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<p>The first part of the boot process (labelled as "Coreboot Internal" in the diagram above) islargely hidden from the user. The boot process is illustrated below:</p><figure>  <img src="/images/lc230-boot.gif" width="420" />  <figcaption>LC230 Boot Process</figcaption></figure>
<h2 id="installing-an-os">Installing an OS<a class="headerlink" href="#installing-an-os" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h2><p>To install any GNU/Linux OS, here is a sequence of steps:</p><h3 id="build-usb-installer">Build USB Installer<a class="headerlink" href="#build-usb-installer" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3><p>Any GNU/Linux OS would work very well on your LC230 laptop. (Some owners havealso installed and used FreeBSD on it.)</p><p>LC230 is configured to run without any proprietary firmware and hence, any ofthe following operating systems would work well by default:</p><ul><li><a href="https://debian.org">Debian GNU/Linux (main)</a></li><li><a href="https://pureos.net/">PureOS</a></li><li><a href="https://trisquel.info/">Triquel</a></li></ul><div class="admonition tip"><p class="admonition-title">Tip</p><p>The <a href="https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/">Rasperrby Pi Imager</a> is a goodtool to use to write an OS image to a USB disk. <a href="https://www.balena.io/etcher/">Balena Etcher</a> is anotherone.</p></div><h3 id="plug-in-usb-disk">Plug-in USB Disk<a class="headerlink" href="#plug-in-usb-disk" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3><p>The USB needs to be plugged in before you reboot the laptop - or else SeaBIOSwill not detect it and show it as a boot option.</p><div class="admonition info"><p class="admonition-title">Info</p><p>The blue USB ports on the left side of the laptop are USB3 ports. If youhave a USB disk that works with USB3, then using these ports will give youmuch better USB disk performance.</p><p>The USB port on the right side (yellow in colour) is a USB2 port.</p></div><h3 id="choose-the-boot-device">Choose the boot device<a class="headerlink" href="#choose-the-boot-device" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3><p>Press <span class="keys"><kbd class="key-escape">Esc</kbd></span> on boot and choose the USB disk as the boot device</p><figure>  <img src="/images/lc230-boot-logo.jpg" width="400" />  <figcaption>LC230 Boot Image</figcaption></figure>
<p>By default, the first boot option is chosen to boot off. This is usually the2.5" SATA disk if it is plugged in to the laptop. To choose another bootdevice, you need to press <span class="keys"><kbd class="key-escape">Esc</kbd></span> and then choose the desired boot devicefrom the SeaBIOS menu.</p><p>If you have a 2.5" SATA disk, then a USB disk would be the second boot device.If you have a 2.5" SATA disk <strong>and</strong> a mSATA disk, then the USB disk would bethe third boot device.</p><figure>  <img src="/images/lc230-usb3.jpg"/>  <figcaption>LC230 USB3 Ports</figcaption></figure>
<h3 id="install-the-os">Install the OS<a class="headerlink" href="#install-the-os" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3><p>You can now proceed with the OS installation as normal.</p><p>The LC230 does not provide a UEFI BIOS (like the default Lenovo BIOS firmware).SeaBIOS is a pc-bios payload and most GNU/Linux OS installers will detect thatand install the correct bootloader. This would be <code>grub-pc</code> if you choose touse Grub and Debian.</p><h2 id="coreboot-internal-flashing">Coreboot Internal Flashing<a class="headerlink" href="#coreboot-internal-flashing" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h2><p>To flash Coreboot to the x230 motherboard, the first step is to flash the BIOSexternally - ie. using a SIOC-8 flashing clip connecting to the BIOS chips:</p><figure>  <img src="/images/x230-flashing.png"/>  <figcaption>Liberating the LC230 via External Flashing</figcaption></figure>
<p>However, as a part of the external flashing process, the BIOS is unlocked. Thismeans that you can update / modify the BIOS on the SPI Flash internally - fromwithin the operating system. Here are some reasons to do that and the stepsinvolved.</p><h3 id="configure-the-kernel">Configure the kernel<a class="headerlink" href="#configure-the-kernel" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3><p>The first things to do before you can flash Coreboot internally, is to boot thekernel with an additional option:</p><div class="codehilite"><pre><span></span><code>iomem=relaxed</code></pre></div>
<p>On Debian (and derived operating systems such as Ubuntu), you can make this apermanent setting:</p><ol><li>Edit the file: <code>/etc/default/grub</code></li><li><p>Update the line <code>GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX</code> to read:</p><p><code>GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="iomem=relaxed"</code></p></li><li><p>Run: <code>update-grub</code> to update the Grub configuration.</p></li></ol><h3 id="query-coreboot-details">Query Coreboot details<a class="headerlink" href="#query-coreboot-details" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3><p>You can verify the coreboot version (as well as the fact that you're runningcoreboot) by using the <code>dmidecode</code> utility as follows:</p><h4 id="bios-version">BIOS version<a class="headerlink" href="#bios-version" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h4><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="gp">$ </span>sudo dmidecode -t bios<span class="gp"># </span>dmidecode <span class="m">3</span>.3<span class="go">Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.</span><span class="go">SMBIOS 2.8 present.</span>
<span class="go">Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 26 bytes</span><span class="go">BIOS Information</span><span class="go">        Vendor: coreboot</span><span class="go">        Version: CBET4000 4.10-1082-g4357a82076-dirty</span><span class="go">        Release Date: 10/20/2019</span><span class="go">        ROM Size: 12 MB</span><span class="go">        Characteristics:</span><span class="go">                PCI is supported</span><span class="go">                PC Card (PCMCIA) is supported</span><span class="go">                BIOS is upgradeable</span><span class="go">                Selectable boot is supported</span><span class="go">                ACPI is supported</span><span class="go">                Targeted content distribution is supported</span><span class="go">        BIOS Revision: 4.10</span><span class="go">        Firmware Revision: 0.0</span></code></pre></div><h4 id="system-type-name">System type &amp; name<a class="headerlink" href="#system-type-name" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h4><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="gp">$ </span>sudo dmidecode -t system   <span class="gp"># </span>dmidecode <span class="m">3</span>.3<span class="go">Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.</span><span class="go">SMBIOS 2.8 present.</span>
<span class="go">Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes</span><span class="go">System Information</span><span class="go">        Manufacturer: LENOVO</span><span class="go">        Product Name: 2325BU3</span><span class="go">        Version: ThinkPad X230</span><span class="go">        Serial Number: PK1HM8E</span><span class="go">        UUID: ce136601-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx</span><span class="go">        Wake-up Type: Reserved</span><span class="go">        SKU Number: Not Specified</span><span class="go">        Family: ThinkPad X230</span>
<span class="go">Handle 0x000B, DMI type 32, 11 bytes</span><span class="go">System Boot Information</span><span class="go">        Status: No errors detected</span></code></pre></div><h3 id="install-flashrom">Install: <code>flashrom</code><a class="headerlink" href="#install-flashrom" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3><p>The primary tool for operating on your BIOS is called <code>flashrom</code>. The Debianpackage is also called by the same name and can be installed as:</p><div class="codehilite"><pre><span></span><code>apt-get install flashrom</code></pre></div>
<p>If the kernel is booted correctly with <code>iomem=relaxed</code>, you can run <code>flashrom</code>:</p><div class="codehilite"><pre><span></span><code>flashrom -pinternal</code></pre></div>
<p>Ouput:</p><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="gp">$ </span>sudo flashrom -pinternal<span class="go">flashrom v1.2 on Linux 5.10.9-gnu (x86_64)</span><span class="go">flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org</span>
<span class="go">Using clock_gettime for delay loops (clk_id: 1, resolution: 1ns).</span><span class="go">coreboot table found at 0xbff51000.</span><span class="go">Found chipset &quot;Intel QM77&quot;.</span><span class="go">Enabling flash write... SPI Configuration is locked down.</span><span class="go">Enabling hardware sequencing due to multiple flash chips detected.</span><span class="go">OK.</span><span class="go">Found Programmer flash chip &quot;Opaque flash chip&quot; (12288 kB, Programmer-specific) mapped at physical address 0x0000000000000000.</span><span class="go">No operations were specified.</span></code></pre></div><div class="admonition tip"><p class="admonition-title">Tip</p><p>Sometimes <code>flashrom</code> will not detect the internal flash chip, though itmight very well be able to confirm the BIOS type and machine name. In suchcases, you can try to run <code>flashrom</code> as: <code>flashrom-pinternal:laptop=force_I_want_a_brick</code>. This is not completely safe</p></div><h3 id="read-bios-image">Read BIOS Image<a class="headerlink" href="#read-bios-image" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3><p>You can dump the BIOS to a file:</p><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="gp">$ </span>flashrom -pinternal -r lc230-coreboot.rom</code></pre></div><p>This will read the BIOS to a file: <code>lc230-coreboot.rom</code>. This file will be 12 MB in size.</p><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="gp">$ </span>sudo flashrom -pinternal -r lc230.rom<span class="go">flashrom v1.2 on Linux 5.10.9-gnu (x86_64)</span><span class="go">flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org</span>
<span class="go">Using clock_gettime for delay loops (clk_id: 1, resolution: 1ns).</span><span class="go">coreboot table found at 0xbff51000.</span><span class="go">Found chipset &quot;Intel QM77&quot;.</span><span class="go">Enabling flash write... SPI Configuration is locked down.</span><span class="go">Enabling hardware sequencing due to multiple flash chips detected.</span><span class="go">OK.</span><span class="go">Found Programmer flash chip &quot;Opaque flash chip&quot; (12288 kB, Programmer-specific) mapped at physical address 0x0000000000000000.</span><span class="go">Reading flash... done.</span><span class="gp">$ </span>ls -lh lc230-coreboot.rom<span class="go">-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12M Feb  8 04:46 lc230-coreboot.rom</span></code></pre></div><h3 id="write-bios-image">Write BIOS Image<a class="headerlink" href="#write-bios-image" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3><p>You can now write back to the BIOS chips as follows:</p><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="gp">$ </span>sudo flashrom -pinternal -w lc230-coreboot.rom<span class="go">flashrom v1.2 on Linux 5.10.9-gnu (x86_64)</span><span class="go">flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org</span>
<span class="go">Using clock_gettime for delay loops (clk_id: 1, resolution: 1ns).</span><span class="go">coreboot table found at 0xbff51000.</span><span class="go">Found chipset &quot;Intel QM77&quot;.</span><span class="go">Enabling flash write... SPI Configuration is locked down.</span><span class="go">Enabling hardware sequencing due to multiple flash chips detected.</span><span class="go">OK.</span><span class="go">Found Programmer flash chip &quot;Opaque flash chip&quot; (12288 kB, Programmer-specific) mapped at physical address 0x0000000000000000.</span><span class="go">Reading old flash chip contents... done.</span><span class="go">Erasing and writing flash chip... </span><span class="go">Warning: Chip content is identical to the requested image.</span><span class="go">Erase/write done</span></code></pre></div><h3 id="flash-skulls">Flash: Skulls<a class="headerlink" href="#flash-skulls" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3><p>The Skulls Coreboot distribution provides built in scripts to upgrade the BIOS.The update procedure is <a href="https://github.com/merge/skulls/blob/master/x230/README.md#updating">detailedhere</a>.Your LC230 ships with the latest release of Skull available at the time ofshipping the laptop to you. You can upgrade skulls using the instructions above. </p><h3 id="flash-heads">Flash: Heads<a class="headerlink" href="#flash-heads" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3><p>If you want to experiment with the <a href="https://osresearch.net/">Heads firmware</a>,instructions are available on the <a href="https://osresearch.net/">Heads website</a> aswell as in the <a href="https://github.com/merge/skulls/blob/master/x230/README.md#moving-to-heads">Skulls documentation</a>.</p><h2 id="configuring-coreboot">Configuring Coreboot<a class="headerlink" href="#configuring-coreboot" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h2><p>Your LC230 ships with a SeaBIOS payload called <code>nvramcui</code> that allows you toconfigure coreboot behaviour and save the settings to nvram.</p><div style="text-align: center">  <figure style="display: inline-block" >    <img src="/images/nvramcui-1.jpg" width="250" />    <figcaption> nvramcui options (1) </figcaption>  </figure>
  <figure style="display: inline-block" >    <img src="/images/nvramcui-2.jpg" width="235" />    <figcaption> nvramcui options (2) </figcaption>  </figure>
  <figure style="display: inline-block" >    <img src="/images/nvramcui-3.jpg" width="235" />    <figcaption> nvramcui options (3) </figcaption>  </figure></div>
<h3 id="swapping-fn-and-ctrl">Swapping <span class="keys"><kbd class="key-function">Fn</kbd></span> and <span class="keys"><kbd class="key-control">Ctrl</kbd></span><a class="headerlink" href="#swapping-fn-and-ctrl" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3><p>The <code>fn_ctrl_swap</code> on the 2<sup>nd</sup> page of the <code>nvramcui</code> settings page enables youto toggle the <span class="keys"><kbd class="key-function">Fn</kbd></span> and <span class="keys"><kbd class="key-control">Ctrl</kbd></span> swap. If you like to have the control keyon the bottom left corner of the keyboard, then you can set this option to <code>Enable</code>.</p><h3 id="increasing-graphics-memory">Increasing Graphics Memory<a class="headerlink" href="#increasing-graphics-memory" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3><p>The x230 GPU does not have dedication RAM. Instead it shares its memory withthe main system memory. You can configure how much RAM is dedicated to the GPUvia the <code>gfx_uma_size</code> option on the 3<sup>rd</sup> page of the <code>nvramcui</code> settings.</p><p>Pressing the <span class="keys"><kbd class="key-arrow-left">Left</kbd></span> and <span class="keys"><kbd class="key-arrow-right">Right</kbd></span> arrow keys you can iterate over all theavailable settings for this option.</p><h3 id="other-settings">Other settings<a class="headerlink" href="#other-settings" title="Permanent link">&para;</a></h3><p>You can also configure the following behaviour via nvramcui:</p><ul><li><p><strong>Always On USB</strong>: By enabling this option, you can configure the USB ports    to be <em>always on</em> - even when the laptop is suspended.</p></li><li><p><strong>Enable/Disable Trackpoing, Touchpad</strong>: You can toggle the <code>touchpad</code> and    <code>trackpoint</code> options to enable or disable the the touchpad and trackpoint    respectively.</p></li></ul>                                                            

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