matrix debian gnu/linux

Skulls scripts - how to make the seabios_free version bootsplash showing and adding secondary payloads

2020-11-15T13:38:00.001+01:00

I was playing with the skulls scripts for the seabios_free to rebuild the coreboot image for the thinkpad x230, considering that, as reported on their github, it:

"includes the VGA BIOS SeaVGABIOS which is free software. While technically more interesting, visually this is currently not as beautiful:

The bootspash image is not shown."

The solution that I have fund is not perfect as the supported resolution by libgfxinit is limited to 1024x768, so the image is shrunk, however it does show and it works fine for me. I have replied then on this thread /issues/59

What we have to change to fix it is not the .config file present in the /x230 folder but the free-defconfig-8053595370 file to set the correct resolution to the libgfxinit adding the following:

CONFIG_LINEAR_FRAMEBUFFER_MAX_WIDTH=1024
CONFIG_LINEAR_FRAMEBUFFER_MAX_HEIGHT=768

Once done we still need to add the bootsplash image as per the seabios coreboot instructions

However I think that adding on the script something like
CONFIG_BOOTSPLASH_IMAGE=y
will make the default image to be built into the rom (but I didn't try it yet).

In any case, once you have done that you can continue personalizing... adding for example a time for the menu time wait or changing the bootsplash image, like I explain in this other article

If you are planning to personalize with a colored image your bootsplash, I would suggest to have a look into this issue

Also I have added on my github some images based on the "exploded" wallpapers (supported models are so far x220, x230, t430 and t400) ready to be used with those settings

Also modifying that file we can get built in our new rom all the secondary payloads not included in the default replacing the last 2 lines of the

CONFIG_COREINFO_SECONDARY_PAYLOAD=y
CONFIG_MEMTEST_SECONDARY_PAYLOAD=y
CONFIG_NVRAMCUI_SECONDARY_PAYLOAD=y
CONFIG_TINT_SECONDARY_PAYLOAD=y
CONFIG_MEMTEST_STABLE=y

As usual I add a video showing how it works on my x230

Coreboot on x230 - How to change the Skulls bootspash image

2020-11-08T18:58:00.001+01:00

I assume that skulls is already installed on your x230 and you are happy with it :) however you would like to change the bootsplash image..

It seems to be simple... however it can be "tricky".. or at least it was for me..

That's because the "usable" image created by the skulls script is the "top" one only.

the coreboot instructions to flash with a layout file with didn't work for me

0x00000000:0x007fffff ifdmegbe
0x00800000:0x00bfffff bios

I get this error:

Proceeding anyway because user forced us to.
Found chipset "Intel QM77".
Enabling flash write... Warning: SPI Configuration Lockdown activated.
Enabling hardware sequencing due to multiple flash chips detected.
OK.
Found Programmer flash chip "Opaque flash chip" (12288 kB, Programmer-specific) mapped at physical address 0x0000000000000000.
Error: Image size (4194304 B) doesn't match the flash chip's size (12582912 B)!

So I thought it could be a good idea to flash from internal the full image at 12 mb.

Using the Skulls scripts to reproduce the image, I found out that only the 4mb top rom was properly generated, as the full 12mb in /build/ folder had no valid parameters, maybe has the intel descriptor missing.
So if you flash that one you will brick! To be sure of that, I have flashed and then bricked.. ;)

So I thought about this workaround.

To proceed it is necessary to get the full image of your skulls installed. The command that worked for me was:

sudo flashrom -p internal:laptop=force_I_want_a_brick -r skulls.rom

Now you will be able to see on your /home the skulls.rom 12mb image.

From this image what we need is the bottom rom so we can take with:

dd if=skulls.rom of=skullsbottom.rom bs=1M count=8

and your skullsbottom.rom 8 mb will be created on your /home folder

Now we need to clone the skulls repo on github

git clone https://github.com/merge/skulls

cd skulls/x230

We are now in the skulls directory, however before to proceed we need to get the necessary software, so install docker

sudo apt install docker.io

Now replace the bootsplash in /skulls/x230 with a different one. I have created my new JPEG with Gimp using

    "Progressive" turned off, and
    "4:2:0 (chroma quartered)" Subsampling

If all it is done, it is now time to build, so type:

./build.sh

and we need to choose "nonfree" configuration.. otherwise we won't get any bootspash

you will see that the scripts will generate a 4mb image in the /skulls folder, so now rename it in skullstop.rom and move it into your /home

At this point we will have a "bottom" rom previously retrieved and a brand new "top" rom and we need to merge them in a complete image of 12 mb

cat skullsbottom.rom skullstop.rom > X230skulls.rom

We are now ready to flash the 12 mb image from internal:

sudo flashrom -p internal:laptop=force_I_want_a_brick -w X230skulls.rom --ifd --image bios -V

or

sudo flashrom -p internal:laptop=force_I_want_a_brick -w X230skulls.rom -V

Done! now your coreboot skulls has a new bootsplash image!

you can check and test that it is "really" the same skulls on going on /skulls/x230 and running

./x230_skulls.sh -U

you will get the following msg "You are using the latest version of Skulls for the X230"

Enjoy

Special thanks to skulls and to coreboot. For futher info visit
https://www.coreboot.org/Board:lenovo/x230
https://github.com/merge/skulls/blob/master/x230/README.md

As usual a simple video showing some details of the process described above

Coreboot Skulls Seabios how to change the boot-menu-wait time

2020-11-01T14:08:00.001+01:00

For the purpose of this guide I assume you have flashed already your Thinkpad x230 with Coreboot skulls.

How you already know to do so you have flashed externally the top and (eventually) the botton rom separately using an external hardware and the skull scripts.

To set a different duration of the boot menu, we need to edit the CBFS etc/ directory and set a different waiting time which the Seabios default is 2,5 seconds.

To do so we need to retrieve the full image of your current bios (the 12mb skulls rom) and we can do reading the chip from internal.

As usual when performing actions on the bios you need to have linux installed and to have booted your distro with iomem=relaxed option in your grub configuration and having flashrom installed.

You can run

sudo flashrom -p internal:laptop=force_I_want_a_brick -r skulls.rom

as you can see the -r option will read your bios.. wait until the process ends.. it will retrieve the current image of your bios (which we have named skulls.rom) in 1 single 12mb image in your /home folder

Now we need a program called cbfstool which is contained in the coreboot and libreboot utilities.

if you don't want to download all the repository you can simply download from my github here

https://github.com/m4rc0linux/x230-coreboot

Once you have downloaded put it on your /home folder and..

if you wish to extend the time wait menu to 5 seconds run the following command

./cbfstool skulls.rom add-int -i 5000 -n etc/boot-menu-wait

if instead you wish to decrease to 1 second only type

./cbfstool skulls.rom add-int -i 1000 -n etc/boot-menu-wait

Now you need to flash back your modified skulls rom. Form me has worked:

sudo flashrom -p internal:laptop=force_I_want_a_brick -w m4rc0x230.rom --ifd --image bios -V --ifd --image bios -V

but also alternatively

sudo flashrom -p internal:laptop=force_I_want_a_brick -w m4rc0x230.rom -V

Enjoy your new settings!

Please don't forget to have look to the amazing skulls project https://github.com/merge/skulls and to the official coreboot seabios guide for further details https://www.coreboot.org/SeaBIOS

Here you can see my x230 with skulls booting Trisquel 9 and Windows 10 (where I have set the wait time to 1 sec)

A simple guide to build a static no modular and minimalist kernel - tested on Trisquel 9.0 "Etiona"

2020-11-01T12:19:00.000+01:00

Get the necessary software and kernel the sources

sudo apt-get build-dep linux linux-image-$(uname -r)

sudo apt-get install libncurses-dev flex bison openssl libssl-dev dkms libelf-dev libudev-dev libpci-dev libiberty-dev autoconf

apt-get source linux-image-$(uname -r)

*optional - also install lzop if you want to build a kernel compressed in lzo - sudo apt install lzop

Once done, to create a static no modular and minimalist kernel enter into the source directory and then run

make localmodconfig

this will load only the necessary modules to your system excluding any further hardware.

Now what you need to do to make it static is to change some settings in the config file

run

make menuconfig

at this point you need to find and chenge the following options inside your kernel configuration:

On General setup:

*Optional - kernel compression mode - select lzo and add a name in "local version" and "signature"

*Optional Support for paging of anonymous memory (swap) - I have disabled as I don't use any swap

Initial RAM filesystem and RAM disk (initramfs/initrd) support - needs to be disabled, this is necesary to build it static so we don't use any initramfs/initrd at the system boot

Now get out of the "General Setup" and go back on the first menu

The option right after is "Enable loadable module support" - this needs to be disabled (we won't load any modules as we build it static)

*Optional - on Processor type and features- Processor family - select your type (if 2duo, i3,i5,i7 just select Core 2/newer Xeon)

*Optional - on kernel Hacking - Compile-time checks and compiler options - untick Compile the kernel with debug info (if ticked it can increase the size of the new kernel)

*Optional - on Device Drivers - Graphics support tick the Bootup logo if you wish to see penguins at the boot up (I do)

All done!

Now exit saving the configuration and lest start compiling

On my thinkpad t400 I did:

make -j3 deb-pkg

The recompilation takes a while and at the end you will get all the necessary packages to install the new kernel

Install the kernel image, headers and the firmware debs using gdebi or sudo dpkg -i "name .deb"

Reboot your system, you will see that no initramfs will be prompted by grub and you will start the kernel without loading the modules.
Enjoy the penguins! the number of penguin will depend on the number of your CPUs

Ps: don't delete the original kernel it can be useful!!
For example if adding a usb drive you see that it doesn't work.. keep in mind you are on a static kernel so you cannot load any module, if you wish to use it.. just boot the previous kernel!

See here the final results on my t400 and my x220

A simple guide to remaster the latest Trisquel 9 iso image

2020-10-31T16:02:00.003+01:00

The new Trisquel 9 distro is out and I really think it is great, I have used the "mini" version which supports the fast and light lxde desktop and for this reason is my favorite flavor.
At first view you can see that there is some necessary software missing (Firefox-Abrowser for example) and it can be annoying if you wish to make multi functional installations.
Therefore there are many programs that allow to remaster a distro or create a live iso of your running system..
However I never liked them.. sometimes I fund issues with the size of the iso created (usually too big) and I never trusted 100% its functionality installing it on different PCs

I found out there is a way to "remaster" the original iso manually and including the missing software or making further personalizations.
In this case the result will be 100% clean and it will work like the original iso but with the benefit of your own personalizations.

As Trisquel is based on Ubuntu, the same process documented here will apply: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomization

This guide is just to recap the process I follow based on my own needs in the easiest possible way.. so let's proceed...

Download it from the official website and then place it on your /home folder renaming it in simply trisquel.iso.
Get the necessary software to modify it with a simple sudo apt install squashfs-tools genisoimage resolvconf

From a new terminal complete the following steps:

mkdir ~/live

cd ~/live

mkdir extract-cd mnt

sudo mount -o loop ~/trisquel.iso mnt

sudo rsync --exclude=/casper/filesystem.squashfs -a mnt/ extract-cd

sudo unsquashfs mnt/casper/filesystem.squashfs

sudo mv squashfs-root edit

sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf edit/etc/

sudo mount --bind /dev/ edit/dev

sudo chroot edit

mount -t proc none /proc && mount -t sysfs none /sys && mount -t devpts none /dev/pts

export HOME=/root && export LC_ALL=C

cd /etc/skel

mkdir Desktop Documents Downloads Music Pictures Public Templates Videos

cd /

At this point you can add all the software you want.

On mine I have done:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

and then:

sudo apt install libftdi1 libftdi-dev libusb-dev libpci-dev subversion pciutils usbutils git build-essential gnat flex bison libncurses5-dev wget zlib1g-dev flashrom
sudo apt install soundconverter squashfs-tools genisoimage resolvconf vlc pitivi libreoffice firefox gdebi wget git curl rsync gimp jami cheese kazam speedtest-cli screenfetch gparted network-manager-openvpn-gnome flashrom
sudo apt install blueman kodi kodi-pvr-iptvsimple lzop gnome-themes-extra xfce4-power-manager pavucontrol
sudo apt install libncurses-dev flex bison openssl libssl-dev dkms libelf-dev libudev-dev libpci-dev libiberty-dev autoconf build-essential libncurses5-dev fakeroot

wich is basically all I need for 1) recompiling,2) music/videos 3)office programs 4)internet stuff

then I have customized the fstab file to have the options "discard" and "noatime" by default running:
nano /lib/partman/fstab.d/ext3

On that file find the lines:

options="errors=remount-ro"

else

options="${options},errors=remount-ro" add (without the quotes) “noatime,nodiratime,” right before errors.

Change it in

options="discard,noatime,errors=remount-ro"

else

options="${options},discard,noatime,errors=remount-ro"

save che changes and exit

Now we need to correctly exit the chroot enviroment:

apt-get clean

apt-get autoremove

rm -rf /tmp/* ~/.bash_history

umount /proc

umount /sys

umount /dev/pts

exit

sudo umount edit/dev

sudo umount mnt

Now we are ready to build the iso of trisquel running from a terminal on your /live folder (previously set):

sudo mksquashfs edit extract-cd/casper/filesystem.squashfs

cd extract-cd

sudo rm md5sum.txt

find -type f -print0 | sudo xargs -0 md5sum | grep -v isolinux/boot.cat | sudo tee md5sum.txt

cd ..

sudo mkisofs -r -V "tr1sq3lm4rc0" -cache-inodes -J -l -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o ../tr1sq3lm4rc0.iso extract-cd

cd ..

sudo chmod 777 tr1sq3lm4rc0.iso

At this point you will find the new tr1sq3lm4rc0.iso on your /home folder which in the example above is 1,5 GB, fair enough!

Now simply flash it on a cd/dvd or usb drive (using dd or any other program to do so) and to install it like the normal iso on any compatible pc.

You can also resume your building project or update after a while entering back on that folder and on a terminal:

cd ~/live

sudo mount --bind /dev/ edit/dev

sudo chroot edit

mount -t proc none /proc && mount -t sysfs none /sys && mount -t devpts none /dev/pts

now you can update/upgrade your built or add/remove software

at the end just repeat the steps for exiting on the chroot enviroment and once done then delete the previous built filesystem.squashfs with:

sudo rm ~/live/extract-cd/casper/filesystem.squashfs

You are now ready to build your iso with all the changes and upgrades again simply repeating the steps for building the iso.

For more details and more personalizations options please visit https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomization

Coreboot with Seabios and VGA on ThinkPad T400

2020-10-31T11:28:00.000+01:00

I have a beautiful t400 running libreboot and still working amazing, however... I needed to boot windows 10 on it ;(

I come across some guides on internet to recompile coreboot for this or similar models however the instructions didn't work if you aim to run windows on it.

Obviously re-flashing the stock bios is not a "reasonable" option for me.. and I couldn't find any alternative "ready to go".. so I decided to recompile coreboot and making it capable to boot windows 10 on my t400.

From this personal small "project" I got the benefit to be able to boot any other linux distro and any bsd (I have tried freebsd only so far) without any complicated settings to add on the grub configuration. Also, it doesn't include any Intel ME (the same as libreboot) which is a backdoor (https://www.theregister.com/2017/11/20/intel_flags_firmware_flaws/) and I feel like that coreboot and seabios are immune to the recent grub security issues (not sure if they can be considered a "real" security issue and if they can affect libreboot - make your own research.. it is called GRUB2 BootHole Vulnerability)

My coreboot image uses seabios, libgfxinit, and the VGA rom for the intel graphic card and no secondary payloads are included.

The details have been published on my github together with the rom image and the utilities, including the.config file, that you can use to build your own version according to your needs

https://github.com/m4rc0linux/coreboot-t400-thinkpad

If you are already running libreboot or coreboot it is easy to install my version flashing from internal (assuming that your bios in unlocked) simply following those simple steps:

1) install flashrom on your linux distro (in debian: sudo apt install flashrom) and add iomem=relaxed on your /etc/default/grub - if you are running Trisquel go straight to the step 3.

2) run sudo update-grub and reboot your system

3) download the rom image from the github above and put in your home folder

4) open a terminal and run sudo flashrom -p internal to see your chip name and the size - which is usually MX25L6405D on this model and it is a 8 mb size

5) if it is all good as above you can proceed with flashing your system running:

sudo flashrom -p internal -c MX25L6405D -w m4rc0linuxt400coreboot.rom -V

In both cases just wait the process to end and to get something
like a "VERIFIED" message like the below:

Erase/write done.
Verifying flash... VERIFIED.
Restoring MMIO space at 0x7fb7b14638a0
Restoring MMIO space at 0x7fb7b146389c
Restoring MMIO space at 0x7fb7b1463898
Restoring MMIO space at 0x7fb7b1463896
Restoring MMIO space at 0x7fb7b1463894

If you stop the system or you end the process while the flashing is still pending you will brick the device, and you will need an external flash hardware to fix it. If something goes wrong during the flashing process you will get a black screen when rebooting which means that you probably bricked your device and you will need to completely disassemble it and flash from external.
I have tested it a bit and tried several times on different t400 models and it seems to work correctly.

If all went ok, you will get the "rabbit" logo of coreboot displaying on your reboot.

Final result is visible on this video.

To see the full details about the coreboot and libreboot projects please visit the official websites

https://libreboot.org/

https://coreboot.org/

2020-10-15T14:43:00.002+02:00

I have added other 2 repos on my github. Again focus on coreboot and including specific roms for the x230 and the t430 models.

For the x230 my exigence was too get out of the skulls roms building something more personalized.

For the t430 it was a new challenge, and as I couldn't find on internet any specific or ready to go configuration, I hope it could help in future projects focus on automatizing the process of flashing custom bios.

All the details on my github

https://github.com/m4rc0linux

2020-10-15T14:38:00.003+02:00

I couldn't find any specific coreboot instructions for the thinkpad t400. Then I got the idea to create a rom including the vga to be able to boot windows or any linux or bsd. I have also included the config file. It's all posted on my github.

https://github.com/m4rc0linux

2020-06-07T14:58:00.000+02:00

I have just posted my x220 coreboot rom and the config files on my new github

https://github.com/m4rc0linux