ThinkWiki - User contributions [en]

How to change the BIOS bootsplash screen

2007-03-19T04:24:18Z

Sofar: /* Method 1: Using a Non-Diskette-File and cabextract */ found a newer disk file

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This page describes how to replace the standard IBM BIOS Bootsplash (The one with the ThinkPad- and Pentium M-Logo), without access to Microsoft Windows or a floppy drive.

Windows users who want to have a custom splash image when they start up should try [[How to change the BIOS bootsplash screen (under Windows) | this guide]] instead.
</div>
|}
== Getting the Files ==
You'll need the bios upgrade file from the IBM website.

=== Method 1: Using a Non-Diskette-File and cabextract ===

For ThinkPads {{R50}}, {{R50p}}, {{R51}} (1829, 1830, 1831, 1836), {{R52}}, {{T40}}, {{T40p}}, {{T41}}, {{T41p}}, {{T42}}, {{T42p}}, {{T43}}, {{T43p}} this file is suitable:
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj28us.exe 1ruj28us.exe]
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj29us.exe 1ruj29us.exe]
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj30us.exe 1ruj30us.exe]
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj33us.exe 1ruj33us.exe]
There may be a more recent file on the IBM website.

Last version at 2007-03-18 :
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj35us.exe 1ruj35us.exe]

You need the cabextract tool to extract files from the exe:
:{{cmdroot|apt-get install cabextract}}

Do this to get the ibm file and extract the disk image from it:
:{{cmdroot|cd /tmp}}
:{{cmdroot|wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj35us.exe}}
:{{cmdroot|cabextract -F "*.IMG" 1ruj35us.exe}}
:{{cmdroot|mv 1RUJ35US.IMG floppy.bin}}

=== Method 2: Using a Diskette-File and dosemu ===
Another option is to use the "Diskette BIOS file". 
For ThinkPads {{R50}}, {{R50p}}, {{R51}} (1829, 1830, 1831, 1836), {{R52}}, {{T40}}, {{T40p}}, {{T41}}, {{T41p}}, {{T42}}, {{T42p}}, {{T43}}, {{T43p}} this file is suitable:
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj28ud.exe 1ruj28ud.exe]
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj29ud.exe 1ruj29ud.exe]
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj30ud.exe 1ruj30ud.exe] Released 2005-05-26 '''NEW!'''

The file is an OS/2 executables and don't run with wine, so you need to install dosemu to run it and create the image. 
:{{cmdroot|apt-get install dosemu dosemu-freedos}}
(for non-debian-users: Get dosemu and freedos somewhere and make it work somehow).

With dosemu, you can run this executable, but this program unfortunately
needs a floppy drive to write to. So use the loopback device, to create a virtual floppy.
:{{cmdroot|1=dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/floppy.bin bs=1024 count=1440}}
:{{cmdroot|losetup /dev/loop0 /tmp/floppy.bin}}
Put this block device ({{path|/dev/loop0}}) into the dosemu configuration as the floppy disk device.
Now you can run the extractor executable, which makes {{path|/tmp/floppy.bin}} the desired floppy image .
:{{cmdroot|dosemu 1ruj27ud.exe}}
:{{cmdroot|losetup -d /dev/loop0}}

For 2.6.12+ if you have dosemu error:
:{{cmdroot|echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/randomize_va_space}}

== Adding the custom image ==
Mount your floppy.bin as a loopback device.
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|1=mount -o loop,umask=000 /tmp/floppy.bin /tmp/mnt}}
Create a 16 color 640x480 BMP (4 Bit/pixel VGA palette) (for example with Gimp) and save it to {{path|/tmp/mnt/logo.bmp}}.

When creating your image, keep in mind that on the T43p (and others??), regardless of your custom bootsplash screen there will be a superimposed black "Centrino" logo (~100x100 pixels) on the upper right of your display, so you might want to keep that area clear. You might also want to reserve the bottom 150 pixels for the "boot options" / "Entering BIOS setup" message(s) too, which will also be displayed.

Now prepare the image with <tt>prepare.exe</tt> using wine: (This does not work with dosemu!)
:{{cmdroot|wine prepare.exe logo.scr}}

The image must compress to <10k. If you receive an error, you can try reducing the number of colors in your image palette (step down to an 12 or 8 color palette for a very significant reduction in image size.) When successful, there should be a new {{path|logo.mod}} and your {{path|logo.bmp}}. If so, you are set, don't forget to unmount your loopback device:
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/mnt}}

== Fake a floppy ==
Now you need to put the image on a floppy and boot from it. Since recent ThinkPads don't have a
floppy drive, we can use a CD-R (or a CD-RW, actually, for the cheap ones, like me) and burn it with the following command:
:{{cmdroot|1=mkisofs -b floppy.bin floppy.bin <nowiki>|</nowiki> cdrecord dev=<device> - }}
(<tt><device></tt> being your cd writer device)

== The exciting part ==
After this worked, reboot your ThinkPad from the cdrom by pressing F12 while booting
and wait for the IBM tool to start.
Be sure to have your ThinkPad on AC power and say ''Yes'' to the questions the BIOS Upgrade Tool asks.
It will then flash the BIOS, which will take about a minute.

Suddenly the laptop turns itself off with two beeps.
When booting, you'll have your bootsplash picture.

Unfortunately, you won't see it really long, but it's better
than the standard one, so it was worth the action.

Have fun!

BTW next time you have to flash the BIOS the IBM BIOS updater will detect a custom boot splash and ask you if you want to preserve it or restore the original.

== Share your custom bootsplash image ==
If you've created your own bootsplash image and want to share it with other you can post it here.

* Schnappi bootsplash: Bow to the power of [http://folk.uio.no/igorr/t43/final.bmp Schnappi]. The BMP image compressed to about 6KB. Schni, schna, schnappi!
* IBM Tux: An image of [http://asuka.fi/u/jpaalija/stuff/filestorage/ibm-tux.bmp Tux with the IBM logo] written on its tummy.

Problem with e1000: 99.9% packet loss on 7.x drivers

2007-02-04T19:45:41Z

Sofar:

My R51 and T41 have 99.9% packet loss on a gigabit link using the latest e1000 drivers. 6.0.60 seems to work perfect, though.

=== and then what ? ===

this should be filed upstream as a bug. I don't find your problem anywhere on the kernel bugzilla or on e1000.sf.net. How do you expect people to fix this problem?

--[[User:Sofar|Sofar]] 20:45, 4 February 2007 (CET)

E1000

2007-02-04T19:42:22Z

Sofar: /* Intel PRO/100, PRO/1000 Drivers */ tell people to try our newer drivers from e1000.sf.net if they have problems

==Intel PRO/100, PRO/1000 Drivers==
{{Stub}}

Intel e100 and e1000 drivers are on the mainline Linux kernel tree for a long time now. You should use the drivers that come with the kernel, unless you experience problems. Often a newer driver is available from the e1000 project site on sourceforge earlier than that it is merged in the kernel.

Intel(R) PRO/10/100/1000/10GbE Drivers
* The drivers home page - http://e1000.sf.net/

=== Issues ===
* [[Problem with e1000: EEPROM Checksum Is Not Valid|EEPROM Checksum Is Not Valid problem]]
* [[Problem with e1000: 99.9% packet loss on 7.x drivers|99.9% packet loss on 7.x drivers]]

=== Hints ===
* If you have problems, try disabling MSI support in the kernel.
* Don't complain here about a bug that has not been reported to the [http://bugzila.kernel.org kernel bugzilla] or the [http://e1000.sf.net e1000 bug tracker]
* If a gigabit ethernet link won't stay up, try tunning at 100Mbit/s. If it works, the cabling is your main suspect.

E1000

2007-02-04T19:40:26Z

Sofar: /* Intel PRO/100, PRO/1000 Drivers */ URL cleanup

==Intel PRO/100, PRO/1000 Drivers==
{{Stub}}

Intel e100 and e1000 drivers are on the mainline Linux kernel tree for a long time now. You should use the drivers that come with the kernel, unless you do know better. This is particularly true for the e1000 driver.

Intel(R) PRO/10/100/1000/10GbE Drivers
* The drivers home page - http://e1000.sf.net/

=== Issues ===
* [[Problem with e1000: EEPROM Checksum Is Not Valid|EEPROM Checksum Is Not Valid problem]]
* [[Problem with e1000: 99.9% packet loss on 7.x drivers|99.9% packet loss on 7.x drivers]]

=== Hints ===
* If you have problems, try disabling MSI support in the kernel.
* Don't complain here about a bug that has not been reported to the [http://bugzila.kernel.org kernel bugzilla] or the [http://e1000.sf.net e1000 bug tracker]
* If a gigabit ethernet link won't stay up, try tunning at 100Mbit/s. If it works, the cabling is your main suspect.

E1000

2007-02-04T19:39:52Z

Sofar: /* Hints */ add e1000 bug tracker location

==Intel PRO/100, PRO/1000 Drivers==
{{Stub}}

Intel e100 and e1000 drivers are on the mainline Linux kernel tree for a long time now. You should use the drivers that come with the kernel, unless you do know better. This is particularly true for the e1000 driver.

Intel(R) PRO/10/100/1000/10GbE Drivers
* The drivers home page - http://sourceforge.net/projects/e1000/

=== Issues ===
* [[Problem with e1000: EEPROM Checksum Is Not Valid|EEPROM Checksum Is Not Valid problem]]
* [[Problem with e1000: 99.9% packet loss on 7.x drivers|99.9% packet loss on 7.x drivers]]

=== Hints ===
* If you have problems, try disabling MSI support in the kernel.
* Don't complain here about a bug that has not been reported to the [http://bugzila.kernel.org kernel bugzilla] or the [http://e1000.sf.net e1000 bug tracker]
* If a gigabit ethernet link won't stay up, try tunning at 100Mbit/s. If it works, the cabling is your main suspect.

Problem with e1000: EEPROM Checksum Is Not Valid

2007-01-19T05:50:45Z

Sofar: /* Problem Description */

== Problem Description ==
On certain ThinkPads, [[e1000]] driver for [[Ethernet_Controllers#Intel_Gigabit_.2810.2F100.2F1000.29|Intel Gigabit controller]] fails to load with the following error message in /var/log/messages:

<pre>
e1000: 0000:02:00.0: e1000_probe: The EEPROM Checksum Is Not Valid
e1000: probe of 0000:02:00.0 failed with error -5
</pre>

The problem is caused by a power savings feature obstructing normal operation, and causes the first bytes read from the EEPROM to be corrupt, resulting in a random or invalid MAC address (but no other data corruption). The EEPROM checksum test traps the problem and the driver refuses to load.

== Circumvention ==

* Upgrade your BIOS

Lenovo has published newer BIOS revisions that appear to fix the issue for some users. The BIOS upgrade turns off "Deep smart power down" which has been known to cause issues at initialization time (the driver can re-enable the issue later if you desire, the feature works correctly then).

* Insert a cable

Inserting a linked network cable bypasses the problem.

* Take the checksum twice

This [http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1474679&group_id=42302&atid=447449 bug report] describes a fix -- take the checksum twice. First time will report a bad checksum, second will work (the problem seems to be triggered by some power-saving technology). This requires a tweak to the driver source and a rebuild of your kernel. This is much better than a previous "fix" published here that disabled checksum checking entirely.

* Remove/add kernel module

Removing and adding the kernel module is a possible work-around. As root, run

<pre>
# modprobe -r e1000
# modprobe e1000
</pre>

On some occasions, the commands have to be run twice before eth0 becomes useable.
On some X60s this will not work at all.

* Disabling and re-enabling the NIC in the BIOS

For some it fixed the issue finally, for some it helped just temporarily.

== See also ==

* [http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1474679&group_id=42302&atid=447449 bug report] submitted for e1000 driver.
* Discussion at [http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-476305-highlight-e1000.html Gentoo forums]

Problem with e1000: EEPROM Checksum Is Not Valid

2006-07-21T15:50:21Z

Sofar: /* Circumvention */

== Problem Description ==
On certain ThinkPads, [[e1000]] driver for [[Ethernet_Controllers#Intel_Gigabit_.2810.2F100.2F1000.29|Intel Gigabit controller]] fails to load with the following error message in /var/log/messages:

<pre>
e1000: 0000:02:00.0: e1000_probe: The EEPROM Checksum Is Not Valid
e1000: probe of 0000:02:00.0 failed with error -5
</pre>

== Circumvention ==

* Upgrade your BIOS

Lenovo has published newer BIOS revisions that appear to fix the issue for some users. The BIOS upgrade turns off "Deep smart power down" which has been known to cause issues at initialization time (the driver can re-enable the issue later if you desire, the feature works correctly then).

* Insert a cable

Inserting a linked network cable bypasses the problem.

* Dangerous: turn off checksum checking in the driver

''Disabling the checksum checking is dangerous: the network card has (obviously) read incorrect data from the EEPROM and will start operation based on these wrong values. You will see degraded network performance and possible data corruption and driver crashes. '''DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK'''.''

In <tt>e1000_main.c</tt>, find the following code and comment out err assignment and the goto statement:

<pre>
/* make sure the EEPROM is good */
if (e1000_validate_eeprom_checksum(&adapter->hw) < 0) {
DPRINTK(PROBE, ERR, "The EEPROM Checksum Is Not Valid\n");
/* err = -EIO;
goto err_eeprom; */
}
</pre>

Note: This is just a temporary solution until a better fix is developed. See the [http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1474679&group_id=42302&atid=447449 bug report] for more information.

== See also ==

* [http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1474679&group_id=42302&atid=447449 bug report] submitted for e1000 driver.
* Discussion at [http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-476305-highlight-e1000.html Gentoo forums]

Ethernet Controllers

2006-07-21T15:44:52Z

Sofar: /* Intel Gigabit (10/100/1000) */ Adding EEPROM checksum fail info

== Internal Ethernet controller ==

A variety of [[Ethernet]] controllers is integrated into almost all models starting with the introduction of the A, T and X series.

The Ethernet controller is located on either a MiniPCI card, Communications Daughter Card (CDC), or integrated on the systemboard.

=== 3COM Fast Ethernet (10/100) ===
MiniPCI cards featuring this chip:
*[[3Com 10/100 Ethernet Mini-PCI Adapter with 56K Modem]]

=== Intel Fast Ethernet (10/100) ===
CDC and MiniPCI cards featuring this chip:
*[[Ethernet Daughter Card (EDC)]]
*[[Intel 10/100 Ethernet Mini-PCI Adapter with 56K Modem]]
*[[Intel PRO/100 SP Mobile Combo Adapter]]
*[[Mini-PCI Ethernet card]]
*[[Xircom 10/100 EtherJet Mini PCI Adapter with 56K Modem]]

In addition, this chip is integrated into select systemboards of the following machines: 
'''Intel 82550GY'''
* {{R30}}
'''Intel 82558'''
* [[SelectaBase PC Card Enabler with Advanced EtherJet]]
* [[ThinkPad Port Replicator with Advanced EtherJet]]
'''Intel 82562ET'''
* {{R31}}, {{R32}}
* {{T30}}
* {{X30}}
'''Intel 82562EZ'''
* {{R40}}, {{R50e}}, {{R50}}, {{R51}}
* {{T40}}
* {{X31}}

Driver: [[e100]] (The 'e100' driver is the suggested driver, but '[[eepro100]]' should also work.)

=== Intel Gigabit (10/100/1000) ===
Chipset: Intel PRO/1000 MT Mobile Ethernet 
Driver: [[e1000]]

This chip is integrated into select systemboards of the following machines: 
'''Intel 82540EP'''
* {{R50}}, {{R50p}}, {{R51}}
* {{T40}}, {{T40p}}, {{T41}}, {{T41p}}, {{T42}}, {{T42p}}
* {{X31}}, {{X32}}
'''Intel 82541GI'''
* {{X40}}
'''Intel 82573L''' (PCI-Express)
* {{T60}}, {{T60p}}
* {{X60}}, {{X60s}}
Note: This chip supports Auto-MDIX, meaning you will never need a crossover ethernet cable. 
Note: The first signs of explicit support for this chip in 2.6 kernels is with 2.6.12-rc2. 
Note: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 (2.4 kernel based) begins 82573L support with Update 7. 
Note: Some users report issues: [[Problem_with_e1000:_EEPROM_Checksum_Is_Not_Valid]]

=== Broadcom Fast Ethernet (10/100) ===
Driver: [[tg3]] or [[bcm5700]]

This chip is integrated into select systemboards of the following machines: 
'''Broadcom BCM5901'''
* {{G40}}, {{G41}}
* {{R40e}}
'''Broadcom BCM5751F'''
* {{R51e}}

=== Broadcom Gigabit (10/100/1000) ===
Chipset: Broadcom BCM5751M 
Driver: [[tg3]] or [[bcm5700]]

This chip is integrated into select systemboards of the following machines:
* {{R52}}
* {{G41}}
* {{T43}}, {{T43p}}
* {{X41}}, {{X41T}}
* {{Z60m}}, {{Z60t}}

[[Category:Components]]