X200 X201 Hardware Flashing with Raspeberry Pi

Raspberry Pi (ThinkPad X200)

If you already have libreboot installed, and have not write protected the rom then you can use the flashrom utility included with libreboot_bin.tar.xz It can be invoked as follows.

./flashrom --programmer internal

Otherwise you may flash the rom with a raspberry pi using the instructions below.

Requirements:

• An x86, x86_64, or arm7l (for changing the libreboot.rom image mac address)
• Raspberry Pi and peripherals
• Relevant SOIC clip
• 6 female - female jumpers
• Internet connection
• Screw drivers

Follow the ThinkPad X200: Initial installation guide to disassemble the laptop, and access the BIOS rom chip.

Note: x86# refers to commands to be run on the x86 computer, and pi# refers to commands to be run on the pi. A good practice is to make a work directory to keep your libreboot stuff inside.

x86# mkdir ~/work

Download NOOBS from The Raspberry Pi Foundation. Torrent download recommended, and remember to seed. :)

Download Libreboot from their releases page. For your safety, verify the GPG signature as well.

x86# gpg --keyserver prefered.keyserver.org --recv-keys 0x656F212E

x86# for signature in $(ls *.sig); do gpg --verify $signature; done

Extract NOOBS and libreboot.

x86# mkdir ~/work/noobs

x86# unzip ~/Downloads/NOOBS_v1_4_1.zip -d ~/work/noobs/

x86# cd ~/work && tar -xvJf ~/Downloads/libreboot_bin.tar.xz

Install Noobs to your fat32 formatted SD card

x86# cp -R ~/work/noobs/* /path/to/mounted/SDcard/

Set up NOOBS on Raspberry Pi

Plug in the NOOBs SDCard to your Raspberry Pi, and enable the following under 'Advanced Options':

SSH server

SPI

I2C

On first boot

pi# sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade && reboot

On second boot

pi# sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libftdi1 libftdi-dev libusb-dev libpci-dev subversion

Other dependencies that should already be installed with the noobs base install include:

pciutils, zlib, libusb, build-essential

If they are missing then install them.

Download and build flashrom.

pi# svn co svn://flashrom.org/flashrom/trunk ~/flashrom

pi# cd ~/flashrom

pi# make

pi# sudo make install

On your x86 box change the libreboot.rom mac address

x86# cd ~/work/libreboot_bin/

Change the mac address on the libreboot images to match yours.

x86# ./ich9macchange XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

Write the mac address change onto the correct libreboot image

x86# sudo dd if=ich9fdgbe_8m.bin of=/directory/of/libreboot.rom bs=1 count=12k conv=notrunc

Move the libreboot.rom image over to your pi

x86# scp ~/work/libreboot_bin/<path_to_your_bin> pi@your.pi.address:~/flashrom/libreboot.rom

Shutdown your pi, write down your rom chip model, and wire up the clip

pi# sudo shutdown now -hP

Chip model name

Pinout. You may want to download the image so you can zoom in on the text.

Pin #	SPI Pin Name	Raspberry Pi Pin #
1	not used	not used
2	3.3V	1
3	not used	not used
4	not used	not used
5	not used	not used
6	not used	not used
7	CS#	24
8	S0/SIO1	21
9	not used	not used
10	GND	25
11	not used	not used
12	not used	not used
13	not used	not used
14	not used	not used
15	S1/SIO0	19
16	SCLK	23

Note: The raspberry pi 3.3V rail should be sufficient to power the chip during flashing, so no external power supply should be required; however, at the time of writing that has only been tested and confirmed for one chip, the MX25L6405D.

Macronix Spec sheet so you can adjust your pinout for 8 pin 4Mb chips as necessary

At this point connect your SOIC clip to the rom chip before powering on your PI.

Power on your Pi, and run the following. Ensure you swap out "your_chip_name" with the proper name/model of your chip. Check that it can be read successfully. If you cannot read the chip and receive an error similar to "no EEPROM Detected" or "0x0 Chip detected" then you may want to try powering off your PI, and switching the two pins which are connected to the IO ports. I.E. Connect pins (clip)8 to (pi)19 and pins (clip)15 to (pi)21

pi# cd ~/flashrom

pi# ./flashrom -p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidev0.0,spispeed=512 --chip <your_chip_name> -r romread1.rom

pi# ./flashrom -p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidev0.0,spispeed=512 --chip <your_chip_name> -r romread2.rom

pi# ./flashrom -p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidev0.0,spispeed=512 --chip <your_chip_name> -r romread3.rom

pi# sha512sum romread*.rom

If they are identical sha512 hashes then you can generally assume that it's safe to flash your rom.

pi# ./flashrom -p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidev0.0,spispeed=512 --chip <your_chip_name> -w libreboot.rom

It may fail a couple times, but keep at it and when you get the message Verifying flash... Verified or Warning: Chip content is identical to the requested image then you're done.

Shut down your pi, put your box back together, and install a libre OS for great good!

This tutorial, with exceptions noted, is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 license.

Exceptions:

• The Macronix Specification Sheet copyright is not held by the author of this write up and does not fall under the Creative Commons 0 license.

Written by: snuffeluffegus