Rewrote the T480 thunderbolt flashing instructions
Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe <info@minifree.org>master
Leah Rowe
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19fab47201
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bf443e2e4d
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@ -177,57 +177,173 @@ Thunderbolt issue (READ THIS BEFORE FLASHING)
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The thunderbolt firmware on launch units had a bug where certain debug
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info is written on certain events, such as plugging in a charger to the USB-C
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connector. This logging is stored in the Thunderbolt firmware's own SPI flash,
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connector. Log data is stored in the Thunderbolt firmware's own SPI flash,
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which is separate from the main SPI flash containing the system firmware
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e.g. coreboot.
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If that flash gets full, thunderbolt (on factory firmware) stops working and
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fast charging stops working. It can be prevented by updating the Thunderbolt
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firmware. You can do this from Lenovo's firmware, using these instructions:
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This photo shows that flash chip on a ThinkPad T480:
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<img tabindex=1 alt="ThinkPad T480 NOR flash (thunderbolt firmware)" class="p" src="https://av.libreboot.org/t480/t480tbspi.jpg" /><span class="f"><img src="https://av.libreboot.org/t480/t480tbspi.jpg" /></span>
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It's also present on the T480S (S model), but in a different location; on
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the S model, the main system flash is still located somewhere near the
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centre of the board, and the ThunderBolt flash near the edge of the board, as
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it is on the T480, but the T480/T480s use slightly different wiring and they
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have a slightly different board layout.
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If that flash gets full, thunderbolt PCI-E stops working and fast charging
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stops working, but slow charging still works. The issue can be prevented by
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updating the firmware. See:
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<https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/gb/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-t-series-laptops/thinkpad-t480s-type-20l7-20l8/solutions/ht508988-critical-intel-thunderbolt-software-and-firmware-updates-thinkpad>
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If you're already affected by the bug, you can restore it to a working state
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by flashing the Thunderbolt firmware externally. For example this is where its
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NOR flash is on a T480:
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by flashing the Thunderbolt firmware externally. You *cannot* fix the issue
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with Lenovo's software-based flasher, if the issue is already present, so
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you *must* flash externally in that case; you can also flash externally, even
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if the issue is not yet present.
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<img tabindex=1 alt="ThinkPad T480 NOR flash (thunderbolt firmware)" class="p" src="https://av.libreboot.org/t480/t480tbspi.jpg" /><span class="f"><img src="https://av.libreboot.org/t480/t480tbspi.jpg" /></span>
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This page shows how to do that:
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<https://gitlab.com/MobileAZN/lenovo-t480-thunderbolt-firmware-fixes>\
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**WARNING! Please follow the guide PRECISELY, if you follow it, but please
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only follow it if your ThunderBolt is already broken. If it isn't, use
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Lenovo's software-based updater. If you do the external method, you MUST be
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very careful; the guide there for example says to disable ThunderBolt assist.
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It also says to erase first, then flash the `null.bin` (file with zeroes in
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it), then BOOT, and when it boots, power off and re-connect clip again and
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then flash the padded TBT.bin - whereas, for example, if you simply flashed
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a padded TBT.bin and nothing else first, and boot, it will be perma-bricked,
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in that the CPU won't come out of reset (it'll bootloop). We don't yet know
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how to recover from this brick scenario. So all of this is to say: flashing
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the ThunderBolt externally is EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS, and should be done with
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the UTMOST CARE, ideally NOT AT ALL. -- ALSO: the guide only covers T480,
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but should be similar on T480s and other ThinkPad models.**
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You unbrick the Thunderbolt controller by pulling the firmware from Lenovo's
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update, from Lenovo's update utility. Once extracted, you then pad it properly
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so that it can be flashed manually, using a normal SPI flasher (the same one
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that you would use to flash Libreboot).
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The benefit of flashing it *externally* is that you would then no longer need
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to boot Windows, because there is currently no way of doing it from Linux, and
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Lenovo does not provide a *boot image* like they do for UEFI updates. So, to
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use Lenovo's software-based flasher, you must install and boot Windows. We
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always recommend using Free Software whenever possible, *so we always recommend
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flashing the new firmware externally, as a matter of course.*
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Use the [25XX NOR flashing guide](spi.md) if you need to flash this chip. It's
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the same guide that you will use for the main system flash, which is a separate
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flash IC.
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AGAIN: This is not the Libreboot flash IC. This is separate to the system flash.
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Read on to know how to reprogram the main system flash!
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The firmware can be extracted from Lenovo's updater, specifically the `.exe`
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file. For your convenience, lbmk (Libreboot's build system) can download this
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for you. Run the following commands in lbmk:
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**AGAIN: It is extremely easy to permanently brick the ThunderBolt controller,
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rendering your system completely unbootable, if you use the external recovery
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method. If you're still able to fix it with a software-based flasher like the
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one Lenovo provides, please use that at all - or simply don't fix it at all,
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because the machine will at least still charge while it has the ThunderBolt
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issue, where older firmware is used.**
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(please install [build dependencies](../build/) first)
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Commands:
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./mk -d coreboot t480s_vfsp_16mb
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./mk -d coreboot t480_vfsp_16mb
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You will find the files at these locations in lbmk:
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* `vendorfiles/t480/tb.bin`
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* `vendorfiles/t480s/tb.bin`
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These have already been padded, to the correct size of 1MB, whereas the original
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size (within the `.exe` file) was 256KB.
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These files are *also* generated, if you used the `./mk inject` command,
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on a pre-compiled release image, as documented [here](ivy_has_common.md).
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**WARNING: DO NOT FLASH IT FIRST; YOU MUST PERFORM SOME PRE-REQUISITE STEPS
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FIRST, BEFORE FLASHING `tb.bin`**:
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**Firstly, please note that this procedure has *only* been tested with Lenovo's
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UEFI firmware installed on the main flash. Please ensure that you have also
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switched Lenovo UEFI/EC firmware to the specific version referenced on this
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page, for your board.** - for the rest of this, we will assume that you've not
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yet flashed Libreboot, though there's no reason in principle why this can't
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also work *after* you've flashed Libreboot; it's just that we only tested it
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from Lenovo UEFI firmware.
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Now, *remove* the CR2032 battery (yellow coin-cell battery). Please also ensure
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that you've disabled *ThunderBolt Assist* in the Lenovo UEFI setup menu. You
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should also disable the internal battery, on T480 specifically (T480s only has
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an internal battery). You should do this with no batteries connected anyway.
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Firstly, make *two dumps* of the flash, using [flashprog](spi.md) - and the
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linked guide generally tells you how to dump/flash the chip. Make sure both
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dumps have the same checksum, using e.g. `sha512sum`.
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Now, *erase* the flash. This example command is when using a Raspberry Pi Pico,
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assuming that the device shows up as `/dev/ttyACM0` - please adapt accordingly
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to whatever programmer you have:
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flashprog -p serprog:dev=/dev/ttyACM0 -E
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Note that the `-E` argument is what specifies that the chip should be *erased*.
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Now, you must create a file called `null.bin`, which contains all zeroes:
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dd if=/dev/zero of=null.bin bs=1M count=1
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Please ensure (in hexdump) that the file does contain all zeroes, and that it
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is 1MB in size. You will now flash it, again adapting the command below to
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whatever programmer you have:
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flashprog -p serprog:dev=/dev/ttyACM0 -w null.bin
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**NOW, REMOVE the clip. Button it back up and turn the T480 on, with both
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the battery and the charger connected, plugging in the battery first.**
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It *should* boot up and show the Lenovo boot screen. Give it a few moments.
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When you've confirmed that it has booted the Lenovo firmware, *shut down* the
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machine and remove the battery / power supply again. It *may take a while* to
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boot Lenovo's firmware when doing this, so please be very patient.
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After you've confirmed that the machine boots, I say again: make sure to shut
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it down fully, removing all batteries and power supplies.
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It is at this moment that you will externally flash the `tb.bin` file. Please
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make sure to flash the correct one for your board:
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* T480: `vendorfiles/t480/tb.bin`
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* T480s: `vendorfiles/t480s/tb.bin`
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Libreboot's automated build system has a lot more dependencies. If you want to
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avoid installing them, and extract the file manually, you can. Simply download
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the `.exe` file and do this:
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innoextract filename.exe
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The `innoextract` utility will probably be available in your distro's package
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manager. You can otherwise find it here:\
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<https://constexpr.org/innoextract/> - credit goes to Daniel Scharrer for
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writing this excellent software.
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A directory will be created with the extracted files. Inside it, you will
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find a file named `TBT.bin`. You can pad it like so:
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dd if=/dev/null of=TBT.bin bs=1 seek=1048576
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Note that the `seek` variable here matching 1MB flash size. If you encounter
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a different flash size, adapt accordingly (the same applies when creating
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the `null.bin` file). Libreboot's build system makes this size configurable
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per board, on the theory that we may encounter other flash sizes in the future,
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when we add more ThinkPads of this generation to Libreboot.
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Ok, so you have the file. Now you can flash it.
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Example:
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flashprog -p serprog:dev=/dev/ttyACM0 -w tb.bin
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Adapt `tb.bin` in the command above, to the actual one that you wish to flash.
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You *MUST* do it in the exact order as prescribed above. After flashing
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the `tb.bin` image, un-clip and simply re-assemble. After you boot up, it should
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once again show the boot screen, and USB-C / ThunderBolt will work perfectly.
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You can repeat the above steps to restore the old firmware version. This is why
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you were instructed to make a backup, on the off-chance that you may wish to do
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so for some reason in the future.
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Troubleshooting:
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If you accidentally flashed an incorrect firmware image, or you didn't properly
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erase and boot first before flashing the new image, you can simply repeat the
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steps again; on erase/null, you then boot up and *wait* and it'll eventually
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show the boot screen again. If it doesn't work, just keep doing it until it does.
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Credits go
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to [Adam McNutt](https://gitlab.com/MobileAZN/lenovo-t480-thunderbolt-firmware-fixes)
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who originally provided such instructions, for the ThinkPad T480. The information
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there was adapted for *this* guide, in the Libreboot documentation. Libreboot
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may very well support other ThinkPads from the same generation, in a future
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release after Libreboot 20241206, and many of those have this same issue; when
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it does, Libreboot will document this fix for those machines too, and probably
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move these instructions to a dedicated page on the website.
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Flash a ROM image (software)
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-----------------------
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