< Libreboot

Note: This guide will be merged with the official Libreboot documentation. Please update your links.

The ThinkPad X60, X60T, and X60s.

The ThinkPad X60 is the first Libreboot laptop, and the only laptop series where every motherboard is guaranteed to work with Libreboot (no ATI GPUs, all LCDs work out of the box, etc.).

Dec 03, 2018 It shows the total power usage by the system and by the individual components of the system listed in different categories: devices, processes, system timer, kernel works and interrupts. Understanding PowerTop Options and Usage. To set all the tunabale options to the best settings without the interactive mode, use the -auto-tune option.

Briefing[edit]

All ThinkPad X60/X60s/X60 Tablet motherboards support Libreboot, since none of them have an ATI GPU.
The ThinkPad X60 series supports software BIOS flashing.
- No hardware flashing is necessary, unless you accidentally brick the BIOS.
You must install GNU/Linux before installing Libreboot. Here's a list of FSF-approved distros.
In order to use an FSF-approved GNU/Linux distro, you must replace the Intel 3945abg Wifi Card; since it uses proprietary drivers.
- We recommend an Atheros ath9k Wireless-N miniPCI card. Other wifi cards with open source drivers are listed at h-node.
- You will need to remove the keyboard and palmrest in order to replace the miniPCI card. If you're not brave enough to do this, just buy a USB dongle.
- Don't plug in the new miniPCI card until Libreboot is installed, or your laptop will not boot (due to pesky miniPCI whitelisting).
- Until Libreboot is installed, you must use an Ethernet cable to connect to the internet, or transfer data via a USB drive.

Download Libreboot[edit]

Download the latest Libreboot Binaries.
Open a Terminal and navigate to the Downloads folder (or wherever else)
Extract the Libreboot folder:
Navigate to the libreboot_bin folder:

Install and Make Dependencies[edit]

Sudo powertop -auto-tune. You can also run it without parameters and then go into 'Tunables' and set everything to 'Good' Powertop - Start automatically at boot time (Trisquel 6) ^ Included with the libreboot release is a script called powertop.trisquel6. Run this and it will setup powertop to run with -auto-tune at boot.
The service runs powertop -auto-tune which automatically sets most tunables to their 'Good' state, for maximum battery life. But sometimes it doesn't work well, especially with USB mice. USB Autosuspend. It perplexed me for a while why my USB mouse on a laptop would deactivate itself randomly (its LED turns off, and the mouse doesn't work until you click one of the buttons, and then it will.
I have a Dell Inspiron 5559 laptop which has a 40WHr, 4-cell battery. On Windows 7 I get a battery life of 6-7 hours. On Ubuntu I get a battery life of 5 hours after using PowerTop.

The flashrom and bucts programs require a few dependencies. Install them automatically with the Libreboot builddeb scripts.

For DEB-based distros (Trisquel, Ubuntu, Debian, etc):
sudo ./deps-trisquel
For Arch-based distros (Parabola, Arch Linux, etc):
sudo ./deps-parabola
Other Linux distros will need to find the corresponding dependencies on their own.

Powertop Auto Tune On Boot Camp

Next, we actually have to build flashrom and bucts from source code. The Libreboot developers have made a nice build script that does this automatically:

Find the Right ROM[edit]

Under the bin/ folder in libreboot_bin/, there are a multitude of Libreboot ROMs sorted by motherboard.

Choose the ROM with your laptop's keyboard layout (US or UK, QWERTY or DVORAK). For ThinkPads, choose a serial ROM if dock and serial port support is needed.

bin/x60/ - ThinkPad X60/X60s
bin/x60t/ - ThinkPad X60 Tablet

Once you know which ROM to use, remember it's directory path for the next step (ex. bin/x60/libreboot_serial_usqwerty.rom )

Check the ROMs section from the official Libreboot Documentation for the latest list.

Back up Original BIOS[edit]

If you choose to make a backup, click [Expand] on the right and follow the directions.

From the libreboot_bin/ folder, enter the flashrom/ folder.
Run both of these commands to backup the BIOS to factory.bin (don't panic, nothing is being installed):

If a factory.bin file was created in the flashrom/ folder, the Lenovo BIOS has been backed up successfully. If not, try the commands again. Copy this dump to a safe place.
Return to the libreboot_bin/ folder.

Libreboot First Flash[edit]

If you are flashing Libreboot for the first time, on an unmodified ThinkPad running Lenovo's BIOS, you will need to follow this special process.

Run the first flash script for Lenovo BIOSes:
Wait for the process to finish. Expect to see 'critical errors' during flashing, but don't panic; proceed to the next step to check if the flash ran correctly.
The line below is displayed if bucts 1 was enabled successfully.

The following 'errors' are displayed if flashrom installed Libreboot correctly. The output must be very similar (later versions of flashrom may have minor differences).

If the 'errors' closely match the lines above, shut down the laptop (don't restart).
Wait a few seconds, and then boot. Libreboot will start up.
Use the Search for GRUB configuration on local storage option if the normal menu options don't work.
After booting into Linux, proceed to Libreboot Second Flash.

Source: Flashrom Mailing List - ThinkPad X60: Is it safe to reboot with errors in flashrom?

Enable Trackpoint[edit]

On a few rare X60 variants, the Trackpoint mouse might not work out of the box. Not to worry though, just use nvramtool with the Libreboot package to enable it.

Boot and log into Linux. (you may need to use text mode, find keyboard shortcuts)
Open a Terminal (somehow.. without the mouse. Hopefully you have Yakuake installed!)
Navigate to the libreboot_bin/nvramtool folder.
Build nvramtool with make .
Use nvramtool to enable the TrackPoint mouse.
Reboot the laptop (using sudo reboot), and the TrackPoint will be enabled. If it still doesn't work, try this command instead:

Source: Libreboot Documentation - Enable X60 Trackpoint

Libreboot Second Flash[edit]

Now that Libreboot has been installed and is up and running, it must be flashed a second time to fully remove the Lenovo BIOS.

Open a Terminal and navigate to the libreboot_bin directory.
Run the following command to flash Libreboot a second time.

The following line will be displayed if bucts was set back to 0 again. If it was not set to 0, run the script again.
The following should also be displayed, without any errors:
Shut down again, wait a few seconds, and then boot. Libreboot has been successfully installed.

Source: Libreboot Documentat