thinkpad-ec/README

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The main purpose of this software is to patch the EC on xx30 series thinkpads
to make the classic 7-row keyboards work. There are also patches included (but
disabled by default) to disable the authentic battery validation check.
With the patches included here, you can install the classic keyboard
hardware on many xx30 series laptops and make almost every key work properly.
The only keys that are not working are Fn+F3 (Battery) and Fn+F12 (Hibernate)
Unfortunately, it turns out that not all xx30 series thinkpads have the same
BIOS and EC arrangement - some do not have a "FL2" file in the BIOS update
image and thus the location of the EC to patch is missing. This is known to
be the case with at least the L530.
* A full writeup of the hardware modifications needed can be found at:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Install_Classic_Keyboard_on_xx30_Series_ThinkPads
* More information for hacking on this can be found in the docs/HACKING.txt
file.
* A video presenting how these thinkpad laptops were hacked is online:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzmm87oVQ6c
Step-by-step instructions:
--------------------------
This software expects to be run under Linux. For best results, ensure you
have updated your BIOS to a recent version before starting. If there is too
large a difference between the BIOS and EC versions then the flash process
will not complete.
1. Ensure you have installed the prerequisite packages
On debian, this can be done with:
apt-get install build-essential git mtools libssl-dev
2. Clone a copy of this repo on to your computer:
git clone https://github.com/hamishcoleman/thinkpad-ec
3. Change to the directory created by the clone:
cd thinkpad-ec
4. Show the list of laptops and USB image file names:
make list_laptops
5. Choose your laptop model name from the list shown.
E.G. "patched.x230.img" for a x230 laptop.
6. Using the name chosen in the previous step, make the fully
patched image for this laptop (this will download the original
file from Lenovo and patch it):
make patched.x230.img
7. Insert your USB stick and determine what device name it has.
(Note: chose a USB stick with nothing important on it, it will
be erased in the next step) This command should help you find the
right device:
lsblk -d -o NAME,SIZE,LABEL
8. Write the bootable patched image onto the USB stick device (replace
the "sdx" in this command with the correct name for your usb stick)
WARNING: if you do not have the right device name, you might overwrite
your hard drive!
sudo dd if=patched.x230.img of=/dev/sdx
Your USB stick is now ready to boot and install the patched firmware.
Notes:
------
* You can also create a bootable CDROM image for burning to a disk
by asking for a ".iso" file instead of the ".img" in step 6 above.
Then you can use your normal CDROM burning tools to put this image on
a blank cd and boot it up, skipping steps 7 and 8.
* To include the battery validation patch or to make a build that
reverts any EC changes, read the docs/CONFIG.txt and follow
the configuration instructions in it before running step 6.
Booting the stick and flashing the firmware:
--------------------------------------------
While flashing the firmware is as simple as booting the USB stick
created above, there are a couple of steps that can help the process.
This is more a list of issues that the community has discovered as the
patch was applied in different circumstances than a hard and fast set
of requirements.
* The firmware flash process generally requires you to have a charged
battery plugged in to the laptop before it will complete.
* Ensure your BIOS has been configured to boot from "Legacy" and not
"UEFI" before trying to boot.
* If you do normally use UEFI boot, there has been at least one case where
the EC does not get flashed until the BIOS is switched back into UEFI
mode - after which the EC was automatically flashed on the next reboot.
* When you boot the stick, you will be shown information about the patch,
including which laptop type it was built for. It pauses at this point
for you to confirm that you wish to proceed. It will then automatically
flash the patched firmware.