So, recently I got this thinkpad X60 laptop with the intention to install Libreboot and a GNU/Linux-libre distribution, because why not?
View attachment 241690
It's a beautiful thing, isn't it? Still working after all those years, and it also came with the ultrabase docking station!
Even the internal hard drive is perfectly healthy and I re-used it for the new operating system later. Of course, Windows already decided to break itself only after I took apart the computer a bit to clean it from the inside:
View attachment 241691
(This is some kind of automatic repair thing, the system would just show the blue screen of death when booting normally.)
As I mentioned above, the hard drive is perfectly healthy, and I even did a badblocks test later to confirm that.
View attachment 241692View attachment 241693
The test took almost 13 hours, but at least I was sure that the hard drive is usable, and that Windows killed itself because it's Windows and not because it was on a dying hard drive.
Next, I installed the new operating system, picked Parabola because I already have a pretty good understanding of those stupid unstable arch-based systems:
View attachment 241694
So now it was time to install Libreboot, and this is obviously the part where things go wrong. I downloaded the flashing utilities and the X60 rom images from the libreboot website, and followed the X60 installation guide. Flashing the rom from the computer itself has to be done in two parts with a reboot between those parts, apparently, Did the first flash - "DO NOT REBOOT OR POWEROFF", this means that the operation was a success?? Rebooting, and okay, I have the libreboot boot screen now:
View attachment 241698
Booting back into the operating system to do the second half, at first the flasher spit out some errors like before, but then it seemed like it did the task properly... okay, rebooting the computer, and IT'S DEAD! Yay! One long beep, two short beeps, repeating forever until the computer is shut off. Removed the backup battery for a few minutes, and nothing, same beeps. So at this point I had no other choice, I had to disassemble the entire computer. Surely I can just flash that chip by soldering a few wires and connecting them to some arduinos I have lying around, right? So, parts going out of the computer, more and more screws going into plastic bags, I take the motherboard out, get to the ROM chip, and...
View attachment 241699
..the thing is really too small for me to solder anything to without destroying the chip or other things around it. The picture doesn't really show how small it is. Sigh, I guess I'll just order one of those cheap clips or whatever. Then I look around and everywhere there are just parts from this computer, so I had to somehow put it all under some bubble foil to prevent it all from getting dust while the package is in transit:
View attachment 241702
2 days later, got the stupid clip, and now trying to flash the ROM chip:
(thanks to this very helpful guide: https://kaanlabs.com/bios-flashing-with-an-arduino-uno/)
View attachment 241703
Please excuse that mess of wires and resistors, I didn't feel like doing it in a more elegant way. Flashrom recognizes the ROM chip, great, now trying to flash the backup of the original BIOS, multiple times, each try taking at least 5 minutes, without any success. Spent probably the next 2 hours trying to figure out why it is not working (sigh), and then found this video saying that the included cable of the clip is too long (thanks to the Wolfgang guy too!): www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktcvWkEVBE0
So I ripped off those included wires and attached my own:
View attachment 241704
And yes, this time the flashing actually worked! I was able to restore the computer to the original factory BIOS.
View attachment 241706
Took the board out again to flash Libreboot, and that also worked!
View attachment 241707
Reassembled:
View attachment 241708
So after a few days of messing, I finally have a functioning Libreboot system.
Thanks for reading, and please try to not repeat my dumb mistakes.
View attachment 242365
View attachment 241690
It's a beautiful thing, isn't it? Still working after all those years, and it also came with the ultrabase docking station!
Even the internal hard drive is perfectly healthy and I re-used it for the new operating system later. Of course, Windows already decided to break itself only after I took apart the computer a bit to clean it from the inside:
View attachment 241691
(This is some kind of automatic repair thing, the system would just show the blue screen of death when booting normally.)
As I mentioned above, the hard drive is perfectly healthy, and I even did a badblocks test later to confirm that.
View attachment 241692View attachment 241693
The test took almost 13 hours, but at least I was sure that the hard drive is usable, and that Windows killed itself because it's Windows and not because it was on a dying hard drive.
Next, I installed the new operating system, picked Parabola because I already have a pretty good understanding of those stupid unstable arch-based systems:
View attachment 241694
So now it was time to install Libreboot, and this is obviously the part where things go wrong. I downloaded the flashing utilities and the X60 rom images from the libreboot website, and followed the X60 installation guide. Flashing the rom from the computer itself has to be done in two parts with a reboot between those parts, apparently, Did the first flash - "DO NOT REBOOT OR POWEROFF", this means that the operation was a success?? Rebooting, and okay, I have the libreboot boot screen now:
View attachment 241698
Booting back into the operating system to do the second half, at first the flasher spit out some errors like before, but then it seemed like it did the task properly... okay, rebooting the computer, and IT'S DEAD! Yay! One long beep, two short beeps, repeating forever until the computer is shut off. Removed the backup battery for a few minutes, and nothing, same beeps. So at this point I had no other choice, I had to disassemble the entire computer. Surely I can just flash that chip by soldering a few wires and connecting them to some arduinos I have lying around, right? So, parts going out of the computer, more and more screws going into plastic bags, I take the motherboard out, get to the ROM chip, and...
View attachment 241699
..the thing is really too small for me to solder anything to without destroying the chip or other things around it. The picture doesn't really show how small it is. Sigh, I guess I'll just order one of those cheap clips or whatever. Then I look around and everywhere there are just parts from this computer, so I had to somehow put it all under some bubble foil to prevent it all from getting dust while the package is in transit:
View attachment 241702
2 days later, got the stupid clip, and now trying to flash the ROM chip:
(thanks to this very helpful guide: https://kaanlabs.com/bios-flashing-with-an-arduino-uno/)
View attachment 241703
Please excuse that mess of wires and resistors, I didn't feel like doing it in a more elegant way. Flashrom recognizes the ROM chip, great, now trying to flash the backup of the original BIOS, multiple times, each try taking at least 5 minutes, without any success. Spent probably the next 2 hours trying to figure out why it is not working (sigh), and then found this video saying that the included cable of the clip is too long (thanks to the Wolfgang guy too!): www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktcvWkEVBE0
So I ripped off those included wires and attached my own:
View attachment 241704
And yes, this time the flashing actually worked! I was able to restore the computer to the original factory BIOS.
View attachment 241706
Took the board out again to flash Libreboot, and that also worked!
View attachment 241707
Reassembled:
View attachment 241708
So after a few days of messing, I finally have a functioning Libreboot system.
Thanks for reading, and please try to not repeat my dumb mistakes.
View attachment 242365
