51NB X210¶

Extracting vendor EC firmware¶

EC firmware is included in the SPI image. To extract it, run:

dd bs=64K skip=32 count=1 if=bios.rom of=ec.bin

and ensure that you have a file that includes the string “Insyde Software Corp”.

Flashing instructions¶

This can be performed using the internal SPI controller, even when flashing from stock firmware. Use flashrom -p internal and follow the appropriate flashrom instructions to force it. Alternatively, external flashing has been tested with Dediprog SF100 and SF600 and using a Beaglebone Black. The flash is located on the upper side of the motherboard, below the keyboard connector. It is circled in red here:

../../_images/x210.jpg

Flashing a subset of the ROM¶

If you want to flash coreboot without extracting firmware blobs, you can flash coreboot without overwriting those blobs. After building coreboot, create a layout file with the following content:

00000000:001fffff me
00200000:0020ffff ec
00210000:007fffff main

and run flashrom with the --layout rom.layout --image main arguments. This will flash the main firmware without overwriting the existing EC or ME firmware.

Working¶

All hardware features are believed to be working, although the SD reader is untested. Note that certain hotkeys don’t work (including the ThinkVantage button) - this is a limitation of the EC firmware, and these keys also generate no events under the stock vendor firmware.