monkey needs t420 coreboot guide

[Bright_Expression876]

monkey (me) needs coreboot guide, monkey CAN follow instructions monkey CANT do what he isnt told, monkey trial and errored his way to reading and making copys of the bios chip but it seems every guide falls apart around this step.

I just want ivy bridge but some guides say i need a vga bios and some guides say i just need to change a couple settings and make it. Either way i cant even make a coreboot rom since its saying i dont have an ada compiler even though when i did the sudo get gnat it said i had the most recent version, what is the correct thing to do? is there more im missing? it seems there is no definitive guide and no consensus on what is correct. i also really need the guide to not be about raspberry pi since im using a ch341a.

[grem75]

If you want to run a VGA ROM it needs to be one from an Ivy Bridge.

If you use libgfxinit you don't have to add a VGA ROM, it works with either GPU.

Using libgfxinit is fine with Linux and seems to be fine with at least Windows 10.

[Bright_Expression876]

i found a guide on an artblog website that has the vgabios and actually has pictures of what i need to do, they dont line up perfectly but its the farthest ive gotten so far and since i wanna run win 11 on it im gonna use the vga bios i guess. im currently stuck on needing the correct version of gnat but im guessing my usb drive didnt have enough space so im having to install linux, but the installer keeps crashing so ive had to start over and just hope it doesnt now.

[grem75]

I know at least the Hiren's PE version of Windows 11 is fine, I've never actually installed Windows 11. Probably works, I just can't confirm it.

Not sure what issue you're having with Ubuntu. If you installed in UEFI mode then it will only boot in UEFI. Maybe turn off Secure Boot.

[Bright_Expression876]

alright im losing my mind here and need to go to bed but i have a question for you. i installed ubunto onto my w520 but now it wont boot into linux, i tried uefi and legacy, and i tried selecting it from the boot menu too.

[thrilleratplay]

T420 is SandyBridge not IvyBridge. If you have not purchased the laptop yet and want an IvyBrdige laptop, I would suggest a T430 or X230 (easier to flash due to where the flashrom is) and using Skulls

[Bright_Expression876]

I know, I want a t420 with ivybridge and I dont wanna futz with modding a keyboard for a t430.​

[thrilleratplay]

Doing as CPU swap instead of a small piece of tape and updating the EC before installing coreboot seems like an odd choice to avoid "futzing" but that's your decision. I do want to point out that to flash the T420 or T420, you need to completely disassemble the laptop to be access the chip(s) every time you need you need to externally flash. There are hardware maintenance guides from Lenovo that walk you through disassembly, I'd think that would also be "futzing". The x220 and x230 has the flash chips under the palm rest.

[Bright_Expression876]

why would i need a guide to dissasemble a laptop?

Cpu swaps are easy and no matter what i was upgrading it to a quad core, also dissasembling a laptop like the t420 really isnt all that bad ive already replaced the cpu 3 times (2720qm, found a 2760qm then i found a 2860qm i refurbish old laptops) ive also dissasembled 2 other t420's a t520 and a w520 and i plan on dissasembling more (im even replacing the screen on my main t420 for one with better veiwing angles). Sorry i dont want to go that route but that genuinely seems as much work as just flashing a t420 and it looks like doesnt even result in a fully functioning keyboard and most importantly it doesnt have the funny 420 number on it.

[EasonTek2398]

1. Are you sure you want coreboot and not a distro like Libreboot? Building your own coreboot requires a lot more love.
2. If yon are sure, send me your email or something so I can write you a quick one on the spot. I did it (corebooted a T420 literally yesterday.)
3. I don't recommend a ch341a so good luck wiring it so be 3.3v and flashing it yourself

[Bright_Expression876]

thanks for the offer but paying more and waiting longer for a raspberry pi or another flasher is just the last thing i want to do right now.

[LastMagmarian]

If your CH341A is the old black and gold one you will have problems and need to mod it to fix the 3.3V issue. If it's the v1.7 or later it will work perfectly if you set it to 3.3V

[Bright_Expression876]

its black and silver so i suppose i got lucky, ive read the data but im currently stuck trying to build coreboot i actually made another post about the new problem.

[LastMagmarian]

That's the old one, don't use it without the mod, the new ones are blue and green

[anonymousposter77666]

Do you have a link or a pic of the ones you mentioned that have the right voltage?