO_T530; but also CONFIG_TPM_MEASURED_BOOT). But it is surely a possibility.

3. The block protection on and general strangeness with the bottom SPI1 chip is preventing a full 12MB flash: I am sharing screenshots of the results of running flash.sh after flashing t530-flash. You will see that it sees a 12MB chip and the flash is verified, but that it also highlights that some regions are write-protected. Does this look to you like a successful flash?

Right now, my hopes are on the issue merely being something to do with jumping from t530-flash to a maximized board, but I'm not sure that that's the case and would value your input there. I would test immediately with a non-maximized board but I'm struggling to get those to build because of size issues. So before wasting my time with trying to get non-maximized boards to work, I figures I'd seek your thoughts on all this.

[pgera]

If you are still on the original lenovo bios (or can go back to it), you can try the wake on lan approach. That should be reliable. Details: https://old.reddit.com/r/coreboot/comments/9m9pna/lenovo_t530_issues_with_flashrom_and_pi/

For the resistor method, yes, you will need a way to connect the other chip's CS separately through a resistor to VCC. You will likely need an individual hook type device like the one listed here:
merge/skulls@57baa48#diff-b218cfc34bc4ee89ac3e765bfb4cded4914fd757ee71bf03242c413aa374b28b

[pgera]

You can also try a different programmer, power supply etc. if you have them available.