Libreboot documentation: Unbricking the ThinkPad X60 Tablet

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## Table of Contents

- Types of brick:
  - Brick type 1: bucts not reset
  - Brick type 2: bad rom (or user error), machine won't boot

# Brick type 1: bucts not reset.

You still have Lenovo BIOS, or you had libreboot running and you flashed another ROM; and you had bucts 1 set and the ROM wasn't dd'd.* or if Lenovo BIOS was present and libreboot wasn't flashed.
In this case, unbricking is easy: reset BUC.TS to 0 by removing that yellow cmos coin (it's a battery) and putting it back after a minute or two:
*Those dd commands should be applied to all newly compiled X60 ROM images (the ROM images in libreboot binary archives already have this applied!):
dd if=coreboot.rom of=top64k.bin bs=1 skip=$[$(stat -c %s coreboot.rom) - 0x10000] count=64k
dd if=coreboot.rom bs=1 skip=$[$(stat -c %s coreboot.rom) - 0x20000] count=64k | hexdump
dd if=top64k.bin of=coreboot.rom bs=1 seek=$[$(stat -c %s coreboot.rom) - 0x20000] count=64k conv=notrunc
(doing this makes the ROM suitable for use when flashing a machine that still has Lenovo BIOS running, using those instructions: http://www.coreboot.org/Board:lenovo/x60/Installation.

# bad rom (or user error), machine won't boot

In this scenario, you compiled a ROM that had an incorrect configuration, or there is an actual bug preventing your machine from booting. Or, maybe, you set BUC.TS to 0 and shut down after first flash while Lenovo BIOS was running. In any case, your machine is bricked and will not boot at all.

"Unbricking" means flashing a known-good (working) ROM. The problem: you can't boot the machine, making this difficult. In this situation, external hardware (see hardware requirements above) is needed which can flash the SPI chip (where libreboot resides).

Remove those screws:

Remove the HDD:

Push keyboard forward to loosen it:

Lift:

Remove those:

Also remove that (marked) and unroute the antenna cables:

For some X60T laptops, you have to unroute those too:

Remove the LCD extend board screws. Also remove those screws (see blue marks) and remove/unroute the cables and remove the metal plate:

Remove that screw and then remove the board:

Now wire up the BBB and the Pomona with your PSU.
Refer to bbb_setup.html for how to setup the BBB for flashing.
Note, the guide mentions a 3.3v DC PSU but you don't need this on the X60 Tablet: if you don't have or don't want to use an external PSU, then make sure not to connect the red/black 3.3v leads mentioned in the guide; instead, connect the AC adapter (the one that normally charges your battery) so that the board has power (but don't boot it up)
Correlate the following with the BBB guide linked above:

    POMONA 5250:
    ===  golden finger and wifi switch ====
     18              -       - 1
     22              -       - NC                    ---------- audio jacks are on this end
     NC              -       - 21
     3.3V PSU RED    -       - 17 - this is pin 1 on the flash chip
    ===  CPU fan ===
    This is how you will connect. Numbers refer to pin numbers on the BBB, on the plugs near the DC jack.

Connecting the BBB and pomona (in this image, an external 3.3v DC PSU was used):

SSH'd into the BBB:
# ./flashrom -p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidev1.0,spispeed=512 -w yourrom.rom

It should be Verifying flash... VERIFIED at the end. If flashrom complains about multiple flash chip definitions detected, then choose one of them following the instructions in the output.

Reverse the steps to re-assemble your machine.

Copyright © 2014 Francis Rowe <info@gluglug.org.uk>
This document is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License and all future versions. A copy of the license can be found at ../license.txt.

This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See ../license.txt for more information.