ThinkWiki - User contributions [en]

Rescue and Recovery

2011-01-31T03:49:13Z

Voominc: Added TOC

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;" | __NOTOC__
|style="vertical-align:top" |
<div style="margin: 0; margin-right:10px; border: 1px solid #dfdfdf; padding: 0em 1em 1em 1em; background-color:#F8F8FF; align:right;">
Rescue and Recovery version 3.0 consists of a bootable partition containing various system recovery tools, including full recovery of the preinstalled Windows XP partition. It can be activated by pressing the {{ibmkey|ThinkPad|#494949}}, {{ibmkey|Access IBM|#495988}} or {{ibmkey|ThinkVantage|#495988}} [[ThinkPad Button|Button]] during system boot. It contains a FAT filesystem (sometimes labeled "IBM_SERVICE", "SERVICEV001", etc.), and has partition type 0x12 ("Compaq diagnostics" in <tt>fdisk</tt>).

As opposed to a [[Hidden Protected Area]] Recovery partitions are ordinary partitions, accessible through the partition table. As they are ordinary partitions they are accessible by ordinary partitioning tools. They should be dealt with carefully.

Rescue and Recovery is a Windows-specific feature. If you intend to recover into Windows when you have an issue, it is important to follow the warnings here carefully. If you intend to run another operating system exclusively and never return to Windows, removing this partition is safe. If you remove it, you can still reinstall windows at a later time, provided you have created a Recovery set of discs (1CD + 1DVD or 5CDs required). Booting from the Recovery CD will restore the system to the factory state including the recovery partition.
</div>
|}
__TOC__
==Proper MBR==
{{WARN|Only tinker with the MBR and the Rescue and Recovery partition if you know what you're doing. Mistakes can leave the system unbootable and can make it very difficult to retrieve the data on the harddisk.}}

Consideration 6 of the Readme states:
<blockquote>"The Master Boot Record (MBR) must be configured properly for the Rescue and Recovery application to function properly. When possible, the Rescue and Recovery application attempts to ensure the proper configuration of the MBR. This can only occur if the Rescue and Recovery application is installed after other applications that requires the MBR."</blockquote>

Apparently, the MBR is not "configured properly" if LILO or GRUB have written it. The following is the case:
*The default bootloader seems to ignore the active bit and always boots the first partition instead
*The default bootloader contains code to catch a press of the appropriate button during bootup and launch the Rescue and Recovery application in that case
*Before launching the Rescue and Recovery application at system boot, the default bootloader changes the partition type of the Rescue and Recovery partiton to 0x0b, otherwise it changes it to 0x12 (to hide it from Windows)
*The Rescue and Recovery application assumes that the first partition contains Windows
*When booting from the Rescue and Recovery partition, it needs to have its type set (either by Thinkvantage or by GRUB) to 0x0b (FAT32) for the default bootloader to launch the Rescue and Recovery application.

Since neither LILO nor GRUB catch the press of the button (an undocumented mechanism anyway) it is not possible to launch the Rescue and Recovery application by pressing the appropriate button during system boot, once LILO or GRUB have altered the MBR for their boot procedure.

IBM provides a program to manage the Rescue and Recovery bootloader. It is located in {{path|C:\Program Files\IBM ThinkVantage\Common\BMGR}} or {{path|C:\Program Files\Common Files\Lenovo\BMGR}}. It can select the partition to boot, and also allows for rewriting the MBR if it was written by another bootloader. More information is needed about this program. Here is an example that restores the IBM MBR. It seems that it only extends the already installed MBR. Therefore you must have a valid Windows MBR installed if you want to boot into Windows. The GRUB MBR doesn't work here.

cd C:\Program Files\IBM ThinkVantage\Common\BMGR
bmgr32 /Fbootmgr.bin /v

Some more information about BMGR here, but it may be slightly out of date:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/SG247107.html (lookup BMGR32 in the Index)

Sometimes it is not enough to simply restore the IBM MBR if you want to boot into Windows. The Windows MBR might have been overwritten by another bootloader. In that case you should restore the Windows MBR using a Windows CD. More info can be found on http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse91/suselinux-adminguide/html/ch07s05.html

*On my T42p and T43p, BMGR32.EXE was in {{path|C:\IBMTOOLS\utils}}. What seemed to work best was to run it first with /Fbootmgr.bin reboot, and if that didn't fix R&R, run it again with the /B0 /M0 /OEM switches. Have a XP install CD ready so you can do a FIXMBR from the Recovery Console if the machine won't boot (happened to me several times).

*On my X32, BMGR32.EXE is also in {{path|C:\IBMTOOLS\utils}}. It works best with the /M2 switch to restore the R&R MBR:

cd \IBMTOOLS\utils
bmgr32 /Fbootmgr.bin /M2 /V

:/M0 also works, but /M2 restores it to factory state. As stated above, you must restore the MBR to the Windows XP MBR first before running bmgr32.exe.

:If you've run bmgr32.exe too many times, you might have to clear the sectors from sector 1 to sector 62 (sector 0 is the MBR). If you know what you are doing, the following Linux dd command can do it for you:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 seek=1 count=62

:This command is safe to run only when the first partition starts at sector 63, the 64th sector of the hard drive (probably true).

===MBR written by GRUB===
The MBR written by GRUB can be used to launch the Rescue and Recovery application. However, if you leave the type of the Rescue and Recovery partition to 0x12 (Compaq diagnostics), trying to boot this partition will result in an error message "c000021a, Fatal System Error". To avoid that, and to make sure the recovery partition is always of the right type, add a line to change the partition type to 0x0b (FAT32) to the Rescue and Recovery partition's entry in your {{path|/boot/grub/menu.lst}}. Also, as we will be hiding the Rescue and Recovery partition from Windows (see below), we need to <tt>unhide</tt> the partition here to make sure it will be visible and bootable. So, assuming your Rescue and Recovery partition is the second partition, the GRUB entry would look like this:

title IBM Rescue and Recovery
root (hd0,1)
'''parttype (hd0,1) 0x0b'''
'''unhide (hd0,1)'''
chainloader +1

{{NOTE|Some people reported this not working (in particular, on a {{Z61m}} 9450-3HG). Version 4.0 of Rescue and Recovery uses an NTFS partition, so a partition type of 0x07 (HPFS/NTFS) may be needed.
}}
{{Todo|verify this note}}

You will find that while the above lets you launch the Rescue and Recovery application, trying to run the Hardware Diagnostics tool will fail, as it needs a "properly configured" (original) MBR. What happens is that to run the hardware diagnostics, the R&R software temporarily changes the "properly configured" MBR to boot a PC-DOCTOR disk image found on the Rescue and Recovery partition, then asks you to reboot. So all we need to do to get the Hardware Diagnostics back is add another entry to {{path|/boot/grub/menu.lst}}, that will load the PC-DOCTOR disk image. The entry is similar to the <tt>IBM Rescue and Recovery</tt> one above, with a different <tt>chainloader</tt> line:

title Hardware Diagnostics
root (hd0,1)
parttype (hd0,1) 0x0b
unhide (hd0,1)
'''chainloader /bootsect.dos'''

Finally, as mentioned previously, the Rescue and Recovery partition should be hidden from Windows. This is to prevent any modifications being done to it, as they may damage the Rescue and Recovery software. So, assuming that Windows is on the first partition, the Windows GRUB entry would look like this:

title Windows
root (hd0,0)
'''hide (hd0,1)'''
chainloader +1

===GRUB in a partition's boot sector===
A way to have your Access IBM button still functional on bootup, is to create a separate {{path|/boot}} partition, install GRUB to that partition and make it active. This will leave the MBR untouched.
{{NOTE|If the above finding is true that the MBR ignores the active bit, that partition has to be the first one. In most recent Linux distributions it is not easy to create /boot as first partition and shrink the Windows partition. In that case the Windows bootloader can be used to boot Windows and Linux, also preserving the Rescue and Recovery functionality. See below.}}
*In the BIOS, set the IBM Predesktop Area to 'Secure'.
*Boot your Linux distribution's installation CD.
*Follow the instructions and go through the regular installation process.
*Create a '''primary partition''' for /boot (the other stuff can go into the extended partitions) and when the time comes to install GRUB, make sure you install it into the boot sector of the boot partition.
*Set this boot partition as active.

===Using Product Recovery to Restore the Windows MBR===
The Product Recovery CD/DVD-ROM erases your hard disk and restores it to its original factory state with Windows. The GRUB MBR can interfere with this. The symptom is that you try to recover, but the recovery process ends immediately, and the computer tries to boot with GRUB. The problem is that the one part of the disk that Product Recovery (version 5.6) does not overwrite is the MBR.

If this happens to you, first completely erase your hard disk using PC Doctor on the IBM Product Recovery CD-ROM:

* Insert Product Recovery Disk 1 (this procedure assumes version 5.6, circa 2002)
* Power up the computer, press F12, select ''CD-ROM Drive'' as the boot device
* After IBM Product Recovery boots, it will give you two choices:
** ''Full Recovery''. Presumably you already tried this and failed.
** ''System Utilities''. '''Select this'''.
* Select ''Run diagnostics''. The PC Doctor diagnostic program will start.
* In the menu along the top, choose ''Utility''.
* In this menu, choose ''Full Erase Hard Drive'' and confirm that you really want to erase. ''Full Erase'' works, but takes about two minutes per gigabyte. If you find that ''Quick Erase Hard Drive'' also works, please edit that fact into this document.

After ''Erase Hard Drive'' finishes, your hard drive has no MBR, so Product Recovery has no choice but to install a new one.

* Reboot, press F12, select ''CD-ROM Drive'' as the boot device
* After IBM Product Recovery boots, this time select ''Full Recovery''

===Using the Windows Bootloader to Boot Linux===
The NTLDR Windows bootloader can be configured to boot Linux in addition to Windows. The master boot record (MBR) is unchanged, so the ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery system boot functionality is preserved. This clever procedure was [http://gawrysiak.org/corvus/?p=4 originally applied] to Ubuntu Dapper Drake, and is generalized here.

0. Added warning: with this method, you cannot hibernate windows and boot anything else. The windows boot loader jumps on resuming windows before asking anything (and you can already verify this right now, whatever your current configuration is).

1. Boot Windows and make product recovery disks. You will see this step repeated throught this wiki for good reason. The recovery disks can refresh your hard disk to its original factory state, getting you out of the trouble you might make in the next step.

2. Shrink the Windows NTFS partition to the size you like. You will need a bootable CD that is capable of resizing NTFS partitions. I have done this before with Knoppix, but this time I used Partition Magic (US$70).

Leave the Rescue and Recovery partition (~5GB) at the end of the disk. Other authors claim that it ''must not'' be moved. I did move it, and it works fine. Still, in retrospect I agree that the end of the disk is the best place for your Rescue and Recovery partition.

3. Reboot. Push the {{ibmkey|ThinkVantage|#495988}} button during system boot, and verify that Rescue and Recovery still runs. Reboot into Windows to verify that the partition resize was successful.

4. Begin your Linux installation. Linux will see the Windows NTFS partition as /dev/sda1, and the Rescue and Recovery FAT32 partition as /dev/sda2. When the Linux installer asks you about GRUB, do not install GRUB in the MBR. Instead, install GRUB in the /boot partition (most likely /dev/sda3).

5. After the Linux installation is finished, reboot with a bootable Linux live CD. The "rescue mode" of your Linux installation CD #1 should work fine for this. Usually you start the rescue mode with the command,

linux rescue

Start the network if you plan to use FTP in step 7.

6. After you get a shell prompt, become root if necessary, and then write the first sector of the /boot partition (probably /dev/sda3) to a file using the dd command:

sudo -i # If necessary
cd /mnt/sysimage/boot # Or wherever your live CD mounts the /boot partition
dd if=/dev/sda3 of=grub.img bs=512 count=1

The resulting grub.img file should be 512 bytes long.

7. Transfer the grub.img file somewhere where you can read it from Windows. You can use removable media like a USB flash drive, or even FTP.

8. Reboot into Windows. Copy the grub.img file to c:\grub.img.

9. Make a backup copy of the c:\boot.ini NTLDR control file. c:\boot.ini is read-only and hidden, so you will have to tell Windows to show hidden files, and turn off the read-only property on c:\boot.ini.

10. Edit c:\boot.ini. Append the line,

c:\grub.img="Linux GRUB Bootloader"

So that Linux will boot by default, you may also want to change the default OS to c:\grub.img, and reduce the timeout to 5 seconds or so. For reference, here is my c:\boot.ini file for Windows XP:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=c:\grub.img
[operating systems]
c:\grub.img="Linux GRUB Bootloader"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetec

11. Reboot. Now the Windows boot menu should offer you a choice of "Linux GRUB Bootloader" or Windows XP. Choose "Linux GRUB Bootloader", and you will be taken to the GRUB boot menu, where you can select Linux, or even go back to the Windows boot menu.

12. When you need Rescue and Recovery, push the {{ibmkey|ThinkVantage|#495988}} button upon system boot. Since you have touched neither the MBR nor the Rescue and Recovery partition, Rescue and Recovery will work exactly the same as it did before you installed Linux.

==Newer versions of Rescue and Recovery==

Rescue and Recovery version 4 is installed on T61/R61.

The partition type is 0x27. By factory default, the R&R partition is the first partition on the disk. The filesystem used is NTFS. The preloaded Windows appear as the second partition, with the active bit set.

(_NOT_ on all T61s. Mine has version 4, but the R&R partition is the 2nd,
and its ID is 0x12. More work needed here....)

(The same here on R61 8919-CTO - R&R version 4 was second partition of type FAT32)

R&R version 4 bootloader seems to honor the active bit in the partition table. To install Linux while maintaining the R&R functionality is therefore rather straightforward:

* Shrink the second Windows partition – or remove it if not needed
* Add partitions for Linux (or other operating systems), one of them has to be a '''primary partition''' since the R&R bootloader cannot boot from an extended one
* Install GRUB on the boot sector of the newly added primary partition
* Remove the active bit from the Windows partition and activate the boot partition with GRUB

==Older versions of Rescue and Recovery==
Some Thinkpads (e.g., T23 and T30) do not come with a Recovery CD, but also do not support the [[Hidden Protected Area]]. These ThinkPads have an older version of Rescue and Recovery preloaded on the hard disk to implement the factory recovery function. Most of the comments above also apply to the older versions, with the following differences:
*The recovery partition type is 0x1c, hidden FAT32, LBA-mapped (or 0xc when unhidden).
*The boot manager program is in {{path|C:\IBMTOOLS\RECOVERY}} and only runs in a 16-bit DOS environment
{{Fixme|name of this boot manager needed}}
*The IBM Predesktop area runs atop of Windows 98 (command-line) instead of WinPE
*The ThinkPad A22p laptop does not appear to have a boot manager (that I could find). I was able to restore Rescue and Recovery functionality on such a laptop by using a tool called MBRWizard to copy the first four sectors from a working laptop to a non-working one.

== Recovery Boot Hangs ==
On an R61 I recently tried to restore XP via cd/dvd with a new hard drive in the machine which had fedora 9 installed with an encrypted partition. The boot cd/dvd would start booting, flash "inspecting machine configuration" or something similar, then hang on a blank screen. To check if your cd/dvd is actually okay or not, unplug the HD completely, in my case the cd/dvd booted fine after that. To "fix" this issue such that I could actually run restore, I booted fedora 9 from dvd, repartitioned the drive as unencrypted and vfat, after saving the new partition I was able to go back and boot the recovery cd/dvd. I'm not sure if you actually have to do exactly what I did to the drive or not but that's what I did and it worked so maybe some smaller subset would be sufficient.

== Recovery from hard drive ==

If you are able to load Rescue and Recovery either using F11, or the installed grub, or SGD (Super Grub Disk) (download at http://www.supergrubdisk.org/ and use the option Boot Window fron 2nd partition), you might restore the system to the factory preload.

If you install GRUB in the MBR, the recover will start but it won't replace the MBR. In this case GRUB is started, but without other file it get stuck with error 22. To restore the MBR one could either try to use rnr31_rrd.exe (XP) or rnr40_rrd.ext (Vista) if you have a floppy disk. If you have only a cd on rapidshare there are iso image (google for instance using rnr31_rrd_fixed.iso). I tried but without success. Even if the machine does not boot, somehow the recovery takes place. Using SGD as boot loader the recovery can proceed, but so far I got an unstable machine. In particular the recovery cd cannot be produced anymore...

==External links ==
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4Q2QAK IBM ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery].
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/thinkvantage_en/tvtrnr3_1027en.txt Rescue and Recovery Readme]
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-46088 Accessing the Recovery Partition if Linux has been installed and the F11 button no longer works]
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-54483 IBM Rescue and Recovery repair diskette]
* [http://www.bb242.de/2007/11/22/grub-bootable-auf-usb-stick/ How to reinstall grub from USB, if grub is corrupted after R&R update (German)]

==Models featuring this technology==
* ThinkPad {{T23}}, {{T30}} (R&R 2.0)
* ThinkPad {{T42}}
* ThinkPad {{T43}}, {{T43p}}
* ThinkPad {{T60}}, {{T60p}}
* ThinkPad {{T61}}, {{T61p}}
* ThinkPad {{R52}}
* ThinkPad {{R61}} (R&R version 4)
* ThinkPad {{Z60m}}
* Thinkpad {{Z61m}}
* Thinkpad {{X61}}, {{X32}}

[[Category:Glossary]]

Rescue and Recovery

2011-01-31T03:46:46Z

Voominc:

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;" | __NOTOC__
|style="vertical-align:top" |
<div style="margin: 0; margin-right:10px; border: 1px solid #dfdfdf; padding: 0em 1em 1em 1em; background-color:#F8F8FF; align:right;">
Rescue and Recovery version 3.0 consists of a bootable partition containing various system recovery tools, including full recovery of the preinstalled Windows XP partition. It can be activated by pressing the {{ibmkey|ThinkPad|#494949}}, {{ibmkey|Access IBM|#495988}} or {{ibmkey|ThinkVantage|#495988}} [[ThinkPad Button|Button]] during system boot. It contains a FAT filesystem (sometimes labeled "IBM_SERVICE", "SERVICEV001", etc.), and has partition type 0x12 ("Compaq diagnostics" in <tt>fdisk</tt>).

As opposed to a [[Hidden Protected Area]] Recovery partitions are ordinary partitions, accessible through the partition table. As they are ordinary partitions they are accessible by ordinary partitioning tools. They should be dealt with carefully.

Rescue and Recovery is a Windows-specific feature. If you intend to recover into Windows when you have an issue, it is important to follow the warnings here carefully. If you intend to run another operating system exclusively and never return to Windows, removing this partition is safe. If you remove it, you can still reinstall windows at a later time, provided you have created a Recovery set of discs (1CD + 1DVD or 5CDs required). Booting from the Recovery CD will restore the system to the factory state including the recovery partition.
</div>
|}
__TOC__
==Proper MBR==
{{WARN|Only tinker with the MBR and the Rescue and Recovery partition if you know what you're doing. Mistakes can leave the system unbootable and can make it very difficult to retrieve the data on the harddisk.}}

Consideration 6 of the Readme states:
<blockquote>"The Master Boot Record (MBR) must be configured properly for the Rescue and Recovery application to function properly. When possible, the Rescue and Recovery application attempts to ensure the proper configuration of the MBR. This can only occur if the Rescue and Recovery application is installed after other applications that requires the MBR."</blockquote>

Apparently, the MBR is not "configured properly" if LILO or GRUB have written it. The following is the case:
*The default bootloader seems to ignore the active bit and always boots the first partition instead
*The default bootloader contains code to catch a press of the appropriate button during bootup and launch the Rescue and Recovery application in that case
*Before launching the Rescue and Recovery application at system boot, the default bootloader changes the partition type of the Rescue and Recovery partiton to 0x0b, otherwise it changes it to 0x12 (to hide it from Windows)
*The Rescue and Recovery application assumes that the first partition contains Windows
*When booting from the Rescue and Recovery partition, it needs to have its type set (either by Thinkvantage or by GRUB) to 0x0b (FAT32) for the default bootloader to launch the Rescue and Recovery application.

Since neither LILO nor GRUB catch the press of the button (an undocumented mechanism anyway) it is not possible to launch the Rescue and Recovery application by pressing the appropriate button during system boot, once LILO or GRUB have altered the MBR for their boot procedure.

IBM provides a program to manage the Rescue and Recovery bootloader. It is located in {{path|C:\Program Files\IBM ThinkVantage\Common\BMGR}} or {{path|C:\Program Files\Common Files\Lenovo\BMGR}}. It can select the partition to boot, and also allows for rewriting the MBR if it was written by another bootloader. More information is needed about this program. Here is an example that restores the IBM MBR. It seems that it only extends the already installed MBR. Therefore you must have a valid Windows MBR installed if you want to boot into Windows. The GRUB MBR doesn't work here.

cd C:\Program Files\IBM ThinkVantage\Common\BMGR
bmgr32 /Fbootmgr.bin /v

Some more information about BMGR here, but it may be slightly out of date:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/SG247107.html (lookup BMGR32 in the Index)

Sometimes it is not enough to simply restore the IBM MBR if you want to boot into Windows. The Windows MBR might have been overwritten by another bootloader. In that case you should restore the Windows MBR using a Windows CD. More info can be found on http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse91/suselinux-adminguide/html/ch07s05.html

*On my T42p and T43p, BMGR32.EXE was in {{path|C:\IBMTOOLS\utils}}. What seemed to work best was to run it first with /Fbootmgr.bin reboot, and if that didn't fix R&R, run it again with the /B0 /M0 /OEM switches. Have a XP install CD ready so you can do a FIXMBR from the Recovery Console if the machine won't boot (happened to me several times).

*On my X32, BMGR32.EXE is also in {{path|C:\IBMTOOLS\utils}}. It works best with the /M2 switch to restore the R&R MBR:

cd \IBMTOOLS\utils
bmgr32 /Fbootmgr.bin /M2 /V

:/M0 also works, but /M2 restores it to factory state. As stated above, you must restore the MBR to the Windows XP MBR first before running bmgr32.exe.

:If you've run bmgr32.exe too many times, you might have to clear the sectors from sector 1 to sector 62 (sector 0 is the MBR). If you know what you are doing, the following Linux dd command can do it for you:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 seek=1 count=62

:This command is safe to run only when the first partition starts at sector 63, the 64th sector of the hard drive (probably true).

===Using Product Recovery to Restore the Windows MBR===
The Product Recovery CD/DVD-ROM erases your hard disk and restores it to its original factory state with Windows. The GRUB MBR can interfere with this. The symptom is that you try to recover, but the recovery process ends immediately, and the computer tries to boot with GRUB. The problem is that the one part of the disk that Product Recovery (version 5.6) does not overwrite is the MBR.

If this happens to you, first completely erase your hard disk using PC Doctor on the IBM Product Recovery CD-ROM:

* Insert Product Recovery Disk 1 (this procedure assumes version 5.6, circa 2002)
* Power up the computer, press F12, select ''CD-ROM Drive'' as the boot device
* After IBM Product Recovery boots, it will give you two choices:
** ''Full Recovery''. Presumably you already tried this and failed.
** ''System Utilities''. '''Select this'''.
* Select ''Run diagnostics''. The PC Doctor diagnostic program will start.
* In the menu along the top, choose ''Utility''.
* In this menu, choose ''Full Erase Hard Drive'' and confirm that you really want to erase. ''Full Erase'' works, but takes about two minutes per gigabyte. If you find that ''Quick Erase Hard Drive'' also works, please edit that fact into this document.

After ''Erase Hard Drive'' finishes, your hard drive has no MBR, so Product Recovery has no choice but to install a new one.

* Reboot, press F12, select ''CD-ROM Drive'' as the boot device
* After IBM Product Recovery boots, this time select ''Full Recovery''

===MBR written by GRUB===
The MBR written by GRUB can be used to launch the Rescue and Recovery application. However, if you leave the type of the Rescue and Recovery partition to 0x12 (Compaq diagnostics), trying to boot this partition will result in an error message "c000021a, Fatal System Error". To avoid that, and to make sure the recovery partition is always of the right type, add a line to change the partition type to 0x0b (FAT32) to the Rescue and Recovery partition's entry in your {{path|/boot/grub/menu.lst}}. Also, as we will be hiding the Rescue and Recovery partition from Windows (see below), we need to <tt>unhide</tt> the partition here to make sure it will be visible and bootable. So, assuming your Rescue and Recovery partition is the second partition, the GRUB entry would look like this:

title IBM Rescue and Recovery
root (hd0,1)
'''parttype (hd0,1) 0x0b'''
'''unhide (hd0,1)'''
chainloader +1

{{NOTE|Some people reported this not working (in particular, on a {{Z61m}} 9450-3HG). Version 4.0 of Rescue and Recovery uses an NTFS partition, so a partition type of 0x07 (HPFS/NTFS) may be needed.
}}
{{Todo|verify this note}}

You will find that while the above lets you launch the Rescue and Recovery application, trying to run the Hardware Diagnostics tool will fail, as it needs a "properly configured" (original) MBR. What happens is that to run the hardware diagnostics, the R&R software temporarily changes the "properly configured" MBR to boot a PC-DOCTOR disk image found on the Rescue and Recovery partition, then asks you to reboot. So all we need to do to get the Hardware Diagnostics back is add another entry to {{path|/boot/grub/menu.lst}}, that will load the PC-DOCTOR disk image. The entry is similar to the <tt>IBM Rescue and Recovery</tt> one above, with a different <tt>chainloader</tt> line:

title Hardware Diagnostics
root (hd0,1)
parttype (hd0,1) 0x0b
unhide (hd0,1)
'''chainloader /bootsect.dos'''

Finally, as mentioned previously, the Rescue and Recovery partition should be hidden from Windows. This is to prevent any modifications being done to it, as they may damage the Rescue and Recovery software. So, assuming that Windows is on the first partition, the Windows GRUB entry would look like this:

title Windows
root (hd0,0)
'''hide (hd0,1)'''
chainloader +1

===GRUB in a partition's boot sector===
A way to have your Access IBM button still functional on bootup, is to create a separate {{path|/boot}} partition, install GRUB to that partition and make it active. This will leave the MBR untouched.
{{NOTE|If the above finding is true that the MBR ignores the active bit, that partition has to be the first one. In most recent Linux distributions it is not easy to create /boot as first partition and shrink the Windows partition. In that case the Windows bootloader can be used to boot Windows and Linux, also preserving the Rescue and Recovery functionality. See below.}}
*In the BIOS, set the IBM Predesktop Area to 'Secure'.
*Boot your Linux distribution's installation CD.
*Follow the instructions and go through the regular installation process.
*Create a '''primary partition''' for /boot (the other stuff can go into the extended partitions) and when the time comes to install GRUB, make sure you install it into the boot sector of the boot partition.
*Set this boot partition as active.

===Using the Windows Bootloader to Boot Linux===
The NTLDR Windows bootloader can be configured to boot Linux in addition to Windows. The master boot record (MBR) is unchanged, so the ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery system boot functionality is preserved. This clever procedure was [http://gawrysiak.org/corvus/?p=4 originally applied] to Ubuntu Dapper Drake, and is generalized here.

0. Added warning: with this method, you cannot hibernate windows and boot anything else. The windows boot loader jumps on resuming windows before asking anything (and you can already verify this right now, whatever your current configuration is).

1. Boot Windows and make product recovery disks. You will see this step repeated throught this wiki for good reason. The recovery disks can refresh your hard disk to its original factory state, getting you out of the trouble you might make in the next step.

2. Shrink the Windows NTFS partition to the size you like. You will need a bootable CD that is capable of resizing NTFS partitions. I have done this before with Knoppix, but this time I used Partition Magic (US$70).

Leave the Rescue and Recovery partition (~5GB) at the end of the disk. Other authors claim that it ''must not'' be moved. I did move it, and it works fine. Still, in retrospect I agree that the end of the disk is the best place for your Rescue and Recovery partition.

3. Reboot. Push the {{ibmkey|ThinkVantage|#495988}} button during system boot, and verify that Rescue and Recovery still runs. Reboot into Windows to verify that the partition resize was successful.

4. Begin your Linux installation. Linux will see the Windows NTFS partition as /dev/sda1, and the Rescue and Recovery FAT32 partition as /dev/sda2. When the Linux installer asks you about GRUB, do not install GRUB in the MBR. Instead, install GRUB in the /boot partition (most likely /dev/sda3).

5. After the Linux installation is finished, reboot with a bootable Linux live CD. The "rescue mode" of your Linux installation CD #1 should work fine for this. Usually you start the rescue mode with the command,

linux rescue

Start the network if you plan to use FTP in step 7.

6. After you get a shell prompt, become root if necessary, and then write the first sector of the /boot partition (probably /dev/sda3) to a file using the dd command:

sudo -i # If necessary
cd /mnt/sysimage/boot # Or wherever your live CD mounts the /boot partition
dd if=/dev/sda3 of=grub.img bs=512 count=1

The resulting grub.img file should be 512 bytes long.

7. Transfer the grub.img file somewhere where you can read it from Windows. You can use removable media like a USB flash drive, or even FTP.

8. Reboot into Windows. Copy the grub.img file to c:\grub.img.

9. Make a backup copy of the c:\boot.ini NTLDR control file. c:\boot.ini is read-only and hidden, so you will have to tell Windows to show hidden files, and turn off the read-only property on c:\boot.ini.

10. Edit c:\boot.ini. Append the line,

c:\grub.img="Linux GRUB Bootloader"

So that Linux will boot by default, you may also want to change the default OS to c:\grub.img, and reduce the timeout to 5 seconds or so. For reference, here is my c:\boot.ini file for Windows XP:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=c:\grub.img
[operating systems]
c:\grub.img="Linux GRUB Bootloader"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetec

11. Reboot. Now the Windows boot menu should offer you a choice of "Linux GRUB Bootloader" or Windows XP. Choose "Linux GRUB Bootloader", and you will be taken to the GRUB boot menu, where you can select Linux, or even go back to the Windows boot menu.

12. When you need Rescue and Recovery, push the {{ibmkey|ThinkVantage|#495988}} button upon system boot. Since you have touched neither the MBR nor the Rescue and Recovery partition, Rescue and Recovery will work exactly the same as it did before you installed Linux.

==Newer versions of Rescue and Recovery==

Rescue and Recovery version 4 is installed on T61/R61.

The partition type is 0x27. By factory default, the R&R partition is the first partition on the disk. The filesystem used is NTFS. The preloaded Windows appear as the second partition, with the active bit set.

(_NOT_ on all T61s. Mine has version 4, but the R&R partition is the 2nd,
and its ID is 0x12. More work needed here....)

(The same here on R61 8919-CTO - R&R version 4 was second partition of type FAT32)

R&R version 4 bootloader seems to honor the active bit in the partition table. To install Linux while maintaining the R&R functionality is therefore rather straightforward:

* Shrink the second Windows partition – or remove it if not needed
* Add partitions for Linux (or other operating systems), one of them has to be a '''primary partition''' since the R&R bootloader cannot boot from an extended one
* Install GRUB on the boot sector of the newly added primary partition
* Remove the active bit from the Windows partition and activate the boot partition with GRUB

==Older versions of Rescue and Recovery==
Some Thinkpads (e.g., T23 and T30) do not come with a Recovery CD, but also do not support the [[Hidden Protected Area]]. These ThinkPads have an older version of Rescue and Recovery preloaded on the hard disk to implement the factory recovery function. Most of the comments above also apply to the older versions, with the following differences:
*The recovery partition type is 0x1c, hidden FAT32, LBA-mapped (or 0xc when unhidden).
*The boot manager program is in {{path|C:\IBMTOOLS\RECOVERY}} and only runs in a 16-bit DOS environment
{{Fixme|name of this boot manager needed}}
*The IBM Predesktop area runs atop of Windows 98 (command-line) instead of WinPE
*The ThinkPad A22p laptop does not appear to have a boot manager (that I could find). I was able to restore Rescue and Recovery functionality on such a laptop by using a tool called MBRWizard to copy the first four sectors from a working laptop to a non-working one.

== Recovery Boot Hangs ==
On an R61 I recently tried to restore XP via cd/dvd with a new hard drive in the machine which had fedora 9 installed with an encrypted partition. The boot cd/dvd would start booting, flash "inspecting machine configuration" or something similar, then hang on a blank screen. To check if your cd/dvd is actually okay or not, unplug the HD completely, in my case the cd/dvd booted fine after that. To "fix" this issue such that I could actually run restore, I booted fedora 9 from dvd, repartitioned the drive as unencrypted and vfat, after saving the new partition I was able to go back and boot the recovery cd/dvd. I'm not sure if you actually have to do exactly what I did to the drive or not but that's what I did and it worked so maybe some smaller subset would be sufficient.

== Recovery from hard drive ==

If you are able to load Rescue and Recovery either using F11, or the installed grub, or SGD (Super Grub Disk) (download at http://www.supergrubdisk.org/ and use the option Boot Window fron 2nd partition), you might restore the system to the factory preload.

If you install GRUB in the MBR, the recover will start but it won't replace the MBR. In this case GRUB is started, but without other file it get stuck with error 22. To restore the MBR one could either try to use rnr31_rrd.exe (XP) or rnr40_rrd.ext (Vista) if you have a floppy disk. If you have only a cd on rapidshare there are iso image (google for instance using rnr31_rrd_fixed.iso). I tried but without success. Even if the machine does not boot, somehow the recovery takes place. Using SGD as boot loader the recovery can proceed, but so far I got an unstable machine. In particular the recovery cd cannot be produced anymore...

==External links ==
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4Q2QAK IBM ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery].
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/thinkvantage_en/tvtrnr3_1027en.txt Rescue and Recovery Readme]
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-46088 Accessing the Recovery Partition if Linux has been installed and the F11 button no longer works]
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-54483 IBM Rescue and Recovery repair diskette]
* [http://www.bb242.de/2007/11/22/grub-bootable-auf-usb-stick/ How to reinstall grub from USB, if grub is corrupted after R&R update (German)]

==Models featuring this technology==
* ThinkPad {{T23}}, {{T30}} (R&R 2.0)
* ThinkPad {{T42}}
* ThinkPad {{T43}}, {{T43p}}
* ThinkPad {{T60}}, {{T60p}}
* ThinkPad {{T61}}, {{T61p}}
* ThinkPad {{R52}}
* ThinkPad {{R61}} (R&R version 4)
* ThinkPad {{Z60m}}
* Thinkpad {{Z61m}}
* Thinkpad {{X61}}, {{X32}}

[[Category:Glossary]]

Rescue and Recovery

2011-01-31T03:40:27Z

Voominc: /* Using Product Recovery to Restore the Windows MBR */

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;" | __NOTOC__
|style="vertical-align:top" |
<div style="margin: 0; margin-right:10px; border: 1px solid #dfdfdf; padding: 0em 1em 1em 1em; background-color:#F8F8FF; align:right;">
Rescue and Recovery version 3.0 consists of a bootable partition containing various system recovery tools, including full recovery of the preinstalled Windows XP partition. It can be activated by pressing the {{ibmkey|ThinkPad|#494949}}, {{ibmkey|Access IBM|#495988}} or {{ibmkey|ThinkVantage|#495988}} [[ThinkPad Button|Button]] during system boot. It contains a FAT filesystem (sometimes labeled "IBM_SERVICE", "SERVICEV001", etc.), and has partition type 0x12 ("Compaq diagnostics" in <tt>fdisk</tt>).

As opposed to a [[Hidden Protected Area]] Recovery partitions are ordinary partitions, accessible through the partition table. As they are ordinary partitions they are accessible by ordinary partitioning tools. They should be dealt with carefully.

Rescue and Recovery is a Windows-specific feature. If you intend to recover into Windows when you have an issue, it is important to follow the warnings here carefully. If you intend to run another operating system exclusively and never return to Windows, removing this partition is safe. If you remove it, you can still reinstall windows at a later time, provided you have created a Recovery set of discs (1CD + 1DVD or 5CDs required). Booting from the Recovery CD will restore the system to the factory state including the recovery partition.
</div>
|}

==Proper MBR==
{{WARN|Only tinker with the MBR and the Rescue and Recovery partition if you know what you're doing. Mistakes can leave the system unbootable and can make it very difficult to retrieve the data on the harddisk.}}

Consideration 6 of the Readme states:
<blockquote>"The Master Boot Record (MBR) must be configured properly for the Rescue and Recovery application to function properly. When possible, the Rescue and Recovery application attempts to ensure the proper configuration of the MBR. This can only occur if the Rescue and Recovery application is installed after other applications that requires the MBR."</blockquote>

Apparently, the MBR is not "configured properly" if LILO or GRUB have written it. The following is the case:
*The default bootloader seems to ignore the active bit and always boots the first partition instead
*The default bootloader contains code to catch a press of the appropriate button during bootup and launch the Rescue and Recovery application in that case
*Before launching the Rescue and Recovery application at system boot, the default bootloader changes the partition type of the Rescue and Recovery partiton to 0x0b, otherwise it changes it to 0x12 (to hide it from Windows)
*The Rescue and Recovery application assumes that the first partition contains Windows
*When booting from the Rescue and Recovery partition, it needs to have its type set (either by Thinkvantage or by GRUB) to 0x0b (FAT32) for the default bootloader to launch the Rescue and Recovery application.

Since neither LILO nor GRUB catch the press of the button (an undocumented mechanism anyway) it is not possible to launch the Rescue and Recovery application by pressing the appropriate button during system boot, once LILO or GRUB have altered the MBR for their boot procedure.

IBM provides a program to manage the Rescue and Recovery bootloader. It is located in {{path|C:\Program Files\IBM ThinkVantage\Common\BMGR}} or {{path|C:\Program Files\Common Files\Lenovo\BMGR}}. It can select the partition to boot, and also allows for rewriting the MBR if it was written by another bootloader. More information is needed about this program. Here is an example that restores the IBM MBR. It seems that it only extends the already installed MBR. Therefore you must have a valid Windows MBR installed if you want to boot into Windows. The GRUB MBR doesn't work here.

cd C:\Program Files\IBM ThinkVantage\Common\BMGR
bmgr32 /Fbootmgr.bin /v

Some more information about BMGR here, but it may be slightly out of date:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/SG247107.html (lookup BMGR32 in the Index)

Sometimes it is not enough to simply restore the IBM MBR if you want to boot into Windows. The Windows MBR might have been overwritten by another bootloader. In that case you should restore the Windows MBR using a Windows CD. More info can be found on http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse91/suselinux-adminguide/html/ch07s05.html

*On my T42p and T43p, BMGR32.EXE was in {{path|C:\IBMTOOLS\utils}}. What seemed to work best was to run it first with /Fbootmgr.bin reboot, and if that didn't fix R&R, run it again with the /B0 /M0 /OEM switches. Have a XP install CD ready so you can do a FIXMBR from the Recovery Console if the machine won't boot (happened to me several times).

*On my X32, BMGR32.EXE is also in {{path|C:\IBMTOOLS\utils}}. It works best with the /M2 switch to restore the R&R MBR:

cd \IBMTOOLS\utils
bmgr32 /Fbootmgr.bin /M2 /V

:/M0 also works, but /M2 restores it to factory state. As stated above, you must restore the MBR to the Windows XP MBR first before running bmgr32.exe.

:If you've run bmgr32.exe too many times, you might have to clear the sectors from sector 1 to sector 62 (sector 0 is the MBR). If you know what you are doing, the following Linux dd command can do it for you:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 seek=1 count=62

:This command is safe to run only when the first partition starts at sector 63, the 64th sector of the hard drive (probably true).

===Using Product Recovery to Restore the Windows MBR===
The Product Recovery CD/DVD-ROM erases your hard disk and restores it to its original factory state with Windows. The GRUB MBR can interfere with this. The symptom is that you try to recover, but the recovery process ends immediately, and the computer tries to boot with GRUB. The problem is that the one part of the disk that Product Recovery (version 5.6) does not overwrite is the MBR.

If this happens to you, first completely erase your hard disk using PC Doctor on the IBM Product Recovery CD-ROM:

* Insert Product Recovery Disk 1 (this procedure assumes version 5.6, circa 2002)
* Power up the computer, press F12, select ''CD-ROM Drive'' as the boot device
* After IBM Product Recovery boots, it will give you two choices:
** ''Full Recovery''. Presumably you already tried this and failed.
** ''System Utilities''. '''Select this'''.
* Select ''Run diagnostics''. The PC Doctor diagnostic program will start.
* In the menu along the top, choose ''Utility''.
* In this menu, choose ''Full Erase Hard Drive'' and confirm that you really want to erase. ''Full Erase'' works, but takes about two minutes per gigabyte. If you find that ''Quick Erase Hard Drive'' also works, please edit that fact into this document.

After ''Erase Hard Drive'' finishes, your hard drive has no MBR, so Product Recovery has no choice but to install a new one.

* Reboot, press F12, select ''CD-ROM Drive'' as the boot device
* After IBM Product Recovery boots, this time select ''Full Recovery''

===MBR written by GRUB===
The MBR written by GRUB can be used to launch the Rescue and Recovery application. However, if you leave the type of the Rescue and Recovery partition to 0x12 (Compaq diagnostics), trying to boot this partition will result in an error message "c000021a, Fatal System Error". To avoid that, and to make sure the recovery partition is always of the right type, add a line to change the partition type to 0x0b (FAT32) to the Rescue and Recovery partition's entry in your {{path|/boot/grub/menu.lst}}. Also, as we will be hiding the Rescue and Recovery partition from Windows (see below), we need to <tt>unhide</tt> the partition here to make sure it will be visible and bootable. So, assuming your Rescue and Recovery partition is the second partition, the GRUB entry would look like this:

title IBM Rescue and Recovery
root (hd0,1)
'''parttype (hd0,1) 0x0b'''
'''unhide (hd0,1)'''
chainloader +1

{{NOTE|Some people reported this not working (in particular, on a {{Z61m}} 9450-3HG). Version 4.0 of Rescue and Recovery uses an NTFS partition, so a partition type of 0x07 (HPFS/NTFS) may be needed.
}}
{{Todo|verify this note}}

You will find that while the above lets you launch the Rescue and Recovery application, trying to run the Hardware Diagnostics tool will fail, as it needs a "properly configured" (original) MBR. What happens is that to run the hardware diagnostics, the R&R software temporarily changes the "properly configured" MBR to boot a PC-DOCTOR disk image found on the Rescue and Recovery partition, then asks you to reboot. So all we need to do to get the Hardware Diagnostics back is add another entry to {{path|/boot/grub/menu.lst}}, that will load the PC-DOCTOR disk image. The entry is similar to the <tt>IBM Rescue and Recovery</tt> one above, with a different <tt>chainloader</tt> line:

title Hardware Diagnostics
root (hd0,1)
parttype (hd0,1) 0x0b
unhide (hd0,1)
'''chainloader /bootsect.dos'''

Finally, as mentioned previously, the Rescue and Recovery partition should be hidden from Windows. This is to prevent any modifications being done to it, as they may damage the Rescue and Recovery software. So, assuming that Windows is on the first partition, the Windows GRUB entry would look like this:

title Windows
root (hd0,0)
'''hide (hd0,1)'''
chainloader +1

===GRUB in a partition's boot sector===
A way to have your Access IBM button still functional on bootup, is to create a separate {{path|/boot}} partition, install GRUB to that partition and make it active. This will leave the MBR untouched.
{{NOTE|If the above finding is true that the MBR ignores the active bit, that partition has to be the first one. In most recent Linux distributions it is not easy to create /boot as first partition and shrink the Windows partition. In that case the Windows bootloader can be used to boot Windows and Linux, also preserving the Rescue and Recovery functionality. See below.}}
*In the BIOS, set the IBM Predesktop Area to 'Secure'.
*Boot your Linux distribution's installation CD.
*Follow the instructions and go through the regular installation process.
*Create a '''primary partition''' for /boot (the other stuff can go into the extended partitions) and when the time comes to install GRUB, make sure you install it into the boot sector of the boot partition.
*Set this boot partition as active.

===Using the Windows Bootloader to Boot Linux===
The NTLDR Windows bootloader can be configured to boot Linux in addition to Windows. The master boot record (MBR) is unchanged, so the ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery system boot functionality is preserved. This clever procedure was [http://gawrysiak.org/corvus/?p=4 originally applied] to Ubuntu Dapper Drake, and is generalized here.

0. Added warning: with this method, you cannot hibernate windows and boot anything else. The windows boot loader jumps on resuming windows before asking anything (and you can already verify this right now, whatever your current configuration is).

1. Boot Windows and make product recovery disks. You will see this step repeated throught this wiki for good reason. The recovery disks can refresh your hard disk to its original factory state, getting you out of the trouble you might make in the next step.

2. Shrink the Windows NTFS partition to the size you like. You will need a bootable CD that is capable of resizing NTFS partitions. I have done this before with Knoppix, but this time I used Partition Magic (US$70).

Leave the Rescue and Recovery partition (~5GB) at the end of the disk. Other authors claim that it ''must not'' be moved. I did move it, and it works fine. Still, in retrospect I agree that the end of the disk is the best place for your Rescue and Recovery partition.

3. Reboot. Push the {{ibmkey|ThinkVantage|#495988}} button during system boot, and verify that Rescue and Recovery still runs. Reboot into Windows to verify that the partition resize was successful.

4. Begin your Linux installation. Linux will see the Windows NTFS partition as /dev/sda1, and the Rescue and Recovery FAT32 partition as /dev/sda2. When the Linux installer asks you about GRUB, do not install GRUB in the MBR. Instead, install GRUB in the /boot partition (most likely /dev/sda3).

5. After the Linux installation is finished, reboot with a bootable Linux live CD. The "rescue mode" of your Linux installation CD #1 should work fine for this. Usually you start the rescue mode with the command,

linux rescue

Start the network if you plan to use FTP in step 7.

6. After you get a shell prompt, become root if necessary, and then write the first sector of the /boot partition (probably /dev/sda3) to a file using the dd command:

sudo -i # If necessary
cd /mnt/sysimage/boot # Or wherever your live CD mounts the /boot partition
dd if=/dev/sda3 of=grub.img bs=512 count=1

The resulting grub.img file should be 512 bytes long.

7. Transfer the grub.img file somewhere where you can read it from Windows. You can use removable media like a USB flash drive, or even FTP.

8. Reboot into Windows. Copy the grub.img file to c:\grub.img.

9. Make a backup copy of the c:\boot.ini NTLDR control file. c:\boot.ini is read-only and hidden, so you will have to tell Windows to show hidden files, and turn off the read-only property on c:\boot.ini.

10. Edit c:\boot.ini. Append the line,

c:\grub.img="Linux GRUB Bootloader"

So that Linux will boot by default, you may also want to change the default OS to c:\grub.img, and reduce the timeout to 5 seconds or so. For reference, here is my c:\boot.ini file for Windows XP:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=c:\grub.img
[operating systems]
c:\grub.img="Linux GRUB Bootloader"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetec

11. Reboot. Now the Windows boot menu should offer you a choice of "Linux GRUB Bootloader" or Windows XP. Choose "Linux GRUB Bootloader", and you will be taken to the GRUB boot menu, where you can select Linux, or even go back to the Windows boot menu.

12. When you need Rescue and Recovery, push the {{ibmkey|ThinkVantage|#495988}} button upon system boot. Since you have touched neither the MBR nor the Rescue and Recovery partition, Rescue and Recovery will work exactly the same as it did before you installed Linux.

==Newer versions of Rescue and Recovery==

Rescue and Recovery version 4 is installed on T61/R61.

The partition type is 0x27. By factory default, the R&R partition is the first partition on the disk. The filesystem used is NTFS. The preloaded Windows appear as the second partition, with the active bit set.

(_NOT_ on all T61s. Mine has version 4, but the R&R partition is the 2nd,
and its ID is 0x12. More work needed here....)

(The same here on R61 8919-CTO - R&R version 4 was second partition of type FAT32)

R&R version 4 bootloader seems to honor the active bit in the partition table. To install Linux while maintaining the R&R functionality is therefore rather straightforward:

* Shrink the second Windows partition – or remove it if not needed
* Add partitions for Linux (or other operating systems), one of them has to be a '''primary partition''' since the R&R bootloader cannot boot from an extended one
* Install GRUB on the boot sector of the newly added primary partition
* Remove the active bit from the Windows partition and activate the boot partition with GRUB

==Older versions of Rescue and Recovery==
Some Thinkpads (e.g., T23 and T30) do not come with a Recovery CD, but also do not support the [[Hidden Protected Area]]. These ThinkPads have an older version of Rescue and Recovery preloaded on the hard disk to implement the factory recovery function. Most of the comments above also apply to the older versions, with the following differences:
*The recovery partition type is 0x1c, hidden FAT32, LBA-mapped (or 0xc when unhidden).
*The boot manager program is in {{path|C:\IBMTOOLS\RECOVERY}} and only runs in a 16-bit DOS environment
{{Fixme|name of this boot manager needed}}
*The IBM Predesktop area runs atop of Windows 98 (command-line) instead of WinPE
*The ThinkPad A22p laptop does not appear to have a boot manager (that I could find). I was able to restore Rescue and Recovery functionality on such a laptop by using a tool called MBRWizard to copy the first four sectors from a working laptop to a non-working one.

== Recovery Boot Hangs ==
On an R61 I recently tried to restore XP via cd/dvd with a new hard drive in the machine which had fedora 9 installed with an encrypted partition. The boot cd/dvd would start booting, flash "inspecting machine configuration" or something similar, then hang on a blank screen. To check if your cd/dvd is actually okay or not, unplug the HD completely, in my case the cd/dvd booted fine after that. To "fix" this issue such that I could actually run restore, I booted fedora 9 from dvd, repartitioned the drive as unencrypted and vfat, after saving the new partition I was able to go back and boot the recovery cd/dvd. I'm not sure if you actually have to do exactly what I did to the drive or not but that's what I did and it worked so maybe some smaller subset would be sufficient.

== Recovery from hard drive ==

If you are able to load Rescue and Recovery either using F11, or the installed grub, or SGD (Super Grub Disk) (download at http://www.supergrubdisk.org/ and use the option Boot Window fron 2nd partition), you might restore the system to the factory preload.

If you install GRUB in the MBR, the recover will start but it won't replace the MBR. In this case GRUB is started, but without other file it get stuck with error 22. To restore the MBR one could either try to use rnr31_rrd.exe (XP) or rnr40_rrd.ext (Vista) if you have a floppy disk. If you have only a cd on rapidshare there are iso image (google for instance using rnr31_rrd_fixed.iso). I tried but without success. Even if the machine does not boot, somehow the recovery takes place. Using SGD as boot loader the recovery can proceed, but so far I got an unstable machine. In particular the recovery cd cannot be produced anymore...

==External links ==
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4Q2QAK IBM ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery].
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/thinkvantage_en/tvtrnr3_1027en.txt Rescue and Recovery Readme]
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-46088 Accessing the Recovery Partition if Linux has been installed and the F11 button no longer works]
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-54483 IBM Rescue and Recovery repair diskette]
* [http://www.bb242.de/2007/11/22/grub-bootable-auf-usb-stick/ How to reinstall grub from USB, if grub is corrupted after R&R update (German)]

==Models featuring this technology==
* ThinkPad {{T23}}, {{T30}} (R&R 2.0)
* ThinkPad {{T42}}
* ThinkPad {{T43}}, {{T43p}}
* ThinkPad {{T60}}, {{T60p}}
* ThinkPad {{T61}}, {{T61p}}
* ThinkPad {{R52}}
* ThinkPad {{R61}} (R&R version 4)
* ThinkPad {{Z60m}}
* Thinkpad {{Z61m}}
* Thinkpad {{X61}}, {{X32}}

[[Category:Glossary]]

Rescue and Recovery

2011-01-31T03:38:36Z

Voominc: How to overwrite the MBR using the IBM Product Recovery CD-ROM

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;" | __NOTOC__
|style="vertical-align:top" |
<div style="margin: 0; margin-right:10px; border: 1px solid #dfdfdf; padding: 0em 1em 1em 1em; background-color:#F8F8FF; align:right;">
Rescue and Recovery version 3.0 consists of a bootable partition containing various system recovery tools, including full recovery of the preinstalled Windows XP partition. It can be activated by pressing the {{ibmkey|ThinkPad|#494949}}, {{ibmkey|Access IBM|#495988}} or {{ibmkey|ThinkVantage|#495988}} [[ThinkPad Button|Button]] during system boot. It contains a FAT filesystem (sometimes labeled "IBM_SERVICE", "SERVICEV001", etc.), and has partition type 0x12 ("Compaq diagnostics" in <tt>fdisk</tt>).

As opposed to a [[Hidden Protected Area]] Recovery partitions are ordinary partitions, accessible through the partition table. As they are ordinary partitions they are accessible by ordinary partitioning tools. They should be dealt with carefully.

Rescue and Recovery is a Windows-specific feature. If you intend to recover into Windows when you have an issue, it is important to follow the warnings here carefully. If you intend to run another operating system exclusively and never return to Windows, removing this partition is safe. If you remove it, you can still reinstall windows at a later time, provided you have created a Recovery set of discs (1CD + 1DVD or 5CDs required). Booting from the Recovery CD will restore the system to the factory state including the recovery partition.
</div>
|}

==Proper MBR==
{{WARN|Only tinker with the MBR and the Rescue and Recovery partition if you know what you're doing. Mistakes can leave the system unbootable and can make it very difficult to retrieve the data on the harddisk.}}

Consideration 6 of the Readme states:
<blockquote>"The Master Boot Record (MBR) must be configured properly for the Rescue and Recovery application to function properly. When possible, the Rescue and Recovery application attempts to ensure the proper configuration of the MBR. This can only occur if the Rescue and Recovery application is installed after other applications that requires the MBR."</blockquote>

Apparently, the MBR is not "configured properly" if LILO or GRUB have written it. The following is the case:
*The default bootloader seems to ignore the active bit and always boots the first partition instead
*The default bootloader contains code to catch a press of the appropriate button during bootup and launch the Rescue and Recovery application in that case
*Before launching the Rescue and Recovery application at system boot, the default bootloader changes the partition type of the Rescue and Recovery partiton to 0x0b, otherwise it changes it to 0x12 (to hide it from Windows)
*The Rescue and Recovery application assumes that the first partition contains Windows
*When booting from the Rescue and Recovery partition, it needs to have its type set (either by Thinkvantage or by GRUB) to 0x0b (FAT32) for the default bootloader to launch the Rescue and Recovery application.

Since neither LILO nor GRUB catch the press of the button (an undocumented mechanism anyway) it is not possible to launch the Rescue and Recovery application by pressing the appropriate button during system boot, once LILO or GRUB have altered the MBR for their boot procedure.

IBM provides a program to manage the Rescue and Recovery bootloader. It is located in {{path|C:\Program Files\IBM ThinkVantage\Common\BMGR}} or {{path|C:\Program Files\Common Files\Lenovo\BMGR}}. It can select the partition to boot, and also allows for rewriting the MBR if it was written by another bootloader. More information is needed about this program. Here is an example that restores the IBM MBR. It seems that it only extends the already installed MBR. Therefore you must have a valid Windows MBR installed if you want to boot into Windows. The GRUB MBR doesn't work here.

cd C:\Program Files\IBM ThinkVantage\Common\BMGR
bmgr32 /Fbootmgr.bin /v

Some more information about BMGR here, but it may be slightly out of date:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/SG247107.html (lookup BMGR32 in the Index)

Sometimes it is not enough to simply restore the IBM MBR if you want to boot into Windows. The Windows MBR might have been overwritten by another bootloader. In that case you should restore the Windows MBR using a Windows CD. More info can be found on http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse91/suselinux-adminguide/html/ch07s05.html

*On my T42p and T43p, BMGR32.EXE was in {{path|C:\IBMTOOLS\utils}}. What seemed to work best was to run it first with /Fbootmgr.bin reboot, and if that didn't fix R&R, run it again with the /B0 /M0 /OEM switches. Have a XP install CD ready so you can do a FIXMBR from the Recovery Console if the machine won't boot (happened to me several times).

*On my X32, BMGR32.EXE is also in {{path|C:\IBMTOOLS\utils}}. It works best with the /M2 switch to restore the R&R MBR:

cd \IBMTOOLS\utils
bmgr32 /Fbootmgr.bin /M2 /V

:/M0 also works, but /M2 restores it to factory state. As stated above, you must restore the MBR to the Windows XP MBR first before running bmgr32.exe.

:If you've run bmgr32.exe too many times, you might have to clear the sectors from sector 1 to sector 62 (sector 0 is the MBR). If you know what you are doing, the following Linux dd command can do it for you:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 seek=1 count=62

:This command is safe to run only when the first partition starts at sector 63, the 64th sector of the hard drive (probably true).

===Using Product Recovery to Restore the Windows MBR===
The Product Recovery CD/DVD-ROM erases your hard disk and restores it to its original factory state with Windows. The GRUB MBR can interfere with this. The symptom is that you try to recover, but the recovery process ends immediately, and the computer tries to boot with GRUB. The problem is that the one part of the disk that Product Recovery (version 5.6) does not overwrite is the MBR.

If this happens to you, first completely erase your hard disk using PC Doctor on the IBM Product Recovery CD-ROM:

* Insert Product Recovery Disk 1 (this procedure assumes version 5.6, circa 2002)
* Power up the computer, press F12, select ''CD-ROM Drive'' as the boot device
* After IBM Product Recovery boots, it will give you two choices:
** ''Full Recovery''. Presumably you already tried this and failed.
** ''System Utilities''. '''Select this'''.
* Select ''Run diagnostics''. The PC Doctor diagnostic program will start.
* In the menu along the top, choose ''Utility''.
* In this menu, choose ''Full Erase Hard Drive'' and confirm that you really want to erase. ''Full Erase'' works, but takes about two minutes per gigabyte. If you find that ''Quick Erase Hard Drive'' also works, please edit that fact into this document.

After ''Erase Hard Drive'' finishes, your hard drive has no MBR, so Product Recovery has no choice but to install a new one.

* Reboot, press F12, select ''CD-ROM Drive'' as the boot device
* After IBM Product Recovery boots, this time select ''Full Recovery''.

===MBR written by GRUB===
The MBR written by GRUB can be used to launch the Rescue and Recovery application. However, if you leave the type of the Rescue and Recovery partition to 0x12 (Compaq diagnostics), trying to boot this partition will result in an error message "c000021a, Fatal System Error". To avoid that, and to make sure the recovery partition is always of the right type, add a line to change the partition type to 0x0b (FAT32) to the Rescue and Recovery partition's entry in your {{path|/boot/grub/menu.lst}}. Also, as we will be hiding the Rescue and Recovery partition from Windows (see below), we need to <tt>unhide</tt> the partition here to make sure it will be visible and bootable. So, assuming your Rescue and Recovery partition is the second partition, the GRUB entry would look like this:

title IBM Rescue and Recovery
root (hd0,1)
'''parttype (hd0,1) 0x0b'''
'''unhide (hd0,1)'''
chainloader +1

{{NOTE|Some people reported this not working (in particular, on a {{Z61m}} 9450-3HG). Version 4.0 of Rescue and Recovery uses an NTFS partition, so a partition type of 0x07 (HPFS/NTFS) may be needed.
}}
{{Todo|verify this note}}

You will find that while the above lets you launch the Rescue and Recovery application, trying to run the Hardware Diagnostics tool will fail, as it needs a "properly configured" (original) MBR. What happens is that to run the hardware diagnostics, the R&R software temporarily changes the "properly configured" MBR to boot a PC-DOCTOR disk image found on the Rescue and Recovery partition, then asks you to reboot. So all we need to do to get the Hardware Diagnostics back is add another entry to {{path|/boot/grub/menu.lst}}, that will load the PC-DOCTOR disk image. The entry is similar to the <tt>IBM Rescue and Recovery</tt> one above, with a different <tt>chainloader</tt> line:

title Hardware Diagnostics
root (hd0,1)
parttype (hd0,1) 0x0b
unhide (hd0,1)
'''chainloader /bootsect.dos'''

Finally, as mentioned previously, the Rescue and Recovery partition should be hidden from Windows. This is to prevent any modifications being done to it, as they may damage the Rescue and Recovery software. So, assuming that Windows is on the first partition, the Windows GRUB entry would look like this:

title Windows
root (hd0,0)
'''hide (hd0,1)'''
chainloader +1

===GRUB in a partition's boot sector===
A way to have your Access IBM button still functional on bootup, is to create a separate {{path|/boot}} partition, install GRUB to that partition and make it active. This will leave the MBR untouched.
{{NOTE|If the above finding is true that the MBR ignores the active bit, that partition has to be the first one. In most recent Linux distributions it is not easy to create /boot as first partition and shrink the Windows partition. In that case the Windows bootloader can be used to boot Windows and Linux, also preserving the Rescue and Recovery functionality. See below.}}
*In the BIOS, set the IBM Predesktop Area to 'Secure'.
*Boot your Linux distribution's installation CD.
*Follow the instructions and go through the regular installation process.
*Create a '''primary partition''' for /boot (the other stuff can go into the extended partitions) and when the time comes to install GRUB, make sure you install it into the boot sector of the boot partition.
*Set this boot partition as active.

===Using the Windows Bootloader to Boot Linux===
The NTLDR Windows bootloader can be configured to boot Linux in addition to Windows. The master boot record (MBR) is unchanged, so the ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery system boot functionality is preserved. This clever procedure was [http://gawrysiak.org/corvus/?p=4 originally applied] to Ubuntu Dapper Drake, and is generalized here.

0. Added warning: with this method, you cannot hibernate windows and boot anything else. The windows boot loader jumps on resuming windows before asking anything (and you can already verify this right now, whatever your current configuration is).

1. Boot Windows and make product recovery disks. You will see this step repeated throught this wiki for good reason. The recovery disks can refresh your hard disk to its original factory state, getting you out of the trouble you might make in the next step.

2. Shrink the Windows NTFS partition to the size you like. You will need a bootable CD that is capable of resizing NTFS partitions. I have done this before with Knoppix, but this time I used Partition Magic (US$70).

Leave the Rescue and Recovery partition (~5GB) at the end of the disk. Other authors claim that it ''must not'' be moved. I did move it, and it works fine. Still, in retrospect I agree that the end of the disk is the best place for your Rescue and Recovery partition.

3. Reboot. Push the {{ibmkey|ThinkVantage|#495988}} button during system boot, and verify that Rescue and Recovery still runs. Reboot into Windows to verify that the partition resize was successful.

4. Begin your Linux installation. Linux will see the Windows NTFS partition as /dev/sda1, and the Rescue and Recovery FAT32 partition as /dev/sda2. When the Linux installer asks you about GRUB, do not install GRUB in the MBR. Instead, install GRUB in the /boot partition (most likely /dev/sda3).

5. After the Linux installation is finished, reboot with a bootable Linux live CD. The "rescue mode" of your Linux installation CD #1 should work fine for this. Usually you start the rescue mode with the command,

linux rescue

Start the network if you plan to use FTP in step 7.

6. After you get a shell prompt, become root if necessary, and then write the first sector of the /boot partition (probably /dev/sda3) to a file using the dd command:

sudo -i # If necessary
cd /mnt/sysimage/boot # Or wherever your live CD mounts the /boot partition
dd if=/dev/sda3 of=grub.img bs=512 count=1

The resulting grub.img file should be 512 bytes long.

7. Transfer the grub.img file somewhere where you can read it from Windows. You can use removable media like a USB flash drive, or even FTP.

8. Reboot into Windows. Copy the grub.img file to c:\grub.img.

9. Make a backup copy of the c:\boot.ini NTLDR control file. c:\boot.ini is read-only and hidden, so you will have to tell Windows to show hidden files, and turn off the read-only property on c:\boot.ini.

10. Edit c:\boot.ini. Append the line,

c:\grub.img="Linux GRUB Bootloader"

So that Linux will boot by default, you may also want to change the default OS to c:\grub.img, and reduce the timeout to 5 seconds or so. For reference, here is my c:\boot.ini file for Windows XP:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=c:\grub.img
[operating systems]
c:\grub.img="Linux GRUB Bootloader"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetec

11. Reboot. Now the Windows boot menu should offer you a choice of "Linux GRUB Bootloader" or Windows XP. Choose "Linux GRUB Bootloader", and you will be taken to the GRUB boot menu, where you can select Linux, or even go back to the Windows boot menu.

12. When you need Rescue and Recovery, push the {{ibmkey|ThinkVantage|#495988}} button upon system boot. Since you have touched neither the MBR nor the Rescue and Recovery partition, Rescue and Recovery will work exactly the same as it did before you installed Linux.

==Newer versions of Rescue and Recovery==

Rescue and Recovery version 4 is installed on T61/R61.

The partition type is 0x27. By factory default, the R&R partition is the first partition on the disk. The filesystem used is NTFS. The preloaded Windows appear as the second partition, with the active bit set.

(_NOT_ on all T61s. Mine has version 4, but the R&R partition is the 2nd,
and its ID is 0x12. More work needed here....)

(The same here on R61 8919-CTO - R&R version 4 was second partition of type FAT32)

R&R version 4 bootloader seems to honor the active bit in the partition table. To install Linux while maintaining the R&R functionality is therefore rather straightforward:

* Shrink the second Windows partition – or remove it if not needed
* Add partitions for Linux (or other operating systems), one of them has to be a '''primary partition''' since the R&R bootloader cannot boot from an extended one
* Install GRUB on the boot sector of the newly added primary partition
* Remove the active bit from the Windows partition and activate the boot partition with GRUB

==Older versions of Rescue and Recovery==
Some Thinkpads (e.g., T23 and T30) do not come with a Recovery CD, but also do not support the [[Hidden Protected Area]]. These ThinkPads have an older version of Rescue and Recovery preloaded on the hard disk to implement the factory recovery function. Most of the comments above also apply to the older versions, with the following differences:
*The recovery partition type is 0x1c, hidden FAT32, LBA-mapped (or 0xc when unhidden).
*The boot manager program is in {{path|C:\IBMTOOLS\RECOVERY}} and only runs in a 16-bit DOS environment
{{Fixme|name of this boot manager needed}}
*The IBM Predesktop area runs atop of Windows 98 (command-line) instead of WinPE
*The ThinkPad A22p laptop does not appear to have a boot manager (that I could find). I was able to restore Rescue and Recovery functionality on such a laptop by using a tool called MBRWizard to copy the first four sectors from a working laptop to a non-working one.

== Recovery Boot Hangs ==
On an R61 I recently tried to restore XP via cd/dvd with a new hard drive in the machine which had fedora 9 installed with an encrypted partition. The boot cd/dvd would start booting, flash "inspecting machine configuration" or something similar, then hang on a blank screen. To check if your cd/dvd is actually okay or not, unplug the HD completely, in my case the cd/dvd booted fine after that. To "fix" this issue such that I could actually run restore, I booted fedora 9 from dvd, repartitioned the drive as unencrypted and vfat, after saving the new partition I was able to go back and boot the recovery cd/dvd. I'm not sure if you actually have to do exactly what I did to the drive or not but that's what I did and it worked so maybe some smaller subset would be sufficient.

== Recovery from hard drive ==

If you are able to load Rescue and Recovery either using F11, or the installed grub, or SGD (Super Grub Disk) (download at http://www.supergrubdisk.org/ and use the option Boot Window fron 2nd partition), you might restore the system to the factory preload.

If you install GRUB in the MBR, the recover will start but it won't replace the MBR. In this case GRUB is started, but without other file it get stuck with error 22. To restore the MBR one could either try to use rnr31_rrd.exe (XP) or rnr40_rrd.ext (Vista) if you have a floppy disk. If you have only a cd on rapidshare there are iso image (google for instance using rnr31_rrd_fixed.iso). I tried but without success. Even if the machine does not boot, somehow the recovery takes place. Using SGD as boot loader the recovery can proceed, but so far I got an unstable machine. In particular the recovery cd cannot be produced anymore...

==External links ==
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4Q2QAK IBM ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery].
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/thinkvantage_en/tvtrnr3_1027en.txt Rescue and Recovery Readme]
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-46088 Accessing the Recovery Partition if Linux has been installed and the F11 button no longer works]
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-54483 IBM Rescue and Recovery repair diskette]
* [http://www.bb242.de/2007/11/22/grub-bootable-auf-usb-stick/ How to reinstall grub from USB, if grub is corrupted after R&R update (German)]

==Models featuring this technology==
* ThinkPad {{T23}}, {{T30}} (R&R 2.0)
* ThinkPad {{T42}}
* ThinkPad {{T43}}, {{T43p}}
* ThinkPad {{T60}}, {{T60p}}
* ThinkPad {{T61}}, {{T61p}}
* ThinkPad {{R52}}
* ThinkPad {{R61}} (R&R version 4)
* ThinkPad {{Z60m}}
* Thinkpad {{Z61m}}
* Thinkpad {{X61}}, {{X32}}

[[Category:Glossary]]

Wireless Network Adapters

2008-06-15T04:20:35Z

Voominc: /* MiniPCI adapters */

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;white-space:nowrap;" | __TOC__
|style="vertical-align:top" |
This document covers IBM integrated (MiniPCI), Cardbus and PC Card (PCMCIA) Wi-Fi devices.
|}

== Finding out which adapter you have ==
For MiniPCI or Cardbus adapters run the command:
:{{cmdroot|lspci -n <nowiki>|</nowiki> grep "Class 0200"}}
If that produces no output, run this command instead:
:{{cmdroot|lspci -n <nowiki>|</nowiki> grep "0200"}}

(Alternatively, grep for "0280" which identifies "Network" controllers, as opposed to "0200" which identifies "Ethernet" controllers.)

And compare the PCI IDS with the ones below.

{{NOTE| This will also return the PCI IDS of any Ethernet adapters, as Ethernet adapters and Wireless adapters share the same PCI Class ID.}}

== MiniPCI adapters ==

=== Atheros ===
*[[IBM Dual-Band 11a/b Wi-Fi Wireless Mini PCI Adapter]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 168c:0012)</tt>
*[[IBM 11b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 168c:0013)</tt>
*[[IBM 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 168c:1014)</tt>
*[[IBM 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter II]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 168c:1014)</tt>
*[[ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini Express Adapter]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 168c:1014)</tt>
*[[ThinkPad 11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Mini Express Adapter]] (AR5BXB72) <tt>(PCI-ID: 168c:0024)</tt>
*[[SparkLAN WMIA-166AG Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter (AR5006XS)]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 168c:001b)</tt>

=== Cisco ===
*[[Cisco Aironet Wireless 802.11b]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 14b9:a504)</tt>
=== Intel ===
*[[Intel PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 8086:1043)</tt>
*[[Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Mini-PCI Adapter]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 8086:4220)</tt>
*[[Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Mini-PCI Adapter]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 8086:4224)</tt>
*[[Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Mini-PCI Express Adapter]]
*[[Intel PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Mini-PCI Express Adapter]]

=== Prism ===
*[[IBM High Rate Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Adapter with Modem]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 1260:3873)</tt>
*[[IBM High Rate Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Adapter with Modem II]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 1260:3873)</tt>
*[[IBM High Rate Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Adapter III]]

=== Error 1802 - "Unauthorized" MiniPCI network card ===
Attempts to install an unsupported card will result in the following message:

1802: Unauthorized network card is plugged in - Power off and remove the miniPCI network card.

For a resolution, see the [[Problem with unauthorized MiniPCI network card]] page.

=== Hardware Transmitter Switch ===

Operating a radio transmitter is not permitted in aircraft, and there are times where security requires that your wireless connection be shut down. Some ThinkPads with internal MiniPCI wireless cards have a hardware switch that disables the wireless network. Here it is on the '''on''' position:

[[Image:Wireless-switch.png|(ThinkPad R60 radio switch in the ON position)]]

To be certain that your wireless connection is not transmitting, turn the switch '''off'''. Just remember to turn it back '''on''' when you once again need wireless access. If the switch is '''off''', you might encounter a message like the following Log-Message on Startup:
ipw3945: Radio Frequency Kill Switch is On:
Kill switch must be turned off for wireless networking to work.

Also, when you try to activate (iwconfig) your wireless connection with the switch '''off''' you may see the error,
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06)
The number 8B06 merely represents the wireless mode (auto, ad-hoc, managed, master), none of which will work with the wireless switch '''off'''.

== Cardbus adapters ==
Cardbus is a 32bits bus that runs at 33MHz, and is in many ways simular to the PCI bus. In fact under Linux Cardbus adapters are handled by the PCI subsystem. 
You can differentiate a PC Card adapter from a Cardbus adapter as the later has a gold coloured grounding strip
=== IBM 11 a/b/g Wireless Cardbus Adapter ===
Chipset: Atheros 
Driver: [[madwifi]] 
Supported wireless modes: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g

Specifications: [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-51855 MIGR-51855] 
Users Guide: [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-51959 MIGE-51855] 
Service Parts: [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-51874 MIGR-51874]
Looking for a reverse PCI to cardbus (ie - want to fit a PCI card into a cardbus slot)

=== IBM 802.11a Wireless LAN Cardbus Adapter ===
Chipset: Atheros 
Driver: [[madwifi]] 
Supported wireless modes: 802.11a

Specifications: [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-42209 MIGR-42209] 
Users Guide: [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-42233 MIGR-42233] 
Service Parts: [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-42231 MIGR-42231]

== PC Card (PCMCIA) adapters ==
PC Card or PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) as it used to be called, is an 8 or 16bits bus limited to 8MHz, in many ways simular to the old ISA bus and not suitable for highspeed devices.
=== Cisco Aironet 350 802.11b wireless PC card with 128bit ===
Chipset: Cisco 
Driver: airo_cs 
Supported wireless modes: 802.11b
=== IBM High Rate Wireless LAN PC Card ===
Chipset: Hermes I 
Drivers: [[orinoco|orinoco_cs]] 
Supported wireless modes: 802.11b

[[Category:Components]]

Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Mini-PCI Express Adapter

2008-06-15T04:12:33Z

Voominc: /* Hardware switch */

__NOTOC__
{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top" |
<div style="margin: 0; margin-right:10px; border: 1px solid #dfdfdf; padding: 0em 1em 1em 1em; background-color:#F8F8FF; align:right;">

This is a Mini-PCI Express WiFi Adapter

== Features ==
* Chipset: Intel WM3945AG
* IEEE Standards: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g
* PCI ID: 8086:4227
</div>
|style="vertical-align:top" |
[[image:3945abg.jpg|Mini-PCI WiFi Adapter]]
|}
== IBM Partnumbers ==
* 41A4068

{{NOTE| Only the IBM Parts will work, any other parts will give an 1802 error on Post because the sub-vendor PCI ID is different, see [[Problem with unauthorized MiniPCI network card]] for more details}}

== Also known (in IBM literature) as.... ==
* From [http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/8/897/ENUS106-068/ENUS106-068.PDF announcement letter 106-068], 'Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG8 wireless connection'

== Support ==
* Linux has the [[ipw3945]] and the [[iwl3945]] drivers. iwl3945 should be used as it is newer and actively developed. Also, Kernel 2.6.24 drops the old wireless-stack so ipw3945 won't compile.

== Hardware switch ==

Operating a radio transmitter is not permitted in aircraft, and there are times where security requires that your wireless connection be shut down. Some ThinkPads have a hardware switch that disables the wireless network. Here it is on the '''on''' position:

[[Image:Wireless-switch.png|(ThinkPad R60 radio switch in the ON position)]]

To be certain that your wireless connection is not transmitting, turn the switch '''off'''. Just remember to turn it back on when you once again need wireless access. If the switch is '''off''', you might encounter following Log-Message on Startup:
ipw3945: Radio Frequency Kill Switch is On:
Kill switch must be turned off for wireless networking to work.

Also, when you try to activate (iwconfig) your wireless connection with the switch '''off''' you may see the error,
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06)
The number 8B06 does not matter. It merely represents the wireless mode (auto, ad-hoc, managed, master), none of which will work with the wireless switch '''off'''.

== ThinkPads this card may be found in ==
* {{T43}}, {{T43p}} as an external ExpressCard
* {{R60}}
* {{T60}}, {{T60p}}, {{T61}}
* {{X60}}, {{X60s}}, {{X60_Tablet}}, {{X61}}, {{X61s}}, {{X61_Tablet}}
* {{R61i}}, {{Z61e}}, {{Z61m}}, {{Z61t}}, {{Z61p}}
* [[N100|Lenovo 300]]

[[Category:Components]]

How to make ACPI work

2007-10-05T15:46:28Z

Voominc: /* Update BIOS */

==General==
First, simply try using the power management features of Linux on your computer. Tell Linux to suspend (System > Preferences > Power Management in Gnome). Try closing the lid. ACPI may already work.

===Update BIOS===
ACPI requires a relatively new BIOS version. In particular, if you get the message,
ACPI: Could not use ECDT
during startup, you probably need a [[BIOS Upgrade]]. For example, a BIOS upgrade from version 1.02 to 1.10 was all that was needed for ACPI to start working on an A31 2652 running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (CentOS 5).

===Kernel configuration===
Many Kernel 2.6 distributions like Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (Centos 5) have ACPI built in and ready to go. If not, you must enable ACPI support in your kernel.

To do this open your kernel config and enable ACPI Power Management:
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_PM|<*>|Power Management support|Power management options|||}}
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP|<*>|ACPI|Power management options|||}}

You'd most likely want to enable the following ACPI options:
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP|<*>|Sleep States|ACPI|Power management options||}}
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_ACPI_AC|<*>|AC Adapter|ACPI|Power management options||}}
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_ACPI_BATTERY|<*>|Battery|ACPI|Power management options||}}
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_ACPI_FAN|<*>|Fan|ACPI|Power management options||}}
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR|<*>|Processor|ACPI|Power management options||}}
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL|<*>|Thermal Zone|ACPI|Power management options||}}

If you prefer editing your {{path|.config}} file directly, you should set at least the following variables:
CONFIG_PM=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BOOT=y
CONFIG_ACPI_INTERPRETER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_AC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BATTERY=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BUTTON=y
CONFIG_ACPI_FAN=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=y
CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BUS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_EC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_POWER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PCI=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SYSTEM=y

Then recompile your kernel.

{{HINT| ACPI SLEEP States option did only show up for me after patching [[Software Suspend 2]] into the kernel. With a vanilla 2.6.17 kernel, one must enable CONFIG_SMP and CONFIG_HOTPLUG_CPU for the option to appear, cf. [http://bugs.debian.org/383059 Debian bug #383059] .}}

===Kernel boot parameters===
Many ThinkPads have been hit by a recent (kernel 2.6.16) change to ACPI4Linux that changed the default means of accessing the ACPI Embedded Controller as a way to shake out underlying bugs in the EC access code. If your ThinkPad fails to resume properly (a blinking Sleep light on resume that doesn't go away, or a hang when trying to suspend/standby a second time), adding {{bootparm|ec_intr|0}} to your kernel command line may help.

===IBM specific ACPI driver===
Unfortunately, special drivers for ACPI on ThinkPads were not included with kernels prior 2.6.10. So you'll have to compile one yourself or get it as precompiled module for your kernel.

You have the choice between [[thinkpad-acpi]] and [[ibm-acpi]], with the latter being the recommended one.

If you use a post-2.6.10 kernel and you want to use [[ibm-acpi]], it is recommended to look on its projects page for a possibly newer version.

{{HINT|Generally it is a good idea to read the README included with the driver.}}

===ACPI daemon===
Also you'll need to install [[acpid]], if it isn't present on your system. [[acpid]] is a daemon that handles the ACPI events generated by the system. Read [[How to configure acpid]].

==Screen blanking (Standby)==
Make sure you have
Option "DPMS"
in the Monitor section of your {{path|/etc/X11/XF86Config}} or {{path|/etc/X11/xorg.conf}}.

Running {{cmduser|xset +dpms}} and then {{cmduser|xset dpms force off}} will turn off the backlight on a laptop screen. 

Note that this may not work in combination with {{cmduser|echo -n "mem" > /sys/power/state}} because switching to console causes the backlight to come back on before sleeping.

==Suspend to RAM (Sleep)==
ACPI Sleep/suspend-to-ram with recent 2.6.x kernels usually works fine. Have a look at the [[How to configure acpid|acpid configuration HOWTO]]. It includes a specific example for going to sleep on lid close.

For Troubleshooting, look at the [[Problems with ACPI suspend-to-ram|Problems with ACPI suspend-to-ram page]].

==Suspend to disk (Hibernate)==
There are two drivers for this available:
* [[swsusp]], which is in the kernel and
* [[Software Suspend 2]] which is more feature rich, but not yet in the kernel, so you have to patch it in yourself.

Both are reported to work fine as long as you use open-source graphic drivers. A comparison of the features can be found on [http://softwaresuspend.berlios.de/features.html this page].

Just in case you are in doubt...yes, it is safe in both cases to use the same swap partition as active swap and as suspend partition.

See the according drivers page for instructions.

==ThinkPads on which it is recommended to use ACPI==
*ThinkPad {{770X}}, {{770Z}}
*ThinkPad {{A20m}}, {{A20p}}, {{A20m}}, {{A20p}}, {{A21e}}, {{A21m}}, {{A21p}}, {{A22e}}, {{A22m}}, {{A22p}}, {{A30}}, {{A30p}}, {{A31}}, {{A31p}}
*ThinkPad {{G40}}, {{G41}}
*ThinkPad {{R30}}, {{R31}}, {{R32}}, {{R40}}, {{R40e}}, {{R50}}, {{R50e}}, {{R50p}}, {{R51}}, {{R52}}, {{R60}}
*ThinkPad {{T22}}, {{T23}}, {{T30}}, {{T40}}, {{T40p}}, {{T41}}, {{T41p}}, {{T42}}, {{T42p}}, {{T43}}, {{T43p}}
*ThinkPad {{X20}}, {{X21}}, {{X22}}, {{X23}}, {{X24}}, {{X30}}, {{X31}}, {{X32}}, {{X40}}, {{X41}}, {{X41T}}
*ThinkPad {{Z60t}}, {{Z60m}}, {{Z61m}}
*ThinkPad {{X60s}}
*ThinkPad {{TransNote}}
*ThinkPad {{T20}} and {{T21}} have old ACPI implementations, but there have been some reports of using ACPI successfully on these models with Ubuntu and Mandriva in particular. Check the related pages about installing Linux on these models for details.

How to make ACPI work

2007-09-29T16:55:39Z

Voominc: /* General */

==General==
First, simply try using the power management features of Linux on your computer. Tell Linux to suspend (System > Preferences > Power Management in Gnome). Try closing the lid. ACPI may already work.

===Update BIOS===
ACPI requires a relatively new BIOS version. For example, a [[BIOS Upgrade]] from version 1.02 to 1.10 was all that ACPI needed to start working on an A31 2652.

===Kernel configuration===
Many Kernel 2.6 distributions like Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (Centos 5) have ACPI built in and ready to go. If not, you must enable ACPI support in your kernel.

To do this open your kernel config and enable ACPI Power Management:
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_PM|<*>|Power Management support|Power management options|||}}
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP|<*>|ACPI|Power management options|||}}

You'd most likely want to enable the following ACPI options:
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP|<*>|Sleep States|ACPI|Power management options||}}
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_ACPI_AC|<*>|AC Adapter|ACPI|Power management options||}}
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_ACPI_BATTERY|<*>|Battery|ACPI|Power management options||}}
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_ACPI_FAN|<*>|Fan|ACPI|Power management options||}}
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR|<*>|Processor|ACPI|Power management options||}}
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL|<*>|Thermal Zone|ACPI|Power management options||}}

If you prefer editing your {{path|.config}} file directly, you should set at least the following variables:
CONFIG_PM=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BOOT=y
CONFIG_ACPI_INTERPRETER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_AC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BATTERY=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BUTTON=y
CONFIG_ACPI_FAN=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=y
CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BUS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_EC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_POWER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PCI=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SYSTEM=y

Then recompile your kernel.

{{HINT| ACPI SLEEP States option did only show up for me after patching [[Software Suspend 2]] into the kernel. With a vanilla 2.6.17 kernel, one must enable CONFIG_SMP and CONFIG_HOTPLUG_CPU for the option to appear, cf. [http://bugs.debian.org/383059 Debian bug #383059] .}}

===Kernel boot parameters===
Many ThinkPads have been hit by a recent (kernel 2.6.16) change to ACPI4Linux that changed the default means of accessing the ACPI Embedded Controller as a way to shake out underlying bugs in the EC access code. If your ThinkPad fails to resume properly (a blinking Sleep light on resume that doesn't go away, or a hang when trying to suspend/standby a second time), adding {{bootparm|ec_intr|0}} to your kernel command line may help.

===IBM specific ACPI driver===
Unfortunately, special drivers for ACPI on ThinkPads were not included with kernels prior 2.6.10. So you'll have to compile one yourself or get it as precompiled module for your kernel.

You have the choice between [[thinkpad-acpi]] and [[ibm-acpi]], with the latter being the recommended one.

If you use a post-2.6.10 kernel and you want to use [[ibm-acpi]], it is recommended to look on its projects page for a possibly newer version.

{{HINT|Generally it is a good idea to read the README included with the driver.}}

===ACPI daemon===
Also you'll need to install [[acpid]], if it isn't present on your system. [[acpid]] is a daemon that handles the ACPI events generated by the system. Read [[How to configure acpid]].

==Screen blanking (Standby)==
Make sure you have
Option "DPMS"
in the Monitor section of your {{path|/etc/X11/XF86Config}} or {{path|/etc/X11/xorg.conf}}.

Running {{cmduser|xset +dpms}} and then {{cmduser|xset dpms force off}} will turn off the backlight on a laptop screen. 

Note that this may not work in combination with {{cmduser|echo -n "mem" > /sys/power/state}} because switching to console causes the backlight to come back on before sleeping.

==Suspend to RAM (Sleep)==
ACPI Sleep/suspend-to-ram with recent 2.6.x kernels usually works fine. Have a look at the [[How to configure acpid|acpid configuration HOWTO]]. It includes a specific example for going to sleep on lid close.

For Troubleshooting, look at the [[Problems with ACPI suspend-to-ram|Problems with ACPI suspend-to-ram page]].

==Suspend to disk (Hibernate)==
There are two drivers for this available:
* [[swsusp]], which is in the kernel and
* [[Software Suspend 2]] which is more feature rich, but not yet in the kernel, so you have to patch it in yourself.

Both are reported to work fine as long as you use open-source graphic drivers. A comparison of the features can be found on [http://softwaresuspend.berlios.de/features.html this page].

Just in case you are in doubt...yes, it is safe in both cases to use the same swap partition as active swap and as suspend partition.

See the according drivers page for instructions.

==ThinkPads on which it is recommended to use ACPI==
*ThinkPad {{770X}}, {{770Z}}
*ThinkPad {{A20m}}, {{A20p}}, {{A20m}}, {{A20p}}, {{A21e}}, {{A21m}}, {{A21p}}, {{A22e}}, {{A22m}}, {{A22p}}, {{A30}}, {{A30p}}, {{A31}}, {{A31p}}
*ThinkPad {{G40}}, {{G41}}
*ThinkPad {{R30}}, {{R31}}, {{R32}}, {{R40}}, {{R40e}}, {{R50}}, {{R50e}}, {{R50p}}, {{R51}}, {{R52}}, {{R60}}
*ThinkPad {{T22}}, {{T23}}, {{T30}}, {{T40}}, {{T40p}}, {{T41}}, {{T41p}}, {{T42}}, {{T42p}}, {{T43}}, {{T43p}}
*ThinkPad {{X20}}, {{X21}}, {{X22}}, {{X23}}, {{X24}}, {{X30}}, {{X31}}, {{X32}}, {{X40}}, {{X41}}, {{X41T}}
*ThinkPad {{Z60t}}, {{Z60m}}, {{Z61m}}
*ThinkPad {{X60s}}
*ThinkPad {{TransNote}}
*ThinkPad {{T20}} and {{T21}} have old ACPI implementations, but there have been some reports of using ACPI successfully on these models with Ubuntu and Mandriva in particular. Check the related pages about installing Linux on these models for details.

BIOS Upgrade

2007-09-29T08:30:31Z

Voominc: /* Extracting a Bootable CD-ROM Image from the Non Diskette Updater */

__TOC__

This page is meant to describe ways to update the BIOS on a ThinkPad that only runs Linux for users that don't have ready access to Windows. If you have Windows on your ThinkPad you can just boot into it and follow instructions on the IBM website.

{{NOTE| In one case ([[APM setup on a type 2379 ThinkPad T40]]) it was not possible to upgrade the BIOS from Windows XP; a downgrade to Windows 98 was required to successfully run the BIOS upgrade app. The symptoms in this case were that, once the files had been extracted to the hard disk, and the machine was to reboot into the upgrade app, it would beep and hang just before reboot, requiring a power cycle. Once the power was cycled, it would simply reboot back into XP without performing any BIOS upgrade actions. So even if you have Windows, you may still need to use the info on this page.}}

----
==Before You Begin==
Updating the BIOS in Linux (with few exceptions) '''is not officially supported''' by IBM/Lenovo. However there are work arounds.

{{WARN|By following any of the instructions here you are accepting the '''very real risk''' of turning your thinkpad into a big expensive paper weight, as a firmware update gone wrong can create unfixable problems.

'''Proceed at your own risk!'''

It is also important to understand that Thinkpads from IBM have two separate firmwares: the BIOS, and the Embedded Controller program. A given BIOS version will require a certain version of the Embedded Controller program.

The IBM documentation is sometimes unclear about the order in which these two firmwares should be updated. On most, but not all Thinkpads, '''the correct update order is Embedded Controller program first, and then the BIOS'''. Make sure to do the two updates immediately one after the other. Newer models from Lenovo update both the Embedded Controller program and the BIOS at the same time, so you don't have to worry about it.}}

==BIOS Upgrade Paths==

For every firmware (either BIOS or Embedded Controller program) update on the IBM web site there used to be two different firmware update programs provided. The Diskette Updater and the Non Diskette Updater. For newer Lenovo Models the Diskette Updater is replaced with a bootable CD-Image and the Non Diskette Updater is renamed BIOS Update Utility, both of which update the BIOS and the Embedded Controller program at the same time. A list of links to firmware downloads can be found at [[BIOS Upgrade Downloads]] for nearly all Thinkpad Models.

===The Diskette Updater===

The Diskette updater appears to be a 16 bit DOS program which asks you to accept a license agreement. It will run in Windows, DOS, OS/2, or [http://dosemu.sf.net Dosemu] perfectly, but requires a real floppy disk attached via a real floppy controller. A USB Floppy Drive will not work.

===The Bootable CD Image===

Newer models from Lenovo can be updated using the Bootable CD Image. This should be the easiest way for non-Windows users and also maybe a more secure way for Windows users, as well. As the image is provided as a plain ISO-file without any Windows enclosure, you can simply burn it to a CD-R/RW with any modern operating system, as long as you have a CD/DVD-RW Drive and are then able to boot from it.

===Extracting a Bootable CD-ROM Image from the Non Diskette Updater===
{{WARN|Though this process was successfully tested on one version of .exe files found on IBMs website this doesn't mean it will work for all of them. Proceed at your own risk. Consult the list at the bottom of this page to see other users' experience with your model Thinkpad.}}

This installer appears to be a 32bit windows .exe which is designed for updating the BIOS directly from a running Windows OS. It turns out that this .exe is really a wrapper license program around Windows .cab files (see [[How_to_change_the_BIOS_bootsplash_screen|BIOS-Bootsplash]]). If you install the Linux program [http://freshmeat.net/projects/cabextract/ '''cabextract'''] you can expand these .cab files directly. Run the following:

:{{cmduser|cabextract FILENAME.exe}}

This will extract 8 files in the current directory. One of them will be FILENAME.img. In this discussion, "FILENAME" represents the name of the Non Diskette file that you downloaded, such as "1NHJ04US".

You can test that this is really a floppy image by running:

:{{cmdroot|mkdir mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop FILENAME.img mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}}

If the results of {{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}} look like a dos floppy, and no read errors were displayed, you have a pretty good chance that the floppy image is usable.

Unmount the image after you are done:

:{{cmdroot|umount mntfloppy}}

Now, you can proceed to [[BIOS_Upgrade:Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image]], below.

== Updating Thinkpad X Series ==

X Series Thinkpads do not have an internal drive. If there is no Windows installed, the BIOS must be updated by booting from an USB drive or a drive that is integrated in the docking station. Since a while Lenovo provides BIOS updates in form of bootable CD images. Unfortunately, these images are intended to be used with the docking station's CD drive. If you do not own such a drive, things get complicated.

The problem is that current BIOS updates are quite large, about 3 MB in size. Booting from CDs typically works like booting from a 1.44 MB or 2.88 MB floppy disk. The floppy image is stored on the CD and is referenced in the CD's boot record. Because the BIOS update file are that large, they do not fit on such a floppy image. Thus, they must be stored on the CD outside the virtual floppy image. To access these files a driver for the CD drive has to be loaded. Since Lenovo's CD images are intended to be used with a docking station's CD drive, it is not possible to use them for BIOS updates by booting from an USB CD drive.

But there is hope. The CD images provided by Lenovo can be modified such that they contain drivers for USB CD drives. I tested the following with a Thinkpad {{X60s}}.

The idea is to take Lenovo's ISO CD image and modify it such that a USB CD drive can be used instead the CD drive in the docking station. Unfortunately, simply replacing the drivers is not enough. While doing the BIOS update, the USB ports seem to get disabled or something. Therefore, before starting the update process the CD contents have to be copied to a RAM disk. I will describe the procedure step by step.

<ol>
<li>
Download the ISO image style BIOS update from Lenovo's website. This file will be refered to as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.iso</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Extract the floppy image from this ISO image. You can use the following shell script for this task (or an alternative one from [http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~krienke/ftp/noarch/geteltorito/]). Simply save this code into the file <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>, set the x-flag (<tt>chmod +x /tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>) and call it using the command <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. The floppy image contained in the ISO image will then be saved to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. Here is the code of the shell script:
<pre>
#!/bin/bash

# This script extracts the floopy boot image from bootable ISO images
#
# Written by Joachim Selke (mail@joachim-selke.de), 2007-04-07

ISOFILE=$1
IMAGEFILE=$2

if [ ! -r $ISOFILE ]; then
echo $ISOFILE: file does not exist or is not readable
exit 1
fi

if [ -z $IMAGEFILE ]; then
echo Error: no image file specified
exit 1
fi

ISOFILESIZE=`stat -c %s $ISOFILE`

# collect El Torito data
# see http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/98D3219C-9CC9-4DF5-B496-A286D893E36A/0/specscdrom.pdf for reference

BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE=$((17 * 0x800 + 0x47))

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE + 4)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to first sector of boot catalog:
BOOTCATALOG=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTCATALOGBYTE=$((0x$BOOTCATALOG * 0x800))

echo Boot catalog starts at byte $BOOTCATALOGBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 2)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# media type of boot image
# only floppy disk images are supported by this script
BOOTMEDIATYPE=`od -A n -t x1 -N 1 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 1)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

if [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 1 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.2M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1200 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 2 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.44M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1440 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 3 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 2.88M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((2880 / 2))
else
echo Boot media type is $((0x$BOOTMEDIATYPE)). This type is not supported yet.
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to start of boot image
BOOTIMAGE=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 8)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTIMAGEBYTE=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800))

echo Boot image starts at byte $BOOTIMAGEBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800 + $IMAGEBLOCKS * 0x800)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

echo Extracting boot image ...

dd if=$ISOFILE of=$IMAGEFILE bs=2K count=$IMAGEBLOCKS skip=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE))

echo Finished
</pre>
</li>

<li>
Mount the floppy image '''as root''' using the loop device:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
The image is now mounted as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Download needed drivers. First download some [http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/other/driver/f2h_usb.exe USB drivers] from Panasonic Japan. Save the file to <tt>/tmp/f2h_usb.exe</tt> This file is a self-extracting EXE file, that can be executed under Linux using [http://www.winehq.com/ Wine]:
:{{cmduser|wine /tmp/f2h_usb.exe}}
You will be asked where to save the extracted files. Choose <tt>/tmp</tt>. A new directory <tt>/tmp/F2h</tt> containing the needed drivers will be created.

Additionally, you will need drivers for the RAM disk mentioned. Download them from the [http://sourceforge.net/projects/srdisk ReSizeable RAMDisk project]. Unzip them to <tt>/tmp/srdisk</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Let's modify the floppy image:
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/Usbaspi.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/USBCD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/RAMFD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdxms.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdisk.exe /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
Now add the following lines to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/config.sys</tt> replacing the line <tt>DEVICE = A:\IBMTPCD.SYS /R /C</tt>:
<pre>
DEVICE = A:\SRDXMS.SYS
DEVICE = A:\RAMFD.SYS
DEVICE = A:\USBASPI.SYS /V
DEVICE = A:\USBCD.SYS /D:TPCD001
</pre>
Finally, edit the file <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/autoexec.bat</tt> replacing the last line (saying <tt>COMMAND.COM</tt>) by the following:
<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* D:
D:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>

Maybe the RAM disk gets a drive letter different from D: on your system. In this case, you have to change the above lines accordingly.
</li>

<li>
Unmount the floppy image (as root):
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
</li>

<li>
Copy the content of the original CD image to a new directory and create a new ISO file:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkdir /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt/* /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/boot.img}}
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkisofs -relaxed-filenames -b boot.img -o /tmp/bios-new.iso /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/}}
</li>

<li>
The file <tt>/tmp/bios-new.iso</tt> is the modified ISO file. Just burn it to CD and use this CD for updating your BIOS (boot from it using your USB drive). Please give some comments here if it worked for you.
</li>

</ol>

===Alternative method using a USB stick===

''Note: none of the above methods worked on my X60s. This method worked for me, however.'' [[User:PhilipPaeps|PhilipPaeps]] 16:41, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

This method was surprisingly painless once I convinced my ThinkPad X60s to boot DOS from a USB stick. I used VMWare and some mystical tool to get DOS on the stick. If you can find another way to get a bootable DOS stick, please update this section!

* Tell VMWare to create a virtual floppy image for you and format it under Microsoft Windows and tell it to create a system disk. You can do this by clicking into "My Computer", then right-clicking on the "Floppy" icon and selecting "Format". In the box that pops up, you need to check the box that says "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" and then click "Start".

* When you've done that, get this tool: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/330/mirrors.php and install it. The tool is apparantly something HP once wrote, but I have been unable to find a link to it anywhere on the HP website.

* In a command prompt again: <code>C:\DriveKey\HPUSBF.EXE E: -Q -B:A:\</code>, replacing the <code>E:</code> with the "drive letter" associated with your USB stick (you can find this letter in "My Computer" under "Removable Storage"). '''WARNING:''' this wipes anything on the USB stick. You will end up with a USB stick which appears empty at this point, but there is DOS on it somewhere.

* Now mount the BIOS update ISO image from Lenovo as a virtual CDROM using VMWare again and copy the files from it to the USB stick: <code>copy D:\*.* E:\</code>.

At this point, you may want to fiddle with the splash image, as described elsewhere on ThinkWiki.

* Reboot and press F12, tell the BIOS to boot from your USB stick.

* <code>cd flash</code> ; <code>updtflsh.exe</code>

Think happy thoughts. The ThinkPad will beep quite ominously (and loudly!) a couple of times. Do not let this worry you too much. After about three minutes, the program will ask you to press enter to restart and hopefully all will be well.

===Comments===

<ul>

<li>
I have followed your excellent instructions. The CD booted, the update program ran but stopped working and responding while updating. Luckily the BIOS was not destroyed. Since destroying the BIOS is a very high risk, I am going to recover the original Windows on an old HD and will run the update exe update program from there.
</li>

<li>
I followed these clear instructions, and like the comment above I ended up with a CD that booted but the update program stopped working and responding. An ALT-CTRL-DELETE rebooted my x60s, and it works so the BIOS must not have been damaged. I was trying to upgrade from version 2.08 to 2.11, I wonder if these instructions are somehow particular to certain versions?
[[User:Latch|Latch]] 01:22, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
</li>

<li>
After following the above instructions, the program also stopped working while updating the BIOS. But after changing the drive letter from D: to C: (see code below), it everything worked fine. However, I had some trouble figuring out, which letter to choose over D: at first, as the BIOS Upgrade program started right away.

<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* C:
C:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>
[[User:Mtx|Mtx]], 1 August 2007, Thinkpad X61s
</li>

<li>
Flashing the bios (2.12) works for me on a X60s (using drive c). Using the DVD-R on an USB-Hub did not work. [[User:Ra|Ra]] 00:15, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
</li>

</ul>

==Updating via CD/DVD Drive==

The whole thing gets more complicated if you neither have Windows nor a floppy drive installed. This is what this page is intended to describe.

Another possibility which works even without a CD-drive or network is to boot the disk image via the grub initrd mechanism.

Be aware that IBM officially does '''not''' support this! The official statement to my support request was:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
I'm afraid we only support the options listed on our web page and no you
can't burn a CD/DVD, however you can try to use an external USB FDD
(floppy) drive. The experts recommend a IBM USB FDD, however they have also
tested it with a Sony USB FDD drive.

In order to make sure the drive is recognised you can boot up the FDD with
a bootable dos diskette for w98
</nowiki></pre>
</blockquote>

But it seems to be possible as Mathias Dalheimer describes this [http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html here].

Another indication that it should work is that IBM uses PHLASH16.EXE (at least on T4x/p systems) to flash the BIOS into the chip. The same tool is used by [http://www.samsungpc.com/gb/support/p35/bios/bios-instructions.html other vendors] to flash the BIOS from bootable CD-ROMs.
{{WARN|Do '''not''' use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools crash in that situation!}}

Some interesting but very technical information about the used flash tool can be found [http://www.paul.sladen.org/thinkpad-r31/wifi-card-pci-ids.html here].

===Creating a Floppy Image===
If you have created a boot floppy on another machine, you need to create an image file of that floppy. This can be easily done in linux by running a command line:

:{{cmdroot|1=dd bs=2x80x18b if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/floppy.img}}

You can also create a floppy image by using Ken Kato's [http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html VMware's back]. It is a free Windoze tool that creates a virtual floppy drive and allows you to produce an image file ready to be ISO'ed. Note: you might have to 'manually' (through application's interface) assign the virtual drive a volume letter in order to be seen by IBM's application (as, by default, it seems not to do it).

You should verify this {{path|floppy.img}} as explained above.

===Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image===
Once you have your floppy image, either from imaging a real floppy, or from extracting them via the cabextract method above, you need to make a boot CD out of it.

The eltorito bootable CD standard is a wonderful thing. What this means is that a bootable CD can be made with a bootable floppy in such as way that the CD believes that it is a 2.88 MB floppy drive. This allows you to replace a boot floppy by a boot CD in nearly all situations.

It is very easy to create such a bootable CD ISO image in Linux using the mkisofs tool. To do this run a command as follows:

:{{cmdroot|mkisofs -b bootfloppy.img -o bootcd.iso bootfloppy.img}}

where bootfloppy.img is the name of the .img floppy image file, for example 1NUJ10US.IMG.

Note: This creates a CD with one file on it and marks that file as the boot image. For more info on this read {{cmduser|man mkisofs}}.

You can now burn the {{path|bootcd.iso}} in your favorite CD burning program.

To get an overview which models have been tested with this version, here is a list:

===Does work:===
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-4AU) ||
*George Tellalov <gtellalov_dontspamme@bigfoot.com>. BIOS 1.16 from spsdin36.exe worked perfectly with the method bootable cd from floppy image. I highly recommend this upgrade because it made my ibm-acpi module load (it wouldn't load before) and fixed some suspend to ram problems. Here's the [http://george.tellalov.info/bios_upgrade_600e_spsdin36.iso cd image] I used. Use at your own risk. You can send me a chocolate if it works for you ;)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-5bU) ||
*Mike Vincent<matchstc-putobvioushere.com>. Bios 1.16 from spsdin36.exe and then to the boot cd worked great for me. Thought I had bricked it three separate times using a "real" floppy! Each from different diskettes .The updater would start, give me the "going to take30 seconds" speech...and then access the HD for 10 minutes. Each time it would reboot fine. Did the cd as described above...worked great first time. Perhaps 10 year old seldom used floppy disc drives have some challenges?
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Jonathan Byrne <jonathan@RemoveThisToMailMe.yamame.org>. BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe worked perfectly using cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Andy Barnes <andy@RemoveThisToMailMe.itchypaws.co.uk>. As per Jonathan above, extracted BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe using cabextract, created a CD boot image and burnt to CD. Worked flawlessly - thanks to everyone who contributed to this article!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A20p}} (2629-6VU) ||
*Chris Pickett http://www.sable.mcgill.ca/~cpicke/. BIOS 1.11 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A21e}} (2628-JXU) ||
*Amit Gurdasani <gurdasani at yahoo dot com>. BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method. Alarmingly, after the BIOS update, the laptop beeped but did not shut down as was indicated onscreen -- that was frozen on the "do not shut down the laptop" screen. On power down and up again, the BIOS setup showed the newer BIOS image running, and Linux booted up fine. Linux ACPI didn't complain about the BIOS being too old either.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31p}} (2653) ||
*Matthias Meinke largeeddy@gmx.at, BIOS 1.09 1NET15WW flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31}} (2652) ||
*[[User:Wnoise|Aaron Denney]], BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method. The cabextract/CD method also worked for BIOS 1.10.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R30}} ||
*Jarrod, 30 August 2007, Thinkpad R30 Type 2656-E0M. BIOS updated to 1.40 (1CETF0WW) using floppy disk/mkisofs/cdrecord. Worked fine, no problems.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R31}} ||
*[http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html Mathias Dalheimer]
*Sebastian Sauer (with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R40}} ||
*Matthew Lambie, http://lambie.org
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50}} (1836-3SU) ||
*jlbartos <jlbartos at hotmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50e}} (1834-PTG) ||
*item <item at freemail dot hu> : successfully finished with cabextract/CD method for "1wuj25us.exe" (BIOS version 1WET90WW (2.10), Release Date: 2006/12/22)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1829) ||
*Robert Uhl <rob dot uhl at gmx dot de>, Jellby <jellby at yahoo dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1830-RM7) ||
*Will Parker <stardotstar at sourcepoint dot com dot au> successfully flashed 3.20 using existing 3.04 ECP and retained custom boot splash.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (2887) ||
*Ingo van Lil <inguin at gmx dot de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R52}} (1858) ||
*Stuart McCord <stuart dot mccord at gmail dot com> flashed both BIOS and ECP using cabextract, BIOS flashed first as on IBM website
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T20}} ||
*Franz Hassels <fhassel at suse dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T22}} ||
*Daniel Maier <nusse teamidiot de>
*Mathias Behrle (with cabextract/CD method, Version 1.07 => 1.12) --[[User:Mathiasb|Mathiasb]] 11:58, 14 December 2006 (CET)
*Bob Skaroff (cabextract/CD), 1.06 => 1.12
*Leo Butler (cabextract/CD), 1.11 => 1.12
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T23}} ||
*Bart Snapp <snapp at uiuc dot edu> Note: I followed IBM's instructions to flash the BIOS *first* and the Embedded Controller *second*.
*Moy Easwaran: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a via cabextract and CD-boot. The BIOS-update exe generated errors in Windows 2000.
*Joe Renes: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a on 2006-03-20 via cabextract and CD-boot. Piece of cake.
*Raphael Errani: BIOS 1.20 / EC 1.06a on 2006-11-06 via cabextract and CD-boot (using mkisofs). Worked without errors. 1st Bios, 2nd EC
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T30}} ||
*Martin GÃ¼hring <guehring at gmail.com> BIOS 2.10 via cabextract the Non-Diskette BIOS -> mkisofs '''in the directory the exe was extracted''' to generate the iso -> burn the iso -> boot the CD
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40}} ||
*Sean Dague, http://dague.net
*Justin Mason, http://jmason.org
*Ivanhoe (Bios 3.19)
*Alessandro Raulino (roger_2) EC 3.04 & BIOS 3.23 flashed with cabextract/CD method
*Nick Jenkins, using BIOS 3.23 with the [[#The_Non_Diskette_Updater|Non-diskette updater + cabextract method]], then [[#Creating_a_Bootable_CD_from_a_Floppy_Image|created a bootable CD from the cabextracted .IMG file]], then boot that ISO, and it worked great!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40p}} ||
*Lukas KrÃ¤henbÃ¼hl, ismo at pop dot agri dot ch
*Thomas Achtemichuk, tom at tomchuk dot com. BIOS 3.15 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41}} ||
*Lev Givon (Bios 3.15 / EC 3.04) <lev at columbia dot edu>
*Ernesto HernÃ¡ndez-Novich (Bios 3.19 / CP 3.04) < emhn at usb dot ve >
*[http://maebmij.org James Ballantine] (Bios 3.21 / CP 3.04) using nondisk/cabextract/CDRW
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41p}} ||
*Nils Newman, work great. (Version: Bios 3.14 / Embedded Controller 3.04)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42}} ||
*Dan (BIOS 3.20 / EC 3.04, cabextract/CD method) <tronic171 at evilphb.org>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42p}} ||
*Robert Schiele <rschiele@uni-mannheim.de>, Joern Heissler <joern@heissler.de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T43}} ||
*Conrad Rentsch <Conrad dot Rentsch at t-online dot de> (Version: Bios 1.29 / Embedded Controller 1.06)
*Tom Heady <tom-thinkwiki.org@punch.net>
*Florian Boucault <florian at boucault dot ath dot cx> (Model : 1871-W34 & Version: Bios 1.23 / Embedded Controller 1.03)
*Till Heikamp <t dot heikamp at geniusbytes dot com> (Model 2886, Bios 1.22 to 1.29, Embedded Controller 1.03 to 1.06)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T60}} ||
*Roman Komkov <roman at komkov dot org dot ru> (Model 1951, Bios 1.07 to 2.13) Successfully upgraded from CD Image
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X20}} ||
*Neil Caunt <retardis at gmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X21}} ||
*Patrick Leickner <ranma at web dot de>, (BIOS 2.21->2.25 / EC 1.31->1.36) via non-disk/cabextract/mkisofs/cdrecord
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X22}} ||
*David Emery <dave at skiddlydee dot com>, (EC 1.30, BIOS 1.32 using non-disk/cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X23}} ||
*Nils Faerber <nils dot faerber at kernelconcepts dot de> (Embedded Controller 1.30, BIOS 1.32 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X30}} ||
*Hella Breitkopf, [http://www.unixwitch.de/ www] (Embedded Controller 1.04, BIOS 1.07 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X31}} ||
*Grzegorz KuÅ›nierz <koniu at sheket dot org> (Embedded Controller 1.08, BIOS 3.01 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X40}} ||
*Robbie Stone <robbie@serendipity.cx>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Z60m}} ||
*[[User:Morle|Morle]] 13:09, 20 May 2006 (CEST), (Embedded Controller 1.14 with cabextract/CD method)
|}

===Does not work:===
{|
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|}

Please note that testing this is '''at your own risk'''!!!

==Updating via Grub and a Floppy Image==

{{WARN|Many have warned '''not''' to use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools may crash in that situation! Proceed at your own risk!}}

Floppy images may be booted from Grub via a utility called [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK], which may be compiled from the [http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/ '''SYSLINUX source''']. Copy the compiled memdisk image and the floppy image to your boot directory and configure grub as follows:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
title Bios Flash
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd /boot/FILENAME.img
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

Again, proceed at your own risk. This was tested on an R51 type 2888.

This also worked for me on a T41p type 2373. -- [[User:MrStaticVoid|James Lee]] 20:55, 8 May 2006 (CEST)

And it worked for me on a X31 type 2673-CBU. -- [[User:JanTopinski|Jan Topinski]], 18 September 2006

And it worked for me too on a X31 type 2672-CXU, very useful. -- [[User:TheAnarcat|TheAnarcat]] 16:21, 7 March 2007 (CET)

Same here (worked) on a X31 type 2673-58G --[[User:FaUl|FaUl]] 15:53, 20 June 2007 (UTC)FaUl

Works well on a X31 type 2672-PG9, but with a big moment between starting update and the updating window -- [[User:Starox|Starox]] 22 Jul 2007

And it worked for me on two X40 type 2371 -- [[User:Antialize|Jakob Truelsen]], 19 Jan 2007 -- BIOS: 2.07 1uuj21us.exe -- ECP: 1.62 1uhj10us.exe

Not working for me on T43 type 2668-F7G -- [[User:Maus3273|Maus3273]] 20:48, 30 January 2007 (CET) -- BIOS: 1.29 1YUJ18US.IMG -- I got into the bios program, but the machine never restarts after initiating the upgrade.

X41 type 2525-F8G -- [[User:ladoga|Lauri Koponen]], 11:08 16 Apr 2007 
BIOS: 2.09 (74UJ15US.IMG), is no go. (hangs while initialising the actual flashing process) I tried with 2.07 (74UJ13US.IMG) and 2.06 (74UJ12US.IMG) aswell and they all failed in the very same fashion. 
ECP: 1.02 74HJ03US.IMG, works.

It works fine on R30 type 2656-64g, BIOS v.1.40 -- [[User:english.voodoo|Yuri Spirin]], 10 May 2007.

==Updating with Network Boot Image==

BIOS, Embedded Controller (EC), CD/DVD and Harddisk firmware disks can be booted
over the network with [http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php PXELINUX] as part of the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] package.

This requires that you have a DHCP and tftp server configured and setup properly on
your network, and is probably not for the faint of heart.

Make sure the firmware bootdisk is in linux 'dd' format, as the self-extracting .exe disks
from the IBM website cannot be booted directly as such.

This worked on the {{R31}}, {{X22}}, {{T21}}, {{T30}} and {{T41p}} with various firmware updates.

On {{X22}}, works with EC 1.30 but NOT with BIOS 1.32

==Updating via "IBM Predesktop area", suitable for model X (not have CDROM and floppy)==
It's so difficult to update BIOS and ECP without cdrom, floppy disk.
Don't know the reason why I couldn't update BIOS and ECP(1QHJ08US and 1QUJ19US) for my IBM Thinkpad X31.Hmm, may be cause of the dividing partition on my hard disk, that is:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Primary: ext3, ext3, ntfs
Extended: Ntsf, fat32
Bootloader: GRUB
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

No problem, you can use this way to do it:
* First, config in BIOS
In Security part:
# Remove all password of Subpervisor and Power on password
# Set Access IBM Predesktop Area to Normal
# Choose Enable "Flash BIOS updating by End User" in BIOS update Option.

In Config part:
# Choose Enable for Network flash over Lan

* Second, download the newest version of BIOS update and ECP update
Running: The program extract all files to the folder. There is a .img file (1QUJ19US.IMG, 1QUJ08US.IMG) in each folder.
Copy the imformation content in that img file and paste it to one FAT partition(using winimage or TotalCmd to extract)

as seen All files in 1QUJ19US.IMG is extracted to D:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
695,764 $018E000.FL1
163 0691.HSH
2,049 0691.PAT
163 0694.HSH
2,049 0694.PAT
163 0695.HSH
2,049 0695.PAT
2,049 06D0.PAT
163 06D1.HSH
2,049 06D1.PAT
163 06D2.HSH
2,049 06D2.PAT
163 06D6.HSH
2,049 06D6.PAT
2,049 06D8.PAT
697 CHKBMP.EXE
8,128 COMMAND.COM
26 CONFIG.SYS
24,860 FLASH2.EXE
26 LCREFLSH.BAT
170 LOGO.BAT
330 LOGO.SCR
111,925 PHLASH16.EXE
91,648 PREPARE.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
22,252 QKFLASH.EXE
9,923 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
39,666 UPDTFLSH.EXE
6,958 UPDTMN.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,254 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

And all files in 1QUJ08US.IMG are: D:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
315,404 $018E000.FL2
8,000 COMMAND.COM
36 CONFIG.SYS
16,910 ECFLASH2.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
17,812 QKFLASH.EXE
990 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
89,738 UPDTEC.EXE
31,134 UPDTFLSH.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,226 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

* Okie, now plug AC Adapter, charge full battery to your laptop and continue third step:

** '''Flash BIOS first,'''
1. Power On, press blue button on keyboard: '''Access IBM'''

2. On "Utilities", double click " Diagnostic disk"

3. Your laptop will start PC-DOS, wait when this message appear:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Please insert the first floppy diskette and
Press any key to continue
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

4. Press Ctrl + Break, you will see :
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;"><pre><nowiki>Terminate batch job (Y/N) ?</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

5. Okie, press Y, you will get DOS prompt like D:\
{{NOTE|D:\ is my RAMDISK, C:\ is my disk format as FAT.!}}

6. Enter to c:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\BIOS
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. Run FLASH2.EXE /u $018E000.FL1

8. Wait flash progress compelete and reboot.
** '''Flash ECP'''
Follow above instruction from step 1 to 5

6. Enter to c:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\ECP
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. run UPDTFLSH.EXE $018E000.FL2

8. Follow UPDTFLSH's instructions

9. Wait flash complete and auto turn off computer.

I done it on my IBM Thinkpad X31.

Enjoy,

Tested by nm.

==Check List==

The following is important to remember:
# You must update '''both''' the Control Program and the BIOS at the same time if your current Control Program is not compatible with the new BIOS (see below)
# You must find versions of the Control Program and BIOS that are compatible. Not all of them are, so follow the readmes on the IBM website carefully to determine which are.
# You must update the Control Program '''before''' you update the BIOS

When the Control Program '''and''' the BIOS need updating, have both update disks or CDs ready. Update the Control Program first and the system should switch itself off when finished. Insert the BIOS update disk and proceed to update the BIOS. When it's all finished, enter setup, reset the settings to their defaults and reboot. Enter setup again and tweak the settings as necessary.

BIOS Upgrade

2007-09-29T08:27:27Z

Voominc: /* Does work: */

__TOC__

This page is meant to describe ways to update the BIOS on a ThinkPad that only runs Linux for users that don't have ready access to Windows. If you have Windows on your ThinkPad you can just boot into it and follow instructions on the IBM website.

{{NOTE| In one case ([[APM setup on a type 2379 ThinkPad T40]]) it was not possible to upgrade the BIOS from Windows XP; a downgrade to Windows 98 was required to successfully run the BIOS upgrade app. The symptoms in this case were that, once the files had been extracted to the hard disk, and the machine was to reboot into the upgrade app, it would beep and hang just before reboot, requiring a power cycle. Once the power was cycled, it would simply reboot back into XP without performing any BIOS upgrade actions. So even if you have Windows, you may still need to use the info on this page.}}

----
==Before You Begin==
Updating the BIOS in Linux (with few exceptions) '''is not officially supported''' by IBM/Lenovo. However there are work arounds.

{{WARN|By following any of the instructions here you are accepting the '''very real risk''' of turning your thinkpad into a big expensive paper weight, as a firmware update gone wrong can create unfixable problems.

'''Proceed at your own risk!'''

It is also important to understand that Thinkpads from IBM have two separate firmwares: the BIOS, and the Embedded Controller program. A given BIOS version will require a certain version of the Embedded Controller program.

The IBM documentation is sometimes unclear about the order in which these two firmwares should be updated. On most, but not all Thinkpads, '''the correct update order is Embedded Controller program first, and then the BIOS'''. Make sure to do the two updates immediately one after the other. Newer models from Lenovo update both the Embedded Controller program and the BIOS at the same time, so you don't have to worry about it.}}

==BIOS Upgrade Paths==

For every firmware (either BIOS or Embedded Controller program) update on the IBM web site there used to be two different firmware update programs provided. The Diskette Updater and the Non Diskette Updater. For newer Lenovo Models the Diskette Updater is replaced with a bootable CD-Image and the Non Diskette Updater is renamed BIOS Update Utility, both of which update the BIOS and the Embedded Controller program at the same time. A list of links to firmware downloads can be found at [[BIOS Upgrade Downloads]] for nearly all Thinkpad Models.

===The Diskette Updater===

The Diskette updater appears to be a 16 bit DOS program which asks you to accept a license agreement. It will run in Windows, DOS, OS/2, or [http://dosemu.sf.net Dosemu] perfectly, but requires a real floppy disk attached via a real floppy controller. A USB Floppy Drive will not work.

===The Bootable CD Image===

Newer models from Lenovo can be updated using the Bootable CD Image. This should be the easiest way for non-Windows users and also maybe a more secure way for Windows users, as well. As the image is provided as a plain ISO-file without any Windows enclosure, you can simply burn it to a CD-R/RW with any modern operating system, as long as you have a CD/DVD-RW Drive and are then able to boot from it.

===Extracting a Bootable CD-ROM Image from the Non Diskette Updater===
{{WARN|Though this process was successfully tested on one version of .exe files found on IBMs website this doesn't mean it will work for all of them. Proceed at your own risk.}}

This installer appears to be a 32bit windows .exe which is designed for updating the BIOS directly from a running Windows OS. It turns out that this .exe is really a wrapper license program around Windows .cab files (see [[How_to_change_the_BIOS_bootsplash_screen|BIOS-Bootsplash]]). If you install the Linux program [http://freshmeat.net/projects/cabextract/ '''cabextract'''] you can expand these .cab files directly. Run the following:

:{{cmduser|cabextract FILENAME.exe}}

This will extract 8 files in the current directory. One of them will be FILENAME.img. In this discussion, "FILENAME" represents the name of the Non Diskette file that you downloaded, such as "1NHJ04US".

You can test that this is really a floppy image by running:

:{{cmdroot|mkdir mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop FILENAME.img mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}}

If the results of {{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}} look like a dos floppy, and no read errors were displayed, you have a pretty good chance that the floppy image is usable.

Unmount the image after you are done:

:{{cmdroot|umount mntfloppy}}

Now, you can proceed to [[BIOS_Upgrade:Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image]], below.

== Updating Thinkpad X Series ==

X Series Thinkpads do not have an internal drive. If there is no Windows installed, the BIOS must be updated by booting from an USB drive or a drive that is integrated in the docking station. Since a while Lenovo provides BIOS updates in form of bootable CD images. Unfortunately, these images are intended to be used with the docking station's CD drive. If you do not own such a drive, things get complicated.

The problem is that current BIOS updates are quite large, about 3 MB in size. Booting from CDs typically works like booting from a 1.44 MB or 2.88 MB floppy disk. The floppy image is stored on the CD and is referenced in the CD's boot record. Because the BIOS update file are that large, they do not fit on such a floppy image. Thus, they must be stored on the CD outside the virtual floppy image. To access these files a driver for the CD drive has to be loaded. Since Lenovo's CD images are intended to be used with a docking station's CD drive, it is not possible to use them for BIOS updates by booting from an USB CD drive.

But there is hope. The CD images provided by Lenovo can be modified such that they contain drivers for USB CD drives. I tested the following with a Thinkpad {{X60s}}.

The idea is to take Lenovo's ISO CD image and modify it such that a USB CD drive can be used instead the CD drive in the docking station. Unfortunately, simply replacing the drivers is not enough. While doing the BIOS update, the USB ports seem to get disabled or something. Therefore, before starting the update process the CD contents have to be copied to a RAM disk. I will describe the procedure step by step.

<ol>
<li>
Download the ISO image style BIOS update from Lenovo's website. This file will be refered to as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.iso</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Extract the floppy image from this ISO image. You can use the following shell script for this task (or an alternative one from [http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~krienke/ftp/noarch/geteltorito/]). Simply save this code into the file <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>, set the x-flag (<tt>chmod +x /tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>) and call it using the command <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. The floppy image contained in the ISO image will then be saved to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. Here is the code of the shell script:
<pre>
#!/bin/bash

# This script extracts the floopy boot image from bootable ISO images
#
# Written by Joachim Selke (mail@joachim-selke.de), 2007-04-07

ISOFILE=$1
IMAGEFILE=$2

if [ ! -r $ISOFILE ]; then
echo $ISOFILE: file does not exist or is not readable
exit 1
fi

if [ -z $IMAGEFILE ]; then
echo Error: no image file specified
exit 1
fi

ISOFILESIZE=`stat -c %s $ISOFILE`

# collect El Torito data
# see http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/98D3219C-9CC9-4DF5-B496-A286D893E36A/0/specscdrom.pdf for reference

BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE=$((17 * 0x800 + 0x47))

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE + 4)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to first sector of boot catalog:
BOOTCATALOG=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTCATALOGBYTE=$((0x$BOOTCATALOG * 0x800))

echo Boot catalog starts at byte $BOOTCATALOGBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 2)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# media type of boot image
# only floppy disk images are supported by this script
BOOTMEDIATYPE=`od -A n -t x1 -N 1 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 1)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

if [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 1 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.2M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1200 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 2 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.44M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1440 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 3 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 2.88M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((2880 / 2))
else
echo Boot media type is $((0x$BOOTMEDIATYPE)). This type is not supported yet.
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to start of boot image
BOOTIMAGE=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 8)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTIMAGEBYTE=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800))

echo Boot image starts at byte $BOOTIMAGEBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800 + $IMAGEBLOCKS * 0x800)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

echo Extracting boot image ...

dd if=$ISOFILE of=$IMAGEFILE bs=2K count=$IMAGEBLOCKS skip=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE))

echo Finished
</pre>
</li>

<li>
Mount the floppy image '''as root''' using the loop device:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
The image is now mounted as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Download needed drivers. First download some [http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/other/driver/f2h_usb.exe USB drivers] from Panasonic Japan. Save the file to <tt>/tmp/f2h_usb.exe</tt> This file is a self-extracting EXE file, that can be executed under Linux using [http://www.winehq.com/ Wine]:
:{{cmduser|wine /tmp/f2h_usb.exe}}
You will be asked where to save the extracted files. Choose <tt>/tmp</tt>. A new directory <tt>/tmp/F2h</tt> containing the needed drivers will be created.

Additionally, you will need drivers for the RAM disk mentioned. Download them from the [http://sourceforge.net/projects/srdisk ReSizeable RAMDisk project]. Unzip them to <tt>/tmp/srdisk</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Let's modify the floppy image:
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/Usbaspi.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/USBCD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/RAMFD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdxms.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdisk.exe /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
Now add the following lines to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/config.sys</tt> replacing the line <tt>DEVICE = A:\IBMTPCD.SYS /R /C</tt>:
<pre>
DEVICE = A:\SRDXMS.SYS
DEVICE = A:\RAMFD.SYS
DEVICE = A:\USBASPI.SYS /V
DEVICE = A:\USBCD.SYS /D:TPCD001
</pre>
Finally, edit the file <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/autoexec.bat</tt> replacing the last line (saying <tt>COMMAND.COM</tt>) by the following:
<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* D:
D:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>

Maybe the RAM disk gets a drive letter different from D: on your system. In this case, you have to change the above lines accordingly.
</li>

<li>
Unmount the floppy image (as root):
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
</li>

<li>
Copy the content of the original CD image to a new directory and create a new ISO file:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkdir /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt/* /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/boot.img}}
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkisofs -relaxed-filenames -b boot.img -o /tmp/bios-new.iso /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/}}
</li>

<li>
The file <tt>/tmp/bios-new.iso</tt> is the modified ISO file. Just burn it to CD and use this CD for updating your BIOS (boot from it using your USB drive). Please give some comments here if it worked for you.
</li>

</ol>

===Alternative method using a USB stick===

''Note: none of the above methods worked on my X60s. This method worked for me, however.'' [[User:PhilipPaeps|PhilipPaeps]] 16:41, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

This method was surprisingly painless once I convinced my ThinkPad X60s to boot DOS from a USB stick. I used VMWare and some mystical tool to get DOS on the stick. If you can find another way to get a bootable DOS stick, please update this section!

* Tell VMWare to create a virtual floppy image for you and format it under Microsoft Windows and tell it to create a system disk. You can do this by clicking into "My Computer", then right-clicking on the "Floppy" icon and selecting "Format". In the box that pops up, you need to check the box that says "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" and then click "Start".

* When you've done that, get this tool: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/330/mirrors.php and install it. The tool is apparantly something HP once wrote, but I have been unable to find a link to it anywhere on the HP website.

* In a command prompt again: <code>C:\DriveKey\HPUSBF.EXE E: -Q -B:A:\</code>, replacing the <code>E:</code> with the "drive letter" associated with your USB stick (you can find this letter in "My Computer" under "Removable Storage"). '''WARNING:''' this wipes anything on the USB stick. You will end up with a USB stick which appears empty at this point, but there is DOS on it somewhere.

* Now mount the BIOS update ISO image from Lenovo as a virtual CDROM using VMWare again and copy the files from it to the USB stick: <code>copy D:\*.* E:\</code>.

At this point, you may want to fiddle with the splash image, as described elsewhere on ThinkWiki.

* Reboot and press F12, tell the BIOS to boot from your USB stick.

* <code>cd flash</code> ; <code>updtflsh.exe</code>

Think happy thoughts. The ThinkPad will beep quite ominously (and loudly!) a couple of times. Do not let this worry you too much. After about three minutes, the program will ask you to press enter to restart and hopefully all will be well.

===Comments===

<ul>

<li>
I have followed your excellent instructions. The CD booted, the update program ran but stopped working and responding while updating. Luckily the BIOS was not destroyed. Since destroying the BIOS is a very high risk, I am going to recover the original Windows on an old HD and will run the update exe update program from there.
</li>

<li>
I followed these clear instructions, and like the comment above I ended up with a CD that booted but the update program stopped working and responding. An ALT-CTRL-DELETE rebooted my x60s, and it works so the BIOS must not have been damaged. I was trying to upgrade from version 2.08 to 2.11, I wonder if these instructions are somehow particular to certain versions?
[[User:Latch|Latch]] 01:22, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
</li>

<li>
After following the above instructions, the program also stopped working while updating the BIOS. But after changing the drive letter from D: to C: (see code below), it everything worked fine. However, I had some trouble figuring out, which letter to choose over D: at first, as the BIOS Upgrade program started right away.

<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* C:
C:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>
[[User:Mtx|Mtx]], 1 August 2007, Thinkpad X61s
</li>

<li>
Flashing the bios (2.12) works for me on a X60s (using drive c). Using the DVD-R on an USB-Hub did not work. [[User:Ra|Ra]] 00:15, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
</li>

</ul>

==Updating via CD/DVD Drive==

The whole thing gets more complicated if you neither have Windows nor a floppy drive installed. This is what this page is intended to describe.

Another possibility which works even without a CD-drive or network is to boot the disk image via the grub initrd mechanism.

Be aware that IBM officially does '''not''' support this! The official statement to my support request was:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
I'm afraid we only support the options listed on our web page and no you
can't burn a CD/DVD, however you can try to use an external USB FDD
(floppy) drive. The experts recommend a IBM USB FDD, however they have also
tested it with a Sony USB FDD drive.

In order to make sure the drive is recognised you can boot up the FDD with
a bootable dos diskette for w98
</nowiki></pre>
</blockquote>

But it seems to be possible as Mathias Dalheimer describes this [http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html here].

Another indication that it should work is that IBM uses PHLASH16.EXE (at least on T4x/p systems) to flash the BIOS into the chip. The same tool is used by [http://www.samsungpc.com/gb/support/p35/bios/bios-instructions.html other vendors] to flash the BIOS from bootable CD-ROMs.
{{WARN|Do '''not''' use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools crash in that situation!}}

Some interesting but very technical information about the used flash tool can be found [http://www.paul.sladen.org/thinkpad-r31/wifi-card-pci-ids.html here].

===Creating a Floppy Image===
If you have created a boot floppy on another machine, you need to create an image file of that floppy. This can be easily done in linux by running a command line:

:{{cmdroot|1=dd bs=2x80x18b if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/floppy.img}}

You can also create a floppy image by using Ken Kato's [http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html VMware's back]. It is a free Windoze tool that creates a virtual floppy drive and allows you to produce an image file ready to be ISO'ed. Note: you might have to 'manually' (through application's interface) assign the virtual drive a volume letter in order to be seen by IBM's application (as, by default, it seems not to do it).

You should verify this {{path|floppy.img}} as explained above.

===Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image===
Once you have your floppy image, either from imaging a real floppy, or from extracting them via the cabextract method above, you need to make a boot CD out of it.

The eltorito bootable CD standard is a wonderful thing. What this means is that a bootable CD can be made with a bootable floppy in such as way that the CD believes that it is a 2.88 MB floppy drive. This allows you to replace a boot floppy by a boot CD in nearly all situations.

It is very easy to create such a bootable CD ISO image in Linux using the mkisofs tool. To do this run a command as follows:

:{{cmdroot|mkisofs -b bootfloppy.img -o bootcd.iso bootfloppy.img}}

where bootfloppy.img is the name of the .img floppy image file, for example 1NUJ10US.IMG.

Note: This creates a CD with one file on it and marks that file as the boot image. For more info on this read {{cmduser|man mkisofs}}.

You can now burn the {{path|bootcd.iso}} in your favorite CD burning program.

To get an overview which models have been tested with this version, here is a list:

===Does work:===
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-4AU) ||
*George Tellalov <gtellalov_dontspamme@bigfoot.com>. BIOS 1.16 from spsdin36.exe worked perfectly with the method bootable cd from floppy image. I highly recommend this upgrade because it made my ibm-acpi module load (it wouldn't load before) and fixed some suspend to ram problems. Here's the [http://george.tellalov.info/bios_upgrade_600e_spsdin36.iso cd image] I used. Use at your own risk. You can send me a chocolate if it works for you ;)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-5bU) ||
*Mike Vincent<matchstc-putobvioushere.com>. Bios 1.16 from spsdin36.exe and then to the boot cd worked great for me. Thought I had bricked it three separate times using a "real" floppy! Each from different diskettes .The updater would start, give me the "going to take30 seconds" speech...and then access the HD for 10 minutes. Each time it would reboot fine. Did the cd as described above...worked great first time. Perhaps 10 year old seldom used floppy disc drives have some challenges?
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Jonathan Byrne <jonathan@RemoveThisToMailMe.yamame.org>. BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe worked perfectly using cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Andy Barnes <andy@RemoveThisToMailMe.itchypaws.co.uk>. As per Jonathan above, extracted BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe using cabextract, created a CD boot image and burnt to CD. Worked flawlessly - thanks to everyone who contributed to this article!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A20p}} (2629-6VU) ||
*Chris Pickett http://www.sable.mcgill.ca/~cpicke/. BIOS 1.11 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A21e}} (2628-JXU) ||
*Amit Gurdasani <gurdasani at yahoo dot com>. BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method. Alarmingly, after the BIOS update, the laptop beeped but did not shut down as was indicated onscreen -- that was frozen on the "do not shut down the laptop" screen. On power down and up again, the BIOS setup showed the newer BIOS image running, and Linux booted up fine. Linux ACPI didn't complain about the BIOS being too old either.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31p}} (2653) ||
*Matthias Meinke largeeddy@gmx.at, BIOS 1.09 1NET15WW flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31}} (2652) ||
*[[User:Wnoise|Aaron Denney]], BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method. The cabextract/CD method also worked for BIOS 1.10.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R30}} ||
*Jarrod, 30 August 2007, Thinkpad R30 Type 2656-E0M. BIOS updated to 1.40 (1CETF0WW) using floppy disk/mkisofs/cdrecord. Worked fine, no problems.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R31}} ||
*[http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html Mathias Dalheimer]
*Sebastian Sauer (with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R40}} ||
*Matthew Lambie, http://lambie.org
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50}} (1836-3SU) ||
*jlbartos <jlbartos at hotmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50e}} (1834-PTG) ||
*item <item at freemail dot hu> : successfully finished with cabextract/CD method for "1wuj25us.exe" (BIOS version 1WET90WW (2.10), Release Date: 2006/12/22)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1829) ||
*Robert Uhl <rob dot uhl at gmx dot de>, Jellby <jellby at yahoo dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1830-RM7) ||
*Will Parker <stardotstar at sourcepoint dot com dot au> successfully flashed 3.20 using existing 3.04 ECP and retained custom boot splash.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (2887) ||
*Ingo van Lil <inguin at gmx dot de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R52}} (1858) ||
*Stuart McCord <stuart dot mccord at gmail dot com> flashed both BIOS and ECP using cabextract, BIOS flashed first as on IBM website
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T20}} ||
*Franz Hassels <fhassel at suse dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T22}} ||
*Daniel Maier <nusse teamidiot de>
*Mathias Behrle (with cabextract/CD method, Version 1.07 => 1.12) --[[User:Mathiasb|Mathiasb]] 11:58, 14 December 2006 (CET)
*Bob Skaroff (cabextract/CD), 1.06 => 1.12
*Leo Butler (cabextract/CD), 1.11 => 1.12
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T23}} ||
*Bart Snapp <snapp at uiuc dot edu> Note: I followed IBM's instructions to flash the BIOS *first* and the Embedded Controller *second*.
*Moy Easwaran: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a via cabextract and CD-boot. The BIOS-update exe generated errors in Windows 2000.
*Joe Renes: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a on 2006-03-20 via cabextract and CD-boot. Piece of cake.
*Raphael Errani: BIOS 1.20 / EC 1.06a on 2006-11-06 via cabextract and CD-boot (using mkisofs). Worked without errors. 1st Bios, 2nd EC
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T30}} ||
*Martin GÃ¼hring <guehring at gmail.com> BIOS 2.10 via cabextract the Non-Diskette BIOS -> mkisofs '''in the directory the exe was extracted''' to generate the iso -> burn the iso -> boot the CD
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40}} ||
*Sean Dague, http://dague.net
*Justin Mason, http://jmason.org
*Ivanhoe (Bios 3.19)
*Alessandro Raulino (roger_2) EC 3.04 & BIOS 3.23 flashed with cabextract/CD method
*Nick Jenkins, using BIOS 3.23 with the [[#The_Non_Diskette_Updater|Non-diskette updater + cabextract method]], then [[#Creating_a_Bootable_CD_from_a_Floppy_Image|created a bootable CD from the cabextracted .IMG file]], then boot that ISO, and it worked great!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40p}} ||
*Lukas KrÃ¤henbÃ¼hl, ismo at pop dot agri dot ch
*Thomas Achtemichuk, tom at tomchuk dot com. BIOS 3.15 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41}} ||
*Lev Givon (Bios 3.15 / EC 3.04) <lev at columbia dot edu>
*Ernesto HernÃ¡ndez-Novich (Bios 3.19 / CP 3.04) < emhn at usb dot ve >
*[http://maebmij.org James Ballantine] (Bios 3.21 / CP 3.04) using nondisk/cabextract/CDRW
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41p}} ||
*Nils Newman, work great. (Version: Bios 3.14 / Embedded Controller 3.04)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42}} ||
*Dan (BIOS 3.20 / EC 3.04, cabextract/CD method) <tronic171 at evilphb.org>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42p}} ||
*Robert Schiele <rschiele@uni-mannheim.de>, Joern Heissler <joern@heissler.de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T43}} ||
*Conrad Rentsch <Conrad dot Rentsch at t-online dot de> (Version: Bios 1.29 / Embedded Controller 1.06)
*Tom Heady <tom-thinkwiki.org@punch.net>
*Florian Boucault <florian at boucault dot ath dot cx> (Model : 1871-W34 & Version: Bios 1.23 / Embedded Controller 1.03)
*Till Heikamp <t dot heikamp at geniusbytes dot com> (Model 2886, Bios 1.22 to 1.29, Embedded Controller 1.03 to 1.06)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T60}} ||
*Roman Komkov <roman at komkov dot org dot ru> (Model 1951, Bios 1.07 to 2.13) Successfully upgraded from CD Image
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X20}} ||
*Neil Caunt <retardis at gmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X21}} ||
*Patrick Leickner <ranma at web dot de>, (BIOS 2.21->2.25 / EC 1.31->1.36) via non-disk/cabextract/mkisofs/cdrecord
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X22}} ||
*David Emery <dave at skiddlydee dot com>, (EC 1.30, BIOS 1.32 using non-disk/cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X23}} ||
*Nils Faerber <nils dot faerber at kernelconcepts dot de> (Embedded Controller 1.30, BIOS 1.32 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X30}} ||
*Hella Breitkopf, [http://www.unixwitch.de/ www] (Embedded Controller 1.04, BIOS 1.07 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X31}} ||
*Grzegorz KuÅ›nierz <koniu at sheket dot org> (Embedded Controller 1.08, BIOS 3.01 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X40}} ||
*Robbie Stone <robbie@serendipity.cx>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Z60m}} ||
*[[User:Morle|Morle]] 13:09, 20 May 2006 (CEST), (Embedded Controller 1.14 with cabextract/CD method)
|}

===Does not work:===
{|
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|}

Please note that testing this is '''at your own risk'''!!!

==Updating via Grub and a Floppy Image==

{{WARN|Many have warned '''not''' to use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools may crash in that situation! Proceed at your own risk!}}

Floppy images may be booted from Grub via a utility called [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK], which may be compiled from the [http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/ '''SYSLINUX source''']. Copy the compiled memdisk image and the floppy image to your boot directory and configure grub as follows:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
title Bios Flash
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd /boot/FILENAME.img
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

Again, proceed at your own risk. This was tested on an R51 type 2888.

This also worked for me on a T41p type 2373. -- [[User:MrStaticVoid|James Lee]] 20:55, 8 May 2006 (CEST)

And it worked for me on a X31 type 2673-CBU. -- [[User:JanTopinski|Jan Topinski]], 18 September 2006

And it worked for me too on a X31 type 2672-CXU, very useful. -- [[User:TheAnarcat|TheAnarcat]] 16:21, 7 March 2007 (CET)

Same here (worked) on a X31 type 2673-58G --[[User:FaUl|FaUl]] 15:53, 20 June 2007 (UTC)FaUl

Works well on a X31 type 2672-PG9, but with a big moment between starting update and the updating window -- [[User:Starox|Starox]] 22 Jul 2007

And it worked for me on two X40 type 2371 -- [[User:Antialize|Jakob Truelsen]], 19 Jan 2007 -- BIOS: 2.07 1uuj21us.exe -- ECP: 1.62 1uhj10us.exe

Not working for me on T43 type 2668-F7G -- [[User:Maus3273|Maus3273]] 20:48, 30 January 2007 (CET) -- BIOS: 1.29 1YUJ18US.IMG -- I got into the bios program, but the machine never restarts after initiating the upgrade.

X41 type 2525-F8G -- [[User:ladoga|Lauri Koponen]], 11:08 16 Apr 2007 
BIOS: 2.09 (74UJ15US.IMG), is no go. (hangs while initialising the actual flashing process) I tried with 2.07 (74UJ13US.IMG) and 2.06 (74UJ12US.IMG) aswell and they all failed in the very same fashion. 
ECP: 1.02 74HJ03US.IMG, works.

It works fine on R30 type 2656-64g, BIOS v.1.40 -- [[User:english.voodoo|Yuri Spirin]], 10 May 2007.

==Updating with Network Boot Image==

BIOS, Embedded Controller (EC), CD/DVD and Harddisk firmware disks can be booted
over the network with [http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php PXELINUX] as part of the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] package.

This requires that you have a DHCP and tftp server configured and setup properly on
your network, and is probably not for the faint of heart.

Make sure the firmware bootdisk is in linux 'dd' format, as the self-extracting .exe disks
from the IBM website cannot be booted directly as such.

This worked on the {{R31}}, {{X22}}, {{T21}}, {{T30}} and {{T41p}} with various firmware updates.

On {{X22}}, works with EC 1.30 but NOT with BIOS 1.32

==Updating via "IBM Predesktop area", suitable for model X (not have CDROM and floppy)==
It's so difficult to update BIOS and ECP without cdrom, floppy disk.
Don't know the reason why I couldn't update BIOS and ECP(1QHJ08US and 1QUJ19US) for my IBM Thinkpad X31.Hmm, may be cause of the dividing partition on my hard disk, that is:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Primary: ext3, ext3, ntfs
Extended: Ntsf, fat32
Bootloader: GRUB
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

No problem, you can use this way to do it:
* First, config in BIOS
In Security part:
# Remove all password of Subpervisor and Power on password
# Set Access IBM Predesktop Area to Normal
# Choose Enable "Flash BIOS updating by End User" in BIOS update Option.

In Config part:
# Choose Enable for Network flash over Lan

* Second, download the newest version of BIOS update and ECP update
Running: The program extract all files to the folder. There is a .img file (1QUJ19US.IMG, 1QUJ08US.IMG) in each folder.
Copy the imformation content in that img file and paste it to one FAT partition(using winimage or TotalCmd to extract)

as seen All files in 1QUJ19US.IMG is extracted to D:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
695,764 $018E000.FL1
163 0691.HSH
2,049 0691.PAT
163 0694.HSH
2,049 0694.PAT
163 0695.HSH
2,049 0695.PAT
2,049 06D0.PAT
163 06D1.HSH
2,049 06D1.PAT
163 06D2.HSH
2,049 06D2.PAT
163 06D6.HSH
2,049 06D6.PAT
2,049 06D8.PAT
697 CHKBMP.EXE
8,128 COMMAND.COM
26 CONFIG.SYS
24,860 FLASH2.EXE
26 LCREFLSH.BAT
170 LOGO.BAT
330 LOGO.SCR
111,925 PHLASH16.EXE
91,648 PREPARE.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
22,252 QKFLASH.EXE
9,923 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
39,666 UPDTFLSH.EXE
6,958 UPDTMN.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,254 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

And all files in 1QUJ08US.IMG are: D:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
315,404 $018E000.FL2
8,000 COMMAND.COM
36 CONFIG.SYS
16,910 ECFLASH2.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
17,812 QKFLASH.EXE
990 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
89,738 UPDTEC.EXE
31,134 UPDTFLSH.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,226 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

* Okie, now plug AC Adapter, charge full battery to your laptop and continue third step:

** '''Flash BIOS first,'''
1. Power On, press blue button on keyboard: '''Access IBM'''

2. On "Utilities", double click " Diagnostic disk"

3. Your laptop will start PC-DOS, wait when this message appear:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Please insert the first floppy diskette and
Press any key to continue
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

4. Press Ctrl + Break, you will see :
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;"><pre><nowiki>Terminate batch job (Y/N) ?</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

5. Okie, press Y, you will get DOS prompt like D:\
{{NOTE|D:\ is my RAMDISK, C:\ is my disk format as FAT.!}}

6. Enter to c:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\BIOS
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. Run FLASH2.EXE /u $018E000.FL1

8. Wait flash progress compelete and reboot.
** '''Flash ECP'''
Follow above instruction from step 1 to 5

6. Enter to c:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\ECP
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. run UPDTFLSH.EXE $018E000.FL2

8. Follow UPDTFLSH's instructions

9. Wait flash complete and auto turn off computer.

I done it on my IBM Thinkpad X31.

Enjoy,

Tested by nm.

==Check List==

The following is important to remember:
# You must update '''both''' the Control Program and the BIOS at the same time if your current Control Program is not compatible with the new BIOS (see below)
# You must find versions of the Control Program and BIOS that are compatible. Not all of them are, so follow the readmes on the IBM website carefully to determine which are.
# You must update the Control Program '''before''' you update the BIOS

When the Control Program '''and''' the BIOS need updating, have both update disks or CDs ready. Update the Control Program first and the system should switch itself off when finished. Insert the BIOS update disk and proceed to update the BIOS. When it's all finished, enter setup, reset the settings to their defaults and reboot. Enter setup again and tweak the settings as necessary.

BIOS Upgrade

2007-09-29T08:22:45Z

Voominc: /* Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image */

__TOC__

This page is meant to describe ways to update the BIOS on a ThinkPad that only runs Linux for users that don't have ready access to Windows. If you have Windows on your ThinkPad you can just boot into it and follow instructions on the IBM website.

{{NOTE| In one case ([[APM setup on a type 2379 ThinkPad T40]]) it was not possible to upgrade the BIOS from Windows XP; a downgrade to Windows 98 was required to successfully run the BIOS upgrade app. The symptoms in this case were that, once the files had been extracted to the hard disk, and the machine was to reboot into the upgrade app, it would beep and hang just before reboot, requiring a power cycle. Once the power was cycled, it would simply reboot back into XP without performing any BIOS upgrade actions. So even if you have Windows, you may still need to use the info on this page.}}

----
==Before You Begin==
Updating the BIOS in Linux (with few exceptions) '''is not officially supported''' by IBM/Lenovo. However there are work arounds.

{{WARN|By following any of the instructions here you are accepting the '''very real risk''' of turning your thinkpad into a big expensive paper weight, as a firmware update gone wrong can create unfixable problems.

'''Proceed at your own risk!'''

It is also important to understand that Thinkpads from IBM have two separate firmwares: the BIOS, and the Embedded Controller program. A given BIOS version will require a certain version of the Embedded Controller program.

The IBM documentation is sometimes unclear about the order in which these two firmwares should be updated. On most, but not all Thinkpads, '''the correct update order is Embedded Controller program first, and then the BIOS'''. Make sure to do the two updates immediately one after the other. Newer models from Lenovo update both the Embedded Controller program and the BIOS at the same time, so you don't have to worry about it.}}

==BIOS Upgrade Paths==

For every firmware (either BIOS or Embedded Controller program) update on the IBM web site there used to be two different firmware update programs provided. The Diskette Updater and the Non Diskette Updater. For newer Lenovo Models the Diskette Updater is replaced with a bootable CD-Image and the Non Diskette Updater is renamed BIOS Update Utility, both of which update the BIOS and the Embedded Controller program at the same time. A list of links to firmware downloads can be found at [[BIOS Upgrade Downloads]] for nearly all Thinkpad Models.

===The Diskette Updater===

The Diskette updater appears to be a 16 bit DOS program which asks you to accept a license agreement. It will run in Windows, DOS, OS/2, or [http://dosemu.sf.net Dosemu] perfectly, but requires a real floppy disk attached via a real floppy controller. A USB Floppy Drive will not work.

===The Bootable CD Image===

Newer models from Lenovo can be updated using the Bootable CD Image. This should be the easiest way for non-Windows users and also maybe a more secure way for Windows users, as well. As the image is provided as a plain ISO-file without any Windows enclosure, you can simply burn it to a CD-R/RW with any modern operating system, as long as you have a CD/DVD-RW Drive and are then able to boot from it.

===Extracting a Bootable CD-ROM Image from the Non Diskette Updater===
{{WARN|Though this process was successfully tested on one version of .exe files found on IBMs website this doesn't mean it will work for all of them. Proceed at your own risk.}}

This installer appears to be a 32bit windows .exe which is designed for updating the BIOS directly from a running Windows OS. It turns out that this .exe is really a wrapper license program around Windows .cab files (see [[How_to_change_the_BIOS_bootsplash_screen|BIOS-Bootsplash]]). If you install the Linux program [http://freshmeat.net/projects/cabextract/ '''cabextract'''] you can expand these .cab files directly. Run the following:

:{{cmduser|cabextract FILENAME.exe}}

This will extract 8 files in the current directory. One of them will be FILENAME.img. In this discussion, "FILENAME" represents the name of the Non Diskette file that you downloaded, such as "1NHJ04US".

You can test that this is really a floppy image by running:

:{{cmdroot|mkdir mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop FILENAME.img mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}}

If the results of {{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}} look like a dos floppy, and no read errors were displayed, you have a pretty good chance that the floppy image is usable.

Unmount the image after you are done:

:{{cmdroot|umount mntfloppy}}

Now, you can proceed to [[BIOS_Upgrade:Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image]], below.

== Updating Thinkpad X Series ==

X Series Thinkpads do not have an internal drive. If there is no Windows installed, the BIOS must be updated by booting from an USB drive or a drive that is integrated in the docking station. Since a while Lenovo provides BIOS updates in form of bootable CD images. Unfortunately, these images are intended to be used with the docking station's CD drive. If you do not own such a drive, things get complicated.

The problem is that current BIOS updates are quite large, about 3 MB in size. Booting from CDs typically works like booting from a 1.44 MB or 2.88 MB floppy disk. The floppy image is stored on the CD and is referenced in the CD's boot record. Because the BIOS update file are that large, they do not fit on such a floppy image. Thus, they must be stored on the CD outside the virtual floppy image. To access these files a driver for the CD drive has to be loaded. Since Lenovo's CD images are intended to be used with a docking station's CD drive, it is not possible to use them for BIOS updates by booting from an USB CD drive.

But there is hope. The CD images provided by Lenovo can be modified such that they contain drivers for USB CD drives. I tested the following with a Thinkpad {{X60s}}.

The idea is to take Lenovo's ISO CD image and modify it such that a USB CD drive can be used instead the CD drive in the docking station. Unfortunately, simply replacing the drivers is not enough. While doing the BIOS update, the USB ports seem to get disabled or something. Therefore, before starting the update process the CD contents have to be copied to a RAM disk. I will describe the procedure step by step.

<ol>
<li>
Download the ISO image style BIOS update from Lenovo's website. This file will be refered to as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.iso</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Extract the floppy image from this ISO image. You can use the following shell script for this task (or an alternative one from [http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~krienke/ftp/noarch/geteltorito/]). Simply save this code into the file <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>, set the x-flag (<tt>chmod +x /tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>) and call it using the command <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. The floppy image contained in the ISO image will then be saved to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. Here is the code of the shell script:
<pre>
#!/bin/bash

# This script extracts the floopy boot image from bootable ISO images
#
# Written by Joachim Selke (mail@joachim-selke.de), 2007-04-07

ISOFILE=$1
IMAGEFILE=$2

if [ ! -r $ISOFILE ]; then
echo $ISOFILE: file does not exist or is not readable
exit 1
fi

if [ -z $IMAGEFILE ]; then
echo Error: no image file specified
exit 1
fi

ISOFILESIZE=`stat -c %s $ISOFILE`

# collect El Torito data
# see http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/98D3219C-9CC9-4DF5-B496-A286D893E36A/0/specscdrom.pdf for reference

BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE=$((17 * 0x800 + 0x47))

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE + 4)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to first sector of boot catalog:
BOOTCATALOG=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTCATALOGBYTE=$((0x$BOOTCATALOG * 0x800))

echo Boot catalog starts at byte $BOOTCATALOGBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 2)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# media type of boot image
# only floppy disk images are supported by this script
BOOTMEDIATYPE=`od -A n -t x1 -N 1 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 1)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

if [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 1 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.2M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1200 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 2 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.44M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1440 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 3 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 2.88M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((2880 / 2))
else
echo Boot media type is $((0x$BOOTMEDIATYPE)). This type is not supported yet.
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to start of boot image
BOOTIMAGE=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 8)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTIMAGEBYTE=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800))

echo Boot image starts at byte $BOOTIMAGEBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800 + $IMAGEBLOCKS * 0x800)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

echo Extracting boot image ...

dd if=$ISOFILE of=$IMAGEFILE bs=2K count=$IMAGEBLOCKS skip=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE))

echo Finished
</pre>
</li>

<li>
Mount the floppy image '''as root''' using the loop device:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
The image is now mounted as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Download needed drivers. First download some [http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/other/driver/f2h_usb.exe USB drivers] from Panasonic Japan. Save the file to <tt>/tmp/f2h_usb.exe</tt> This file is a self-extracting EXE file, that can be executed under Linux using [http://www.winehq.com/ Wine]:
:{{cmduser|wine /tmp/f2h_usb.exe}}
You will be asked where to save the extracted files. Choose <tt>/tmp</tt>. A new directory <tt>/tmp/F2h</tt> containing the needed drivers will be created.

Additionally, you will need drivers for the RAM disk mentioned. Download them from the [http://sourceforge.net/projects/srdisk ReSizeable RAMDisk project]. Unzip them to <tt>/tmp/srdisk</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Let's modify the floppy image:
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/Usbaspi.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/USBCD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/RAMFD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdxms.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdisk.exe /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
Now add the following lines to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/config.sys</tt> replacing the line <tt>DEVICE = A:\IBMTPCD.SYS /R /C</tt>:
<pre>
DEVICE = A:\SRDXMS.SYS
DEVICE = A:\RAMFD.SYS
DEVICE = A:\USBASPI.SYS /V
DEVICE = A:\USBCD.SYS /D:TPCD001
</pre>
Finally, edit the file <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/autoexec.bat</tt> replacing the last line (saying <tt>COMMAND.COM</tt>) by the following:
<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* D:
D:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>

Maybe the RAM disk gets a drive letter different from D: on your system. In this case, you have to change the above lines accordingly.
</li>

<li>
Unmount the floppy image (as root):
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
</li>

<li>
Copy the content of the original CD image to a new directory and create a new ISO file:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkdir /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt/* /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/boot.img}}
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkisofs -relaxed-filenames -b boot.img -o /tmp/bios-new.iso /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/}}
</li>

<li>
The file <tt>/tmp/bios-new.iso</tt> is the modified ISO file. Just burn it to CD and use this CD for updating your BIOS (boot from it using your USB drive). Please give some comments here if it worked for you.
</li>

</ol>

===Alternative method using a USB stick===

''Note: none of the above methods worked on my X60s. This method worked for me, however.'' [[User:PhilipPaeps|PhilipPaeps]] 16:41, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

This method was surprisingly painless once I convinced my ThinkPad X60s to boot DOS from a USB stick. I used VMWare and some mystical tool to get DOS on the stick. If you can find another way to get a bootable DOS stick, please update this section!

* Tell VMWare to create a virtual floppy image for you and format it under Microsoft Windows and tell it to create a system disk. You can do this by clicking into "My Computer", then right-clicking on the "Floppy" icon and selecting "Format". In the box that pops up, you need to check the box that says "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" and then click "Start".

* When you've done that, get this tool: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/330/mirrors.php and install it. The tool is apparantly something HP once wrote, but I have been unable to find a link to it anywhere on the HP website.

* In a command prompt again: <code>C:\DriveKey\HPUSBF.EXE E: -Q -B:A:\</code>, replacing the <code>E:</code> with the "drive letter" associated with your USB stick (you can find this letter in "My Computer" under "Removable Storage"). '''WARNING:''' this wipes anything on the USB stick. You will end up with a USB stick which appears empty at this point, but there is DOS on it somewhere.

* Now mount the BIOS update ISO image from Lenovo as a virtual CDROM using VMWare again and copy the files from it to the USB stick: <code>copy D:\*.* E:\</code>.

At this point, you may want to fiddle with the splash image, as described elsewhere on ThinkWiki.

* Reboot and press F12, tell the BIOS to boot from your USB stick.

* <code>cd flash</code> ; <code>updtflsh.exe</code>

Think happy thoughts. The ThinkPad will beep quite ominously (and loudly!) a couple of times. Do not let this worry you too much. After about three minutes, the program will ask you to press enter to restart and hopefully all will be well.

===Comments===

<ul>

<li>
I have followed your excellent instructions. The CD booted, the update program ran but stopped working and responding while updating. Luckily the BIOS was not destroyed. Since destroying the BIOS is a very high risk, I am going to recover the original Windows on an old HD and will run the update exe update program from there.
</li>

<li>
I followed these clear instructions, and like the comment above I ended up with a CD that booted but the update program stopped working and responding. An ALT-CTRL-DELETE rebooted my x60s, and it works so the BIOS must not have been damaged. I was trying to upgrade from version 2.08 to 2.11, I wonder if these instructions are somehow particular to certain versions?
[[User:Latch|Latch]] 01:22, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
</li>

<li>
After following the above instructions, the program also stopped working while updating the BIOS. But after changing the drive letter from D: to C: (see code below), it everything worked fine. However, I had some trouble figuring out, which letter to choose over D: at first, as the BIOS Upgrade program started right away.

<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* C:
C:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>
[[User:Mtx|Mtx]], 1 August 2007, Thinkpad X61s
</li>

<li>
Flashing the bios (2.12) works for me on a X60s (using drive c). Using the DVD-R on an USB-Hub did not work. [[User:Ra|Ra]] 00:15, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
</li>

</ul>

==Updating via CD/DVD Drive==

The whole thing gets more complicated if you neither have Windows nor a floppy drive installed. This is what this page is intended to describe.

Another possibility which works even without a CD-drive or network is to boot the disk image via the grub initrd mechanism.

Be aware that IBM officially does '''not''' support this! The official statement to my support request was:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
I'm afraid we only support the options listed on our web page and no you
can't burn a CD/DVD, however you can try to use an external USB FDD
(floppy) drive. The experts recommend a IBM USB FDD, however they have also
tested it with a Sony USB FDD drive.

In order to make sure the drive is recognised you can boot up the FDD with
a bootable dos diskette for w98
</nowiki></pre>
</blockquote>

But it seems to be possible as Mathias Dalheimer describes this [http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html here].

Another indication that it should work is that IBM uses PHLASH16.EXE (at least on T4x/p systems) to flash the BIOS into the chip. The same tool is used by [http://www.samsungpc.com/gb/support/p35/bios/bios-instructions.html other vendors] to flash the BIOS from bootable CD-ROMs.
{{WARN|Do '''not''' use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools crash in that situation!}}

Some interesting but very technical information about the used flash tool can be found [http://www.paul.sladen.org/thinkpad-r31/wifi-card-pci-ids.html here].

===Creating a Floppy Image===
If you have created a boot floppy on another machine, you need to create an image file of that floppy. This can be easily done in linux by running a command line:

:{{cmdroot|1=dd bs=2x80x18b if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/floppy.img}}

You can also create a floppy image by using Ken Kato's [http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html VMware's back]. It is a free Windoze tool that creates a virtual floppy drive and allows you to produce an image file ready to be ISO'ed. Note: you might have to 'manually' (through application's interface) assign the virtual drive a volume letter in order to be seen by IBM's application (as, by default, it seems not to do it).

You should verify this {{path|floppy.img}} as explained above.

===Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image===
Once you have your floppy image, either from imaging a real floppy, or from extracting them via the cabextract method above, you need to make a boot CD out of it.

The eltorito bootable CD standard is a wonderful thing. What this means is that a bootable CD can be made with a bootable floppy in such as way that the CD believes that it is a 2.88 MB floppy drive. This allows you to replace a boot floppy by a boot CD in nearly all situations.

It is very easy to create such a bootable CD ISO image in Linux using the mkisofs tool. To do this run a command as follows:

:{{cmdroot|mkisofs -b bootfloppy.img -o bootcd.iso bootfloppy.img}}

where bootfloppy.img is the name of the .img floppy image file, for example 1NUJ10US.IMG.

Note: This creates a CD with one file on it and marks that file as the boot image. For more info on this read {{cmduser|man mkisofs}}.

You can now burn the {{path|bootcd.iso}} in your favorite CD burning program.

To get an overview which models have been tested with this version, here is a list:

===Does work:===
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-4AU) ||
*George Tellalov <gtellalov_dontspamme@bigfoot.com>. BIOS 1.16 from spsdin36.exe worked perfectly with the method bootable cd from floppy image. I highly recommend this upgrade because it made my ibm-acpi module load (it wouldn't load before) and fixed some suspend to ram problems. Here's the [http://george.tellalov.info/bios_upgrade_600e_spsdin36.iso cd image] I used. Use at your own risk. You can send me a chocolate if it works for you ;)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-5bU) ||
*Mike Vincent<matchstc-putobvioushere.com>. Bios 1.16 from spsdin36.exe and then to the boot cd worked great for me. Thought I had bricked it three separate times using a "real" floppy! Each from different diskettes .The updater would start, give me the "going to take30 seconds" speech...and then access the HD for 10 minutes. Each time it would reboot fine. Did the cd as described above...worked great first time. Perhaps 10 year old seldom used floppy disc drives have some challenges?
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Jonathan Byrne <jonathan@RemoveThisToMailMe.yamame.org>. BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe worked perfectly using cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Andy Barnes <andy@RemoveThisToMailMe.itchypaws.co.uk>. As per Jonathan above, extracted BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe using cabextract, created a CD boot image and burnt to CD. Worked flawlessly - thanks to everyone who contributed to this article!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A20p}} (2629-6VU) ||
*Chris Pickett http://www.sable.mcgill.ca/~cpicke/. BIOS 1.11 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A21e}} (2628-JXU) ||
*Amit Gurdasani <gurdasani at yahoo dot com>. BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method. Alarmingly, after the BIOS update, the laptop beeped but did not shut down as was indicated onscreen -- that was frozen on the "do not shut down the laptop" screen. On power down and up again, the BIOS setup showed the newer BIOS image running, and Linux booted up fine. Linux ACPI didn't complain about the BIOS being too old either.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31p}} (2653) ||
*Matthias Meinke largeeddy@gmx.at, BIOS 1.09 1NET15WW flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31}} (2652) ||
*[[User:Wnoise|Aaron Denney]], BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R30}} ||
*Jarrod, 30 August 2007, Thinkpad R30 Type 2656-E0M. BIOS updated to 1.40 (1CETF0WW) using floppy disk/mkisofs/cdrecord. Worked fine, no problems.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R31}} ||
*[http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html Mathias Dalheimer]
*Sebastian Sauer (with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R40}} ||
*Matthew Lambie, http://lambie.org
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50}} (1836-3SU) ||
*jlbartos <jlbartos at hotmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50e}} (1834-PTG) ||
*item <item at freemail dot hu> : successfully finished with cabextract/CD method for "1wuj25us.exe" (BIOS version 1WET90WW (2.10), Release Date: 2006/12/22)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1829) ||
*Robert Uhl <rob dot uhl at gmx dot de>, Jellby <jellby at yahoo dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1830-RM7) ||
*Will Parker <stardotstar at sourcepoint dot com dot au> successfully flashed 3.20 using existing 3.04 ECP and retained custom boot splash.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (2887) ||
*Ingo van Lil <inguin at gmx dot de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R52}} (1858) ||
*Stuart McCord <stuart dot mccord at gmail dot com> flashed both BIOS and ECP using cabextract, BIOS flashed first as on IBM website
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T20}} ||
*Franz Hassels <fhassel at suse dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T22}} ||
*Daniel Maier <nusse teamidiot de>
*Mathias Behrle (with cabextract/CD method, Version 1.07 => 1.12) --[[User:Mathiasb|Mathiasb]] 11:58, 14 December 2006 (CET)
*Bob Skaroff (cabextract/CD), 1.06 => 1.12
*Leo Butler (cabextract/CD), 1.11 => 1.12
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T23}} ||
*Bart Snapp <snapp at uiuc dot edu> Note: I followed IBM's instructions to flash the BIOS *first* and the Embedded Controller *second*.
*Moy Easwaran: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a via cabextract and CD-boot. The BIOS-update exe generated errors in Windows 2000.
*Joe Renes: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a on 2006-03-20 via cabextract and CD-boot. Piece of cake.
*Raphael Errani: BIOS 1.20 / EC 1.06a on 2006-11-06 via cabextract and CD-boot (using mkisofs). Worked without errors. 1st Bios, 2nd EC
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T30}} ||
*Martin GÃ¼hring <guehring at gmail.com> BIOS 2.10 via cabextract the Non-Diskette BIOS -> mkisofs '''in the directory the exe was extracted''' to generate the iso -> burn the iso -> boot the CD
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40}} ||
*Sean Dague, http://dague.net
*Justin Mason, http://jmason.org
*Ivanhoe (Bios 3.19)
*Alessandro Raulino (roger_2) EC 3.04 & BIOS 3.23 flashed with cabextract/CD method
*Nick Jenkins, using BIOS 3.23 with the [[#The_Non_Diskette_Updater|Non-diskette updater + cabextract method]], then [[#Creating_a_Bootable_CD_from_a_Floppy_Image|created a bootable CD from the cabextracted .IMG file]], then boot that ISO, and it worked great!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40p}} ||
*Lukas KrÃ¤henbÃ¼hl, ismo at pop dot agri dot ch
*Thomas Achtemichuk, tom at tomchuk dot com. BIOS 3.15 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41}} ||
*Lev Givon (Bios 3.15 / EC 3.04) <lev at columbia dot edu>
*Ernesto HernÃ¡ndez-Novich (Bios 3.19 / CP 3.04) < emhn at usb dot ve >
*[http://maebmij.org James Ballantine] (Bios 3.21 / CP 3.04) using nondisk/cabextract/CDRW
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41p}} ||
*Nils Newman, work great. (Version: Bios 3.14 / Embedded Controller 3.04)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42}} ||
*Dan (BIOS 3.20 / EC 3.04, cabextract/CD method) <tronic171 at evilphb.org>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42p}} ||
*Robert Schiele <rschiele@uni-mannheim.de>, Joern Heissler <joern@heissler.de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T43}} ||
*Conrad Rentsch <Conrad dot Rentsch at t-online dot de> (Version: Bios 1.29 / Embedded Controller 1.06)
*Tom Heady <tom-thinkwiki.org@punch.net>
*Florian Boucault <florian at boucault dot ath dot cx> (Model : 1871-W34 & Version: Bios 1.23 / Embedded Controller 1.03)
*Till Heikamp <t dot heikamp at geniusbytes dot com> (Model 2886, Bios 1.22 to 1.29, Embedded Controller 1.03 to 1.06)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T60}} ||
*Roman Komkov <roman at komkov dot org dot ru> (Model 1951, Bios 1.07 to 2.13) Successfully upgraded from CD Image
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X20}} ||
*Neil Caunt <retardis at gmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X21}} ||
*Patrick Leickner <ranma at web dot de>, (BIOS 2.21->2.25 / EC 1.31->1.36) via non-disk/cabextract/mkisofs/cdrecord
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X22}} ||
*David Emery <dave at skiddlydee dot com>, (EC 1.30, BIOS 1.32 using non-disk/cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X23}} ||
*Nils Faerber <nils dot faerber at kernelconcepts dot de> (Embedded Controller 1.30, BIOS 1.32 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X30}} ||
*Hella Breitkopf, [http://www.unixwitch.de/ www] (Embedded Controller 1.04, BIOS 1.07 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X31}} ||
*Grzegorz KuÅ›nierz <koniu at sheket dot org> (Embedded Controller 1.08, BIOS 3.01 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X40}} ||
*Robbie Stone <robbie@serendipity.cx>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Z60m}} ||
*[[User:Morle|Morle]] 13:09, 20 May 2006 (CEST), (Embedded Controller 1.14 with cabextract/CD method)
|}

===Does not work:===
{|
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|}

Please note that testing this is '''at your own risk'''!!!

==Updating via Grub and a Floppy Image==

{{WARN|Many have warned '''not''' to use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools may crash in that situation! Proceed at your own risk!}}

Floppy images may be booted from Grub via a utility called [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK], which may be compiled from the [http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/ '''SYSLINUX source''']. Copy the compiled memdisk image and the floppy image to your boot directory and configure grub as follows:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
title Bios Flash
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd /boot/FILENAME.img
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

Again, proceed at your own risk. This was tested on an R51 type 2888.

This also worked for me on a T41p type 2373. -- [[User:MrStaticVoid|James Lee]] 20:55, 8 May 2006 (CEST)

And it worked for me on a X31 type 2673-CBU. -- [[User:JanTopinski|Jan Topinski]], 18 September 2006

And it worked for me too on a X31 type 2672-CXU, very useful. -- [[User:TheAnarcat|TheAnarcat]] 16:21, 7 March 2007 (CET)

Same here (worked) on a X31 type 2673-58G --[[User:FaUl|FaUl]] 15:53, 20 June 2007 (UTC)FaUl

Works well on a X31 type 2672-PG9, but with a big moment between starting update and the updating window -- [[User:Starox|Starox]] 22 Jul 2007

And it worked for me on two X40 type 2371 -- [[User:Antialize|Jakob Truelsen]], 19 Jan 2007 -- BIOS: 2.07 1uuj21us.exe -- ECP: 1.62 1uhj10us.exe

Not working for me on T43 type 2668-F7G -- [[User:Maus3273|Maus3273]] 20:48, 30 January 2007 (CET) -- BIOS: 1.29 1YUJ18US.IMG -- I got into the bios program, but the machine never restarts after initiating the upgrade.

X41 type 2525-F8G -- [[User:ladoga|Lauri Koponen]], 11:08 16 Apr 2007 
BIOS: 2.09 (74UJ15US.IMG), is no go. (hangs while initialising the actual flashing process) I tried with 2.07 (74UJ13US.IMG) and 2.06 (74UJ12US.IMG) aswell and they all failed in the very same fashion. 
ECP: 1.02 74HJ03US.IMG, works.

It works fine on R30 type 2656-64g, BIOS v.1.40 -- [[User:english.voodoo|Yuri Spirin]], 10 May 2007.

==Updating with Network Boot Image==

BIOS, Embedded Controller (EC), CD/DVD and Harddisk firmware disks can be booted
over the network with [http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php PXELINUX] as part of the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] package.

This requires that you have a DHCP and tftp server configured and setup properly on
your network, and is probably not for the faint of heart.

Make sure the firmware bootdisk is in linux 'dd' format, as the self-extracting .exe disks
from the IBM website cannot be booted directly as such.

This worked on the {{R31}}, {{X22}}, {{T21}}, {{T30}} and {{T41p}} with various firmware updates.

On {{X22}}, works with EC 1.30 but NOT with BIOS 1.32

==Updating via "IBM Predesktop area", suitable for model X (not have CDROM and floppy)==
It's so difficult to update BIOS and ECP without cdrom, floppy disk.
Don't know the reason why I couldn't update BIOS and ECP(1QHJ08US and 1QUJ19US) for my IBM Thinkpad X31.Hmm, may be cause of the dividing partition on my hard disk, that is:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Primary: ext3, ext3, ntfs
Extended: Ntsf, fat32
Bootloader: GRUB
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

No problem, you can use this way to do it:
* First, config in BIOS
In Security part:
# Remove all password of Subpervisor and Power on password
# Set Access IBM Predesktop Area to Normal
# Choose Enable "Flash BIOS updating by End User" in BIOS update Option.

In Config part:
# Choose Enable for Network flash over Lan

* Second, download the newest version of BIOS update and ECP update
Running: The program extract all files to the folder. There is a .img file (1QUJ19US.IMG, 1QUJ08US.IMG) in each folder.
Copy the imformation content in that img file and paste it to one FAT partition(using winimage or TotalCmd to extract)

as seen All files in 1QUJ19US.IMG is extracted to D:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
695,764 $018E000.FL1
163 0691.HSH
2,049 0691.PAT
163 0694.HSH
2,049 0694.PAT
163 0695.HSH
2,049 0695.PAT
2,049 06D0.PAT
163 06D1.HSH
2,049 06D1.PAT
163 06D2.HSH
2,049 06D2.PAT
163 06D6.HSH
2,049 06D6.PAT
2,049 06D8.PAT
697 CHKBMP.EXE
8,128 COMMAND.COM
26 CONFIG.SYS
24,860 FLASH2.EXE
26 LCREFLSH.BAT
170 LOGO.BAT
330 LOGO.SCR
111,925 PHLASH16.EXE
91,648 PREPARE.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
22,252 QKFLASH.EXE
9,923 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
39,666 UPDTFLSH.EXE
6,958 UPDTMN.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,254 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

And all files in 1QUJ08US.IMG are: D:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
315,404 $018E000.FL2
8,000 COMMAND.COM
36 CONFIG.SYS
16,910 ECFLASH2.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
17,812 QKFLASH.EXE
990 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
89,738 UPDTEC.EXE
31,134 UPDTFLSH.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,226 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

* Okie, now plug AC Adapter, charge full battery to your laptop and continue third step:

** '''Flash BIOS first,'''
1. Power On, press blue button on keyboard: '''Access IBM'''

2. On "Utilities", double click " Diagnostic disk"

3. Your laptop will start PC-DOS, wait when this message appear:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Please insert the first floppy diskette and
Press any key to continue
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

4. Press Ctrl + Break, you will see :
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;"><pre><nowiki>Terminate batch job (Y/N) ?</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

5. Okie, press Y, you will get DOS prompt like D:\
{{NOTE|D:\ is my RAMDISK, C:\ is my disk format as FAT.!}}

6. Enter to c:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\BIOS
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. Run FLASH2.EXE /u $018E000.FL1

8. Wait flash progress compelete and reboot.
** '''Flash ECP'''
Follow above instruction from step 1 to 5

6. Enter to c:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\ECP
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. run UPDTFLSH.EXE $018E000.FL2

8. Follow UPDTFLSH's instructions

9. Wait flash complete and auto turn off computer.

I done it on my IBM Thinkpad X31.

Enjoy,

Tested by nm.

==Check List==

The following is important to remember:
# You must update '''both''' the Control Program and the BIOS at the same time if your current Control Program is not compatible with the new BIOS (see below)
# You must find versions of the Control Program and BIOS that are compatible. Not all of them are, so follow the readmes on the IBM website carefully to determine which are.
# You must update the Control Program '''before''' you update the BIOS

When the Control Program '''and''' the BIOS need updating, have both update disks or CDs ready. Update the Control Program first and the system should switch itself off when finished. Insert the BIOS update disk and proceed to update the BIOS. When it's all finished, enter setup, reset the settings to their defaults and reboot. Enter setup again and tweak the settings as necessary.

BIOS Upgrade

2007-09-29T08:18:38Z

Voominc: /* Preparing a Bootable CD-ROM Image from the Non Diskette Updater */

__TOC__

This page is meant to describe ways to update the BIOS on a ThinkPad that only runs Linux for users that don't have ready access to Windows. If you have Windows on your ThinkPad you can just boot into it and follow instructions on the IBM website.

{{NOTE| In one case ([[APM setup on a type 2379 ThinkPad T40]]) it was not possible to upgrade the BIOS from Windows XP; a downgrade to Windows 98 was required to successfully run the BIOS upgrade app. The symptoms in this case were that, once the files had been extracted to the hard disk, and the machine was to reboot into the upgrade app, it would beep and hang just before reboot, requiring a power cycle. Once the power was cycled, it would simply reboot back into XP without performing any BIOS upgrade actions. So even if you have Windows, you may still need to use the info on this page.}}

----
==Before You Begin==
Updating the BIOS in Linux (with few exceptions) '''is not officially supported''' by IBM/Lenovo. However there are work arounds.

{{WARN|By following any of the instructions here you are accepting the '''very real risk''' of turning your thinkpad into a big expensive paper weight, as a firmware update gone wrong can create unfixable problems.

'''Proceed at your own risk!'''

It is also important to understand that Thinkpads from IBM have two separate firmwares: the BIOS, and the Embedded Controller program. A given BIOS version will require a certain version of the Embedded Controller program.

The IBM documentation is sometimes unclear about the order in which these two firmwares should be updated. On most, but not all Thinkpads, '''the correct update order is Embedded Controller program first, and then the BIOS'''. Make sure to do the two updates immediately one after the other. Newer models from Lenovo update both the Embedded Controller program and the BIOS at the same time, so you don't have to worry about it.}}

==BIOS Upgrade Paths==

For every firmware (either BIOS or Embedded Controller program) update on the IBM web site there used to be two different firmware update programs provided. The Diskette Updater and the Non Diskette Updater. For newer Lenovo Models the Diskette Updater is replaced with a bootable CD-Image and the Non Diskette Updater is renamed BIOS Update Utility, both of which update the BIOS and the Embedded Controller program at the same time. A list of links to firmware downloads can be found at [[BIOS Upgrade Downloads]] for nearly all Thinkpad Models.

===The Diskette Updater===

The Diskette updater appears to be a 16 bit DOS program which asks you to accept a license agreement. It will run in Windows, DOS, OS/2, or [http://dosemu.sf.net Dosemu] perfectly, but requires a real floppy disk attached via a real floppy controller. A USB Floppy Drive will not work.

===The Bootable CD Image===

Newer models from Lenovo can be updated using the Bootable CD Image. This should be the easiest way for non-Windows users and also maybe a more secure way for Windows users, as well. As the image is provided as a plain ISO-file without any Windows enclosure, you can simply burn it to a CD-R/RW with any modern operating system, as long as you have a CD/DVD-RW Drive and are then able to boot from it.

===Extracting a Bootable CD-ROM Image from the Non Diskette Updater===
{{WARN|Though this process was successfully tested on one version of .exe files found on IBMs website this doesn't mean it will work for all of them. Proceed at your own risk.}}

This installer appears to be a 32bit windows .exe which is designed for updating the BIOS directly from a running Windows OS. It turns out that this .exe is really a wrapper license program around Windows .cab files (see [[How_to_change_the_BIOS_bootsplash_screen|BIOS-Bootsplash]]). If you install the Linux program [http://freshmeat.net/projects/cabextract/ '''cabextract'''] you can expand these .cab files directly. Run the following:

:{{cmduser|cabextract FILENAME.exe}}

This will extract 8 files in the current directory. One of them will be FILENAME.img. In this discussion, "FILENAME" represents the name of the Non Diskette file that you downloaded, such as "1NHJ04US".

You can test that this is really a floppy image by running:

:{{cmdroot|mkdir mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop FILENAME.img mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}}

If the results of {{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}} look like a dos floppy, and no read errors were displayed, you have a pretty good chance that the floppy image is usable.

Unmount the image after you are done:

:{{cmdroot|umount mntfloppy}}

Now, you can proceed to [[BIOS_Upgrade:Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image]], below.

== Updating Thinkpad X Series ==

X Series Thinkpads do not have an internal drive. If there is no Windows installed, the BIOS must be updated by booting from an USB drive or a drive that is integrated in the docking station. Since a while Lenovo provides BIOS updates in form of bootable CD images. Unfortunately, these images are intended to be used with the docking station's CD drive. If you do not own such a drive, things get complicated.

The problem is that current BIOS updates are quite large, about 3 MB in size. Booting from CDs typically works like booting from a 1.44 MB or 2.88 MB floppy disk. The floppy image is stored on the CD and is referenced in the CD's boot record. Because the BIOS update file are that large, they do not fit on such a floppy image. Thus, they must be stored on the CD outside the virtual floppy image. To access these files a driver for the CD drive has to be loaded. Since Lenovo's CD images are intended to be used with a docking station's CD drive, it is not possible to use them for BIOS updates by booting from an USB CD drive.

But there is hope. The CD images provided by Lenovo can be modified such that they contain drivers for USB CD drives. I tested the following with a Thinkpad {{X60s}}.

The idea is to take Lenovo's ISO CD image and modify it such that a USB CD drive can be used instead the CD drive in the docking station. Unfortunately, simply replacing the drivers is not enough. While doing the BIOS update, the USB ports seem to get disabled or something. Therefore, before starting the update process the CD contents have to be copied to a RAM disk. I will describe the procedure step by step.

<ol>
<li>
Download the ISO image style BIOS update from Lenovo's website. This file will be refered to as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.iso</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Extract the floppy image from this ISO image. You can use the following shell script for this task (or an alternative one from [http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~krienke/ftp/noarch/geteltorito/]). Simply save this code into the file <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>, set the x-flag (<tt>chmod +x /tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>) and call it using the command <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. The floppy image contained in the ISO image will then be saved to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. Here is the code of the shell script:
<pre>
#!/bin/bash

# This script extracts the floopy boot image from bootable ISO images
#
# Written by Joachim Selke (mail@joachim-selke.de), 2007-04-07

ISOFILE=$1
IMAGEFILE=$2

if [ ! -r $ISOFILE ]; then
echo $ISOFILE: file does not exist or is not readable
exit 1
fi

if [ -z $IMAGEFILE ]; then
echo Error: no image file specified
exit 1
fi

ISOFILESIZE=`stat -c %s $ISOFILE`

# collect El Torito data
# see http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/98D3219C-9CC9-4DF5-B496-A286D893E36A/0/specscdrom.pdf for reference

BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE=$((17 * 0x800 + 0x47))

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE + 4)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to first sector of boot catalog:
BOOTCATALOG=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTCATALOGBYTE=$((0x$BOOTCATALOG * 0x800))

echo Boot catalog starts at byte $BOOTCATALOGBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 2)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# media type of boot image
# only floppy disk images are supported by this script
BOOTMEDIATYPE=`od -A n -t x1 -N 1 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 1)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

if [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 1 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.2M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1200 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 2 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.44M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1440 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 3 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 2.88M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((2880 / 2))
else
echo Boot media type is $((0x$BOOTMEDIATYPE)). This type is not supported yet.
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to start of boot image
BOOTIMAGE=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 8)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTIMAGEBYTE=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800))

echo Boot image starts at byte $BOOTIMAGEBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800 + $IMAGEBLOCKS * 0x800)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

echo Extracting boot image ...

dd if=$ISOFILE of=$IMAGEFILE bs=2K count=$IMAGEBLOCKS skip=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE))

echo Finished
</pre>
</li>

<li>
Mount the floppy image '''as root''' using the loop device:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
The image is now mounted as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Download needed drivers. First download some [http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/other/driver/f2h_usb.exe USB drivers] from Panasonic Japan. Save the file to <tt>/tmp/f2h_usb.exe</tt> This file is a self-extracting EXE file, that can be executed under Linux using [http://www.winehq.com/ Wine]:
:{{cmduser|wine /tmp/f2h_usb.exe}}
You will be asked where to save the extracted files. Choose <tt>/tmp</tt>. A new directory <tt>/tmp/F2h</tt> containing the needed drivers will be created.

Additionally, you will need drivers for the RAM disk mentioned. Download them from the [http://sourceforge.net/projects/srdisk ReSizeable RAMDisk project]. Unzip them to <tt>/tmp/srdisk</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Let's modify the floppy image:
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/Usbaspi.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/USBCD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/RAMFD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdxms.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdisk.exe /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
Now add the following lines to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/config.sys</tt> replacing the line <tt>DEVICE = A:\IBMTPCD.SYS /R /C</tt>:
<pre>
DEVICE = A:\SRDXMS.SYS
DEVICE = A:\RAMFD.SYS
DEVICE = A:\USBASPI.SYS /V
DEVICE = A:\USBCD.SYS /D:TPCD001
</pre>
Finally, edit the file <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/autoexec.bat</tt> replacing the last line (saying <tt>COMMAND.COM</tt>) by the following:
<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* D:
D:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>

Maybe the RAM disk gets a drive letter different from D: on your system. In this case, you have to change the above lines accordingly.
</li>

<li>
Unmount the floppy image (as root):
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
</li>

<li>
Copy the content of the original CD image to a new directory and create a new ISO file:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkdir /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt/* /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/boot.img}}
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkisofs -relaxed-filenames -b boot.img -o /tmp/bios-new.iso /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/}}
</li>

<li>
The file <tt>/tmp/bios-new.iso</tt> is the modified ISO file. Just burn it to CD and use this CD for updating your BIOS (boot from it using your USB drive). Please give some comments here if it worked for you.
</li>

</ol>

===Alternative method using a USB stick===

''Note: none of the above methods worked on my X60s. This method worked for me, however.'' [[User:PhilipPaeps|PhilipPaeps]] 16:41, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

This method was surprisingly painless once I convinced my ThinkPad X60s to boot DOS from a USB stick. I used VMWare and some mystical tool to get DOS on the stick. If you can find another way to get a bootable DOS stick, please update this section!

* Tell VMWare to create a virtual floppy image for you and format it under Microsoft Windows and tell it to create a system disk. You can do this by clicking into "My Computer", then right-clicking on the "Floppy" icon and selecting "Format". In the box that pops up, you need to check the box that says "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" and then click "Start".

* When you've done that, get this tool: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/330/mirrors.php and install it. The tool is apparantly something HP once wrote, but I have been unable to find a link to it anywhere on the HP website.

* In a command prompt again: <code>C:\DriveKey\HPUSBF.EXE E: -Q -B:A:\</code>, replacing the <code>E:</code> with the "drive letter" associated with your USB stick (you can find this letter in "My Computer" under "Removable Storage"). '''WARNING:''' this wipes anything on the USB stick. You will end up with a USB stick which appears empty at this point, but there is DOS on it somewhere.

* Now mount the BIOS update ISO image from Lenovo as a virtual CDROM using VMWare again and copy the files from it to the USB stick: <code>copy D:\*.* E:\</code>.

At this point, you may want to fiddle with the splash image, as described elsewhere on ThinkWiki.

* Reboot and press F12, tell the BIOS to boot from your USB stick.

* <code>cd flash</code> ; <code>updtflsh.exe</code>

Think happy thoughts. The ThinkPad will beep quite ominously (and loudly!) a couple of times. Do not let this worry you too much. After about three minutes, the program will ask you to press enter to restart and hopefully all will be well.

===Comments===

<ul>

<li>
I have followed your excellent instructions. The CD booted, the update program ran but stopped working and responding while updating. Luckily the BIOS was not destroyed. Since destroying the BIOS is a very high risk, I am going to recover the original Windows on an old HD and will run the update exe update program from there.
</li>

<li>
I followed these clear instructions, and like the comment above I ended up with a CD that booted but the update program stopped working and responding. An ALT-CTRL-DELETE rebooted my x60s, and it works so the BIOS must not have been damaged. I was trying to upgrade from version 2.08 to 2.11, I wonder if these instructions are somehow particular to certain versions?
[[User:Latch|Latch]] 01:22, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
</li>

<li>
After following the above instructions, the program also stopped working while updating the BIOS. But after changing the drive letter from D: to C: (see code below), it everything worked fine. However, I had some trouble figuring out, which letter to choose over D: at first, as the BIOS Upgrade program started right away.

<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* C:
C:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>
[[User:Mtx|Mtx]], 1 August 2007, Thinkpad X61s
</li>

<li>
Flashing the bios (2.12) works for me on a X60s (using drive c). Using the DVD-R on an USB-Hub did not work. [[User:Ra|Ra]] 00:15, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
</li>

</ul>

==Updating via CD/DVD Drive==

The whole thing gets more complicated if you neither have Windows nor a floppy drive installed. This is what this page is intended to describe.

Another possibility which works even without a CD-drive or network is to boot the disk image via the grub initrd mechanism.

Be aware that IBM officially does '''not''' support this! The official statement to my support request was:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
I'm afraid we only support the options listed on our web page and no you
can't burn a CD/DVD, however you can try to use an external USB FDD
(floppy) drive. The experts recommend a IBM USB FDD, however they have also
tested it with a Sony USB FDD drive.

In order to make sure the drive is recognised you can boot up the FDD with
a bootable dos diskette for w98
</nowiki></pre>
</blockquote>

But it seems to be possible as Mathias Dalheimer describes this [http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html here].

Another indication that it should work is that IBM uses PHLASH16.EXE (at least on T4x/p systems) to flash the BIOS into the chip. The same tool is used by [http://www.samsungpc.com/gb/support/p35/bios/bios-instructions.html other vendors] to flash the BIOS from bootable CD-ROMs.
{{WARN|Do '''not''' use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools crash in that situation!}}

Some interesting but very technical information about the used flash tool can be found [http://www.paul.sladen.org/thinkpad-r31/wifi-card-pci-ids.html here].

===Creating a Floppy Image===
If you have created a boot floppy on another machine, you need to create an image file of that floppy. This can be easily done in linux by running a command line:

:{{cmdroot|1=dd bs=2x80x18b if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/floppy.img}}

You can also create a floppy image by using Ken Kato's [http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html VMware's back]. It is a free Windoze tool that creates a virtual floppy drive and allows you to produce an image file ready to be ISO'ed. Note: you might have to 'manually' (through application's interface) assign the virtual drive a volume letter in order to be seen by IBM's application (as, by default, it seems not to do it).

You should verify this {{path|floppy.img}} as explained above.

===Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image===
Once you have your floppy image, either from imaging a real floppy, or from extracting them via the cabextract method above, you need to make a boot CD out of it.

The eltorito bootable CD standard is a wonderful thing. What this means is that a bootable CD can be made with a bootable floppy in such as way that the CD believes that it is a 2.88 MB floppy drive. This allows you to replace a boot floppy by a boot CD in nearly all situations.

It is very easy to create such a bootable CD ISO image in Linux using the mkisofs tool. To do this run a command as follows:

:{{cmdroot|mkisofs -b bootfloppy.img -o bootcd.iso bootfloppy.img}}

Note: This creates a CD with one file on it and marks that file as the boot image. For more info on this read {{cmduser|man mkisofs}}.

You can now burn the {{path|bootcd.iso}} in your favorite CD burning program.

To get an overview which models have been tested with this version, here is a list:

===Does work:===
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-4AU) ||
*George Tellalov <gtellalov_dontspamme@bigfoot.com>. BIOS 1.16 from spsdin36.exe worked perfectly with the method bootable cd from floppy image. I highly recommend this upgrade because it made my ibm-acpi module load (it wouldn't load before) and fixed some suspend to ram problems. Here's the [http://george.tellalov.info/bios_upgrade_600e_spsdin36.iso cd image] I used. Use at your own risk. You can send me a chocolate if it works for you ;)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-5bU) ||
*Mike Vincent<matchstc-putobvioushere.com>. Bios 1.16 from spsdin36.exe and then to the boot cd worked great for me. Thought I had bricked it three separate times using a "real" floppy! Each from different diskettes .The updater would start, give me the "going to take30 seconds" speech...and then access the HD for 10 minutes. Each time it would reboot fine. Did the cd as described above...worked great first time. Perhaps 10 year old seldom used floppy disc drives have some challenges?
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Jonathan Byrne <jonathan@RemoveThisToMailMe.yamame.org>. BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe worked perfectly using cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Andy Barnes <andy@RemoveThisToMailMe.itchypaws.co.uk>. As per Jonathan above, extracted BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe using cabextract, created a CD boot image and burnt to CD. Worked flawlessly - thanks to everyone who contributed to this article!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A20p}} (2629-6VU) ||
*Chris Pickett http://www.sable.mcgill.ca/~cpicke/. BIOS 1.11 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A21e}} (2628-JXU) ||
*Amit Gurdasani <gurdasani at yahoo dot com>. BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method. Alarmingly, after the BIOS update, the laptop beeped but did not shut down as was indicated onscreen -- that was frozen on the "do not shut down the laptop" screen. On power down and up again, the BIOS setup showed the newer BIOS image running, and Linux booted up fine. Linux ACPI didn't complain about the BIOS being too old either.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31p}} (2653) ||
*Matthias Meinke largeeddy@gmx.at, BIOS 1.09 1NET15WW flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31}} (2652) ||
*[[User:Wnoise|Aaron Denney]], BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R30}} ||
*Jarrod, 30 August 2007, Thinkpad R30 Type 2656-E0M. BIOS updated to 1.40 (1CETF0WW) using floppy disk/mkisofs/cdrecord. Worked fine, no problems.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R31}} ||
*[http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html Mathias Dalheimer]
*Sebastian Sauer (with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R40}} ||
*Matthew Lambie, http://lambie.org
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50}} (1836-3SU) ||
*jlbartos <jlbartos at hotmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50e}} (1834-PTG) ||
*item <item at freemail dot hu> : successfully finished with cabextract/CD method for "1wuj25us.exe" (BIOS version 1WET90WW (2.10), Release Date: 2006/12/22)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1829) ||
*Robert Uhl <rob dot uhl at gmx dot de>, Jellby <jellby at yahoo dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1830-RM7) ||
*Will Parker <stardotstar at sourcepoint dot com dot au> successfully flashed 3.20 using existing 3.04 ECP and retained custom boot splash.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (2887) ||
*Ingo van Lil <inguin at gmx dot de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R52}} (1858) ||
*Stuart McCord <stuart dot mccord at gmail dot com> flashed both BIOS and ECP using cabextract, BIOS flashed first as on IBM website
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T20}} ||
*Franz Hassels <fhassel at suse dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T22}} ||
*Daniel Maier <nusse teamidiot de>
*Mathias Behrle (with cabextract/CD method, Version 1.07 => 1.12) --[[User:Mathiasb|Mathiasb]] 11:58, 14 December 2006 (CET)
*Bob Skaroff (cabextract/CD), 1.06 => 1.12
*Leo Butler (cabextract/CD), 1.11 => 1.12
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T23}} ||
*Bart Snapp <snapp at uiuc dot edu> Note: I followed IBM's instructions to flash the BIOS *first* and the Embedded Controller *second*.
*Moy Easwaran: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a via cabextract and CD-boot. The BIOS-update exe generated errors in Windows 2000.
*Joe Renes: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a on 2006-03-20 via cabextract and CD-boot. Piece of cake.
*Raphael Errani: BIOS 1.20 / EC 1.06a on 2006-11-06 via cabextract and CD-boot (using mkisofs). Worked without errors. 1st Bios, 2nd EC
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T30}} ||
*Martin GÃ¼hring <guehring at gmail.com> BIOS 2.10 via cabextract the Non-Diskette BIOS -> mkisofs '''in the directory the exe was extracted''' to generate the iso -> burn the iso -> boot the CD
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40}} ||
*Sean Dague, http://dague.net
*Justin Mason, http://jmason.org
*Ivanhoe (Bios 3.19)
*Alessandro Raulino (roger_2) EC 3.04 & BIOS 3.23 flashed with cabextract/CD method
*Nick Jenkins, using BIOS 3.23 with the [[#The_Non_Diskette_Updater|Non-diskette updater + cabextract method]], then [[#Creating_a_Bootable_CD_from_a_Floppy_Image|created a bootable CD from the cabextracted .IMG file]], then boot that ISO, and it worked great!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40p}} ||
*Lukas KrÃ¤henbÃ¼hl, ismo at pop dot agri dot ch
*Thomas Achtemichuk, tom at tomchuk dot com. BIOS 3.15 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41}} ||
*Lev Givon (Bios 3.15 / EC 3.04) <lev at columbia dot edu>
*Ernesto HernÃ¡ndez-Novich (Bios 3.19 / CP 3.04) < emhn at usb dot ve >
*[http://maebmij.org James Ballantine] (Bios 3.21 / CP 3.04) using nondisk/cabextract/CDRW
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41p}} ||
*Nils Newman, work great. (Version: Bios 3.14 / Embedded Controller 3.04)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42}} ||
*Dan (BIOS 3.20 / EC 3.04, cabextract/CD method) <tronic171 at evilphb.org>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42p}} ||
*Robert Schiele <rschiele@uni-mannheim.de>, Joern Heissler <joern@heissler.de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T43}} ||
*Conrad Rentsch <Conrad dot Rentsch at t-online dot de> (Version: Bios 1.29 / Embedded Controller 1.06)
*Tom Heady <tom-thinkwiki.org@punch.net>
*Florian Boucault <florian at boucault dot ath dot cx> (Model : 1871-W34 & Version: Bios 1.23 / Embedded Controller 1.03)
*Till Heikamp <t dot heikamp at geniusbytes dot com> (Model 2886, Bios 1.22 to 1.29, Embedded Controller 1.03 to 1.06)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T60}} ||
*Roman Komkov <roman at komkov dot org dot ru> (Model 1951, Bios 1.07 to 2.13) Successfully upgraded from CD Image
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X20}} ||
*Neil Caunt <retardis at gmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X21}} ||
*Patrick Leickner <ranma at web dot de>, (BIOS 2.21->2.25 / EC 1.31->1.36) via non-disk/cabextract/mkisofs/cdrecord
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X22}} ||
*David Emery <dave at skiddlydee dot com>, (EC 1.30, BIOS 1.32 using non-disk/cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X23}} ||
*Nils Faerber <nils dot faerber at kernelconcepts dot de> (Embedded Controller 1.30, BIOS 1.32 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X30}} ||
*Hella Breitkopf, [http://www.unixwitch.de/ www] (Embedded Controller 1.04, BIOS 1.07 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X31}} ||
*Grzegorz KuÅ›nierz <koniu at sheket dot org> (Embedded Controller 1.08, BIOS 3.01 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X40}} ||
*Robbie Stone <robbie@serendipity.cx>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Z60m}} ||
*[[User:Morle|Morle]] 13:09, 20 May 2006 (CEST), (Embedded Controller 1.14 with cabextract/CD method)
|}

===Does not work:===
{|
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|}

Please note that testing this is '''at your own risk'''!!!

==Updating via Grub and a Floppy Image==

{{WARN|Many have warned '''not''' to use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools may crash in that situation! Proceed at your own risk!}}

Floppy images may be booted from Grub via a utility called [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK], which may be compiled from the [http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/ '''SYSLINUX source''']. Copy the compiled memdisk image and the floppy image to your boot directory and configure grub as follows:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
title Bios Flash
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd /boot/FILENAME.img
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

Again, proceed at your own risk. This was tested on an R51 type 2888.

This also worked for me on a T41p type 2373. -- [[User:MrStaticVoid|James Lee]] 20:55, 8 May 2006 (CEST)

And it worked for me on a X31 type 2673-CBU. -- [[User:JanTopinski|Jan Topinski]], 18 September 2006

And it worked for me too on a X31 type 2672-CXU, very useful. -- [[User:TheAnarcat|TheAnarcat]] 16:21, 7 March 2007 (CET)

Same here (worked) on a X31 type 2673-58G --[[User:FaUl|FaUl]] 15:53, 20 June 2007 (UTC)FaUl

Works well on a X31 type 2672-PG9, but with a big moment between starting update and the updating window -- [[User:Starox|Starox]] 22 Jul 2007

And it worked for me on two X40 type 2371 -- [[User:Antialize|Jakob Truelsen]], 19 Jan 2007 -- BIOS: 2.07 1uuj21us.exe -- ECP: 1.62 1uhj10us.exe

Not working for me on T43 type 2668-F7G -- [[User:Maus3273|Maus3273]] 20:48, 30 January 2007 (CET) -- BIOS: 1.29 1YUJ18US.IMG -- I got into the bios program, but the machine never restarts after initiating the upgrade.

X41 type 2525-F8G -- [[User:ladoga|Lauri Koponen]], 11:08 16 Apr 2007 
BIOS: 2.09 (74UJ15US.IMG), is no go. (hangs while initialising the actual flashing process) I tried with 2.07 (74UJ13US.IMG) and 2.06 (74UJ12US.IMG) aswell and they all failed in the very same fashion. 
ECP: 1.02 74HJ03US.IMG, works.

It works fine on R30 type 2656-64g, BIOS v.1.40 -- [[User:english.voodoo|Yuri Spirin]], 10 May 2007.

==Updating with Network Boot Image==

BIOS, Embedded Controller (EC), CD/DVD and Harddisk firmware disks can be booted
over the network with [http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php PXELINUX] as part of the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] package.

This requires that you have a DHCP and tftp server configured and setup properly on
your network, and is probably not for the faint of heart.

Make sure the firmware bootdisk is in linux 'dd' format, as the self-extracting .exe disks
from the IBM website cannot be booted directly as such.

This worked on the {{R31}}, {{X22}}, {{T21}}, {{T30}} and {{T41p}} with various firmware updates.

On {{X22}}, works with EC 1.30 but NOT with BIOS 1.32

==Updating via "IBM Predesktop area", suitable for model X (not have CDROM and floppy)==
It's so difficult to update BIOS and ECP without cdrom, floppy disk.
Don't know the reason why I couldn't update BIOS and ECP(1QHJ08US and 1QUJ19US) for my IBM Thinkpad X31.Hmm, may be cause of the dividing partition on my hard disk, that is:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Primary: ext3, ext3, ntfs
Extended: Ntsf, fat32
Bootloader: GRUB
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

No problem, you can use this way to do it:
* First, config in BIOS
In Security part:
# Remove all password of Subpervisor and Power on password
# Set Access IBM Predesktop Area to Normal
# Choose Enable "Flash BIOS updating by End User" in BIOS update Option.

In Config part:
# Choose Enable for Network flash over Lan

* Second, download the newest version of BIOS update and ECP update
Running: The program extract all files to the folder. There is a .img file (1QUJ19US.IMG, 1QUJ08US.IMG) in each folder.
Copy the imformation content in that img file and paste it to one FAT partition(using winimage or TotalCmd to extract)

as seen All files in 1QUJ19US.IMG is extracted to D:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
695,764 $018E000.FL1
163 0691.HSH
2,049 0691.PAT
163 0694.HSH
2,049 0694.PAT
163 0695.HSH
2,049 0695.PAT
2,049 06D0.PAT
163 06D1.HSH
2,049 06D1.PAT
163 06D2.HSH
2,049 06D2.PAT
163 06D6.HSH
2,049 06D6.PAT
2,049 06D8.PAT
697 CHKBMP.EXE
8,128 COMMAND.COM
26 CONFIG.SYS
24,860 FLASH2.EXE
26 LCREFLSH.BAT
170 LOGO.BAT
330 LOGO.SCR
111,925 PHLASH16.EXE
91,648 PREPARE.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
22,252 QKFLASH.EXE
9,923 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
39,666 UPDTFLSH.EXE
6,958 UPDTMN.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,254 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

And all files in 1QUJ08US.IMG are: D:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
315,404 $018E000.FL2
8,000 COMMAND.COM
36 CONFIG.SYS
16,910 ECFLASH2.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
17,812 QKFLASH.EXE
990 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
89,738 UPDTEC.EXE
31,134 UPDTFLSH.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,226 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

* Okie, now plug AC Adapter, charge full battery to your laptop and continue third step:

** '''Flash BIOS first,'''
1. Power On, press blue button on keyboard: '''Access IBM'''

2. On "Utilities", double click " Diagnostic disk"

3. Your laptop will start PC-DOS, wait when this message appear:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Please insert the first floppy diskette and
Press any key to continue
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

4. Press Ctrl + Break, you will see :
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;"><pre><nowiki>Terminate batch job (Y/N) ?</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

5. Okie, press Y, you will get DOS prompt like D:\
{{NOTE|D:\ is my RAMDISK, C:\ is my disk format as FAT.!}}

6. Enter to c:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\BIOS
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. Run FLASH2.EXE /u $018E000.FL1

8. Wait flash progress compelete and reboot.
** '''Flash ECP'''
Follow above instruction from step 1 to 5

6. Enter to c:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\ECP
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. run UPDTFLSH.EXE $018E000.FL2

8. Follow UPDTFLSH's instructions

9. Wait flash complete and auto turn off computer.

I done it on my IBM Thinkpad X31.

Enjoy,

Tested by nm.

==Check List==

The following is important to remember:
# You must update '''both''' the Control Program and the BIOS at the same time if your current Control Program is not compatible with the new BIOS (see below)
# You must find versions of the Control Program and BIOS that are compatible. Not all of them are, so follow the readmes on the IBM website carefully to determine which are.
# You must update the Control Program '''before''' you update the BIOS

When the Control Program '''and''' the BIOS need updating, have both update disks or CDs ready. Update the Control Program first and the system should switch itself off when finished. Insert the BIOS update disk and proceed to update the BIOS. When it's all finished, enter setup, reset the settings to their defaults and reboot. Enter setup again and tweak the settings as necessary.

BIOS Upgrade

2007-09-29T08:14:45Z

Voominc: /* Making a Bootable CD-ROM from the Non Diskette Updater */

__TOC__

This page is meant to describe ways to update the BIOS on a ThinkPad that only runs Linux for users that don't have ready access to Windows. If you have Windows on your ThinkPad you can just boot into it and follow instructions on the IBM website.

{{NOTE| In one case ([[APM setup on a type 2379 ThinkPad T40]]) it was not possible to upgrade the BIOS from Windows XP; a downgrade to Windows 98 was required to successfully run the BIOS upgrade app. The symptoms in this case were that, once the files had been extracted to the hard disk, and the machine was to reboot into the upgrade app, it would beep and hang just before reboot, requiring a power cycle. Once the power was cycled, it would simply reboot back into XP without performing any BIOS upgrade actions. So even if you have Windows, you may still need to use the info on this page.}}

----
==Before You Begin==
Updating the BIOS in Linux (with few exceptions) '''is not officially supported''' by IBM/Lenovo. However there are work arounds.

{{WARN|By following any of the instructions here you are accepting the '''very real risk''' of turning your thinkpad into a big expensive paper weight, as a firmware update gone wrong can create unfixable problems.

'''Proceed at your own risk!'''

It is also important to understand that Thinkpads from IBM have two separate firmwares: the BIOS, and the Embedded Controller program. A given BIOS version will require a certain version of the Embedded Controller program.

The IBM documentation is sometimes unclear about the order in which these two firmwares should be updated. On most, but not all Thinkpads, '''the correct update order is Embedded Controller program first, and then the BIOS'''. Make sure to do the two updates immediately one after the other. Newer models from Lenovo update both the Embedded Controller program and the BIOS at the same time, so you don't have to worry about it.}}

==BIOS Upgrade Paths==

For every firmware (either BIOS or Embedded Controller program) update on the IBM web site there used to be two different firmware update programs provided. The Diskette Updater and the Non Diskette Updater. For newer Lenovo Models the Diskette Updater is replaced with a bootable CD-Image and the Non Diskette Updater is renamed BIOS Update Utility, both of which update the BIOS and the Embedded Controller program at the same time. A list of links to firmware downloads can be found at [[BIOS Upgrade Downloads]] for nearly all Thinkpad Models.

===The Diskette Updater===

The Diskette updater appears to be a 16 bit DOS program which asks you to accept a license agreement. It will run in Windows, DOS, OS/2, or [http://dosemu.sf.net Dosemu] perfectly, but requires a real floppy disk attached via a real floppy controller. A USB Floppy Drive will not work.

===The Bootable CD Image===

Newer models from Lenovo can be updated using the Bootable CD Image. This should be the easiest way for non-Windows users and also maybe a more secure way for Windows users, as well. As the image is provided as a plain ISO-file without any Windows enclosure, you can simply burn it to a CD-R/RW with any modern operating system, as long as you have a CD/DVD-RW Drive and are then able to boot from it.

===Preparing a Bootable CD-ROM Image from the Non Diskette Updater===
{{WARN|Though this process was successfully tested on one version of .exe files found on IBMs website this doesn't mean it will work for all of them. Proceed at your own risk.}}

This installer appears to be a 32bit windows .exe which is designed for updating the BIOS directly from a running Windows OS. It turns out that this .exe is really a wrapper license program around Windows .cab files (see [[How_to_change_the_BIOS_bootsplash_screen|BIOS-Bootsplash]]). If you install the Linux program [http://freshmeat.net/projects/cabextract/ '''cabextract'''] you can expand these .cab files directly. Run the following:

:{{cmduser|cabextract FILENAME.exe}}

This will extract 8 files in the current directory. One of them will be FILENAME.img. In this discussion, "FILENAME" represents the name of the Non Diskette file that you downloaded, such as "1NHJ04US".

You can test that this is really a floppy image by running:

:{{cmdroot|mkdir mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop FILENAME.img mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}}

If the results of {{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}} look like a dos floppy, and no read errors were displayed, you have a pretty good chance that the floppy image is usable.

Unmount the image after you are done:

:{{cmdroot|umount mntfloppy}}

Now, you can proceed to [[Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image]].

== Updating Thinkpad X Series ==

X Series Thinkpads do not have an internal drive. If there is no Windows installed, the BIOS must be updated by booting from an USB drive or a drive that is integrated in the docking station. Since a while Lenovo provides BIOS updates in form of bootable CD images. Unfortunately, these images are intended to be used with the docking station's CD drive. If you do not own such a drive, things get complicated.

The problem is that current BIOS updates are quite large, about 3 MB in size. Booting from CDs typically works like booting from a 1.44 MB or 2.88 MB floppy disk. The floppy image is stored on the CD and is referenced in the CD's boot record. Because the BIOS update file are that large, they do not fit on such a floppy image. Thus, they must be stored on the CD outside the virtual floppy image. To access these files a driver for the CD drive has to be loaded. Since Lenovo's CD images are intended to be used with a docking station's CD drive, it is not possible to use them for BIOS updates by booting from an USB CD drive.

But there is hope. The CD images provided by Lenovo can be modified such that they contain drivers for USB CD drives. I tested the following with a Thinkpad {{X60s}}.

The idea is to take Lenovo's ISO CD image and modify it such that a USB CD drive can be used instead the CD drive in the docking station. Unfortunately, simply replacing the drivers is not enough. While doing the BIOS update, the USB ports seem to get disabled or something. Therefore, before starting the update process the CD contents have to be copied to a RAM disk. I will describe the procedure step by step.

<ol>
<li>
Download the ISO image style BIOS update from Lenovo's website. This file will be refered to as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.iso</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Extract the floppy image from this ISO image. You can use the following shell script for this task (or an alternative one from [http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~krienke/ftp/noarch/geteltorito/]). Simply save this code into the file <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>, set the x-flag (<tt>chmod +x /tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>) and call it using the command <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. The floppy image contained in the ISO image will then be saved to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. Here is the code of the shell script:
<pre>
#!/bin/bash

# This script extracts the floopy boot image from bootable ISO images
#
# Written by Joachim Selke (mail@joachim-selke.de), 2007-04-07

ISOFILE=$1
IMAGEFILE=$2

if [ ! -r $ISOFILE ]; then
echo $ISOFILE: file does not exist or is not readable
exit 1
fi

if [ -z $IMAGEFILE ]; then
echo Error: no image file specified
exit 1
fi

ISOFILESIZE=`stat -c %s $ISOFILE`

# collect El Torito data
# see http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/98D3219C-9CC9-4DF5-B496-A286D893E36A/0/specscdrom.pdf for reference

BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE=$((17 * 0x800 + 0x47))

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE + 4)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to first sector of boot catalog:
BOOTCATALOG=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTCATALOGBYTE=$((0x$BOOTCATALOG * 0x800))

echo Boot catalog starts at byte $BOOTCATALOGBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 2)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# media type of boot image
# only floppy disk images are supported by this script
BOOTMEDIATYPE=`od -A n -t x1 -N 1 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 1)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

if [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 1 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.2M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1200 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 2 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.44M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1440 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 3 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 2.88M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((2880 / 2))
else
echo Boot media type is $((0x$BOOTMEDIATYPE)). This type is not supported yet.
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to start of boot image
BOOTIMAGE=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 8)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTIMAGEBYTE=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800))

echo Boot image starts at byte $BOOTIMAGEBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800 + $IMAGEBLOCKS * 0x800)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

echo Extracting boot image ...

dd if=$ISOFILE of=$IMAGEFILE bs=2K count=$IMAGEBLOCKS skip=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE))

echo Finished
</pre>
</li>

<li>
Mount the floppy image '''as root''' using the loop device:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
The image is now mounted as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Download needed drivers. First download some [http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/other/driver/f2h_usb.exe USB drivers] from Panasonic Japan. Save the file to <tt>/tmp/f2h_usb.exe</tt> This file is a self-extracting EXE file, that can be executed under Linux using [http://www.winehq.com/ Wine]:
:{{cmduser|wine /tmp/f2h_usb.exe}}
You will be asked where to save the extracted files. Choose <tt>/tmp</tt>. A new directory <tt>/tmp/F2h</tt> containing the needed drivers will be created.

Additionally, you will need drivers for the RAM disk mentioned. Download them from the [http://sourceforge.net/projects/srdisk ReSizeable RAMDisk project]. Unzip them to <tt>/tmp/srdisk</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Let's modify the floppy image:
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/Usbaspi.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/USBCD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/RAMFD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdxms.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdisk.exe /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
Now add the following lines to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/config.sys</tt> replacing the line <tt>DEVICE = A:\IBMTPCD.SYS /R /C</tt>:
<pre>
DEVICE = A:\SRDXMS.SYS
DEVICE = A:\RAMFD.SYS
DEVICE = A:\USBASPI.SYS /V
DEVICE = A:\USBCD.SYS /D:TPCD001
</pre>
Finally, edit the file <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/autoexec.bat</tt> replacing the last line (saying <tt>COMMAND.COM</tt>) by the following:
<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* D:
D:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>

Maybe the RAM disk gets a drive letter different from D: on your system. In this case, you have to change the above lines accordingly.
</li>

<li>
Unmount the floppy image (as root):
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
</li>

<li>
Copy the content of the original CD image to a new directory and create a new ISO file:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkdir /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt/* /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/boot.img}}
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkisofs -relaxed-filenames -b boot.img -o /tmp/bios-new.iso /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/}}
</li>

<li>
The file <tt>/tmp/bios-new.iso</tt> is the modified ISO file. Just burn it to CD and use this CD for updating your BIOS (boot from it using your USB drive). Please give some comments here if it worked for you.
</li>

</ol>

===Alternative method using a USB stick===

''Note: none of the above methods worked on my X60s. This method worked for me, however.'' [[User:PhilipPaeps|PhilipPaeps]] 16:41, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

This method was surprisingly painless once I convinced my ThinkPad X60s to boot DOS from a USB stick. I used VMWare and some mystical tool to get DOS on the stick. If you can find another way to get a bootable DOS stick, please update this section!

* Tell VMWare to create a virtual floppy image for you and format it under Microsoft Windows and tell it to create a system disk. You can do this by clicking into "My Computer", then right-clicking on the "Floppy" icon and selecting "Format". In the box that pops up, you need to check the box that says "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" and then click "Start".

* When you've done that, get this tool: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/330/mirrors.php and install it. The tool is apparantly something HP once wrote, but I have been unable to find a link to it anywhere on the HP website.

* In a command prompt again: <code>C:\DriveKey\HPUSBF.EXE E: -Q -B:A:\</code>, replacing the <code>E:</code> with the "drive letter" associated with your USB stick (you can find this letter in "My Computer" under "Removable Storage"). '''WARNING:''' this wipes anything on the USB stick. You will end up with a USB stick which appears empty at this point, but there is DOS on it somewhere.

* Now mount the BIOS update ISO image from Lenovo as a virtual CDROM using VMWare again and copy the files from it to the USB stick: <code>copy D:\*.* E:\</code>.

At this point, you may want to fiddle with the splash image, as described elsewhere on ThinkWiki.

* Reboot and press F12, tell the BIOS to boot from your USB stick.

* <code>cd flash</code> ; <code>updtflsh.exe</code>

Think happy thoughts. The ThinkPad will beep quite ominously (and loudly!) a couple of times. Do not let this worry you too much. After about three minutes, the program will ask you to press enter to restart and hopefully all will be well.

===Comments===

<ul>

<li>
I have followed your excellent instructions. The CD booted, the update program ran but stopped working and responding while updating. Luckily the BIOS was not destroyed. Since destroying the BIOS is a very high risk, I am going to recover the original Windows on an old HD and will run the update exe update program from there.
</li>

<li>
I followed these clear instructions, and like the comment above I ended up with a CD that booted but the update program stopped working and responding. An ALT-CTRL-DELETE rebooted my x60s, and it works so the BIOS must not have been damaged. I was trying to upgrade from version 2.08 to 2.11, I wonder if these instructions are somehow particular to certain versions?
[[User:Latch|Latch]] 01:22, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
</li>

<li>
After following the above instructions, the program also stopped working while updating the BIOS. But after changing the drive letter from D: to C: (see code below), it everything worked fine. However, I had some trouble figuring out, which letter to choose over D: at first, as the BIOS Upgrade program started right away.

<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* C:
C:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>
[[User:Mtx|Mtx]], 1 August 2007, Thinkpad X61s
</li>

<li>
Flashing the bios (2.12) works for me on a X60s (using drive c). Using the DVD-R on an USB-Hub did not work. [[User:Ra|Ra]] 00:15, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
</li>

</ul>

==Updating via CD/DVD Drive==

The whole thing gets more complicated if you neither have Windows nor a floppy drive installed. This is what this page is intended to describe.

Another possibility which works even without a CD-drive or network is to boot the disk image via the grub initrd mechanism.

Be aware that IBM officially does '''not''' support this! The official statement to my support request was:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
I'm afraid we only support the options listed on our web page and no you
can't burn a CD/DVD, however you can try to use an external USB FDD
(floppy) drive. The experts recommend a IBM USB FDD, however they have also
tested it with a Sony USB FDD drive.

In order to make sure the drive is recognised you can boot up the FDD with
a bootable dos diskette for w98
</nowiki></pre>
</blockquote>

But it seems to be possible as Mathias Dalheimer describes this [http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html here].

Another indication that it should work is that IBM uses PHLASH16.EXE (at least on T4x/p systems) to flash the BIOS into the chip. The same tool is used by [http://www.samsungpc.com/gb/support/p35/bios/bios-instructions.html other vendors] to flash the BIOS from bootable CD-ROMs.
{{WARN|Do '''not''' use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools crash in that situation!}}

Some interesting but very technical information about the used flash tool can be found [http://www.paul.sladen.org/thinkpad-r31/wifi-card-pci-ids.html here].

===Creating a Floppy Image===
If you have created a boot floppy on another machine, you need to create an image file of that floppy. This can be easily done in linux by running a command line:

:{{cmdroot|1=dd bs=2x80x18b if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/floppy.img}}

You can also create a floppy image by using Ken Kato's [http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html VMware's back]. It is a free Windoze tool that creates a virtual floppy drive and allows you to produce an image file ready to be ISO'ed. Note: you might have to 'manually' (through application's interface) assign the virtual drive a volume letter in order to be seen by IBM's application (as, by default, it seems not to do it).

You should verify this {{path|floppy.img}} as explained above.

===Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image===
Once you have your floppy image, either from imaging a real floppy, or from extracting them via the cabextract method above, you need to make a boot CD out of it.

The eltorito bootable CD standard is a wonderful thing. What this means is that a bootable CD can be made with a bootable floppy in such as way that the CD believes that it is a 2.88 MB floppy drive. This allows you to replace a boot floppy by a boot CD in nearly all situations.

It is very easy to create such a bootable CD ISO image in Linux using the mkisofs tool. To do this run a command as follows:

:{{cmdroot|mkisofs -b bootfloppy.img -o bootcd.iso bootfloppy.img}}

Note: This creates a CD with one file on it and marks that file as the boot image. For more info on this read {{cmduser|man mkisofs}}.

You can now burn the {{path|bootcd.iso}} in your favorite CD burning program.

To get an overview which models have been tested with this version, here is a list:

===Does work:===
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-4AU) ||
*George Tellalov <gtellalov_dontspamme@bigfoot.com>. BIOS 1.16 from spsdin36.exe worked perfectly with the method bootable cd from floppy image. I highly recommend this upgrade because it made my ibm-acpi module load (it wouldn't load before) and fixed some suspend to ram problems. Here's the [http://george.tellalov.info/bios_upgrade_600e_spsdin36.iso cd image] I used. Use at your own risk. You can send me a chocolate if it works for you ;)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-5bU) ||
*Mike Vincent<matchstc-putobvioushere.com>. Bios 1.16 from spsdin36.exe and then to the boot cd worked great for me. Thought I had bricked it three separate times using a "real" floppy! Each from different diskettes .The updater would start, give me the "going to take30 seconds" speech...and then access the HD for 10 minutes. Each time it would reboot fine. Did the cd as described above...worked great first time. Perhaps 10 year old seldom used floppy disc drives have some challenges?
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Jonathan Byrne <jonathan@RemoveThisToMailMe.yamame.org>. BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe worked perfectly using cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Andy Barnes <andy@RemoveThisToMailMe.itchypaws.co.uk>. As per Jonathan above, extracted BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe using cabextract, created a CD boot image and burnt to CD. Worked flawlessly - thanks to everyone who contributed to this article!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A20p}} (2629-6VU) ||
*Chris Pickett http://www.sable.mcgill.ca/~cpicke/. BIOS 1.11 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A21e}} (2628-JXU) ||
*Amit Gurdasani <gurdasani at yahoo dot com>. BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method. Alarmingly, after the BIOS update, the laptop beeped but did not shut down as was indicated onscreen -- that was frozen on the "do not shut down the laptop" screen. On power down and up again, the BIOS setup showed the newer BIOS image running, and Linux booted up fine. Linux ACPI didn't complain about the BIOS being too old either.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31p}} (2653) ||
*Matthias Meinke largeeddy@gmx.at, BIOS 1.09 1NET15WW flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31}} (2652) ||
*[[User:Wnoise|Aaron Denney]], BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R30}} ||
*Jarrod, 30 August 2007, Thinkpad R30 Type 2656-E0M. BIOS updated to 1.40 (1CETF0WW) using floppy disk/mkisofs/cdrecord. Worked fine, no problems.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R31}} ||
*[http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html Mathias Dalheimer]
*Sebastian Sauer (with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R40}} ||
*Matthew Lambie, http://lambie.org
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50}} (1836-3SU) ||
*jlbartos <jlbartos at hotmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50e}} (1834-PTG) ||
*item <item at freemail dot hu> : successfully finished with cabextract/CD method for "1wuj25us.exe" (BIOS version 1WET90WW (2.10), Release Date: 2006/12/22)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1829) ||
*Robert Uhl <rob dot uhl at gmx dot de>, Jellby <jellby at yahoo dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1830-RM7) ||
*Will Parker <stardotstar at sourcepoint dot com dot au> successfully flashed 3.20 using existing 3.04 ECP and retained custom boot splash.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (2887) ||
*Ingo van Lil <inguin at gmx dot de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R52}} (1858) ||
*Stuart McCord <stuart dot mccord at gmail dot com> flashed both BIOS and ECP using cabextract, BIOS flashed first as on IBM website
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T20}} ||
*Franz Hassels <fhassel at suse dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T22}} ||
*Daniel Maier <nusse teamidiot de>
*Mathias Behrle (with cabextract/CD method, Version 1.07 => 1.12) --[[User:Mathiasb|Mathiasb]] 11:58, 14 December 2006 (CET)
*Bob Skaroff (cabextract/CD), 1.06 => 1.12
*Leo Butler (cabextract/CD), 1.11 => 1.12
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T23}} ||
*Bart Snapp <snapp at uiuc dot edu> Note: I followed IBM's instructions to flash the BIOS *first* and the Embedded Controller *second*.
*Moy Easwaran: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a via cabextract and CD-boot. The BIOS-update exe generated errors in Windows 2000.
*Joe Renes: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a on 2006-03-20 via cabextract and CD-boot. Piece of cake.
*Raphael Errani: BIOS 1.20 / EC 1.06a on 2006-11-06 via cabextract and CD-boot (using mkisofs). Worked without errors. 1st Bios, 2nd EC
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T30}} ||
*Martin GÃ¼hring <guehring at gmail.com> BIOS 2.10 via cabextract the Non-Diskette BIOS -> mkisofs '''in the directory the exe was extracted''' to generate the iso -> burn the iso -> boot the CD
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40}} ||
*Sean Dague, http://dague.net
*Justin Mason, http://jmason.org
*Ivanhoe (Bios 3.19)
*Alessandro Raulino (roger_2) EC 3.04 & BIOS 3.23 flashed with cabextract/CD method
*Nick Jenkins, using BIOS 3.23 with the [[#The_Non_Diskette_Updater|Non-diskette updater + cabextract method]], then [[#Creating_a_Bootable_CD_from_a_Floppy_Image|created a bootable CD from the cabextracted .IMG file]], then boot that ISO, and it worked great!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40p}} ||
*Lukas KrÃ¤henbÃ¼hl, ismo at pop dot agri dot ch
*Thomas Achtemichuk, tom at tomchuk dot com. BIOS 3.15 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41}} ||
*Lev Givon (Bios 3.15 / EC 3.04) <lev at columbia dot edu>
*Ernesto HernÃ¡ndez-Novich (Bios 3.19 / CP 3.04) < emhn at usb dot ve >
*[http://maebmij.org James Ballantine] (Bios 3.21 / CP 3.04) using nondisk/cabextract/CDRW
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41p}} ||
*Nils Newman, work great. (Version: Bios 3.14 / Embedded Controller 3.04)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42}} ||
*Dan (BIOS 3.20 / EC 3.04, cabextract/CD method) <tronic171 at evilphb.org>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42p}} ||
*Robert Schiele <rschiele@uni-mannheim.de>, Joern Heissler <joern@heissler.de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T43}} ||
*Conrad Rentsch <Conrad dot Rentsch at t-online dot de> (Version: Bios 1.29 / Embedded Controller 1.06)
*Tom Heady <tom-thinkwiki.org@punch.net>
*Florian Boucault <florian at boucault dot ath dot cx> (Model : 1871-W34 & Version: Bios 1.23 / Embedded Controller 1.03)
*Till Heikamp <t dot heikamp at geniusbytes dot com> (Model 2886, Bios 1.22 to 1.29, Embedded Controller 1.03 to 1.06)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T60}} ||
*Roman Komkov <roman at komkov dot org dot ru> (Model 1951, Bios 1.07 to 2.13) Successfully upgraded from CD Image
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X20}} ||
*Neil Caunt <retardis at gmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X21}} ||
*Patrick Leickner <ranma at web dot de>, (BIOS 2.21->2.25 / EC 1.31->1.36) via non-disk/cabextract/mkisofs/cdrecord
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X22}} ||
*David Emery <dave at skiddlydee dot com>, (EC 1.30, BIOS 1.32 using non-disk/cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X23}} ||
*Nils Faerber <nils dot faerber at kernelconcepts dot de> (Embedded Controller 1.30, BIOS 1.32 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X30}} ||
*Hella Breitkopf, [http://www.unixwitch.de/ www] (Embedded Controller 1.04, BIOS 1.07 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X31}} ||
*Grzegorz KuÅ›nierz <koniu at sheket dot org> (Embedded Controller 1.08, BIOS 3.01 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X40}} ||
*Robbie Stone <robbie@serendipity.cx>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Z60m}} ||
*[[User:Morle|Morle]] 13:09, 20 May 2006 (CEST), (Embedded Controller 1.14 with cabextract/CD method)
|}

===Does not work:===
{|
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|}

Please note that testing this is '''at your own risk'''!!!

==Updating via Grub and a Floppy Image==

{{WARN|Many have warned '''not''' to use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools may crash in that situation! Proceed at your own risk!}}

Floppy images may be booted from Grub via a utility called [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK], which may be compiled from the [http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/ '''SYSLINUX source''']. Copy the compiled memdisk image and the floppy image to your boot directory and configure grub as follows:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
title Bios Flash
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd /boot/FILENAME.img
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

Again, proceed at your own risk. This was tested on an R51 type 2888.

This also worked for me on a T41p type 2373. -- [[User:MrStaticVoid|James Lee]] 20:55, 8 May 2006 (CEST)

And it worked for me on a X31 type 2673-CBU. -- [[User:JanTopinski|Jan Topinski]], 18 September 2006

And it worked for me too on a X31 type 2672-CXU, very useful. -- [[User:TheAnarcat|TheAnarcat]] 16:21, 7 March 2007 (CET)

Same here (worked) on a X31 type 2673-58G --[[User:FaUl|FaUl]] 15:53, 20 June 2007 (UTC)FaUl

Works well on a X31 type 2672-PG9, but with a big moment between starting update and the updating window -- [[User:Starox|Starox]] 22 Jul 2007

And it worked for me on two X40 type 2371 -- [[User:Antialize|Jakob Truelsen]], 19 Jan 2007 -- BIOS: 2.07 1uuj21us.exe -- ECP: 1.62 1uhj10us.exe

Not working for me on T43 type 2668-F7G -- [[User:Maus3273|Maus3273]] 20:48, 30 January 2007 (CET) -- BIOS: 1.29 1YUJ18US.IMG -- I got into the bios program, but the machine never restarts after initiating the upgrade.

X41 type 2525-F8G -- [[User:ladoga|Lauri Koponen]], 11:08 16 Apr 2007 
BIOS: 2.09 (74UJ15US.IMG), is no go. (hangs while initialising the actual flashing process) I tried with 2.07 (74UJ13US.IMG) and 2.06 (74UJ12US.IMG) aswell and they all failed in the very same fashion. 
ECP: 1.02 74HJ03US.IMG, works.

It works fine on R30 type 2656-64g, BIOS v.1.40 -- [[User:english.voodoo|Yuri Spirin]], 10 May 2007.

==Updating with Network Boot Image==

BIOS, Embedded Controller (EC), CD/DVD and Harddisk firmware disks can be booted
over the network with [http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php PXELINUX] as part of the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] package.

This requires that you have a DHCP and tftp server configured and setup properly on
your network, and is probably not for the faint of heart.

Make sure the firmware bootdisk is in linux 'dd' format, as the self-extracting .exe disks
from the IBM website cannot be booted directly as such.

This worked on the {{R31}}, {{X22}}, {{T21}}, {{T30}} and {{T41p}} with various firmware updates.

On {{X22}}, works with EC 1.30 but NOT with BIOS 1.32

==Updating via "IBM Predesktop area", suitable for model X (not have CDROM and floppy)==
It's so difficult to update BIOS and ECP without cdrom, floppy disk.
Don't know the reason why I couldn't update BIOS and ECP(1QHJ08US and 1QUJ19US) for my IBM Thinkpad X31.Hmm, may be cause of the dividing partition on my hard disk, that is:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Primary: ext3, ext3, ntfs
Extended: Ntsf, fat32
Bootloader: GRUB
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

No problem, you can use this way to do it:
* First, config in BIOS
In Security part:
# Remove all password of Subpervisor and Power on password
# Set Access IBM Predesktop Area to Normal
# Choose Enable "Flash BIOS updating by End User" in BIOS update Option.

In Config part:
# Choose Enable for Network flash over Lan

* Second, download the newest version of BIOS update and ECP update
Running: The program extract all files to the folder. There is a .img file (1QUJ19US.IMG, 1QUJ08US.IMG) in each folder.
Copy the imformation content in that img file and paste it to one FAT partition(using winimage or TotalCmd to extract)

as seen All files in 1QUJ19US.IMG is extracted to D:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
695,764 $018E000.FL1
163 0691.HSH
2,049 0691.PAT
163 0694.HSH
2,049 0694.PAT
163 0695.HSH
2,049 0695.PAT
2,049 06D0.PAT
163 06D1.HSH
2,049 06D1.PAT
163 06D2.HSH
2,049 06D2.PAT
163 06D6.HSH
2,049 06D6.PAT
2,049 06D8.PAT
697 CHKBMP.EXE
8,128 COMMAND.COM
26 CONFIG.SYS
24,860 FLASH2.EXE
26 LCREFLSH.BAT
170 LOGO.BAT
330 LOGO.SCR
111,925 PHLASH16.EXE
91,648 PREPARE.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
22,252 QKFLASH.EXE
9,923 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
39,666 UPDTFLSH.EXE
6,958 UPDTMN.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,254 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

And all files in 1QUJ08US.IMG are: D:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
315,404 $018E000.FL2
8,000 COMMAND.COM
36 CONFIG.SYS
16,910 ECFLASH2.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
17,812 QKFLASH.EXE
990 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
89,738 UPDTEC.EXE
31,134 UPDTFLSH.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,226 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

* Okie, now plug AC Adapter, charge full battery to your laptop and continue third step:

** '''Flash BIOS first,'''
1. Power On, press blue button on keyboard: '''Access IBM'''

2. On "Utilities", double click " Diagnostic disk"

3. Your laptop will start PC-DOS, wait when this message appear:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Please insert the first floppy diskette and
Press any key to continue
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

4. Press Ctrl + Break, you will see :
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;"><pre><nowiki>Terminate batch job (Y/N) ?</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

5. Okie, press Y, you will get DOS prompt like D:\
{{NOTE|D:\ is my RAMDISK, C:\ is my disk format as FAT.!}}

6. Enter to c:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\BIOS
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. Run FLASH2.EXE /u $018E000.FL1

8. Wait flash progress compelete and reboot.
** '''Flash ECP'''
Follow above instruction from step 1 to 5

6. Enter to c:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\ECP
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. run UPDTFLSH.EXE $018E000.FL2

8. Follow UPDTFLSH's instructions

9. Wait flash complete and auto turn off computer.

I done it on my IBM Thinkpad X31.

Enjoy,

Tested by nm.

==Check List==

The following is important to remember:
# You must update '''both''' the Control Program and the BIOS at the same time if your current Control Program is not compatible with the new BIOS (see below)
# You must find versions of the Control Program and BIOS that are compatible. Not all of them are, so follow the readmes on the IBM website carefully to determine which are.
# You must update the Control Program '''before''' you update the BIOS

When the Control Program '''and''' the BIOS need updating, have both update disks or CDs ready. Update the Control Program first and the system should switch itself off when finished. Insert the BIOS update disk and proceed to update the BIOS. When it's all finished, enter setup, reset the settings to their defaults and reboot. Enter setup again and tweak the settings as necessary.

BIOS Upgrade

2007-09-29T08:09:51Z

Voominc: /* BIOS Upgrade Paths */

__TOC__

This page is meant to describe ways to update the BIOS on a ThinkPad that only runs Linux for users that don't have ready access to Windows. If you have Windows on your ThinkPad you can just boot into it and follow instructions on the IBM website.

{{NOTE| In one case ([[APM setup on a type 2379 ThinkPad T40]]) it was not possible to upgrade the BIOS from Windows XP; a downgrade to Windows 98 was required to successfully run the BIOS upgrade app. The symptoms in this case were that, once the files had been extracted to the hard disk, and the machine was to reboot into the upgrade app, it would beep and hang just before reboot, requiring a power cycle. Once the power was cycled, it would simply reboot back into XP without performing any BIOS upgrade actions. So even if you have Windows, you may still need to use the info on this page.}}

----
==Before You Begin==
Updating the BIOS in Linux (with few exceptions) '''is not officially supported''' by IBM/Lenovo. However there are work arounds.

{{WARN|By following any of the instructions here you are accepting the '''very real risk''' of turning your thinkpad into a big expensive paper weight, as a firmware update gone wrong can create unfixable problems.

'''Proceed at your own risk!'''

It is also important to understand that Thinkpads from IBM have two separate firmwares: the BIOS, and the Embedded Controller program. A given BIOS version will require a certain version of the Embedded Controller program.

The IBM documentation is sometimes unclear about the order in which these two firmwares should be updated. On most, but not all Thinkpads, '''the correct update order is Embedded Controller program first, and then the BIOS'''. Make sure to do the two updates immediately one after the other. Newer models from Lenovo update both the Embedded Controller program and the BIOS at the same time, so you don't have to worry about it.}}

==BIOS Upgrade Paths==

For every firmware (either BIOS or Embedded Controller program) update on the IBM web site there used to be two different firmware update programs provided. The Diskette Updater and the Non Diskette Updater. For newer Lenovo Models the Diskette Updater is replaced with a bootable CD-Image and the Non Diskette Updater is renamed BIOS Update Utility, both of which update the BIOS and the Embedded Controller program at the same time. A list of links to firmware downloads can be found at [[BIOS Upgrade Downloads]] for nearly all Thinkpad Models.

===The Diskette Updater===

The Diskette updater appears to be a 16 bit DOS program which asks you to accept a license agreement. It will run in Windows, DOS, OS/2, or [http://dosemu.sf.net Dosemu] perfectly, but requires a real floppy disk attached via a real floppy controller. A USB Floppy Drive will not work.

===The Bootable CD Image===

Newer models from Lenovo can be updated using the Bootable CD Image. This should be the easiest way for non-Windows users and also maybe a more secure way for Windows users, as well. As the image is provided as a plain ISO-file without any Windows enclosure, you can simply burn it to a CD-R/RW with any modern operating system, as long as you have a CD/DVD-RW Drive and are then able to boot from it.

===Making a Bootable CD-ROM from the Non Diskette Updater===
{{WARN|Though this process was successfully tested on one version of .exe files found on IBMs website this doesn't mean it will work for all of them. Proceed at your own risk.}}

This installer appears to be a 32bit windows .exe which is designed for updating the BIOS directly from a running Windows OS. It turns out that this .exe is really a wrapper license program around Windows .cab files (see [[How_to_change_the_BIOS_bootsplash_screen|BIOS-Bootsplash]]). If you install the Linux program [http://freshmeat.net/projects/cabextract/ '''cabextract'''] you can expand these .cab files directly. Run the following:

:{{cmduser|cabextract FILENAME.exe}}

This will extract 8 files in the current directory. One of them will be FILENAME.img. In this discussion, "FILENAME" represents the name of the Non Diskette file that you downloaded, such as "1NHJ04US".

You can test that this is really a floppy image by running:

:{{cmdroot|mkdir mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop FILENAME.img mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}}

If the results of {{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}} look like a dos floppy, and no read errors were displayed, you have a pretty good chance that the floppy image is usable.

Unmount the image after you are done:

:{{cmdroot|umount mntfloppy}}

Now, you can proceed to the

== Updating Thinkpad X Series ==

X Series Thinkpads do not have an internal drive. If there is no Windows installed, the BIOS must be updated by booting from an USB drive or a drive that is integrated in the docking station. Since a while Lenovo provides BIOS updates in form of bootable CD images. Unfortunately, these images are intended to be used with the docking station's CD drive. If you do not own such a drive, things get complicated.

The problem is that current BIOS updates are quite large, about 3 MB in size. Booting from CDs typically works like booting from a 1.44 MB or 2.88 MB floppy disk. The floppy image is stored on the CD and is referenced in the CD's boot record. Because the BIOS update file are that large, they do not fit on such a floppy image. Thus, they must be stored on the CD outside the virtual floppy image. To access these files a driver for the CD drive has to be loaded. Since Lenovo's CD images are intended to be used with a docking station's CD drive, it is not possible to use them for BIOS updates by booting from an USB CD drive.

But there is hope. The CD images provided by Lenovo can be modified such that they contain drivers for USB CD drives. I tested the following with a Thinkpad {{X60s}}.

The idea is to take Lenovo's ISO CD image and modify it such that a USB CD drive can be used instead the CD drive in the docking station. Unfortunately, simply replacing the drivers is not enough. While doing the BIOS update, the USB ports seem to get disabled or something. Therefore, before starting the update process the CD contents have to be copied to a RAM disk. I will describe the procedure step by step.

<ol>
<li>
Download the ISO image style BIOS update from Lenovo's website. This file will be refered to as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.iso</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Extract the floppy image from this ISO image. You can use the following shell script for this task (or an alternative one from [http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~krienke/ftp/noarch/geteltorito/]). Simply save this code into the file <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>, set the x-flag (<tt>chmod +x /tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>) and call it using the command <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. The floppy image contained in the ISO image will then be saved to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. Here is the code of the shell script:
<pre>
#!/bin/bash

# This script extracts the floopy boot image from bootable ISO images
#
# Written by Joachim Selke (mail@joachim-selke.de), 2007-04-07

ISOFILE=$1
IMAGEFILE=$2

if [ ! -r $ISOFILE ]; then
echo $ISOFILE: file does not exist or is not readable
exit 1
fi

if [ -z $IMAGEFILE ]; then
echo Error: no image file specified
exit 1
fi

ISOFILESIZE=`stat -c %s $ISOFILE`

# collect El Torito data
# see http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/98D3219C-9CC9-4DF5-B496-A286D893E36A/0/specscdrom.pdf for reference

BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE=$((17 * 0x800 + 0x47))

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE + 4)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to first sector of boot catalog:
BOOTCATALOG=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTCATALOGBYTE=$((0x$BOOTCATALOG * 0x800))

echo Boot catalog starts at byte $BOOTCATALOGBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 2)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# media type of boot image
# only floppy disk images are supported by this script
BOOTMEDIATYPE=`od -A n -t x1 -N 1 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 1)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

if [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 1 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.2M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1200 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 2 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.44M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1440 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 3 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 2.88M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((2880 / 2))
else
echo Boot media type is $((0x$BOOTMEDIATYPE)). This type is not supported yet.
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to start of boot image
BOOTIMAGE=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 8)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTIMAGEBYTE=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800))

echo Boot image starts at byte $BOOTIMAGEBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800 + $IMAGEBLOCKS * 0x800)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

echo Extracting boot image ...

dd if=$ISOFILE of=$IMAGEFILE bs=2K count=$IMAGEBLOCKS skip=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE))

echo Finished
</pre>
</li>

<li>
Mount the floppy image '''as root''' using the loop device:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
The image is now mounted as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Download needed drivers. First download some [http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/other/driver/f2h_usb.exe USB drivers] from Panasonic Japan. Save the file to <tt>/tmp/f2h_usb.exe</tt> This file is a self-extracting EXE file, that can be executed under Linux using [http://www.winehq.com/ Wine]:
:{{cmduser|wine /tmp/f2h_usb.exe}}
You will be asked where to save the extracted files. Choose <tt>/tmp</tt>. A new directory <tt>/tmp/F2h</tt> containing the needed drivers will be created.

Additionally, you will need drivers for the RAM disk mentioned. Download them from the [http://sourceforge.net/projects/srdisk ReSizeable RAMDisk project]. Unzip them to <tt>/tmp/srdisk</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Let's modify the floppy image:
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/Usbaspi.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/USBCD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/RAMFD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdxms.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdisk.exe /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
Now add the following lines to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/config.sys</tt> replacing the line <tt>DEVICE = A:\IBMTPCD.SYS /R /C</tt>:
<pre>
DEVICE = A:\SRDXMS.SYS
DEVICE = A:\RAMFD.SYS
DEVICE = A:\USBASPI.SYS /V
DEVICE = A:\USBCD.SYS /D:TPCD001
</pre>
Finally, edit the file <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/autoexec.bat</tt> replacing the last line (saying <tt>COMMAND.COM</tt>) by the following:
<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* D:
D:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>

Maybe the RAM disk gets a drive letter different from D: on your system. In this case, you have to change the above lines accordingly.
</li>

<li>
Unmount the floppy image (as root):
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
</li>

<li>
Copy the content of the original CD image to a new directory and create a new ISO file:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkdir /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt/* /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/boot.img}}
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkisofs -relaxed-filenames -b boot.img -o /tmp/bios-new.iso /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/}}
</li>

<li>
The file <tt>/tmp/bios-new.iso</tt> is the modified ISO file. Just burn it to CD and use this CD for updating your BIOS (boot from it using your USB drive). Please give some comments here if it worked for you.
</li>

</ol>

===Alternative method using a USB stick===

''Note: none of the above methods worked on my X60s. This method worked for me, however.'' [[User:PhilipPaeps|PhilipPaeps]] 16:41, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

This method was surprisingly painless once I convinced my ThinkPad X60s to boot DOS from a USB stick. I used VMWare and some mystical tool to get DOS on the stick. If you can find another way to get a bootable DOS stick, please update this section!

* Tell VMWare to create a virtual floppy image for you and format it under Microsoft Windows and tell it to create a system disk. You can do this by clicking into "My Computer", then right-clicking on the "Floppy" icon and selecting "Format". In the box that pops up, you need to check the box that says "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" and then click "Start".

* When you've done that, get this tool: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/330/mirrors.php and install it. The tool is apparantly something HP once wrote, but I have been unable to find a link to it anywhere on the HP website.

* In a command prompt again: <code>C:\DriveKey\HPUSBF.EXE E: -Q -B:A:\</code>, replacing the <code>E:</code> with the "drive letter" associated with your USB stick (you can find this letter in "My Computer" under "Removable Storage"). '''WARNING:''' this wipes anything on the USB stick. You will end up with a USB stick which appears empty at this point, but there is DOS on it somewhere.

* Now mount the BIOS update ISO image from Lenovo as a virtual CDROM using VMWare again and copy the files from it to the USB stick: <code>copy D:\*.* E:\</code>.

At this point, you may want to fiddle with the splash image, as described elsewhere on ThinkWiki.

* Reboot and press F12, tell the BIOS to boot from your USB stick.

* <code>cd flash</code> ; <code>updtflsh.exe</code>

Think happy thoughts. The ThinkPad will beep quite ominously (and loudly!) a couple of times. Do not let this worry you too much. After about three minutes, the program will ask you to press enter to restart and hopefully all will be well.

===Comments===

<ul>

<li>
I have followed your excellent instructions. The CD booted, the update program ran but stopped working and responding while updating. Luckily the BIOS was not destroyed. Since destroying the BIOS is a very high risk, I am going to recover the original Windows on an old HD and will run the update exe update program from there.
</li>

<li>
I followed these clear instructions, and like the comment above I ended up with a CD that booted but the update program stopped working and responding. An ALT-CTRL-DELETE rebooted my x60s, and it works so the BIOS must not have been damaged. I was trying to upgrade from version 2.08 to 2.11, I wonder if these instructions are somehow particular to certain versions?
[[User:Latch|Latch]] 01:22, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
</li>

<li>
After following the above instructions, the program also stopped working while updating the BIOS. But after changing the drive letter from D: to C: (see code below), it everything worked fine. However, I had some trouble figuring out, which letter to choose over D: at first, as the BIOS Upgrade program started right away.

<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* C:
C:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>
[[User:Mtx|Mtx]], 1 August 2007, Thinkpad X61s
</li>

<li>
Flashing the bios (2.12) works for me on a X60s (using drive c). Using the DVD-R on an USB-Hub did not work. [[User:Ra|Ra]] 00:15, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
</li>

</ul>

==Updating via CD/DVD Drive==

The whole thing gets more complicated if you neither have Windows nor a floppy drive installed. This is what this page is intended to describe.

Another possibility which works even without a CD-drive or network is to boot the disk image via the grub initrd mechanism.

Be aware that IBM officially does '''not''' support this! The official statement to my support request was:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
I'm afraid we only support the options listed on our web page and no you
can't burn a CD/DVD, however you can try to use an external USB FDD
(floppy) drive. The experts recommend a IBM USB FDD, however they have also
tested it with a Sony USB FDD drive.

In order to make sure the drive is recognised you can boot up the FDD with
a bootable dos diskette for w98
</nowiki></pre>
</blockquote>

But it seems to be possible as Mathias Dalheimer describes this [http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html here].

Another indication that it should work is that IBM uses PHLASH16.EXE (at least on T4x/p systems) to flash the BIOS into the chip. The same tool is used by [http://www.samsungpc.com/gb/support/p35/bios/bios-instructions.html other vendors] to flash the BIOS from bootable CD-ROMs.
{{WARN|Do '''not''' use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools crash in that situation!}}

Some interesting but very technical information about the used flash tool can be found [http://www.paul.sladen.org/thinkpad-r31/wifi-card-pci-ids.html here].

===Creating a Floppy Image===
If you have created a boot floppy on another machine, you need to create an image file of that floppy. This can be easily done in linux by running a command line:

:{{cmdroot|1=dd bs=2x80x18b if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/floppy.img}}

You can also create a floppy image by using Ken Kato's [http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html VMware's back]. It is a free Windoze tool that creates a virtual floppy drive and allows you to produce an image file ready to be ISO'ed. Note: you might have to 'manually' (through application's interface) assign the virtual drive a volume letter in order to be seen by IBM's application (as, by default, it seems not to do it).

You should verify this {{path|floppy.img}} as explained above.

===Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image===
Once you have your floppy image, either from imaging a real floppy, or from extracting them via the cabextract method above, you need to make a boot CD out of it.

The eltorito bootable CD standard is a wonderful thing. What this means is that a bootable CD can be made with a bootable floppy in such as way that the CD believes that it is a 2.88 MB floppy drive. This allows you to replace a boot floppy by a boot CD in nearly all situations.

It is very easy to create such a bootable CD ISO image in Linux using the mkisofs tool. To do this run a command as follows:

:{{cmdroot|mkisofs -b bootfloppy.img -o bootcd.iso bootfloppy.img}}

Note: This creates a CD with one file on it and marks that file as the boot image. For more info on this read {{cmduser|man mkisofs}}.

You can now burn the {{path|bootcd.iso}} in your favorite CD burning program.

To get an overview which models have been tested with this version, here is a list:

===Does work:===
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-4AU) ||
*George Tellalov <gtellalov_dontspamme@bigfoot.com>. BIOS 1.16 from spsdin36.exe worked perfectly with the method bootable cd from floppy image. I highly recommend this upgrade because it made my ibm-acpi module load (it wouldn't load before) and fixed some suspend to ram problems. Here's the [http://george.tellalov.info/bios_upgrade_600e_spsdin36.iso cd image] I used. Use at your own risk. You can send me a chocolate if it works for you ;)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-5bU) ||
*Mike Vincent<matchstc-putobvioushere.com>. Bios 1.16 from spsdin36.exe and then to the boot cd worked great for me. Thought I had bricked it three separate times using a "real" floppy! Each from different diskettes .The updater would start, give me the "going to take30 seconds" speech...and then access the HD for 10 minutes. Each time it would reboot fine. Did the cd as described above...worked great first time. Perhaps 10 year old seldom used floppy disc drives have some challenges?
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Jonathan Byrne <jonathan@RemoveThisToMailMe.yamame.org>. BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe worked perfectly using cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Andy Barnes <andy@RemoveThisToMailMe.itchypaws.co.uk>. As per Jonathan above, extracted BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe using cabextract, created a CD boot image and burnt to CD. Worked flawlessly - thanks to everyone who contributed to this article!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A20p}} (2629-6VU) ||
*Chris Pickett http://www.sable.mcgill.ca/~cpicke/. BIOS 1.11 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A21e}} (2628-JXU) ||
*Amit Gurdasani <gurdasani at yahoo dot com>. BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method. Alarmingly, after the BIOS update, the laptop beeped but did not shut down as was indicated onscreen -- that was frozen on the "do not shut down the laptop" screen. On power down and up again, the BIOS setup showed the newer BIOS image running, and Linux booted up fine. Linux ACPI didn't complain about the BIOS being too old either.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31p}} (2653) ||
*Matthias Meinke largeeddy@gmx.at, BIOS 1.09 1NET15WW flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31}} (2652) ||
*[[User:Wnoise|Aaron Denney]], BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R30}} ||
*Jarrod, 30 August 2007, Thinkpad R30 Type 2656-E0M. BIOS updated to 1.40 (1CETF0WW) using floppy disk/mkisofs/cdrecord. Worked fine, no problems.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R31}} ||
*[http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html Mathias Dalheimer]
*Sebastian Sauer (with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R40}} ||
*Matthew Lambie, http://lambie.org
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50}} (1836-3SU) ||
*jlbartos <jlbartos at hotmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50e}} (1834-PTG) ||
*item <item at freemail dot hu> : successfully finished with cabextract/CD method for "1wuj25us.exe" (BIOS version 1WET90WW (2.10), Release Date: 2006/12/22)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1829) ||
*Robert Uhl <rob dot uhl at gmx dot de>, Jellby <jellby at yahoo dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1830-RM7) ||
*Will Parker <stardotstar at sourcepoint dot com dot au> successfully flashed 3.20 using existing 3.04 ECP and retained custom boot splash.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (2887) ||
*Ingo van Lil <inguin at gmx dot de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R52}} (1858) ||
*Stuart McCord <stuart dot mccord at gmail dot com> flashed both BIOS and ECP using cabextract, BIOS flashed first as on IBM website
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T20}} ||
*Franz Hassels <fhassel at suse dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T22}} ||
*Daniel Maier <nusse teamidiot de>
*Mathias Behrle (with cabextract/CD method, Version 1.07 => 1.12) --[[User:Mathiasb|Mathiasb]] 11:58, 14 December 2006 (CET)
*Bob Skaroff (cabextract/CD), 1.06 => 1.12
*Leo Butler (cabextract/CD), 1.11 => 1.12
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T23}} ||
*Bart Snapp <snapp at uiuc dot edu> Note: I followed IBM's instructions to flash the BIOS *first* and the Embedded Controller *second*.
*Moy Easwaran: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a via cabextract and CD-boot. The BIOS-update exe generated errors in Windows 2000.
*Joe Renes: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a on 2006-03-20 via cabextract and CD-boot. Piece of cake.
*Raphael Errani: BIOS 1.20 / EC 1.06a on 2006-11-06 via cabextract and CD-boot (using mkisofs). Worked without errors. 1st Bios, 2nd EC
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T30}} ||
*Martin GÃ¼hring <guehring at gmail.com> BIOS 2.10 via cabextract the Non-Diskette BIOS -> mkisofs '''in the directory the exe was extracted''' to generate the iso -> burn the iso -> boot the CD
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40}} ||
*Sean Dague, http://dague.net
*Justin Mason, http://jmason.org
*Ivanhoe (Bios 3.19)
*Alessandro Raulino (roger_2) EC 3.04 & BIOS 3.23 flashed with cabextract/CD method
*Nick Jenkins, using BIOS 3.23 with the [[#The_Non_Diskette_Updater|Non-diskette updater + cabextract method]], then [[#Creating_a_Bootable_CD_from_a_Floppy_Image|created a bootable CD from the cabextracted .IMG file]], then boot that ISO, and it worked great!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40p}} ||
*Lukas KrÃ¤henbÃ¼hl, ismo at pop dot agri dot ch
*Thomas Achtemichuk, tom at tomchuk dot com. BIOS 3.15 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41}} ||
*Lev Givon (Bios 3.15 / EC 3.04) <lev at columbia dot edu>
*Ernesto HernÃ¡ndez-Novich (Bios 3.19 / CP 3.04) < emhn at usb dot ve >
*[http://maebmij.org James Ballantine] (Bios 3.21 / CP 3.04) using nondisk/cabextract/CDRW
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41p}} ||
*Nils Newman, work great. (Version: Bios 3.14 / Embedded Controller 3.04)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42}} ||
*Dan (BIOS 3.20 / EC 3.04, cabextract/CD method) <tronic171 at evilphb.org>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42p}} ||
*Robert Schiele <rschiele@uni-mannheim.de>, Joern Heissler <joern@heissler.de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T43}} ||
*Conrad Rentsch <Conrad dot Rentsch at t-online dot de> (Version: Bios 1.29 / Embedded Controller 1.06)
*Tom Heady <tom-thinkwiki.org@punch.net>
*Florian Boucault <florian at boucault dot ath dot cx> (Model : 1871-W34 & Version: Bios 1.23 / Embedded Controller 1.03)
*Till Heikamp <t dot heikamp at geniusbytes dot com> (Model 2886, Bios 1.22 to 1.29, Embedded Controller 1.03 to 1.06)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T60}} ||
*Roman Komkov <roman at komkov dot org dot ru> (Model 1951, Bios 1.07 to 2.13) Successfully upgraded from CD Image
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X20}} ||
*Neil Caunt <retardis at gmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X21}} ||
*Patrick Leickner <ranma at web dot de>, (BIOS 2.21->2.25 / EC 1.31->1.36) via non-disk/cabextract/mkisofs/cdrecord
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X22}} ||
*David Emery <dave at skiddlydee dot com>, (EC 1.30, BIOS 1.32 using non-disk/cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X23}} ||
*Nils Faerber <nils dot faerber at kernelconcepts dot de> (Embedded Controller 1.30, BIOS 1.32 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X30}} ||
*Hella Breitkopf, [http://www.unixwitch.de/ www] (Embedded Controller 1.04, BIOS 1.07 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X31}} ||
*Grzegorz KuÅ›nierz <koniu at sheket dot org> (Embedded Controller 1.08, BIOS 3.01 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X40}} ||
*Robbie Stone <robbie@serendipity.cx>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Z60m}} ||
*[[User:Morle|Morle]] 13:09, 20 May 2006 (CEST), (Embedded Controller 1.14 with cabextract/CD method)
|}

===Does not work:===
{|
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|}

Please note that testing this is '''at your own risk'''!!!

==Updating via Grub and a Floppy Image==

{{WARN|Many have warned '''not''' to use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools may crash in that situation! Proceed at your own risk!}}

Floppy images may be booted from Grub via a utility called [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK], which may be compiled from the [http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/ '''SYSLINUX source''']. Copy the compiled memdisk image and the floppy image to your boot directory and configure grub as follows:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
title Bios Flash
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd /boot/FILENAME.img
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

Again, proceed at your own risk. This was tested on an R51 type 2888.

This also worked for me on a T41p type 2373. -- [[User:MrStaticVoid|James Lee]] 20:55, 8 May 2006 (CEST)

And it worked for me on a X31 type 2673-CBU. -- [[User:JanTopinski|Jan Topinski]], 18 September 2006

And it worked for me too on a X31 type 2672-CXU, very useful. -- [[User:TheAnarcat|TheAnarcat]] 16:21, 7 March 2007 (CET)

Same here (worked) on a X31 type 2673-58G --[[User:FaUl|FaUl]] 15:53, 20 June 2007 (UTC)FaUl

Works well on a X31 type 2672-PG9, but with a big moment between starting update and the updating window -- [[User:Starox|Starox]] 22 Jul 2007

And it worked for me on two X40 type 2371 -- [[User:Antialize|Jakob Truelsen]], 19 Jan 2007 -- BIOS: 2.07 1uuj21us.exe -- ECP: 1.62 1uhj10us.exe

Not working for me on T43 type 2668-F7G -- [[User:Maus3273|Maus3273]] 20:48, 30 January 2007 (CET) -- BIOS: 1.29 1YUJ18US.IMG -- I got into the bios program, but the machine never restarts after initiating the upgrade.

X41 type 2525-F8G -- [[User:ladoga|Lauri Koponen]], 11:08 16 Apr 2007 
BIOS: 2.09 (74UJ15US.IMG), is no go. (hangs while initialising the actual flashing process) I tried with 2.07 (74UJ13US.IMG) and 2.06 (74UJ12US.IMG) aswell and they all failed in the very same fashion. 
ECP: 1.02 74HJ03US.IMG, works.

It works fine on R30 type 2656-64g, BIOS v.1.40 -- [[User:english.voodoo|Yuri Spirin]], 10 May 2007.

==Updating with Network Boot Image==

BIOS, Embedded Controller (EC), CD/DVD and Harddisk firmware disks can be booted
over the network with [http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php PXELINUX] as part of the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] package.

This requires that you have a DHCP and tftp server configured and setup properly on
your network, and is probably not for the faint of heart.

Make sure the firmware bootdisk is in linux 'dd' format, as the self-extracting .exe disks
from the IBM website cannot be booted directly as such.

This worked on the {{R31}}, {{X22}}, {{T21}}, {{T30}} and {{T41p}} with various firmware updates.

On {{X22}}, works with EC 1.30 but NOT with BIOS 1.32

==Updating via "IBM Predesktop area", suitable for model X (not have CDROM and floppy)==
It's so difficult to update BIOS and ECP without cdrom, floppy disk.
Don't know the reason why I couldn't update BIOS and ECP(1QHJ08US and 1QUJ19US) for my IBM Thinkpad X31.Hmm, may be cause of the dividing partition on my hard disk, that is:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Primary: ext3, ext3, ntfs
Extended: Ntsf, fat32
Bootloader: GRUB
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

No problem, you can use this way to do it:
* First, config in BIOS
In Security part:
# Remove all password of Subpervisor and Power on password
# Set Access IBM Predesktop Area to Normal
# Choose Enable "Flash BIOS updating by End User" in BIOS update Option.

In Config part:
# Choose Enable for Network flash over Lan

* Second, download the newest version of BIOS update and ECP update
Running: The program extract all files to the folder. There is a .img file (1QUJ19US.IMG, 1QUJ08US.IMG) in each folder.
Copy the imformation content in that img file and paste it to one FAT partition(using winimage or TotalCmd to extract)

as seen All files in 1QUJ19US.IMG is extracted to D:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
695,764 $018E000.FL1
163 0691.HSH
2,049 0691.PAT
163 0694.HSH
2,049 0694.PAT
163 0695.HSH
2,049 0695.PAT
2,049 06D0.PAT
163 06D1.HSH
2,049 06D1.PAT
163 06D2.HSH
2,049 06D2.PAT
163 06D6.HSH
2,049 06D6.PAT
2,049 06D8.PAT
697 CHKBMP.EXE
8,128 COMMAND.COM
26 CONFIG.SYS
24,860 FLASH2.EXE
26 LCREFLSH.BAT
170 LOGO.BAT
330 LOGO.SCR
111,925 PHLASH16.EXE
91,648 PREPARE.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
22,252 QKFLASH.EXE
9,923 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
39,666 UPDTFLSH.EXE
6,958 UPDTMN.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,254 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

And all files in 1QUJ08US.IMG are: D:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
315,404 $018E000.FL2
8,000 COMMAND.COM
36 CONFIG.SYS
16,910 ECFLASH2.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
17,812 QKFLASH.EXE
990 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
89,738 UPDTEC.EXE
31,134 UPDTFLSH.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,226 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

* Okie, now plug AC Adapter, charge full battery to your laptop and continue third step:

** '''Flash BIOS first,'''
1. Power On, press blue button on keyboard: '''Access IBM'''

2. On "Utilities", double click " Diagnostic disk"

3. Your laptop will start PC-DOS, wait when this message appear:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Please insert the first floppy diskette and
Press any key to continue
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

4. Press Ctrl + Break, you will see :
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;"><pre><nowiki>Terminate batch job (Y/N) ?</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

5. Okie, press Y, you will get DOS prompt like D:\
{{NOTE|D:\ is my RAMDISK, C:\ is my disk format as FAT.!}}

6. Enter to c:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\BIOS
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. Run FLASH2.EXE /u $018E000.FL1

8. Wait flash progress compelete and reboot.
** '''Flash ECP'''
Follow above instruction from step 1 to 5

6. Enter to c:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\ECP
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. run UPDTFLSH.EXE $018E000.FL2

8. Follow UPDTFLSH's instructions

9. Wait flash complete and auto turn off computer.

I done it on my IBM Thinkpad X31.

Enjoy,

Tested by nm.

==Check List==

The following is important to remember:
# You must update '''both''' the Control Program and the BIOS at the same time if your current Control Program is not compatible with the new BIOS (see below)
# You must find versions of the Control Program and BIOS that are compatible. Not all of them are, so follow the readmes on the IBM website carefully to determine which are.
# You must update the Control Program '''before''' you update the BIOS

When the Control Program '''and''' the BIOS need updating, have both update disks or CDs ready. Update the Control Program first and the system should switch itself off when finished. Insert the BIOS update disk and proceed to update the BIOS. When it's all finished, enter setup, reset the settings to their defaults and reboot. Enter setup again and tweak the settings as necessary.

BIOS Upgrade

2007-09-29T07:54:51Z

Voominc: /* Before You Begin */

__TOC__

This page is meant to describe ways to update the BIOS on a ThinkPad that only runs Linux for users that don't have ready access to Windows. If you have Windows on your ThinkPad you can just boot into it and follow instructions on the IBM website.

{{NOTE| In one case ([[APM setup on a type 2379 ThinkPad T40]]) it was not possible to upgrade the BIOS from Windows XP; a downgrade to Windows 98 was required to successfully run the BIOS upgrade app. The symptoms in this case were that, once the files had been extracted to the hard disk, and the machine was to reboot into the upgrade app, it would beep and hang just before reboot, requiring a power cycle. Once the power was cycled, it would simply reboot back into XP without performing any BIOS upgrade actions. So even if you have Windows, you may still need to use the info on this page.}}

----
==Before You Begin==
Updating the BIOS in Linux (with few exceptions) '''is not officially supported''' by IBM/Lenovo. However there are work arounds.

{{WARN|By following any of the instructions here you are accepting the '''very real risk''' of turning your thinkpad into a big expensive paper weight, as a firmware update gone wrong can create unfixable problems.

'''Proceed at your own risk!'''

It is also important to understand that Thinkpads from IBM have two separate firmwares: the BIOS, and the Embedded Controller program. A given BIOS version will require a certain version of the Embedded Controller program.

The IBM documentation is sometimes unclear about the order in which these two firmwares should be updated. On most, but not all Thinkpads, '''the correct update order is Embedded Controller program first, and then the BIOS'''. Make sure to do the two updates immediately one after the other. Newer models from Lenovo update both the Embedded Controller program and the BIOS at the same time, so you don't have to worry about it.}}

==BIOS Upgrade Paths==

For every firmware (either BIOS or Control Program) update on the IBM site there used to be two different firmware update programs provided. The Diskette Updater and the Non Diskette Updater. For newer Lenovo Models the Diskette Updater is replaced with a bootable CD-Image and the The Non Diskette Updater is renamed BIOS Update Utility, both update the BIOS and the Control Program at the same time. A list of links to firmware downloads can be found at [[BIOS Upgrade Downloads]] for nearly all Thinkpad Models.

===The Diskette Updater===

This installer appears to be a 16bit dos program which asks you to accept a license agreement. It will run in Windows, DOS, OS/2, or [http://dosemu.sf.net Dosemu] perfectly, but requires a real floppy disk attached via a real floppy control. The USB Floppy Drive to the new Thinkpads doesn't count.

===The Bootable CD Image===

This should be the easiest way for non-Windows users and also maybe a more secure way for Windows users, too. As the Image is provided as a plain ISO-file without any windows enclosure, you can simply burn it to a CD-R/RW with any modern operation system, as long as you have a CD/DVD-RW Drive and then are able to boot from it.

===The Non Diskette Updater===
{{WARN|Though this process was successfully tested on one version of .exe files found on IBMs website this doesn't mean it will work for all of them. Use at your own risk.}}

This installer appears to be a 32bit windows exe which is designed for updating the BIOS directly from a running Windows OS. It turns out that the .exe is really a wrapper license program arround windows .cab files (this information is in [[How_to_change_the_BIOS_bootsplash_screen|BIOS-Bootsplash]]). If you install the Linux program [http://freshmeat.net/projects/cabextract/ '''cabextract'''] you can expand these files directly. Run the following:

:{{cmduser|cabextract FILENAME.exe}}

You will get 8 files in the current directory. One of them will be FILENAME.img. You can test that this is really a floppy image by running:

:{{cmdroot|mkdir mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop FILENAME.img mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}}

If the results of {{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}} look like a dos floppy, and no read errors were displayed, you have a pretty good chance that the floppy image is usable.

After you are done, unmount the floppy image:

:{{cmdroot|umount mntfloppy}}

If you were able to create the boot floppy per the Diskette update method, and you have a Floppy with your Thinkpad, the update should be simple.

== Updating Thinkpad X Series ==

X Series Thinkpads do not have an internal drive. If there is no Windows installed, the BIOS must be updated by booting from an USB drive or a drive that is integrated in the docking station. Since a while Lenovo provides BIOS updates in form of bootable CD images. Unfortunately, these images are intended to be used with the docking station's CD drive. If you do not own such a drive, things get complicated.

The problem is that current BIOS updates are quite large, about 3 MB in size. Booting from CDs typically works like booting from a 1.44 MB or 2.88 MB floppy disk. The floppy image is stored on the CD and is referenced in the CD's boot record. Because the BIOS update file are that large, they do not fit on such a floppy image. Thus, they must be stored on the CD outside the virtual floppy image. To access these files a driver for the CD drive has to be loaded. Since Lenovo's CD images are intended to be used with a docking station's CD drive, it is not possible to use them for BIOS updates by booting from an USB CD drive.

But there is hope. The CD images provided by Lenovo can be modified such that they contain drivers for USB CD drives. I tested the following with a Thinkpad {{X60s}}.

The idea is to take Lenovo's ISO CD image and modify it such that a USB CD drive can be used instead the CD drive in the docking station. Unfortunately, simply replacing the drivers is not enough. While doing the BIOS update, the USB ports seem to get disabled or something. Therefore, before starting the update process the CD contents have to be copied to a RAM disk. I will describe the procedure step by step.

<ol>
<li>
Download the ISO image style BIOS update from Lenovo's website. This file will be refered to as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.iso</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Extract the floppy image from this ISO image. You can use the following shell script for this task (or an alternative one from [http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~krienke/ftp/noarch/geteltorito/]). Simply save this code into the file <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>, set the x-flag (<tt>chmod +x /tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>) and call it using the command <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. The floppy image contained in the ISO image will then be saved to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. Here is the code of the shell script:
<pre>
#!/bin/bash

# This script extracts the floopy boot image from bootable ISO images
#
# Written by Joachim Selke (mail@joachim-selke.de), 2007-04-07

ISOFILE=$1
IMAGEFILE=$2

if [ ! -r $ISOFILE ]; then
echo $ISOFILE: file does not exist or is not readable
exit 1
fi

if [ -z $IMAGEFILE ]; then
echo Error: no image file specified
exit 1
fi

ISOFILESIZE=`stat -c %s $ISOFILE`

# collect El Torito data
# see http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/98D3219C-9CC9-4DF5-B496-A286D893E36A/0/specscdrom.pdf for reference

BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE=$((17 * 0x800 + 0x47))

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE + 4)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to first sector of boot catalog:
BOOTCATALOG=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTCATALOGBYTE=$((0x$BOOTCATALOG * 0x800))

echo Boot catalog starts at byte $BOOTCATALOGBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 2)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# media type of boot image
# only floppy disk images are supported by this script
BOOTMEDIATYPE=`od -A n -t x1 -N 1 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 1)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

if [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 1 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.2M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1200 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 2 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.44M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1440 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 3 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 2.88M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((2880 / 2))
else
echo Boot media type is $((0x$BOOTMEDIATYPE)). This type is not supported yet.
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to start of boot image
BOOTIMAGE=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 8)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTIMAGEBYTE=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800))

echo Boot image starts at byte $BOOTIMAGEBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800 + $IMAGEBLOCKS * 0x800)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

echo Extracting boot image ...

dd if=$ISOFILE of=$IMAGEFILE bs=2K count=$IMAGEBLOCKS skip=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE))

echo Finished
</pre>
</li>

<li>
Mount the floppy image '''as root''' using the loop device:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
The image is now mounted as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Download needed drivers. First download some [http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/other/driver/f2h_usb.exe USB drivers] from Panasonic Japan. Save the file to <tt>/tmp/f2h_usb.exe</tt> This file is a self-extracting EXE file, that can be executed under Linux using [http://www.winehq.com/ Wine]:
:{{cmduser|wine /tmp/f2h_usb.exe}}
You will be asked where to save the extracted files. Choose <tt>/tmp</tt>. A new directory <tt>/tmp/F2h</tt> containing the needed drivers will be created.

Additionally, you will need drivers for the RAM disk mentioned. Download them from the [http://sourceforge.net/projects/srdisk ReSizeable RAMDisk project]. Unzip them to <tt>/tmp/srdisk</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Let's modify the floppy image:
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/Usbaspi.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/USBCD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/RAMFD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdxms.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdisk.exe /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
Now add the following lines to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/config.sys</tt> replacing the line <tt>DEVICE = A:\IBMTPCD.SYS /R /C</tt>:
<pre>
DEVICE = A:\SRDXMS.SYS
DEVICE = A:\RAMFD.SYS
DEVICE = A:\USBASPI.SYS /V
DEVICE = A:\USBCD.SYS /D:TPCD001
</pre>
Finally, edit the file <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/autoexec.bat</tt> replacing the last line (saying <tt>COMMAND.COM</tt>) by the following:
<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* D:
D:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>

Maybe the RAM disk gets a drive letter different from D: on your system. In this case, you have to change the above lines accordingly.
</li>

<li>
Unmount the floppy image (as root):
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
</li>

<li>
Copy the content of the original CD image to a new directory and create a new ISO file:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkdir /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt/* /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/boot.img}}
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkisofs -relaxed-filenames -b boot.img -o /tmp/bios-new.iso /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/}}
</li>

<li>
The file <tt>/tmp/bios-new.iso</tt> is the modified ISO file. Just burn it to CD and use this CD for updating your BIOS (boot from it using your USB drive). Please give some comments here if it worked for you.
</li>

</ol>

===Alternative method using a USB stick===

''Note: none of the above methods worked on my X60s. This method worked for me, however.'' [[User:PhilipPaeps|PhilipPaeps]] 16:41, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

This method was surprisingly painless once I convinced my ThinkPad X60s to boot DOS from a USB stick. I used VMWare and some mystical tool to get DOS on the stick. If you can find another way to get a bootable DOS stick, please update this section!

* Tell VMWare to create a virtual floppy image for you and format it under Microsoft Windows and tell it to create a system disk. You can do this by clicking into "My Computer", then right-clicking on the "Floppy" icon and selecting "Format". In the box that pops up, you need to check the box that says "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" and then click "Start".

* When you've done that, get this tool: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/330/mirrors.php and install it. The tool is apparantly something HP once wrote, but I have been unable to find a link to it anywhere on the HP website.

* In a command prompt again: <code>C:\DriveKey\HPUSBF.EXE E: -Q -B:A:\</code>, replacing the <code>E:</code> with the "drive letter" associated with your USB stick (you can find this letter in "My Computer" under "Removable Storage"). '''WARNING:''' this wipes anything on the USB stick. You will end up with a USB stick which appears empty at this point, but there is DOS on it somewhere.

* Now mount the BIOS update ISO image from Lenovo as a virtual CDROM using VMWare again and copy the files from it to the USB stick: <code>copy D:\*.* E:\</code>.

At this point, you may want to fiddle with the splash image, as described elsewhere on ThinkWiki.

* Reboot and press F12, tell the BIOS to boot from your USB stick.

* <code>cd flash</code> ; <code>updtflsh.exe</code>

Think happy thoughts. The ThinkPad will beep quite ominously (and loudly!) a couple of times. Do not let this worry you too much. After about three minutes, the program will ask you to press enter to restart and hopefully all will be well.

===Comments===

<ul>

<li>
I have followed your excellent instructions. The CD booted, the update program ran but stopped working and responding while updating. Luckily the BIOS was not destroyed. Since destroying the BIOS is a very high risk, I am going to recover the original Windows on an old HD and will run the update exe update program from there.
</li>

<li>
I followed these clear instructions, and like the comment above I ended up with a CD that booted but the update program stopped working and responding. An ALT-CTRL-DELETE rebooted my x60s, and it works so the BIOS must not have been damaged. I was trying to upgrade from version 2.08 to 2.11, I wonder if these instructions are somehow particular to certain versions?
[[User:Latch|Latch]] 01:22, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
</li>

<li>
After following the above instructions, the program also stopped working while updating the BIOS. But after changing the drive letter from D: to C: (see code below), it everything worked fine. However, I had some trouble figuring out, which letter to choose over D: at first, as the BIOS Upgrade program started right away.

<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* C:
C:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>
[[User:Mtx|Mtx]], 1 August 2007, Thinkpad X61s
</li>

<li>
Flashing the bios (2.12) works for me on a X60s (using drive c). Using the DVD-R on an USB-Hub did not work. [[User:Ra|Ra]] 00:15, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
</li>

</ul>

==Updating via CD/DVD Drive==

The whole thing gets more complicated if you neither have Windows nor a floppy drive installed. This is what this page is intended to describe.

Another possibility which works even without a CD-drive or network is to boot the disk image via the grub initrd mechanism.

Be aware that IBM officially does '''not''' support this! The official statement to my support request was:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
I'm afraid we only support the options listed on our web page and no you
can't burn a CD/DVD, however you can try to use an external USB FDD
(floppy) drive. The experts recommend a IBM USB FDD, however they have also
tested it with a Sony USB FDD drive.

In order to make sure the drive is recognised you can boot up the FDD with
a bootable dos diskette for w98
</nowiki></pre>
</blockquote>

But it seems to be possible as Mathias Dalheimer describes this [http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html here].

Another indication that it should work is that IBM uses PHLASH16.EXE (at least on T4x/p systems) to flash the BIOS into the chip. The same tool is used by [http://www.samsungpc.com/gb/support/p35/bios/bios-instructions.html other vendors] to flash the BIOS from bootable CD-ROMs.
{{WARN|Do '''not''' use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools crash in that situation!}}

Some interesting but very technical information about the used flash tool can be found [http://www.paul.sladen.org/thinkpad-r31/wifi-card-pci-ids.html here].

===Creating a Floppy Image===
If you have created a boot floppy on another machine, you need to create an image file of that floppy. This can be easily done in linux by running a command line:

:{{cmdroot|1=dd bs=2x80x18b if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/floppy.img}}

You can also create a floppy image by using Ken Kato's [http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html VMware's back]. It is a free Windoze tool that creates a virtual floppy drive and allows you to produce an image file ready to be ISO'ed. Note: you might have to 'manually' (through application's interface) assign the virtual drive a volume letter in order to be seen by IBM's application (as, by default, it seems not to do it).

You should verify this {{path|floppy.img}} as explained above.

===Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image===
Once you have your floppy image, either from imaging a real floppy, or from extracting them via the cabextract method above, you need to make a boot CD out of it.

The eltorito bootable CD standard is a wonderful thing. What this means is that a bootable CD can be made with a bootable floppy in such as way that the CD believes that it is a 2.88 MB floppy drive. This allows you to replace a boot floppy by a boot CD in nearly all situations.

It is very easy to create such a bootable CD ISO image in Linux using the mkisofs tool. To do this run a command as follows:

:{{cmdroot|mkisofs -b bootfloppy.img -o bootcd.iso bootfloppy.img}}

Note: This creates a CD with one file on it and marks that file as the boot image. For more info on this read {{cmduser|man mkisofs}}.

You can now burn the {{path|bootcd.iso}} in your favorite CD burning program.

To get an overview which models have been tested with this version, here is a list:

===Does work:===
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-4AU) ||
*George Tellalov <gtellalov_dontspamme@bigfoot.com>. BIOS 1.16 from spsdin36.exe worked perfectly with the method bootable cd from floppy image. I highly recommend this upgrade because it made my ibm-acpi module load (it wouldn't load before) and fixed some suspend to ram problems. Here's the [http://george.tellalov.info/bios_upgrade_600e_spsdin36.iso cd image] I used. Use at your own risk. You can send me a chocolate if it works for you ;)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-5bU) ||
*Mike Vincent<matchstc-putobvioushere.com>. Bios 1.16 from spsdin36.exe and then to the boot cd worked great for me. Thought I had bricked it three separate times using a "real" floppy! Each from different diskettes .The updater would start, give me the "going to take30 seconds" speech...and then access the HD for 10 minutes. Each time it would reboot fine. Did the cd as described above...worked great first time. Perhaps 10 year old seldom used floppy disc drives have some challenges?
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Jonathan Byrne <jonathan@RemoveThisToMailMe.yamame.org>. BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe worked perfectly using cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Andy Barnes <andy@RemoveThisToMailMe.itchypaws.co.uk>. As per Jonathan above, extracted BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe using cabextract, created a CD boot image and burnt to CD. Worked flawlessly - thanks to everyone who contributed to this article!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A20p}} (2629-6VU) ||
*Chris Pickett http://www.sable.mcgill.ca/~cpicke/. BIOS 1.11 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A21e}} (2628-JXU) ||
*Amit Gurdasani <gurdasani at yahoo dot com>. BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method. Alarmingly, after the BIOS update, the laptop beeped but did not shut down as was indicated onscreen -- that was frozen on the "do not shut down the laptop" screen. On power down and up again, the BIOS setup showed the newer BIOS image running, and Linux booted up fine. Linux ACPI didn't complain about the BIOS being too old either.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31p}} (2653) ||
*Matthias Meinke largeeddy@gmx.at, BIOS 1.09 1NET15WW flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31}} (2652) ||
*[[User:Wnoise|Aaron Denney]], BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R30}} ||
*Jarrod, 30 August 2007, Thinkpad R30 Type 2656-E0M. BIOS updated to 1.40 (1CETF0WW) using floppy disk/mkisofs/cdrecord. Worked fine, no problems.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R31}} ||
*[http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html Mathias Dalheimer]
*Sebastian Sauer (with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R40}} ||
*Matthew Lambie, http://lambie.org
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50}} (1836-3SU) ||
*jlbartos <jlbartos at hotmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50e}} (1834-PTG) ||
*item <item at freemail dot hu> : successfully finished with cabextract/CD method for "1wuj25us.exe" (BIOS version 1WET90WW (2.10), Release Date: 2006/12/22)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1829) ||
*Robert Uhl <rob dot uhl at gmx dot de>, Jellby <jellby at yahoo dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1830-RM7) ||
*Will Parker <stardotstar at sourcepoint dot com dot au> successfully flashed 3.20 using existing 3.04 ECP and retained custom boot splash.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (2887) ||
*Ingo van Lil <inguin at gmx dot de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R52}} (1858) ||
*Stuart McCord <stuart dot mccord at gmail dot com> flashed both BIOS and ECP using cabextract, BIOS flashed first as on IBM website
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T20}} ||
*Franz Hassels <fhassel at suse dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T22}} ||
*Daniel Maier <nusse teamidiot de>
*Mathias Behrle (with cabextract/CD method, Version 1.07 => 1.12) --[[User:Mathiasb|Mathiasb]] 11:58, 14 December 2006 (CET)
*Bob Skaroff (cabextract/CD), 1.06 => 1.12
*Leo Butler (cabextract/CD), 1.11 => 1.12
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T23}} ||
*Bart Snapp <snapp at uiuc dot edu> Note: I followed IBM's instructions to flash the BIOS *first* and the Embedded Controller *second*.
*Moy Easwaran: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a via cabextract and CD-boot. The BIOS-update exe generated errors in Windows 2000.
*Joe Renes: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a on 2006-03-20 via cabextract and CD-boot. Piece of cake.
*Raphael Errani: BIOS 1.20 / EC 1.06a on 2006-11-06 via cabextract and CD-boot (using mkisofs). Worked without errors. 1st Bios, 2nd EC
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T30}} ||
*Martin GÃ¼hring <guehring at gmail.com> BIOS 2.10 via cabextract the Non-Diskette BIOS -> mkisofs '''in the directory the exe was extracted''' to generate the iso -> burn the iso -> boot the CD
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40}} ||
*Sean Dague, http://dague.net
*Justin Mason, http://jmason.org
*Ivanhoe (Bios 3.19)
*Alessandro Raulino (roger_2) EC 3.04 & BIOS 3.23 flashed with cabextract/CD method
*Nick Jenkins, using BIOS 3.23 with the [[#The_Non_Diskette_Updater|Non-diskette updater + cabextract method]], then [[#Creating_a_Bootable_CD_from_a_Floppy_Image|created a bootable CD from the cabextracted .IMG file]], then boot that ISO, and it worked great!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40p}} ||
*Lukas KrÃ¤henbÃ¼hl, ismo at pop dot agri dot ch
*Thomas Achtemichuk, tom at tomchuk dot com. BIOS 3.15 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41}} ||
*Lev Givon (Bios 3.15 / EC 3.04) <lev at columbia dot edu>
*Ernesto HernÃ¡ndez-Novich (Bios 3.19 / CP 3.04) < emhn at usb dot ve >
*[http://maebmij.org James Ballantine] (Bios 3.21 / CP 3.04) using nondisk/cabextract/CDRW
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41p}} ||
*Nils Newman, work great. (Version: Bios 3.14 / Embedded Controller 3.04)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42}} ||
*Dan (BIOS 3.20 / EC 3.04, cabextract/CD method) <tronic171 at evilphb.org>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42p}} ||
*Robert Schiele <rschiele@uni-mannheim.de>, Joern Heissler <joern@heissler.de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T43}} ||
*Conrad Rentsch <Conrad dot Rentsch at t-online dot de> (Version: Bios 1.29 / Embedded Controller 1.06)
*Tom Heady <tom-thinkwiki.org@punch.net>
*Florian Boucault <florian at boucault dot ath dot cx> (Model : 1871-W34 & Version: Bios 1.23 / Embedded Controller 1.03)
*Till Heikamp <t dot heikamp at geniusbytes dot com> (Model 2886, Bios 1.22 to 1.29, Embedded Controller 1.03 to 1.06)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T60}} ||
*Roman Komkov <roman at komkov dot org dot ru> (Model 1951, Bios 1.07 to 2.13) Successfully upgraded from CD Image
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X20}} ||
*Neil Caunt <retardis at gmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X21}} ||
*Patrick Leickner <ranma at web dot de>, (BIOS 2.21->2.25 / EC 1.31->1.36) via non-disk/cabextract/mkisofs/cdrecord
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X22}} ||
*David Emery <dave at skiddlydee dot com>, (EC 1.30, BIOS 1.32 using non-disk/cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X23}} ||
*Nils Faerber <nils dot faerber at kernelconcepts dot de> (Embedded Controller 1.30, BIOS 1.32 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X30}} ||
*Hella Breitkopf, [http://www.unixwitch.de/ www] (Embedded Controller 1.04, BIOS 1.07 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X31}} ||
*Grzegorz KuÅ›nierz <koniu at sheket dot org> (Embedded Controller 1.08, BIOS 3.01 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X40}} ||
*Robbie Stone <robbie@serendipity.cx>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Z60m}} ||
*[[User:Morle|Morle]] 13:09, 20 May 2006 (CEST), (Embedded Controller 1.14 with cabextract/CD method)
|}

===Does not work:===
{|
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|}

Please note that testing this is '''at your own risk'''!!!

==Updating via Grub and a Floppy Image==

{{WARN|Many have warned '''not''' to use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools may crash in that situation! Proceed at your own risk!}}

Floppy images may be booted from Grub via a utility called [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK], which may be compiled from the [http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/ '''SYSLINUX source''']. Copy the compiled memdisk image and the floppy image to your boot directory and configure grub as follows:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
title Bios Flash
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd /boot/FILENAME.img
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

Again, proceed at your own risk. This was tested on an R51 type 2888.

This also worked for me on a T41p type 2373. -- [[User:MrStaticVoid|James Lee]] 20:55, 8 May 2006 (CEST)

And it worked for me on a X31 type 2673-CBU. -- [[User:JanTopinski|Jan Topinski]], 18 September 2006

And it worked for me too on a X31 type 2672-CXU, very useful. -- [[User:TheAnarcat|TheAnarcat]] 16:21, 7 March 2007 (CET)

Same here (worked) on a X31 type 2673-58G --[[User:FaUl|FaUl]] 15:53, 20 June 2007 (UTC)FaUl

Works well on a X31 type 2672-PG9, but with a big moment between starting update and the updating window -- [[User:Starox|Starox]] 22 Jul 2007

And it worked for me on two X40 type 2371 -- [[User:Antialize|Jakob Truelsen]], 19 Jan 2007 -- BIOS: 2.07 1uuj21us.exe -- ECP: 1.62 1uhj10us.exe

Not working for me on T43 type 2668-F7G -- [[User:Maus3273|Maus3273]] 20:48, 30 January 2007 (CET) -- BIOS: 1.29 1YUJ18US.IMG -- I got into the bios program, but the machine never restarts after initiating the upgrade.

X41 type 2525-F8G -- [[User:ladoga|Lauri Koponen]], 11:08 16 Apr 2007 
BIOS: 2.09 (74UJ15US.IMG), is no go. (hangs while initialising the actual flashing process) I tried with 2.07 (74UJ13US.IMG) and 2.06 (74UJ12US.IMG) aswell and they all failed in the very same fashion. 
ECP: 1.02 74HJ03US.IMG, works.

It works fine on R30 type 2656-64g, BIOS v.1.40 -- [[User:english.voodoo|Yuri Spirin]], 10 May 2007.

==Updating with Network Boot Image==

BIOS, Embedded Controller (EC), CD/DVD and Harddisk firmware disks can be booted
over the network with [http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php PXELINUX] as part of the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] package.

This requires that you have a DHCP and tftp server configured and setup properly on
your network, and is probably not for the faint of heart.

Make sure the firmware bootdisk is in linux 'dd' format, as the self-extracting .exe disks
from the IBM website cannot be booted directly as such.

This worked on the {{R31}}, {{X22}}, {{T21}}, {{T30}} and {{T41p}} with various firmware updates.

On {{X22}}, works with EC 1.30 but NOT with BIOS 1.32

==Updating via "IBM Predesktop area", suitable for model X (not have CDROM and floppy)==
It's so difficult to update BIOS and ECP without cdrom, floppy disk.
Don't know the reason why I couldn't update BIOS and ECP(1QHJ08US and 1QUJ19US) for my IBM Thinkpad X31.Hmm, may be cause of the dividing partition on my hard disk, that is:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Primary: ext3, ext3, ntfs
Extended: Ntsf, fat32
Bootloader: GRUB
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

No problem, you can use this way to do it:
* First, config in BIOS
In Security part:
# Remove all password of Subpervisor and Power on password
# Set Access IBM Predesktop Area to Normal
# Choose Enable "Flash BIOS updating by End User" in BIOS update Option.

In Config part:
# Choose Enable for Network flash over Lan

* Second, download the newest version of BIOS update and ECP update
Running: The program extract all files to the folder. There is a .img file (1QUJ19US.IMG, 1QUJ08US.IMG) in each folder.
Copy the imformation content in that img file and paste it to one FAT partition(using winimage or TotalCmd to extract)

as seen All files in 1QUJ19US.IMG is extracted to D:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
695,764 $018E000.FL1
163 0691.HSH
2,049 0691.PAT
163 0694.HSH
2,049 0694.PAT
163 0695.HSH
2,049 0695.PAT
2,049 06D0.PAT
163 06D1.HSH
2,049 06D1.PAT
163 06D2.HSH
2,049 06D2.PAT
163 06D6.HSH
2,049 06D6.PAT
2,049 06D8.PAT
697 CHKBMP.EXE
8,128 COMMAND.COM
26 CONFIG.SYS
24,860 FLASH2.EXE
26 LCREFLSH.BAT
170 LOGO.BAT
330 LOGO.SCR
111,925 PHLASH16.EXE
91,648 PREPARE.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
22,252 QKFLASH.EXE
9,923 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
39,666 UPDTFLSH.EXE
6,958 UPDTMN.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,254 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

And all files in 1QUJ08US.IMG are: D:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
315,404 $018E000.FL2
8,000 COMMAND.COM
36 CONFIG.SYS
16,910 ECFLASH2.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
17,812 QKFLASH.EXE
990 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
89,738 UPDTEC.EXE
31,134 UPDTFLSH.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,226 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

* Okie, now plug AC Adapter, charge full battery to your laptop and continue third step:

** '''Flash BIOS first,'''
1. Power On, press blue button on keyboard: '''Access IBM'''

2. On "Utilities", double click " Diagnostic disk"

3. Your laptop will start PC-DOS, wait when this message appear:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Please insert the first floppy diskette and
Press any key to continue
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

4. Press Ctrl + Break, you will see :
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;"><pre><nowiki>Terminate batch job (Y/N) ?</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

5. Okie, press Y, you will get DOS prompt like D:\
{{NOTE|D:\ is my RAMDISK, C:\ is my disk format as FAT.!}}

6. Enter to c:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\BIOS
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. Run FLASH2.EXE /u $018E000.FL1

8. Wait flash progress compelete and reboot.
** '''Flash ECP'''
Follow above instruction from step 1 to 5

6. Enter to c:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\ECP
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. run UPDTFLSH.EXE $018E000.FL2

8. Follow UPDTFLSH's instructions

9. Wait flash complete and auto turn off computer.

I done it on my IBM Thinkpad X31.

Enjoy,

Tested by nm.

==Check List==

The following is important to remember:
# You must update '''both''' the Control Program and the BIOS at the same time if your current Control Program is not compatible with the new BIOS (see below)
# You must find versions of the Control Program and BIOS that are compatible. Not all of them are, so follow the readmes on the IBM website carefully to determine which are.
# You must update the Control Program '''before''' you update the BIOS

When the Control Program '''and''' the BIOS need updating, have both update disks or CDs ready. Update the Control Program first and the system should switch itself off when finished. Insert the BIOS update disk and proceed to update the BIOS. When it's all finished, enter setup, reset the settings to their defaults and reboot. Enter setup again and tweak the settings as necessary.

BIOS Upgrade

2007-09-29T05:58:58Z

Voominc: /* The Non Diskette Updater */

__TOC__

This page is meant to describe ways to update the BIOS on a ThinkPad that only runs Linux for users that don't have ready access to Windows. If you have Windows on your ThinkPad you can just boot into it and follow instructions on the IBM website.

{{NOTE| In one case ([[APM setup on a type 2379 ThinkPad T40]]) it was not possible to upgrade the BIOS from Windows XP; a downgrade to Windows 98 was required to successfully run the BIOS upgrade app. The symptoms in this case were that, once the files had been extracted to the hard disk, and the machine was to reboot into the upgrade app, it would beep and hang just before reboot, requiring a power cycle. Once the power was cycled, it would simply reboot back into XP without performing any BIOS upgrade actions. So even if you have Windows, you may still need to use the info on this page.}}

----
==Before You Begin==
Updating the BIOS in Linux (with few exceptions) '''is not officially supported''' by IBM/Lenovo. However there are work arounds.

{{WARN|By following any of the instructions here you are accepting the '''very real risk''' of turning your thinkpad into a big expensive paper weight, as a firmware update gone wrong can create unfixable problems.

'''Proceed at your own risk!'''

It is also '''important''' to understand that all modern Thinkpads have 2 seperate firmwares, the BIOS and the Control Program. A specific version of the Control Program will only work with specific versions of the BIOS. The IBM documentation is sometimes confusing about the order of update. Updating the Control Program first, then the BIOS seems to be the correct order on most, but not all Thinkpads. However, newer models from Lenovo update both at the same time, so you don't have to worry about. Make sure to do the separate updates immediately following each other, otherwise you risk turning your Thinkpad into a very nice paper weight.}}

==BIOS Upgrade Paths==

For every firmware (either BIOS or Control Program) update on the IBM site there used to be two different firmware update programs provided. The Diskette Updater and the Non Diskette Updater. For newer Lenovo Models the Diskette Updater is replaced with a bootable CD-Image and the The Non Diskette Updater is renamed BIOS Update Utility, both update the BIOS and the Control Program at the same time. A list of links to firmware downloads can be found at [[BIOS Upgrade Downloads]] for nearly all Thinkpad Models.

===The Diskette Updater===

This installer appears to be a 16bit dos program which asks you to accept a license agreement. It will run in Windows, DOS, OS/2, or [http://dosemu.sf.net Dosemu] perfectly, but requires a real floppy disk attached via a real floppy control. The USB Floppy Drive to the new Thinkpads doesn't count.

===The Bootable CD Image===

This should be the easiest way for non-Windows users and also maybe a more secure way for Windows users, too. As the Image is provided as a plain ISO-file without any windows enclosure, you can simply burn it to a CD-R/RW with any modern operation system, as long as you have a CD/DVD-RW Drive and then are able to boot from it.

===The Non Diskette Updater===
{{WARN|Though this process was successfully tested on one version of .exe files found on IBMs website this doesn't mean it will work for all of them. Use at your own risk.}}

This installer appears to be a 32bit windows exe which is designed for updating the BIOS directly from a running Windows OS. It turns out that the .exe is really a wrapper license program arround windows .cab files (this information is in [[How_to_change_the_BIOS_bootsplash_screen|BIOS-Bootsplash]]). If you install the Linux program [http://freshmeat.net/projects/cabextract/ '''cabextract'''] you can expand these files directly. Run the following:

:{{cmduser|cabextract FILENAME.exe}}

You will get 8 files in the current directory. One of them will be FILENAME.img. You can test that this is really a floppy image by running:

:{{cmdroot|mkdir mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop FILENAME.img mntfloppy}}
:{{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}}

If the results of {{cmdroot|ls -la mntfloppy}} look like a dos floppy, and no read errors were displayed, you have a pretty good chance that the floppy image is usable.

After you are done, unmount the floppy image:

:{{cmdroot|umount mntfloppy}}

If you were able to create the boot floppy per the Diskette update method, and you have a Floppy with your Thinkpad, the update should be simple.

== Updating Thinkpad X Series ==

X Series Thinkpads do not have an internal drive. If there is no Windows installed, the BIOS must be updated by booting from an USB drive or a drive that is integrated in the docking station. Since a while Lenovo provides BIOS updates in form of bootable CD images. Unfortunately, these images are intended to be used with the docking station's CD drive. If you do not own such a drive, things get complicated.

The problem is that current BIOS updates are quite large, about 3 MB in size. Booting from CDs typically works like booting from a 1.44 MB or 2.88 MB floppy disk. The floppy image is stored on the CD and is referenced in the CD's boot record. Because the BIOS update file are that large, they do not fit on such a floppy image. Thus, they must be stored on the CD outside the virtual floppy image. To access these files a driver for the CD drive has to be loaded. Since Lenovo's CD images are intended to be used with a docking station's CD drive, it is not possible to use them for BIOS updates by booting from an USB CD drive.

But there is hope. The CD images provided by Lenovo can be modified such that they contain drivers for USB CD drives. I tested the following with a Thinkpad {{X60s}}.

The idea is to take Lenovo's ISO CD image and modify it such that a USB CD drive can be used instead the CD drive in the docking station. Unfortunately, simply replacing the drivers is not enough. While doing the BIOS update, the USB ports seem to get disabled or something. Therefore, before starting the update process the CD contents have to be copied to a RAM disk. I will describe the procedure step by step.

<ol>
<li>
Download the ISO image style BIOS update from Lenovo's website. This file will be refered to as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.iso</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Extract the floppy image from this ISO image. You can use the following shell script for this task (or an alternative one from [http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~krienke/ftp/noarch/geteltorito/]). Simply save this code into the file <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>, set the x-flag (<tt>chmod +x /tmp/extractbootimage.sh</tt>) and call it using the command <tt>/tmp/extractbootimage.sh /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. The floppy image contained in the ISO image will then be saved to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img</tt>. Here is the code of the shell script:
<pre>
#!/bin/bash

# This script extracts the floopy boot image from bootable ISO images
#
# Written by Joachim Selke (mail@joachim-selke.de), 2007-04-07

ISOFILE=$1
IMAGEFILE=$2

if [ ! -r $ISOFILE ]; then
echo $ISOFILE: file does not exist or is not readable
exit 1
fi

if [ -z $IMAGEFILE ]; then
echo Error: no image file specified
exit 1
fi

ISOFILESIZE=`stat -c %s $ISOFILE`

# collect El Torito data
# see http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/98D3219C-9CC9-4DF5-B496-A286D893E36A/0/specscdrom.pdf for reference

BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE=$((17 * 0x800 + 0x47))

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE + 4)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to first sector of boot catalog:
BOOTCATALOG=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $BOOTCATALOGPOINTERBYTE $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTCATALOGBYTE=$((0x$BOOTCATALOG * 0x800))

echo Boot catalog starts at byte $BOOTCATALOGBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 2)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

# media type of boot image
# only floppy disk images are supported by this script
BOOTMEDIATYPE=`od -A n -t x1 -N 1 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 1)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

if [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 1 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.2M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1200 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 2 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 1.44M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((1440 / 2))
elif [ $BOOTMEDIATYPE -eq 3 ]; then
echo Boot media type is 2.88M floppy disk
IMAGEBLOCKS=$((2880 / 2))
else
echo Boot media type is $((0x$BOOTMEDIATYPE)). This type is not supported yet.
exit 1
fi

# absolute pointer to start of boot image
BOOTIMAGE=`od -A n -t x4 -N 4 -j $(($BOOTCATALOGBYTE + 32 + 8)) $ISOFILE | tr -d [:blank:]`

BOOTIMAGEBYTE=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800))

echo Boot image starts at byte $BOOTIMAGEBYTE

if [ $ISOFILESIZE -lt $((0x$BOOTIMAGE * 0x800 + $IMAGEBLOCKS * 0x800)) ]; then
echo ISO file is too short, possibly damaged
exit 1
fi

echo Extracting boot image ...

dd if=$ISOFILE of=$IMAGEFILE bs=2K count=$IMAGEBLOCKS skip=$((0x$BOOTIMAGE))

echo Finished
</pre>
</li>

<li>
Mount the floppy image '''as root''' using the loop device:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
The image is now mounted as <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Download needed drivers. First download some [http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/other/driver/f2h_usb.exe USB drivers] from Panasonic Japan. Save the file to <tt>/tmp/f2h_usb.exe</tt> This file is a self-extracting EXE file, that can be executed under Linux using [http://www.winehq.com/ Wine]:
:{{cmduser|wine /tmp/f2h_usb.exe}}
You will be asked where to save the extracted files. Choose <tt>/tmp</tt>. A new directory <tt>/tmp/F2h</tt> containing the needed drivers will be created.

Additionally, you will need drivers for the RAM disk mentioned. Download them from the [http://sourceforge.net/projects/srdisk ReSizeable RAMDisk project]. Unzip them to <tt>/tmp/srdisk</tt>.
</li>

<li>
Let's modify the floppy image:
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/Usbaspi.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/USBCD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/F2h/RAMFD.SYS /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdxms.sys /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/srdisk/srdisk.exe /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/}}
Now add the following lines to <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/config.sys</tt> replacing the line <tt>DEVICE = A:\IBMTPCD.SYS /R /C</tt>:
<pre>
DEVICE = A:\SRDXMS.SYS
DEVICE = A:\RAMFD.SYS
DEVICE = A:\USBASPI.SYS /V
DEVICE = A:\USBCD.SYS /D:TPCD001
</pre>
Finally, edit the file <tt>/tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt/autoexec.bat</tt> replacing the last line (saying <tt>COMMAND.COM</tt>) by the following:
<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* D:
D:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>

Maybe the RAM disk gets a drive letter different from D: on your system. In this case, you have to change the above lines accordingly.
</li>

<li>
Unmount the floppy image (as root):
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.img-mnt}}
</li>

<li>
Copy the content of the original CD image to a new directory and create a new ISO file:
:{{cmdroot|mkdir /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmdroot|mount -o loop /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkdir /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt/* /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|cp /tmp/bios-lenovo.img /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/boot.img}}
:{{cmdroot|umount /tmp/bios-lenovo.iso-mnt}}
:{{cmduser|mkisofs -relaxed-filenames -b boot.img -o /tmp/bios-new.iso /tmp/bios-new.iso-mnt/}}
</li>

<li>
The file <tt>/tmp/bios-new.iso</tt> is the modified ISO file. Just burn it to CD and use this CD for updating your BIOS (boot from it using your USB drive). Please give some comments here if it worked for you.
</li>

</ol>

===Alternative method using a USB stick===

''Note: none of the above methods worked on my X60s. This method worked for me, however.'' [[User:PhilipPaeps|PhilipPaeps]] 16:41, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

This method was surprisingly painless once I convinced my ThinkPad X60s to boot DOS from a USB stick. I used VMWare and some mystical tool to get DOS on the stick. If you can find another way to get a bootable DOS stick, please update this section!

* Tell VMWare to create a virtual floppy image for you and format it under Microsoft Windows and tell it to create a system disk. You can do this by clicking into "My Computer", then right-clicking on the "Floppy" icon and selecting "Format". In the box that pops up, you need to check the box that says "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" and then click "Start".

* When you've done that, get this tool: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/330/mirrors.php and install it. The tool is apparantly something HP once wrote, but I have been unable to find a link to it anywhere on the HP website.

* In a command prompt again: <code>C:\DriveKey\HPUSBF.EXE E: -Q -B:A:\</code>, replacing the <code>E:</code> with the "drive letter" associated with your USB stick (you can find this letter in "My Computer" under "Removable Storage"). '''WARNING:''' this wipes anything on the USB stick. You will end up with a USB stick which appears empty at this point, but there is DOS on it somewhere.

* Now mount the BIOS update ISO image from Lenovo as a virtual CDROM using VMWare again and copy the files from it to the USB stick: <code>copy D:\*.* E:\</code>.

At this point, you may want to fiddle with the splash image, as described elsewhere on ThinkWiki.

* Reboot and press F12, tell the BIOS to boot from your USB stick.

* <code>cd flash</code> ; <code>updtflsh.exe</code>

Think happy thoughts. The ThinkPad will beep quite ominously (and loudly!) a couple of times. Do not let this worry you too much. After about three minutes, the program will ask you to press enter to restart and hopefully all will be well.

===Comments===

<ul>

<li>
I have followed your excellent instructions. The CD booted, the update program ran but stopped working and responding while updating. Luckily the BIOS was not destroyed. Since destroying the BIOS is a very high risk, I am going to recover the original Windows on an old HD and will run the update exe update program from there.
</li>

<li>
I followed these clear instructions, and like the comment above I ended up with a CD that booted but the update program stopped working and responding. An ALT-CTRL-DELETE rebooted my x60s, and it works so the BIOS must not have been damaged. I was trying to upgrade from version 2.08 to 2.11, I wonder if these instructions are somehow particular to certain versions?
[[User:Latch|Latch]] 01:22, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
</li>

<li>
After following the above instructions, the program also stopped working while updating the BIOS. But after changing the drive letter from D: to C: (see code below), it everything worked fine. However, I had some trouble figuring out, which letter to choose over D: at first, as the BIOS Upgrade program started right away.

<pre>
A:\SRDISK 10000
COPY *.* C:
C:
COMMAND.COM
</pre>
[[User:Mtx|Mtx]], 1 August 2007, Thinkpad X61s
</li>

<li>
Flashing the bios (2.12) works for me on a X60s (using drive c). Using the DVD-R on an USB-Hub did not work. [[User:Ra|Ra]] 00:15, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
</li>

</ul>

==Updating via CD/DVD Drive==

The whole thing gets more complicated if you neither have Windows nor a floppy drive installed. This is what this page is intended to describe.

Another possibility which works even without a CD-drive or network is to boot the disk image via the grub initrd mechanism.

Be aware that IBM officially does '''not''' support this! The official statement to my support request was:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
I'm afraid we only support the options listed on our web page and no you
can't burn a CD/DVD, however you can try to use an external USB FDD
(floppy) drive. The experts recommend a IBM USB FDD, however they have also
tested it with a Sony USB FDD drive.

In order to make sure the drive is recognised you can boot up the FDD with
a bootable dos diskette for w98
</nowiki></pre>
</blockquote>

But it seems to be possible as Mathias Dalheimer describes this [http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html here].

Another indication that it should work is that IBM uses PHLASH16.EXE (at least on T4x/p systems) to flash the BIOS into the chip. The same tool is used by [http://www.samsungpc.com/gb/support/p35/bios/bios-instructions.html other vendors] to flash the BIOS from bootable CD-ROMs.
{{WARN|Do '''not''' use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools crash in that situation!}}

Some interesting but very technical information about the used flash tool can be found [http://www.paul.sladen.org/thinkpad-r31/wifi-card-pci-ids.html here].

===Creating a Floppy Image===
If you have created a boot floppy on another machine, you need to create an image file of that floppy. This can be easily done in linux by running a command line:

:{{cmdroot|1=dd bs=2x80x18b if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/floppy.img}}

You can also create a floppy image by using Ken Kato's [http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html VMware's back]. It is a free Windoze tool that creates a virtual floppy drive and allows you to produce an image file ready to be ISO'ed. Note: you might have to 'manually' (through application's interface) assign the virtual drive a volume letter in order to be seen by IBM's application (as, by default, it seems not to do it).

You should verify this {{path|floppy.img}} as explained above.

===Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image===
Once you have your floppy image, either from imaging a real floppy, or from extracting them via the cabextract method above, you need to make a boot CD out of it.

The eltorito bootable CD standard is a wonderful thing. What this means is that a bootable CD can be made with a bootable floppy in such as way that the CD believes that it is a 2.88 MB floppy drive. This allows you to replace a boot floppy by a boot CD in nearly all situations.

It is very easy to create such a bootable CD ISO image in Linux using the mkisofs tool. To do this run a command as follows:

:{{cmdroot|mkisofs -b bootfloppy.img -o bootcd.iso bootfloppy.img}}

Note: This creates a CD with one file on it and marks that file as the boot image. For more info on this read {{cmduser|man mkisofs}}.

You can now burn the {{path|bootcd.iso}} in your favorite CD burning program.

To get an overview which models have been tested with this version, here is a list:

===Does work:===
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-4AU) ||
*George Tellalov <gtellalov_dontspamme@bigfoot.com>. BIOS 1.16 from spsdin36.exe worked perfectly with the method bootable cd from floppy image. I highly recommend this upgrade because it made my ibm-acpi module load (it wouldn't load before) and fixed some suspend to ram problems. Here's the [http://george.tellalov.info/bios_upgrade_600e_spsdin36.iso cd image] I used. Use at your own risk. You can send me a chocolate if it works for you ;)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600E}} (2645-5bU) ||
*Mike Vincent<matchstc-putobvioushere.com>. Bios 1.16 from spsdin36.exe and then to the boot cd worked great for me. Thought I had bricked it three separate times using a "real" floppy! Each from different diskettes .The updater would start, give me the "going to take30 seconds" speech...and then access the HD for 10 minutes. Each time it would reboot fine. Did the cd as described above...worked great first time. Perhaps 10 year old seldom used floppy disc drives have some challenges?
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Jonathan Byrne <jonathan@RemoveThisToMailMe.yamame.org>. BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe worked perfectly using cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{600X}} (2645) ||
*Andy Barnes <andy@RemoveThisToMailMe.itchypaws.co.uk>. As per Jonathan above, extracted BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe using cabextract, created a CD boot image and burnt to CD. Worked flawlessly - thanks to everyone who contributed to this article!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A20p}} (2629-6VU) ||
*Chris Pickett http://www.sable.mcgill.ca/~cpicke/. BIOS 1.11 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A21e}} (2628-JXU) ||
*Amit Gurdasani <gurdasani at yahoo dot com>. BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method. Alarmingly, after the BIOS update, the laptop beeped but did not shut down as was indicated onscreen -- that was frozen on the "do not shut down the laptop" screen. On power down and up again, the BIOS setup showed the newer BIOS image running, and Linux booted up fine. Linux ACPI didn't complain about the BIOS being too old either.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31p}} (2653) ||
*Matthias Meinke largeeddy@gmx.at, BIOS 1.09 1NET15WW flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{A31}} (2652) ||
*[[User:Wnoise|Aaron Denney]], BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R30}} ||
*Jarrod, 30 August 2007, Thinkpad R30 Type 2656-E0M. BIOS updated to 1.40 (1CETF0WW) using floppy disk/mkisofs/cdrecord. Worked fine, no problems.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R31}} ||
*[http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/1998-January/009743.html Mathias Dalheimer]
*Sebastian Sauer (with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R40}} ||
*Matthew Lambie, http://lambie.org
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50}} (1836-3SU) ||
*jlbartos <jlbartos at hotmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R50e}} (1834-PTG) ||
*item <item at freemail dot hu> : successfully finished with cabextract/CD method for "1wuj25us.exe" (BIOS version 1WET90WW (2.10), Release Date: 2006/12/22)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1829) ||
*Robert Uhl <rob dot uhl at gmx dot de>, Jellby <jellby at yahoo dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (1830-RM7) ||
*Will Parker <stardotstar at sourcepoint dot com dot au> successfully flashed 3.20 using existing 3.04 ECP and retained custom boot splash.
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R51}} (2887) ||
*Ingo van Lil <inguin at gmx dot de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{R52}} (1858) ||
*Stuart McCord <stuart dot mccord at gmail dot com> flashed both BIOS and ECP using cabextract, BIOS flashed first as on IBM website
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T20}} ||
*Franz Hassels <fhassel at suse dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T22}} ||
*Daniel Maier <nusse teamidiot de>
*Mathias Behrle (with cabextract/CD method, Version 1.07 => 1.12) --[[User:Mathiasb|Mathiasb]] 11:58, 14 December 2006 (CET)
*Bob Skaroff (cabextract/CD), 1.06 => 1.12
*Leo Butler (cabextract/CD), 1.11 => 1.12
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T23}} ||
*Bart Snapp <snapp at uiuc dot edu> Note: I followed IBM's instructions to flash the BIOS *first* and the Embedded Controller *second*.
*Moy Easwaran: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a via cabextract and CD-boot. The BIOS-update exe generated errors in Windows 2000.
*Joe Renes: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a on 2006-03-20 via cabextract and CD-boot. Piece of cake.
*Raphael Errani: BIOS 1.20 / EC 1.06a on 2006-11-06 via cabextract and CD-boot (using mkisofs). Worked without errors. 1st Bios, 2nd EC
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T30}} ||
*Martin GÃ¼hring <guehring at gmail.com> BIOS 2.10 via cabextract the Non-Diskette BIOS -> mkisofs '''in the directory the exe was extracted''' to generate the iso -> burn the iso -> boot the CD
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40}} ||
*Sean Dague, http://dague.net
*Justin Mason, http://jmason.org
*Ivanhoe (Bios 3.19)
*Alessandro Raulino (roger_2) EC 3.04 & BIOS 3.23 flashed with cabextract/CD method
*Nick Jenkins, using BIOS 3.23 with the [[#The_Non_Diskette_Updater|Non-diskette updater + cabextract method]], then [[#Creating_a_Bootable_CD_from_a_Floppy_Image|created a bootable CD from the cabextracted .IMG file]], then boot that ISO, and it worked great!
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T40p}} ||
*Lukas KrÃ¤henbÃ¼hl, ismo at pop dot agri dot ch
*Thomas Achtemichuk, tom at tomchuk dot com. BIOS 3.15 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41}} ||
*Lev Givon (Bios 3.15 / EC 3.04) <lev at columbia dot edu>
*Ernesto HernÃ¡ndez-Novich (Bios 3.19 / CP 3.04) < emhn at usb dot ve >
*[http://maebmij.org James Ballantine] (Bios 3.21 / CP 3.04) using nondisk/cabextract/CDRW
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T41p}} ||
*Nils Newman, work great. (Version: Bios 3.14 / Embedded Controller 3.04)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42}} ||
*Dan (BIOS 3.20 / EC 3.04, cabextract/CD method) <tronic171 at evilphb.org>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T42p}} ||
*Robert Schiele <rschiele@uni-mannheim.de>, Joern Heissler <joern@heissler.de>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T43}} ||
*Conrad Rentsch <Conrad dot Rentsch at t-online dot de> (Version: Bios 1.29 / Embedded Controller 1.06)
*Tom Heady <tom-thinkwiki.org@punch.net>
*Florian Boucault <florian at boucault dot ath dot cx> (Model : 1871-W34 & Version: Bios 1.23 / Embedded Controller 1.03)
*Till Heikamp <t dot heikamp at geniusbytes dot com> (Model 2886, Bios 1.22 to 1.29, Embedded Controller 1.03 to 1.06)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{T60}} ||
*Roman Komkov <roman at komkov dot org dot ru> (Model 1951, Bios 1.07 to 2.13) Successfully upgraded from CD Image
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X20}} ||
*Neil Caunt <retardis at gmail dot com>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X21}} ||
*Patrick Leickner <ranma at web dot de>, (BIOS 2.21->2.25 / EC 1.31->1.36) via non-disk/cabextract/mkisofs/cdrecord
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X22}} ||
*David Emery <dave at skiddlydee dot com>, (EC 1.30, BIOS 1.32 using non-disk/cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X23}} ||
*Nils Faerber <nils dot faerber at kernelconcepts dot de> (Embedded Controller 1.30, BIOS 1.32 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X30}} ||
*Hella Breitkopf, [http://www.unixwitch.de/ www] (Embedded Controller 1.04, BIOS 1.07 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X31}} ||
*Grzegorz KuÅ›nierz <koniu at sheket dot org> (Embedded Controller 1.08, BIOS 3.01 with cabextract/CD method)
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{X40}} ||
*Robbie Stone <robbie@serendipity.cx>
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Z60m}} ||
*[[User:Morle|Morle]] 13:09, 20 May 2006 (CEST), (Embedded Controller 1.14 with cabextract/CD method)
|}

===Does not work:===
{|
| '''Model''' || '''Tested by'''
|}

Please note that testing this is '''at your own risk'''!!!

==Updating via Grub and a Floppy Image==

{{WARN|Many have warned '''not''' to use the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] image-loader [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK] to boot the images! Some flash tools may crash in that situation! Proceed at your own risk!}}

Floppy images may be booted from Grub via a utility called [http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php MEMDISK], which may be compiled from the [http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/ '''SYSLINUX source''']. Copy the compiled memdisk image and the floppy image to your boot directory and configure grub as follows:

<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
title Bios Flash
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd /boot/FILENAME.img
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

Again, proceed at your own risk. This was tested on an R51 type 2888.

This also worked for me on a T41p type 2373. -- [[User:MrStaticVoid|James Lee]] 20:55, 8 May 2006 (CEST)

And it worked for me on a X31 type 2673-CBU. -- [[User:JanTopinski|Jan Topinski]], 18 September 2006

And it worked for me too on a X31 type 2672-CXU, very useful. -- [[User:TheAnarcat|TheAnarcat]] 16:21, 7 March 2007 (CET)

Same here (worked) on a X31 type 2673-58G --[[User:FaUl|FaUl]] 15:53, 20 June 2007 (UTC)FaUl

Works well on a X31 type 2672-PG9, but with a big moment between starting update and the updating window -- [[User:Starox|Starox]] 22 Jul 2007

And it worked for me on two X40 type 2371 -- [[User:Antialize|Jakob Truelsen]], 19 Jan 2007 -- BIOS: 2.07 1uuj21us.exe -- ECP: 1.62 1uhj10us.exe

Not working for me on T43 type 2668-F7G -- [[User:Maus3273|Maus3273]] 20:48, 30 January 2007 (CET) -- BIOS: 1.29 1YUJ18US.IMG -- I got into the bios program, but the machine never restarts after initiating the upgrade.

X41 type 2525-F8G -- [[User:ladoga|Lauri Koponen]], 11:08 16 Apr 2007 
BIOS: 2.09 (74UJ15US.IMG), is no go. (hangs while initialising the actual flashing process) I tried with 2.07 (74UJ13US.IMG) and 2.06 (74UJ12US.IMG) aswell and they all failed in the very same fashion. 
ECP: 1.02 74HJ03US.IMG, works.

It works fine on R30 type 2656-64g, BIOS v.1.40 -- [[User:english.voodoo|Yuri Spirin]], 10 May 2007.

==Updating with Network Boot Image==

BIOS, Embedded Controller (EC), CD/DVD and Harddisk firmware disks can be booted
over the network with [http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php PXELINUX] as part of the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/ SYSLINUX] package.

This requires that you have a DHCP and tftp server configured and setup properly on
your network, and is probably not for the faint of heart.

Make sure the firmware bootdisk is in linux 'dd' format, as the self-extracting .exe disks
from the IBM website cannot be booted directly as such.

This worked on the {{R31}}, {{X22}}, {{T21}}, {{T30}} and {{T41p}} with various firmware updates.

On {{X22}}, works with EC 1.30 but NOT with BIOS 1.32

==Updating via "IBM Predesktop area", suitable for model X (not have CDROM and floppy)==
It's so difficult to update BIOS and ECP without cdrom, floppy disk.
Don't know the reason why I couldn't update BIOS and ECP(1QHJ08US and 1QUJ19US) for my IBM Thinkpad X31.Hmm, may be cause of the dividing partition on my hard disk, that is:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Primary: ext3, ext3, ntfs
Extended: Ntsf, fat32
Bootloader: GRUB
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

No problem, you can use this way to do it:
* First, config in BIOS
In Security part:
# Remove all password of Subpervisor and Power on password
# Set Access IBM Predesktop Area to Normal
# Choose Enable "Flash BIOS updating by End User" in BIOS update Option.

In Config part:
# Choose Enable for Network flash over Lan

* Second, download the newest version of BIOS update and ECP update
Running: The program extract all files to the folder. There is a .img file (1QUJ19US.IMG, 1QUJ08US.IMG) in each folder.
Copy the imformation content in that img file and paste it to one FAT partition(using winimage or TotalCmd to extract)

as seen All files in 1QUJ19US.IMG is extracted to D:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
695,764 $018E000.FL1
163 0691.HSH
2,049 0691.PAT
163 0694.HSH
2,049 0694.PAT
163 0695.HSH
2,049 0695.PAT
2,049 06D0.PAT
163 06D1.HSH
2,049 06D1.PAT
163 06D2.HSH
2,049 06D2.PAT
163 06D6.HSH
2,049 06D6.PAT
2,049 06D8.PAT
697 CHKBMP.EXE
8,128 COMMAND.COM
26 CONFIG.SYS
24,860 FLASH2.EXE
26 LCREFLSH.BAT
170 LOGO.BAT
330 LOGO.SCR
111,925 PHLASH16.EXE
91,648 PREPARE.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
22,252 QKFLASH.EXE
9,923 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
39,666 UPDTFLSH.EXE
6,958 UPDTMN.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,254 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

And all files in 1QUJ08US.IMG are: D:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
315,404 $018E000.FL2
8,000 COMMAND.COM
36 CONFIG.SYS
16,910 ECFLASH2.EXE
45 PROD.DAT
17,812 QKFLASH.EXE
990 README.TXT
4,260 TPCHKS.EXE
89,738 UPDTEC.EXE
31,134 UPDTFLSH.EXE
12,501 USERINT.EXE
15,226 UTILINFO.EXE
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

* Okie, now plug AC Adapter, charge full battery to your laptop and continue third step:

** '''Flash BIOS first,'''
1. Power On, press blue button on keyboard: '''Access IBM'''

2. On "Utilities", double click " Diagnostic disk"

3. Your laptop will start PC-DOS, wait when this message appear:
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
Please insert the first floppy diskette and
Press any key to continue
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

4. Press Ctrl + Break, you will see :
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;"><pre><nowiki>Terminate batch job (Y/N) ?</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

5. Okie, press Y, you will get DOS prompt like D:\
{{NOTE|D:\ is my RAMDISK, C:\ is my disk format as FAT.!}}

6. Enter to c:\BIOS
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\BIOS
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. Run FLASH2.EXE /u $018E000.FL1

8. Wait flash progress compelete and reboot.
** '''Flash ECP'''
Follow above instruction from step 1 to 5

6. Enter to c:\ECP
<blockquote style="background: white; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em;">
<pre><nowiki>
c:
cd c:\ECP
</nowiki></pre></blockquote>

7. run UPDTFLSH.EXE $018E000.FL2

8. Follow UPDTFLSH's instructions

9. Wait flash complete and auto turn off computer.

I done it on my IBM Thinkpad X31.

Enjoy,

Tested by nm.

==Check List==

The following is important to remember:
# You must update '''both''' the Control Program and the BIOS at the same time if your current Control Program is not compatible with the new BIOS (see below)
# You must find versions of the Control Program and BIOS that are compatible. Not all of them are, so follow the readmes on the IBM website carefully to determine which are.
# You must update the Control Program '''before''' you update the BIOS

When the Control Program '''and''' the BIOS need updating, have both update disks or CDs ready. Update the Control Program first and the system should switch itself off when finished. Insert the BIOS update disk and proceed to update the BIOS. When it's all finished, enter setup, reset the settings to their defaults and reboot. Enter setup again and tweak the settings as necessary.

Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 on a ThinkPad T60p

2007-05-04T01:57:12Z

Voominc: /* Installing from CD-ROM */

This article covers the installation of CentOS 4.4 on a ThinkPad {{T60p}}. {{Red Hat}} Enterprise Linux 4 Update 4 should be exactly the same.

This article is not complete--I am editing it as I make progress on my installation. I just wanted to share the tricks I have discovered so far, and start a page where you can share your experience.

==Preparation==
Before you do anything else, boot Windows and create a set of Product Recovery disks. Even if you hate Windows, the next user of your computer may need it. When you need to restore Windows, you just pop in the the Product Recovery disks, and tell them to restore the computer to its original factory-installed state.

I used a set of CD-ROMs for this installation. The T60 can boot from DVD-ROM, so you can also use the DVD if you like. It also appears to be capable of booting from USB, but I could not get it to work for the purpose of installing Linux.

==Installing from CD-ROM or DVD==
Insert the first disk, and let it try to boot. If it hangs on "ACPI: Found ECDT", try again, but at "Install or Upgrade..." type:
linux acpi=off
If you still have problems (particularly if you later find that USB does not work), you might try adding "noapic":
linux acpi=off noapic
Automatic disk partitioning did not work for me, probably because I retained my Windows and Rescue and Recovery partitions. I just mimicked the partitioning scheme shown in
[http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/x8664-multi-install-guide/s1-diskpartitioning.html Section 4.16] of
[http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/x8664-multi-install-guide/ Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux].

==What Works==
* SMP (dual processor kernel)
* e1000 Gigabit Wired Ethernet
* DVD-ROM

==Requires More Work==
* Intel 3945 wireless network adaptor

==Not Tested==
* Bluetooth
* IR interface

Installing Ubuntu 6.06 Kubuntu 6.06 Gentoo 2006.0 on a ThinkPad T60p

2007-05-04T01:50:33Z

Voominc: Installing Ubuntu and Kubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake), and Gentoo 2006.0 on a ThinkPad T60p

[[Category:T60p]]

==Installing Ubuntu Dapper==

To get it going:

* Get Dapper i386 (I used the Daily ISO DVD).

* Install the default distribution.

It will work, but you need an SMP kernel, and accelerated and higher resolution graphics, so:

* Install the i686-smp kernel (search for 'linux-kernel' in synaptic).

* Search for fglrx in synaptic, and install the fglrx modules, X driver and ATI control panel.

* Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf, so each of the "Modeline" entries contains a 1600x1200 resolution as well (or whatever the top resolution of your LCD panel is), and change the driver section as follows:

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. ATI Default Card"
Driver "fglrx" <----- ADD THIS LINE
#Driver "vesa" <---- COMMENT OUT THIS LINE
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
ChipID 0x71c5 <----- '''MAYBE''' ADD THIS LINE
EndSection

[On my UXGA t60p the ChipID line was actually fatal to getting fglrx to start up (/var/log/Xorg.0.log showed the driver falling back to VESA and fgl_glxgears would crash). Without that ChipID line my chip was identified as:

Chipset: "MOBILITY FireGL V5200 (M56 71C4)" (Chipset = 0x71c4)

which appears to correspond exactly to my machine's spec, and fgl_glxgears worked fine.]

Reboot, and you should be done. Check "cat /proc/cpuinfo" shows two CPUs, and run fgl_glxgears and check you get around 580 frames a second.

I've reported [https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/46527 bug 46527] on the lack of screen driver detection, so hopefully this will get even easier.

Note you do NOT need to install ATI drivers from the ATI site. The Ubuntu drivers are sufficient.

Thanks to Rich Tango-Lowy (see below) for the hint re chip detection.

==Kubuntu Dapper Live CD==

If you're trying to install from the Kubuntu Desktop CD, you'll never make it to the login screen because the ATI display driver isn't recognized.

* Ctrl-Alt-F1
* sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
* change the display driver line that looks like:

Driver "ati"

to

Driver "vesa"

[I think I remember that it was "ati", but I could be wrong. In any
case this is very clearly the only Driver line in the ATI device specification section]

* Save and exit
* sudo /etc/init.d kdm restart

Now you get a login screen.

== Installing Gentoo 2006.0 ==

===Boot from Live CD===
Upon booting off the live cd you will come to the kernel selection prompt.
Enter:
gentoo doscsi
I had some trouble getting the wired NIC to be linked to the driver, often getting an error that the EEPROM failed a check. If this happens, you can try re-inserting the module,
>rmmod e1000; modprobe e1000
or rebooting and trying again. The wireless card isn't supported by the live cd so you're going to have to stick to wired for now.

If you have a T60 with a '''Core 2 Duo''' processor (instead of Core Duo), you have the option of installing a 64-bit linux. Use an amd64 (called this for historical reasons) install/live cd, and enter this at the boot prompt:
gentoo-nofb noapic
The noapic option is needed on the 2006.1 cd to prevent a crash during boot. Once you have compiled your own kernel you no longer need it.

===/etc/make.conf Settings===
The make.conf settings are the first thing you want to setup correctly before you proceed with the rest of the install process. All future updates will depend upon these settings as well.
If you use a 32-bit profile (x86) use these settings
CFLAGS="-march=prescott -O2 -pipe -msse3 -fomit-frame-pointer"
VIDEO_CARDS="fglrx vesa fbdev"
INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse synaptics"
FEATURES="sandbox ccache distlocks autoaddcvs parallel-fetch"
MAKEOPTS="-j3"
If you use a 64-bit profile (amd64 - Core 2 Duo processors only) use this instead
CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -march=nocona"
MAKEOPTS="-j3"
INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse synaptics"
VIDEO_CARDS="radeon vesa fbdev"
For a more complete discussion of the CFLAGS to use for a Core Duo processor, see [http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-448761-highlight-core+duo+prescott.html?sid=97485d7e26a1f77e2bb06fa437a448ff this forum thread]. Some users recommend that the USE variable has the ibm value in it (eg. USE="ibm") but the Gentoo website says this is only for Power PC64 systems; I don't think we should use it. If anyone can shed more light on this, please update this section.

===Kernel Settings===
I was able to get the laptop running from i686 gentoo sources and recommend this to anyone installing Gentoo on their T60p. Alot of graphics support is left out of the kernel since the best graphics performance is with ATI's propietary drivers which you can emerge at the end of the kernel compile.
====Processor type and features====
* Turn on Symmetric multi-processing support.
* Set processor family to Pentium M for the Core Duo or EM64T for the Core 2 Duo with amd64 profile.
* Turn off toshiba and dell laptop support.
* Set timer frequency to 1000 Hz since this is a desktop system.
* Found on a [http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=19031 forum posting] that "Hotpluggable CPU" should be set to get acpi sleep to work. Go figure...

====Power management options====
* Turn on all ACPI settings (especially IBM Thinkpad Extras) except ASUS/Medion and Toshiba Laptop Extras.
Note: see this entry on ACPI Video for BIOS 2.x and kernels < 2.6.20-rc?
http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_with_LCD_brightness_buttons
* Turn on CPU Frequency scaling.
** Turn on powersave, userspace, ondemand and conservative governor.
** Turn off ACPI Processor P-States driver.
** Turn off all AMD and Cyrix options.
** Turn on Intel Enhanced SpeedStep and Intel Speedstep on ICH-M chipsets (ioport interface).
** Turn off Intel SpeedStep on 440BX/ZX/MX chipsets (SMI interface).
** Turn off Intel Pentium 4 clock modulation, nVidia nForce2 FSB changing and Transmeta LongRun.

====Bus options====
* Turn on PCI Express support.
* Turn on Message Signaled Interrupts.
* Turn on PCCard support and CardBus yenta-compatible bridge support.

====Networking support====
* Turn off Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack.
* Turn on IrDA (infrared) subsystem support and sub-options.
** Ensure you get nsc-ircc
* Turn on Bluetooth subsystem support and sub-options.
* Turn off Amateur Radio support (unless you work with actual radios.)

====Device Drivers====
* Turn off Memory Technology Devices.
* Turn on ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL and Enhanced IDE/MFM/RLL disk/cdrom/tape/floppy support.
* Turn on PNP EIDE and PCI IDE chipset support (PNP EIDE may not be necessary but I haven't tested it)
** Turn on Include IDE/ATA-2 DISK support
** Turn on Use multi-mode by default
** Turn on Include IDE/ATAPI CDROM support
** Turn on PCI IDE chipset support (not all of the sub-options have been tested but this makes the DVD drive work well)
*** Turn on Generic PCI IDE Chipset Support
*** Turn on Generic PCI bus-master DMA support
*** Turn on Intel PIIXn chipsets support
* Turn off parallel port support.
* Turn on SCSI device support. In "low-level device drivers", chose the Serial ATA (SATA) support. Build it as a part of the kernel, and not as a kernel module.
* Turn off Fusion MPT device support.
* Turn on IEEE 1394 (FireWire) support.
* Turn on Network device support.
** Turn off all options in all categories under Network device support except the stated ones below.
** Turn on Intel(R) PRO/1000 Gigabit Ethernet support under Ethernet (1000 Mbit).
** Turn on Wireless LAN drivers (non-hamradio) & Wireless Extensions and none of the sub-options underneath.
** Most people do not need Fibre channel, ATM, WAN or PPP/SLIP support (if you do then turn it on. PPP is needed for GPRS/UMTS connectivity)
* Character device options...
** Serial drivers... [for IrDA]
*** Set Max 8250/16550 serial ports to (4)
*** Set Number 8250/16550 serial ports to register at runtime to (1)
** Turn off Parallel printer support.
** Turn on Intel/AMD/VIA HW Random Number Generator support.
** Turn on /dev/nvram support.
** Turn off /dev/agpgart (AGP Support).
** Turn off Direct Rendering Manager.
** Support for the [[Embedded_Security_Subsystem|Fritz Chip]] is located in "TPM Devices".
* Turn off all Graphics support options except the stated ones below,
** Turn on VESA VGA graphics support and set VESA driver type to vesafb.
** Turn on Enable firmware EDID and Enable Video Mode Handling Helpers.
** Turn on Support for the framebuffer splash.
* '''IMPORTANT:''' Turn off all Wireless device support under USB support -> USB Network Adapters or you will tear your hair out trying to get wireless.
* Turn on Sound card support.
** Turn on Advanced Linux Sound Architecture.
** Turn off all ISA, PCI, USB, generic and PCMCIA device options the stated on below.
** Turn on Intel HD Audio under PCI devices.
* Turn off all MMC/SD Card support options.
* Turn off LED devices.
* Cryptographic options... (needed for the wireless card ipw9345)
** Turn on AES chiphers
** Turn on Michael MIC keyed digest algorithm

That should do it. (I know, that's it.)
That should make sure that you have all the drivers necessary to boot the system and be able to use all your hardware (almost).

===Portage Ebuilds===

Always make sure you run this command before going any further so you can get the latest portage build and version...
emerge --sync && emerge portage

Since September 24 2006 I was able to make the latest ati-drivers work on the T60p without adding any lines to the unmask file (/etc/portage/package.unmask) under the gentoo-sources kernel. You should be able to run...
emerge ati-drivers
...without any problems. If you do have problems compiling, sometimes you may need to try emerging an unstable package. For more information on working with the ATI drivers, check out Gentoo's wiki [http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_ATI_Drivers| here.]

Don't forget to emerge all the Thinkpad software as well...
emerge tpb tp_smapi tpctl

Then you can start to setup the wireless in this order at the command line...
/bin/sh /usr/portage/net-wireless/ieee80211/files/remove-old /usr/src/linux
emerge ieee80211 ipw3945 ipw3945d wireless-tools

For some reason the wireless driver consists of two parts: the module itself, ipw3949.ko, and some sort of support daemon, ipw3945d. The ebuild updates the modules.conf file to automatically stop and start this deamon when the module is loaded or unloaded, respectively. Check if the following lines are present in /etc/modules.conf (or actually, in /etc/modules.d/ipw3945d - /etc/modules.conf is built from the separate files in /etc/modules.d when you run /sbin/modules-update)

install ipw3945 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install ipw3945; sleep 0.5; /sbin/ipw3945d --quiet
remove ipw3945 /sbin/ipw3945d --kill; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove ipw3945

In other words, to load the module, and start the daemon, do

modprobe ipw3945

To remove the module, and kill the daemon, enter

modprobe -r ipw3945

'''Note''': rmmod does '''not''' work - it doesn't use /etc/modprobe.conf, and therefore doesn't kill the daemon: while the daemon is running, you cannot unload the module. (You'll get an errormessage saying the module is in use).

If for some reason you need to kill the module manually, use

/sbin/ipw3945d --kill

Ofcourse the normal 'kill' command also works, but you'll have to remove the pid file /var/run/ipw3945d.pid by hand.

===xorg.conf Settings===

A piece of code is worth a thousand words; here is my xorg.conf that works at 3000-5000 FPS so far. I am still trying to find better parameters, but this is the best I got it to run so far. I intentionally left out the InputDevice section since I disabled my Synaptics pad (I like the center joystick better.) Just modify your xorg.conf sections with what is shown below.

Section "Module"
Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension
SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dga" # don't initialise the DGA extension
EndSubSection
Load "freetype"
Load "dri"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "VideoCard"
Driver "vesa"
Driver "fglrx"
VendorName "ati"
#ModelName "FireGL V5200 (RV530 71DA)"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "UseFastTLS" "2"
Option "EnablePrivateBackZ" "on"
EndSection

Section "dri"
Group "video"
Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "XVideo" "Enable"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen"
Device "VideoCard"
Monitor "Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Make sure you assign your username to the video group in the /etc/group file or you will net get DRI (Direct Rendering) support. When debugging your running X windows system, always check /var/log/Xorg.0.log for any errors or hints at what may be configured incorrectly. This is how I was able to get so far with the graphics.

==Known Issues==
[[Problem with e1000: Open issue with latency|Latency issue with e1000 nic]]

==External Sources==
*[http://arscognita.com/~richtl/T60p/index.html Rich Tango-Lowy's Mandriva 2007 Cooker on T60p page]
*[http://buzzy.tesuji.org/thinkpad_t60p.html Jon Lin's Gentoo Thinkpad T60p]
*This guide is listed at the [http://tuxmobil.org/ibm.html TuxMobil Linux laptop and notebook installation survey (IBM/Lenovo)].

Installation instructions for the ThinkPad T60p

2007-05-04T01:49:05Z

Voominc:

[[Category:T60p]]
Specific installation notes for the ThinkPad {{T60p}}.

==Distribution-specific instructions==

=== Ubuntu / Kubuntu ===

*[[Installing_Ubuntu_6.06_Kubuntu_6.06_Gentoo_2006.0_on_a_ThinkPad_T60p|Ubuntu and Kubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake]]

=== Red Hat Enterprise Linux / CentOS ===

*{{Install |Red Hat Enterprise Linux| 4| T60p}}

===Red Hat Fedora Core===
No articles so far.

=== Gentoo ===

*[[Installing_Ubuntu_6.06_Kubuntu_6.06_Gentoo_2006.0_on_a_ThinkPad_T60p|Gentoo 2006.0]]

Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 on a ThinkPad T60p

2007-05-04T01:12:09Z

Voominc:

This article covers the installation of CentOS 4.4 on a ThinkPad {{T60p}}. {{Red Hat}} Enterprise Linux 4 Update 4 should be exactly the same.

This article is not complete--I am editing it as I make progress on my installation. I just wanted to share the tricks I have discovered so far, and start a page where you can share your experience.

==Preparation==
Before you do anything else, boot Windows and create a set of Product Recovery disks. Even if you hate Windows, the next user of your computer may need it. When you need to restore Windows, you just pop in the the Product Recovery disks, and tell them to restore the computer to its original factory-installed state.

I used a set of CD-ROMs for this installation. The T60 can boot from DVD-ROM, so you can also use the DVD if you like. It also appears to be capable of booting from USB, but I could not get it to work for the purpose of installing Linux.

==Installing from CD-ROM==
Insert CD-ROM #1, and let it try to boot. If it hangs on "ACPI: Found ECDT", try again, but at "Install or Upgrade..." type:
linux acpi=off
If you still have problems (particularly if you later find that USB does not work), you might try adding "noapic":
linux acpi=off noapic
Automatic disk partitioning did not work for me, probably because I retained my Windows and Rescue and Recovery partitions. I just mimicked the partitioning scheme shown in
[http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/x8664-multi-install-guide/s1-diskpartitioning.html Section 4.16] of
[http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/x8664-multi-install-guide Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux].

==What Works==
* SMP (dual processor kernel)
* e1000 Gigabit Wired Ethernet
* DVD-ROM

==Requires More Work==
* Intel 3945 wireless network adaptor

==Not Tested==
* Bluetooth
* IR interface

Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 on a ThinkPad T60p

2007-05-04T01:03:48Z

Voominc: Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 on a ThinkPad T60p

This article covers the installation of CentOS 4.4 on a ThinkPad {{T60p}}. {{Red_Hat}} Enterprise Linux 4 Update 4 should be exactly the same.

This article is not complete--I am editing it as I make progress on my installation. I just wanted to share the tricks I have discovered so far, and start a page where you can share your experience.

==Preparation==
Before you do anything else, boot Windows and create a set of Product Recovery disks. Even if you hate Windows, the next user of your computer may need it. When you need to restore Windows, you just pop in the the Product Recovery disks, and tell them to restore the computer to its original factory-installed state.

I used a set of CD-ROMs for this installation. The T60 can boot from DVD-ROM, so you can also use the DVD if you like. It also appears to be capable of booting from USB, but I could not get it to work for the purpose of installing Linux.

==Installing from CD-ROM==
Insert CD-ROM #1, and let it try to boot. If it hangs on "ACPI: Found ECDT", try again, but at "Install or Upgrade..." type:
linux acpi=off
If you still have problems (particularly if you later find that USB does not work), you might try adding "noapic":
linux acpi=off noapic
Automatic disk partitioning did not work for me, probably because I retained my Windows and Rescue and Recovery partitions. I just mimicked the partitioning scheme shown in
[http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/x8664-multi-install-guide/s1-diskpartitioning.html Section 4.16] of
[http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/x8664-multi-install-guide Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux].

==What Works==
* SMP (dual processor kernel)
* e1000 Gigabit Wired Ethernet
* DVD-ROM

==Requires More Work==
* Intel 3945 wireless network adaptor

==Not Tested==
* Bluetooth
* IR interface

Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 on a ThinkPad T60p

2007-05-04T00:40:09Z

Voominc:

This article covers the installation of CentOS 4.4 on a ThinkPad {{T60p}}. CentOS is binary compatable with {{Red_Hat}} Enterprise Linux 4 Update 4.

This article is not complete--I am editing it as I make progress on my installation. I just wanted to share the tricks I have discovered, and start a page where we can share our experience.

==Preparation==
Before you do anything else, boot Windows and create a set of Rescue and Recovery disks. Even if you hate Windows, the next user of your computer may need it. When that day comes, you just pop in the the Rescue and Recovery disks, and they restore Windows to its original factory-installed state.

I used a set of CD-ROMs for this installation. The T60 can boot from DVD-ROM, so you can also use the DVD if you like. It also appears to be capable of booting from USB, but I could not get it to work for the purpose of installing Linux.

==Installing from CD-ROM==
Insert CD-ROM #1, and let it try to boot. If it hangs on "ACPI: Found ECDT", try again, but at "Install or Upgrade..." type:
linux acpi=off
If you still have problems (particularly if you later find that USB does not work), you might try adding "noapic":
linux acpi=off noapic
Automatic disk partitioning did not work for me, probably because I retained my Windows and Rescue and Recovery partitions. I just mimicked the partitioning scheme shown in
[http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/x8664-multi-install-guide/s1-diskpartitioning.html Section 4.16] of
[http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/x8664-multi-install-guide Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux].

==What Works==
* SMP (dual processor kernel)
* e1000 Gigabit Wired Ethernet
* DVD-ROM

==Requires More Work==
* Intel 3945 wireless network adaptor

==Not Tested==
* Bluetooth
* IR interface

Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 on a ThinkPad T60p

2007-05-03T23:34:37Z

Voominc: Editing Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 on a ThinkPad T60p

This article is not complete--I am editing it as I make progress on my installation.

==Preparation==
Before you do anything else, boot Windows and create a set of Rescue and Recovery disks. Even if you hate Windows, the next user of your computer may need it. When that day comes, you just pop in the the Rescue and Recovery disks, and they restore Windows to its original factory-installed state.

I used a set of CD-ROMs for this installation. The T60 can boot from DVD-ROM, so you can also use the DVD if you like. It also appears to be capable of booting from USB, but I could not get it to work for the purpose of installing Linux.

==Installing from CD-ROM==
Insert CD-ROM #1, and let it try to boot. If it hangs on "ACPI: Found ECDT", try again, but at "Install or Upgrade..." type:
linux acpi=off
If you still have problems (particularly if you later find that USB does not work), you might try adding "noapic":
linux acpi=off noapic
Automatic disk partitioning did not work for me, probably because I retained my Windows and Rescue and Recovery partitions. I just mimicked the partitioning scheme shown in
[http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/x8664-multi-install-guide/s1-diskpartitioning.html Section 4.16] of
[http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/x8664-multi-install-guide Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux].

==What Works==
- SMP (dual processor kernel)
- e1000 Gigabit Wired Ethernet
- DVD-ROM

==Requires More Work==
- Intel 3945 wireless network adaptor

Wireless Network Adapters

2007-04-29T20:06:54Z

Voominc: /* Atheros */

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;white-space:nowrap;" | __TOC__
|style="vertical-align:top" |
This document covers IBM integrated (MiniPCI), Cardbus and PC Card (PCMCIA) Wi-Fi devices.
|}

== Finding out which adapter you have ==
For MiniPCI or Cardbus adapters run the command:
:{{cmdroot|lspci -n <nowiki>|</nowiki> grep "Class 0200"}}
If that produces no output, run this command instead:
:{{cmdroot|lspci -n <nowiki>|</nowiki> grep "0200"}}

(Alternatively, grep for "0280" which identifies "Network" controllers, as opposed to "0200" which identifies "Ethernet" controllers.)

And compare the PCI IDS with the ones below.

{{NOTE| This will also return the PCI IDS of any Ethernet adapters, as Ethernet adapters and Wireless adapters share the same PCI Class ID.}}

== MiniPCI adapters ==
=== Atheros ===
*[[IBM Dual-Band 11a/b Wi-Fi Wireless Mini PCI Adapter]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 168c:0012)</tt>
*[[IBM 11b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 168c:0013)</tt>
*[[IBM 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 168c:1014)</tt>
*[[IBM 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter II]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 168c:1014)</tt>
*[[ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini Express Adapter]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 168c:1014)</tt>
*[[ThinkPad 11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Mini Express Adapter (AR5BXB72)]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 168c:0024)</tt>
*[[SparkLAN WMIA-166AG Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter (AR5006XS)]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 168c:001b)</tt>

=== Cisco ===
*[[Cisco Aironet Wireless 802.11b]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 14b9:a504)</tt>
=== Intel ===
*[[Intel PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 8086:1043)</tt>
*[[Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Mini-PCI Adapter]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 8086:4220)</tt>
*[[Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Mini-PCI Adapter]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 8086:4224)</tt>
*[[Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Mini-PCI Express Adapter]]

=== Prism ===
*[[IBM High Rate Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Adapter with Modem]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 1260:3873)</tt>
*[[IBM High Rate Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Adapter with Modem II]] <tt>(PCI-ID: 1260:3873)</tt>
*[[IBM High Rate Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Adapter III]]

=== Error 1802 - "Unauthorized" MiniPCI network card ===
Attempts to install an unsupported card will result in the following message:

1802: Unauthorized network card is plugged in - Power off and remove the miniPCI network card.

For a resolution, see the [[Problem with unauthorized MiniPCI network card]] page.

== Cardbus adapters ==
Cardbus is a 32bits bus that runs at 33MHz, and is in many ways simular to the PCI bus. In fact under Linux Cardbus adapters are handled by the PCI subsystem. 
You can differentiate a PC Card adapter from a Cardbus adapter as the later has a gold coloured grounding strip
=== IBM 11 a/b/g Wireless Cardbus Adapter ===
Chipset: Atheros 
Driver: [[madwifi]] 
Supported wireless modes: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g

Specifications: [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-51855 MIGR-51855] 
Users Guide: [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-51959 MIGE-51855] 
Service Parts: [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-51874 MIGR-51874]
Looking for a reverse PCI to cardbus (ie - want to fit a PCI card into a cardbus slot)

=== IBM 802.11a Wireless LAN Cardbus Adapter ===
Chipset: Atheros 
Driver: [[madwifi]] 
Supported wireless modes: 802.11a

Specifications: [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-42209 MIGR-42209] 
Users Guide: [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-42233 MIGR-42233] 
Service Parts: [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-42231 MIGR-42231]

== PC Card (PCMCIA) adapters ==
PC Card or PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) as it used to be called, is an 8 or 16bits bus limited to 8MHz, in many ways simular to the old ISA bus and not suitable for highspeed devices.
=== Cisco Aironet 350 802.11b wireless PC card with 128bit ===
Chipset: Cisco 
Driver: airo_cs 
Supported wireless modes: 802.11b
=== IBM High Rate Wireless LAN PC Card ===
Chipset: Hermes I 
Drivers: [[orinoco|orinoco_cs]] 
Supported wireless modes: 802.11b

[[Category:Components]]

Rescue and Recovery

2007-04-06T05:43:16Z

Voominc: /* Using the Windows Bootloader to Boot Linux */

Installing Fedora Core 6 on a ThinkPad T60

2007-03-03T20:10:04Z

Voominc: /* Works Out of the Box */

== Installation ==

Installation of Fedora Core 6 (Zod) on a Thinkpad T60 (2623). The installation completes successfully but installs the i586 kernel instead of the required i686 kernel. The wrong kernel is due to a [https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=211941 known bug] in the Anaconda installer. Work-arounds and instructions for checking your kernel are [http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Bugs/FC6Common on this page].

'''Note''' : The installer on disc still does not correctly install the i686 kernel. Use the available updates.img patch or a network install. Check your kernel version before you proceed. --[[User:Whizkid|Whizkid]] 13:15, 19 December 2006 (CET)

'''Note''' : According to Red Hat, if you boot the install disk using 'linux i686' when installing, then the i686 kernel will be installed. This does not work when upgrading.

=== Keeping ThinkVantage Functionality ===
See the [[Rescue and Recovery]] page for details about the recovery partition and retaining access to it.

== Works Out of the Box ==

; Dual Cores (SMP processing)
: As of Kernel 2.6.18, used in Fedora Core 6, there is no loger a single cpu and smp kernel image. SMP is now configured on-the-fly. FC6's kernel will automatically discover the T60's dual core cpu and bring up CPU0 and CPU1.

; Wired Networking
: Kernel recognizes eth0 and correctly loads the e1000 driver.

; Video at 1400x1050
: Fedora does not ship the proprietary ATi driver, as a reult the VESA driver is used. Installation of the ATi fgrlx driver is described later in this article.

; Touchpad / Mouse
: The TrackPoint middle button does not work as a scroll wheel by default.
: PFPS: Note that although the touchpad and trackpoint work, Fedora Core 6 does a bad job of setting up xorg.conf. It is better to fix it up (see below).

; Sound
: The first-boot sound test fails to play the test sound. However, sound support is correctly configured and the snd-hda-intel driver is loaded at startup.
: Important: The modem must be enabled in the BIOS. Make sure it is, or you may search a long time for the reason that you have no sound. I presume this is a driver bug.

; Suspend to RAM
: Works out of the box under Gnome. Gnome power management intregrates with HAL (Linux's hardware abstraction layer) and DBUS, which correctly put this computer into a suspsend to RAM state and wake it up correctly.

== Requires Tweaking ==

* Wireless Networking (Requires ipw3945 driver)
* ATi OpenGL Direct Rendering
* Hibernate
* IrDA

== Post Install ==

=== Replacing the Kernel ===

'''Note''' : The steps below will not be required if the i686 version is already installed, which you can achieve using the notes above( Upon boot up type "linux i686" at the prompt).

As previously mentioned, the i586 kernel is installed on this machine instead of the i686 version. The i686 version is required to install the ATI video drivers and Intel Wireless drivers required to get this machine 100% operational. It is best to do this first, before updating any packages.

Installing the new kernel can be done by various methods as documented on the [https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=211941 Red Hat Bugzilla bug]. The safest method is to just to find the i686 kernel on your Fedora Core disk, and install it with the command:

# rpm -Uvh --replacefiles --replacepkgs kernel-$(uname -r).i686.rpm

However, if you the kernal version of the i686 kernel if different that the i586 kernel you have installed and you do not use LVM, you might risk the following method using [[yum]] to do the kernel swap.

'''Note''' : When I tried the yum method, I had to download 1GB worth of dependancies to reinstall. Afterwards the swap my system did not boot. Backing up grub did not help, because the problem was the initrd, and I did not have a good way or restoring the old version. However, using the Fedora Core 6 disk to "upgrade" from Fedora Core 6 to Fedora Core 6 did restore grub.

To swap kernels:
# Open up a terminal window are become root.
# Execute: yum remove kernel
# Make note of any other packages that will be removed due to dependency issues. The packages will have to be reinstalled in the next step.
# Install the kernel.i686 package and any other packages removed in the previous step.
# Fix your [[Grub]] configuration
# Reboot

On a minimal install, the only dependencies removed were gnome-session, compiz, gnome-volume-manager, and pcmciautils. Getting things back on track required:

# yum install kernel.i686 gnome-session compiz gnome-volume-manager pcmciautils

After [Yum] completes, you will have to fix the boot loader or you will be unable to boot after a restart.

If you have '''not''' used Fedora's default installation using LVM partitions, you can use the following configuration for grub. As root, fire up your favorite text editor and add the following lines to your grub configuration (/boot/grub/grub.conf) just below the initial comments:

<pre>
title FC6 2.6.18-1.2798
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img
</pre>

If you have an LVM partition, use the method detailed at Redhat's site.

=== Getting Up to Date ===

Before completing installation, it's best to get up to date by running yum update as root or by using the new graphical updater, Pup, that ships with Fedora Core 6. After all updates are installed, reboot before continuing the post-install tasks.

=== Setting Up Additional Repositories ===

In order to get the ATI driver and the Intel Wireless working, you will need to add two repositories to your computer; [http://rpm.livna.org/ Livna RPMs] and [http://atrpms.net/ AT-RPMs].

; Enabling Livna's Repository
: As root, rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-6.rpm .

; Enabling AT-RPMs Repository
: As root, use your favorite editor to create /etc/yum.repos.d/atrpms.repo and type in:

<pre>
[atrpms]
name=Fedora Core $releasever - $basearch - ATrpms
baseurl=http://dl.atrpms.net/fc$releasever-$basearch/atrpms/stable
gpgkey=http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
</pre>

Important: Disabling the AT-RPMs repository by default (using enabled=0) in the above configuration is important. Some repositories have been known not to play well together. See [http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=94861 this post] on the [http://forums.fedoraforum.org/ Fedora Forms] for more information. However, AT-RPMs does provide a packaged version of the Intel wireless drivers and firmware that we'll use to set up wireless networking later. As long as AT-RPMs is disabled by default, Yum won't install software from their repository unless we explicitly tell it to do so.

== ATi Video Driver (fglrx) ==

First check that your T60 has FireGL, this can be determined either by using scanpci or looking at your xorg.conf file. If you see in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:
#Driver "i810"
you have an ThinkPad T60 X or CTO series, and you can not install the ATI driver. If you see:
#Driver "vesa"
you probably have an ATI driver, and the following instructions should work.

Installing the fglrx driver is easy if you've enabled the Livna.org RPM repository as discribed earlier in this article. Unfortunately, the proprietary ATi driver currently does not support desktop effects or composite rendering used by default in Fedora Core 6.

To install the drivers, as root:
[root@scottt60 ~]# yum install kmod-fglrx.i686 xorg-x11-drv-fglrx

While the driver installs, X fails to use direct Open GL rendering. There are two things that need to be done to get the driver working. First, we must disable effects by adding these lines to the bottom of /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

<pre>
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AIGLX" "off"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection
</pre>

Next, we need to add ATi's driver directory to dynamic linker (ld) search path and update the linker configuration:

<pre>
[root@scottt60 ~]# echo "/usr/lib/ati-fglrx/" > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/ati-fglrx.conf
[root@scottt60 ~]# ldconfig
</pre>

After ldconfig completes, restart X. You can check if you've completed your installation correctly by running fglrxinfo. Your output should look like this:

<pre>
[scott@scottt60 ~]$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6174 (8.31.5)
</pre>

Congratulations, your video configuration is complete.

== Better UltraNav (touchpad) support [PFPS] ==

'''Note''' : The following steps do not seem consistent with the previous section which is suppose to replace vesa with fglrx... However, the settings in the "InputDevice" section do seem to work. So perhaps it is better to just swap device settings and not replace tho whole xorg.conf file.

To get the touchpad to work right, it is much better to change /etc/X11/xorg.conf. There is quite a bit of information on how to do this scattered over the web, but very little information on why various changes have to be made. (I expect that the changes I made here are not specific to the T60, but would work on most Thinkpads with an UltraNav.)

I ended up crafting my own xorg.conf, which does the job, and produces no (extra) errors or warnings. (Note that the generated xorg.conf is very sparse, and generates warnings due to missing monitors and font directories. These appear to be benign.)

<pre>
# Xorg configuration created by pyxf86config
# modified by pfps for Synaptics touchpad

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "TouchPad" "AlwaysCore"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

# synaptics touchpad device
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "TouchPad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mouse0" # may not be needed
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev" # automatically find device?
Option "LeftEdge" "1700"
Option "RightEdge" "5300"
Option "TopEdge" "1700"
Option "BottomEdge" "4200"
Option "FingerLow" "25"
Option "FingerHigh" "30"
Option "MaxTapTime" "0" # turn off tapping
Option "MaxTapMove" "220"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "100"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.09"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.18"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.0015"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
EndSection

# default mouse - handles other pointing devices, including trackpoint
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "Auto"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "Buttons" "3"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "vesa"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
</pre>

== Hibernation ==

Instructions for getting hibernate to work are available at
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=205144

== Wireless Networking ==

To use the T60's built in wireless networking driver, you will need to install ipw3945 driver. The AT-RPMs repository, mentioned earlier in this article, provides the necessary packages. ATRpms does not always keep the older versions, and there will be some delay after a new kernel is released until the required kernel module is available. Patience is appreciated.

If you are running a x86_64 architecture, it is sometimes best to use the ipw3945 instruction guide from sourceforge, ignoring any build errors during make, and start ipw3945d with the below script.

ATRpms has recently made this process very simple. As root:

# yum --enablerepo=atrpms install ipw3945
If you get an error stating "GPG key parsing failed: can't set attribute" then you need to import the key. Do so by

rpm --import http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms

Check that /etc/init.d/ipw3945d was created. You can use this as a template.
<pre>
#! /bin/bash
#
# ipw3490d Load / unload Intel ipw3490 daemon
#
# chkconfig: 2345 09 90
# description: Load / unload Intel ipw3490 daemon
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: ipw3490d
### END INIT INFO

# Source function library.
. /etc/init.d/functions

if [ ! -f /etc/sysconfig/network ]; then
exit 0
fi

case "$1" in
start)
echo -n "Starting ipw3945d: "
/sbin/ipw3945d > /dev/null 2>&1
echo
;;
stop)
echo -n "Stopping ipw3945d: "
killproc ipw3945d
echo
;;
status)
status ipw3945d
;;
restart)
cd "$CWD"
$0 stop
$0 start
;;
*)
echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|status}"
exit 1
esac

exit 0
</pre>

Now, make it executable and add the script with chkconfig to be started on boot:

# chmod 750 /etc/init.d/ipw3945d
# chkconfig --add ipw3945d

Make sure things are setup correctly by running chkconfig --list ipw3945d. Your output should look something like:

# chkconfig --list ipw3945d
ipw3945d 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

If everything looks okay, reboot. Once restarted you should be able to run <code>ifconfig eth1</code> and see information about your wireless card. If you prefer a GUI, you can run the network configuration tool (System, Administration, Network). Click New on the Devices tab, then Wireless Connection. "Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection(eth1)" or something similar should appear in the list of wireless devices.

== Infrared (IrDA) ==
By default, Fedora will make the IR device appear as ttyS2, but the BIOS has the port default to COM2, or ttyS1. Paste this text into /etc/sysconfig/irda:
<pre>
IRDA=yes
DEVICE=/dev/ttyS1
#DONGLE=actisys+
DISCOVERY=yes
</pre>

Start (or restart) the irda service. Then ensure it starts for your favorite runlevel using either chkconfig or the Service Configuration tool. You can then use irdadump (as root) to confirm your configuration is correct by monitoring port activity when another IR device is near.

=External Sources=
*This guide is listed at the [http://tuxmobil.org/ibm.html TuxMobil Linux laptop and notebook installation survey (IBM/Lenovo)].

[[Category:Fedora]]
[[Category:T60]]

Pre-Installation steps

2007-03-03T19:53:29Z

Voominc: /* Resizing your Windows Partition */

==Rescue and Recovery Media==
Most modern ThinkPads ship with Windows preinstalled on the hard disk only--no recovery disks are included. Instead, Lenovo ThinkVantage software allows you to create a Rescue and Recovery CD-ROM and a Product Recovery DVD-ROM. These will allow you to restore the hard disk to its exact factory installed state. They can also perform other useful system recovery functions.

Even if you have no intention of using Windows, your first action should be to create these disks. Later, you or someone else may want to use Windows again. The recovery disks make it very simple to reinstall Windows, perfectly configured for your ThinkPad. Here's how:

1. Turn on the system and boot Windows.

2. Start the recovery media creation program with ''Start | All Programs | ThinkVantage | Create Recovery Media''.

3. Choose to create ''Recovery Disks''. The other alternative, ''Rescue Media'', creates only the first of the ''Recovery Disks''.

4. Insert a blank CD-ROM as instructed. This will become a bootable Rescue and Recovery disk.

5. Insert one DVD-ROM (or a series of seven CD-ROMs) as instructed. This will become the Product Recovery disk that contains the bulk of the data on the hard disk.

6. Save the disks in a safe place.

When you want to erase everything on the hard disk and restore the system to its factory preinstalled state, boot from the Rescue and Recovery disk, and run ''Restore Your System''.

If you forget to make recovery disks, Lenovo [[Ordering_Recovery_CDs|offers]] shipment of a pack of rescue disks if you call the support hotline. Also, recovery CDs for older ThinkPads are [http://stores.ebay.com/Recovery-CDs-Disks sold on eBay] (you must supply your own Windows disk). However, the only way to get recovery disks that match your system exactly is to make them now.

The copy of Windows that came with your ThinkPad cannot be legally transferred to any other system. Leave the Windows license sticker intact. The resale value of your ThinkPad will be lower without it.

==Resizing your Windows Partition==
Modern Thinkpads ship with a FAT32 recovery partition of about 5GB, and a Windows NTFS partition that consumes the rest of the hard disk. If you want to keep Windows on your system, you will need to shrink the Windows disk partition to make room for Linux. The easy way is to use commercial software like Partition Magic (US$70) or [http://www.partition-manager.com Partition Manager] (US$50).

If you do not want to pay for Partition Magic or Partition Manager, you can use [http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html ntfsresize]. I recommend booting {{Kanotix}} or {{Knoppix}}, getting it online and using the latest version to be found at the ntfsresize link because the CD linuxes tend to come with slightly out-dated versions. Be sure not to forget to resize your Windows partition (e.g. with cfdisk) AFTER having resized ntfs and TAKE CARE not to make the partition smaller than you made the ntfs. If you like it safe and smooth you can also take a look at the program "qtparted" which reportedly takes care of ntfsresize and partition table changing in one go and allows you to adjust partition sizes in a GUI. But I have not tested this software personally.

If you want to retain Rescue and Recovery functionality, do not delete the 5GB recovery partition. You can either move it or leave it in place at the end of the hard disk. A procedure for moving it appears in the next section.

'''Please be carefull before taking the following steps. I suggest that you should create rescue and product recovery CDs (6 CDS will be required) before going for the following so that if anything goes wrong you can go back to the factory setting using those CDs.'''

==Moving the Recovery partition using a Linux rescue system==
On newer models (i.e. the T43) the preinstalled HDD has two partitions; the first one containing the OS and second one having the rescue files used to boot the machine when {{ibmkey|Access IBM|#495988}} button is pressed before Windows XP takes control of the laptop. One can use his Linux distros boot CD (usually the first CD) to boot into rescue mode and shift the rescue partition from the end of the HDD to somewhere in between leaving required space for Windows. This can be done in following steps:

===Creating a temporary rescue partition===
* Run {{cmdroot|fdisk /dev/sda}}.
* Delete the 1st partition ({{path|/dev/sda1}}).
* Create a partion {{path|/dev/sda3}} immediately before the rescue partition ({{path|/dev/sda2}}) with exactly the same number of cylinders as the rescue partition.
* Save the partition table and quit fdisk. Reboot.
{{HINT|To be on the safe side, reboot the machine everytime the partition table is modified and saved using fdisk from linux rescue mode.}}
* rawcopy the contents of {{path|/dev/sda2}} to {{path|/dev/sda3}} with
:{{cmdroot|1=dd if=/dev/sda2 of=/dev/sda3}}

===Creating the rescue partition in its final position===
* Run {{cmdroot|fdisk /dev/sda}}.
* Delete the rescue partiton {{path|/dev/sda2}} (we just backed it up to {{path|/dev/sda3}}).
* Create a partion {{path|/dev/sda2}} immediately after the space you want to leave for Windows. Note that this new partition again should have exactly the same number of cylinders as the rescue partition (now {{path|/dev/sda3}}).
* Save the partition table and quit fdisk. Reboot.
* rawcopy the contents of {{path|/dev/sda3}} to the newly created {{path|/dev/sda2}}:
:{{cmdroot|1=dd if=/dev/sda3 of=/dev/sda2}}
* Run {{cmdroot|fdisk /dev/sda}}.
* Delete the temporary rescue partiton {{path|/dev/sda3}} (we just copied it to {{path|/dev/sda2}})
* Save the partition table and quit fdisk.
* Reboot the machine and press {{ibmkey|Access IBM|#495988}} Button to restore the Windows XP from the rescue partition. Windows XP will occupy only the space available before the new rescue partition.

Once Windows XP is recovered follow the standard mechanism for installing Linux in the available free space at the end of the HDD. If you have created Rescue and Product Recovery CDs, then the Rescue Partition also can be deleted at this stage to make more room for your Linux installation.

= Alternative Method: Dual Booting and retaining ThinkVantage Utility =

Note: T60 2913 with 60 GB drive

The key here is to find a bootable CD version of Linux that has the PartEd package on it (preferrably with qtparted also). I used SystemRescueCd (http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page). I've read people say to defrag Windows, but according to the PartEd website, the PartEd resize command (http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/manual/parted.html#resize) will take care of all that. Now boot with the SystemRescueCd and when you get the prompt, press F2. This will list available images. I used fb1024, because I wanted to use qtparted (graphical, fb1024 is framebuffer at 1024x768 vs fb800 is framebuffer at 800x600, etc), not parted (commandline).

What I saw was a 3 partition device sda. Only touch the NTFS partition (sda1 on mine, should be on yours if it is factory settings). You do not want to move the VFAT at the end of the device nor touch that little section (sda-1) at the beginning. I resized sda1 (NTFS) down to 20 GB, what you should see is the the New Size + the Free Space After = Old Size of sda1. Click the commit under the file menu to write the changes. That's it.

I then rebooted with Fedora Core 5 disk 1 and used Anaconda and its utilities to partition the free space to be a 20 GB mount point "/", a 512 MB swap, and a 10 GB vfat, these could have been done using qtparted, or pretty much any distro's install. The swap and vfat were shown inside a logical partition. I set up GRUB in the MBR and clicked the GRUB advanced setup checkbox. This allowed me to add entries, in addition to Linux, for GRUB. I added the NTFS (Windows) partition and the VFAT (ThinkVantage partition, not the 10 GB I created, cuz that would be silly).

The results are: on boot, the post screen tells you to press the ThinkVantage button and....it does nothing, but once GRUB starts, press the key GRUB tells you to which shows the boot list, and there you have Linux, Windows, and ThinkVantage. I tried it and I can boot into all 3. When you first boot into Windows, you may get a chkdisk (I did), but it should be fine.

A word of warning. Be careful, I've heard some people say GRUB in the MBR while dual booting WinXP can result in false positives from virus software, but I didn't have that issue. Also, be very careful about the resize of the NTFS partition with qtparted. Any change in the placement of the start of the pre-existing partitions, and all bets are off. I'm just saying this because I don't know what might happen if Windows isn't where it wants to be. Also I think the placement of the ThinkVantage utility on the disk is very important from my reading. However, since pressing the ThinkVantage at POST doesn't do anything, I may have screwed that up, but with GRUB pointing at that VFAT, I can still get to the ThinkVantage utilities, so I'm happy.

[[Category:Windows]]

Pre-Installation steps

2007-03-03T19:41:51Z

Voominc: /* Resizing your Windows Partition */

==Rescue and Recovery Media==
Most modern ThinkPads ship with Windows preinstalled on the hard disk only--no recovery disks are included. Instead, Lenovo ThinkVantage software allows you to create a Rescue and Recovery CD-ROM and a Product Recovery DVD-ROM. These will allow you to restore the hard disk to its exact factory installed state. They can also perform other useful system recovery functions.

Even if you have no intention of using Windows, your first action should be to create these disks. Later, you or someone else may want to use Windows again. The recovery disks make it very simple to reinstall Windows, perfectly configured for your ThinkPad. Here's how:

1. Turn on the system and boot Windows.

2. Start the recovery media creation program with ''Start | All Programs | ThinkVantage | Create Recovery Media''.

3. Choose to create ''Recovery Disks''. The other alternative, ''Rescue Media'', creates only the first of the ''Recovery Disks''.

4. Insert a blank CD-ROM as instructed. This will become a bootable Rescue and Recovery disk.

5. Insert one DVD-ROM (or a series of seven CD-ROMs) as instructed. This will become the Product Recovery disk that contains the bulk of the data on the hard disk.

6. Save the disks in a safe place.

When you want to erase everything on the hard disk and restore the system to its factory preinstalled state, boot from the Rescue and Recovery disk, and run ''Restore Your System''.

If you forget to make recovery disks, Lenovo [[Ordering_Recovery_CDs|offers]] shipment of a pack of rescue disks if you call the support hotline. Also, recovery CDs for older ThinkPads are [http://stores.ebay.com/Recovery-CDs-Disks sold on eBay] (you must supply your own Windows disk). However, the only way to get recovery disks that match your system exactly is to make them now.

The copy of Windows that came with your ThinkPad cannot be legally transferred to any other system. Leave the Windows license sticker intact. The resale value of your ThinkPad will be lower without it.

==Resizing your Windows Partition==
Modern Thinkpads ship with a FAT32 rescue partition of about 5GB, and a Windows NTFS partition that consumes the rest of the hard disk. If you want to keep Windows on your system, you will need to shrink the Windows disk partition to make room for Linux. The easy way is to use commercial software like Partition Magic (US$70) or [http://www.partition-manager.com Partition Manager] (US$50).

If you do not want to pay for Partition Magic or Partition Manager, you can use [http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html ntfsresize]. I recommend booting {{Kanotix}} or {{Knoppix}}, getting it online and using the latest version to be found at the ntfsresize link because the CD linuxes tend to come with slightly out-dated versions. Be sure not to forget to resize your Windows partition (e.g. with cfdisk) AFTER having resized ntfs and TAKE CARE not to make the partition smaller than you made the ntfs. If you like it safe and smooth you can also take a look at the program "qtparted" which reportedly takes care of ntfsresize and partition table changing in one go and allows you to adjust partition sizes in a GUI. But I have not tested this software personally.

If you want to retain Rescue and Recovery functionality, do not delete the 5GB rescue partition. You can either move it or leave it in place at the end of the hard disk. A procedure for moving it appears in the next section.

'''Please be carefull before taking the following steps. I suggest that you should create rescue and product recovery CDs (6 CDS will be required) before going for the following so that if anything goes wrong you can go back to the factory setting using those CDs.'''

==Moving the Recovery partition using a Linux rescue system==
On newer models (i.e. the T43) the preinstalled HDD has two partitions; the first one containing the OS and second one having the rescue files used to boot the machine when {{ibmkey|Access IBM|#495988}} button is pressed before Windows XP takes control of the laptop. One can use his Linux distros boot CD (usually the first CD) to boot into rescue mode and shift the rescue partition from the end of the HDD to somewhere in between leaving required space for Windows. This can be done in following steps:

===Creating a temporary rescue partition===
* Run {{cmdroot|fdisk /dev/sda}}.
* Delete the 1st partition ({{path|/dev/sda1}}).
* Create a partion {{path|/dev/sda3}} immediately before the rescue partition ({{path|/dev/sda2}}) with exactly the same number of cylinders as the rescue partition.
* Save the partition table and quit fdisk. Reboot.
{{HINT|To be on the safe side, reboot the machine everytime the partition table is modified and saved using fdisk from linux rescue mode.}}
* rawcopy the contents of {{path|/dev/sda2}} to {{path|/dev/sda3}} with
:{{cmdroot|1=dd if=/dev/sda2 of=/dev/sda3}}

===Creating the rescue partition in its final position===
* Run {{cmdroot|fdisk /dev/sda}}.
* Delete the rescue partiton {{path|/dev/sda2}} (we just backed it up to {{path|/dev/sda3}}).
* Create a partion {{path|/dev/sda2}} immediately after the space you want to leave for Windows. Note that this new partition again should have exactly the same number of cylinders as the rescue partition (now {{path|/dev/sda3}}).
* Save the partition table and quit fdisk. Reboot.
* rawcopy the contents of {{path|/dev/sda3}} to the newly created {{path|/dev/sda2}}:
:{{cmdroot|1=dd if=/dev/sda3 of=/dev/sda2}}
* Run {{cmdroot|fdisk /dev/sda}}.
* Delete the temporary rescue partiton {{path|/dev/sda3}} (we just copied it to {{path|/dev/sda2}})
* Save the partition table and quit fdisk.
* Reboot the machine and press {{ibmkey|Access IBM|#495988}} Button to restore the Windows XP from the rescue partition. Windows XP will occupy only the space available before the new rescue partition.

Once Windows XP is recovered follow the standard mechanism for installing Linux in the available free space at the end of the HDD. If you have created Rescue and Product Recovery CDs, then the Rescue Partition also can be deleted at this stage to make more room for your Linux installation.

= Alternative Method: Dual Booting and retaining ThinkVantage Utility =

Note: T60 2913 with 60 GB drive

The key here is to find a bootable CD version of Linux that has the PartEd package on it (preferrably with qtparted also). I used SystemRescueCd (http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page). I've read people say to defrag Windows, but according to the PartEd website, the PartEd resize command (http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/manual/parted.html#resize) will take care of all that. Now boot with the SystemRescueCd and when you get the prompt, press F2. This will list available images. I used fb1024, because I wanted to use qtparted (graphical, fb1024 is framebuffer at 1024x768 vs fb800 is framebuffer at 800x600, etc), not parted (commandline).

What I saw was a 3 partition device sda. Only touch the NTFS partition (sda1 on mine, should be on yours if it is factory settings). You do not want to move the VFAT at the end of the device nor touch that little section (sda-1) at the beginning. I resized sda1 (NTFS) down to 20 GB, what you should see is the the New Size + the Free Space After = Old Size of sda1. Click the commit under the file menu to write the changes. That's it.

I then rebooted with Fedora Core 5 disk 1 and used Anaconda and its utilities to partition the free space to be a 20 GB mount point "/", a 512 MB swap, and a 10 GB vfat, these could have been done using qtparted, or pretty much any distro's install. The swap and vfat were shown inside a logical partition. I set up GRUB in the MBR and clicked the GRUB advanced setup checkbox. This allowed me to add entries, in addition to Linux, for GRUB. I added the NTFS (Windows) partition and the VFAT (ThinkVantage partition, not the 10 GB I created, cuz that would be silly).

The results are: on boot, the post screen tells you to press the ThinkVantage button and....it does nothing, but once GRUB starts, press the key GRUB tells you to which shows the boot list, and there you have Linux, Windows, and ThinkVantage. I tried it and I can boot into all 3. When you first boot into Windows, you may get a chkdisk (I did), but it should be fine.

A word of warning. Be careful, I've heard some people say GRUB in the MBR while dual booting WinXP can result in false positives from virus software, but I didn't have that issue. Also, be very careful about the resize of the NTFS partition with qtparted. Any change in the placement of the start of the pre-existing partitions, and all bets are off. I'm just saying this because I don't know what might happen if Windows isn't where it wants to be. Also I think the placement of the ThinkVantage utility on the disk is very important from my reading. However, since pressing the ThinkVantage at POST doesn't do anything, I may have screwed that up, but with GRUB pointing at that VFAT, I can still get to the ThinkVantage utilities, so I'm happy.

[[Category:Windows]]

Pre-Installation steps

2007-03-03T19:17:20Z

Voominc: /* Creating Rescue and Recovery Media */

==Rescue and Recovery Media==
Most modern ThinkPads ship with Windows preinstalled on the hard disk only--no recovery disks are included. Instead, Lenovo ThinkVantage software allows you to create a Rescue and Recovery CD-ROM and a Product Recovery DVD-ROM. These will allow you to restore the hard disk to its exact factory installed state. They can also perform other useful system recovery functions.

Even if you have no intention of using Windows, your first action should be to create these disks. Later, you or someone else may want to use Windows again. The recovery disks make it very simple to reinstall Windows, perfectly configured for your ThinkPad. Here's how:

1. Turn on the system and boot Windows.

2. Start the recovery media creation program with ''Start | All Programs | ThinkVantage | Create Recovery Media''.

3. Choose to create ''Recovery Disks''. The other alternative, ''Rescue Media'', creates only the first of the ''Recovery Disks''.

4. Insert a blank CD-ROM as instructed. This will become a bootable Rescue and Recovery disk.

5. Insert one DVD-ROM (or a series of seven CD-ROMs) as instructed. This will become the Product Recovery disk that contains the bulk of the data on the hard disk.

6. Save the disks in a safe place.

When you want to erase everything on the hard disk and restore the system to its factory preinstalled state, boot from the Rescue and Recovery disk, and run ''Restore Your System''.

If you forget to make recovery disks, Lenovo [[Ordering_Recovery_CDs|offers]] shipment of a pack of rescue disks if you call the support hotline. Also, recovery CDs for older ThinkPads are [http://stores.ebay.com/Recovery-CDs-Disks sold on eBay] (you must supply your own Windows disk). However, the only way to get recovery disks that match your system exactly is to make them now.

The copy of Windows that came with your ThinkPad cannot be legally transferred to any other system. Leave the Windows license sticker intact. The resale value of your ThinkPad will be lower without it.

==Resizing your Windows Partition==
If you want to keep your WinXP partition and you do not want to shell out lots of money for PartitionMagic, you can use [http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html ntfsresize]. I recommend booting {{Kanotix}} or {{Knoppix}}, getting it online and using the latest version to be found at the ntfsresize link because the CD linuxes tend to come with slightly out-dated versions. Be sure not to forget to resize your Windows partition (e.g. with cfdisk) AFTER having resized ntfs and TAKE CARE not to make the partition smaller than you made the ntfs. If you like it safe and smooth you can also take a look at the program "qtparted" which reportedly takes care of ntfsresize and partition table changing in one go and allows you to adjust partition sizes in a GUI. But I have not tested this software personally.

'''Please be carefull before taking the following steps. I suggest that you should create rescue and product recovery CDs (6 CDS will be required) before going for the following so that if anything goes wrong you can go back to the factory setting using those CDs.'''

==Moving the Recovery partition using a Linux rescue system==
On newer models (i.e. the T43) the preinstalled HDD has two partitions; the first one containing the OS and second one having the rescue files used to boot the machine when {{ibmkey|Access IBM|#495988}} button is pressed before Windows XP takes control of the laptop. One can use his Linux distros boot CD (usually the first CD) to boot into rescue mode and shift the rescue partition from the end of the HDD to somewhere in between leaving required space for Windows. This can be done in following steps:

===Creating a temporary rescue partition===
* Run {{cmdroot|fdisk /dev/sda}}.
* Delete the 1st partition ({{path|/dev/sda1}}).
* Create a partion {{path|/dev/sda3}} immediately before the rescue partition ({{path|/dev/sda2}}) with exactly the same number of cylinders as the rescue partition.
* Save the partition table and quit fdisk. Reboot.
{{HINT|To be on the safe side, reboot the machine everytime the partition table is modified and saved using fdisk from linux rescue mode.}}
* rawcopy the contents of {{path|/dev/sda2}} to {{path|/dev/sda3}} with
:{{cmdroot|1=dd if=/dev/sda2 of=/dev/sda3}}

===Creating the rescue partition in its final position===
* Run {{cmdroot|fdisk /dev/sda}}.
* Delete the rescue partiton {{path|/dev/sda2}} (we just backed it up to {{path|/dev/sda3}}).
* Create a partion {{path|/dev/sda2}} immediately after the space you want to leave for Windows. Note that this new partition again should have exactly the same number of cylinders as the rescue partition (now {{path|/dev/sda3}}).
* Save the partition table and quit fdisk. Reboot.
* rawcopy the contents of {{path|/dev/sda3}} to the newly created {{path|/dev/sda2}}:
:{{cmdroot|1=dd if=/dev/sda3 of=/dev/sda2}}
* Run {{cmdroot|fdisk /dev/sda}}.
* Delete the temporary rescue partiton {{path|/dev/sda3}} (we just copied it to {{path|/dev/sda2}})
* Save the partition table and quit fdisk.
* Reboot the machine and press {{ibmkey|Access IBM|#495988}} Button to restore the Windows XP from the rescue partition. Windows XP will occupy only the space available before the new rescue partition.

Once Windows XP is recovered follow the standard mechanism for installing Linux in the available free space at the end of the HDD. If you have created Rescue and Product Recovery CDs, then the Rescue Partition also can be deleted at this stage to make more room for your Linux installation.

= Alternative Method: Dual Booting and retaining ThinkVantage Utility =

Note: T60 2913 with 60 GB drive

The key here is to find a bootable CD version of Linux that has the PartEd package on it (preferrably with qtparted also). I used SystemRescueCd (http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page). I've read people say to defrag Windows, but according to the PartEd website, the PartEd resize command (http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/manual/parted.html#resize) will take care of all that. Now boot with the SystemRescueCd and when you get the prompt, press F2. This will list available images. I used fb1024, because I wanted to use qtparted (graphical, fb1024 is framebuffer at 1024x768 vs fb800 is framebuffer at 800x600, etc), not parted (commandline).

What I saw was a 3 partition device sda. Only touch the NTFS partition (sda1 on mine, should be on yours if it is factory settings). You do not want to move the VFAT at the end of the device nor touch that little section (sda-1) at the beginning. I resized sda1 (NTFS) down to 20 GB, what you should see is the the New Size + the Free Space After = Old Size of sda1. Click the commit under the file menu to write the changes. That's it.

I then rebooted with Fedora Core 5 disk 1 and used Anaconda and its utilities to partition the free space to be a 20 GB mount point "/", a 512 MB swap, and a 10 GB vfat, these could have been done using qtparted, or pretty much any distro's install. The swap and vfat were shown inside a logical partition. I set up GRUB in the MBR and clicked the GRUB advanced setup checkbox. This allowed me to add entries, in addition to Linux, for GRUB. I added the NTFS (Windows) partition and the VFAT (ThinkVantage partition, not the 10 GB I created, cuz that would be silly).

The results are: on boot, the post screen tells you to press the ThinkVantage button and....it does nothing, but once GRUB starts, press the key GRUB tells you to which shows the boot list, and there you have Linux, Windows, and ThinkVantage. I tried it and I can boot into all 3. When you first boot into Windows, you may get a chkdisk (I did), but it should be fine.

A word of warning. Be careful, I've heard some people say GRUB in the MBR while dual booting WinXP can result in false positives from virus software, but I didn't have that issue. Also, be very careful about the resize of the NTFS partition with qtparted. Any change in the placement of the start of the pre-existing partitions, and all bets are off. I'm just saying this because I don't know what might happen if Windows isn't where it wants to be. Also I think the placement of the ThinkVantage utility on the disk is very important from my reading. However, since pressing the ThinkVantage at POST doesn't do anything, I may have screwed that up, but with GRUB pointing at that VFAT, I can still get to the ThinkVantage utilities, so I'm happy.

[[Category:Windows]]

Rescue and Recovery

2007-02-25T19:36:03Z

Voominc: /* Using the Windows Bootloader to Boot Linux */

Rescue and Recovery

2007-02-25T19:32:52Z

Voominc: /* Using the Windows Bootloader to Boot Linux */

Rescue and Recovery

2007-02-25T00:59:26Z

Voominc: /* Using the Windows Bootloader to Boot Linux */

Rescue and Recovery

2007-02-25T00:51:43Z

Voominc: /* Using the Windows Bootloader to Boot Linux */