Lenovo BIOS boot fix

[Kevin Oberman]

On Mon, Jul 13, 2015 at 12:52 PM, Allan Jude <allanjude at freebsd.org> wrote:

> On 2015-07-13 15:45, Warren Block wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 13 Jul 2015, Allan Jude wrote:
>>
>>  On 2015-07-13 14:08, Warren Block wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Mon, 13 Jul 2015, Allan Jude wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  On 2015-07-13 11:19, Warren Block wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Needing the active flag set is indeed a different problem. I am
>>>>>>> working
>>>>>>> on a patch for bsdinstall that will allow the user to request the
>>>>>>> active
>>>>>>> bit be set as well.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> For GPT, that should be the default, because it matches the standard.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I would like to see an effort to get Lenovo to fix their broken
>>>>>> UEFI/BIOS.  Adding non-standard PMBR configurations should be
>>>>>> short-term
>>>>>> hack.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Lenovo has fixed the issue in newer models, x230, t530, t540 etc work
>>>>> fine.
>>>>>
>>>>> Just the x220, t420, and t520 etc series do not.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The latest BIOS update for the x220 was less than two months ago, so it
>>>> is still supported.  That they've fixed the problem in other models
>>>> shows they understand the issue.  So owners of those models should be
>>>> bugging Lenovo, so to speak.
>>>>
>>>> Long-term, it seems like they as a company would be concerned that
>>>> special bug fixes naming their specific models are needed.
>>>>
>>>> Short-term, we probably can't avoid this.  It would be nice to be able
>>>> to remove a Lenovo-specific hack from gpart in the future with a commit
>>>> that says "Fixed by Lenovo BIOS update #123, no longer needed".
>>>>
>>>
>>> I tried the latest bios update for the X220, from 2015-05-27
>>>
>>> It does not resolve the issue.
>>>
>>> Also, it required some hoop jumping, as they only provide a bootable
>>> cd (x220s do not have CD drives) and a windows program.
>>>
>>> However, if others are interested, this handy perl script:
>>> http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~krienke/ftp/noarch/geteltorito/
>>>
>>> can be used to extract the el torito image from that .iso to a file,
>>> that can then be dd'd to a USB stick and update the bios.
>>>
>>
>> Sorry, I did not mean to imply that the latest X220 BIOS fixed the
>> problem, just that they were continuing to release BIOS updates for it
>> and could not disown responsibility by saying the system was no longer
>> supported.
>>
>
> Right. I was not aware they were still publishing BIOSs, so I was hopeful
> it was fixed, and was disappointed after jumping through the hoops to get
> the update without installing windows on my machine, or somehow connecting
> a CD drive to it.
>
> Anyway, yes, hopefully Lenovo will fix this someday.
>
> --
> Allan Jude


This is possibly orthogonal and possibly not of use on X2nn systems, but I
boot my T520 with a GPT formatted disk as the secondary drive by having the
MBR disk0 configured with booteasy and telling it to boot disk1. While this
is of no use on single spindle systems like the X220, I have been told that
a MBR USB drive can be used to do the same thing. I have not tried this and
can't confirm, though. Clearly a kludge work-around, but better than
nothing and works well for me as I have always left Windows on the main
drive and put FreeBSD on the removable one.
--
Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer, Retired
E-mail: rkoberman at gmail.com
PGP Fingerprint: D03FB98AFA78E3B78C1694B318AB39EF1B055683