# Lenovo ThinkPad T480/T480s

This page describes how to run coreboot on the Lenovo ThinkPad T480/T480s.

## Important Notes

### EC UART

The T480 (but not T480s) supports the use of the EC UART for debugging. If you want to use this feature, you need to downgrade the vendor firmware to a version with a compatible EC firmware before flashing for the EC UART to work properly. The EC firmware version needs to be 1.22 (N24HT37W), which means any BIOS from 1.39 (N24ET64W) to 1.54 (N24ET79W) is acceptable.

The mapping can be seen here on Lenovo’s site.

### Bootguard

The T480/T480s both have Intel Bootguard enabled, which prevents the device from running firmware which is not cryptographically signed using the manufacturer’s key.

The deguard utility will need to be used in order to bypass Bootguard on these devices.

### Thunderbolt

Older versions of Thunderbolt 3 controller firmware are buggy on these laptops.

The issue is that the TB3 firmware writes its logging data to the TB3’s own 4M flash chip, and when the flash chip fills up, the device fails to boot.

Lenovo has addressed this in a TB3 firmware update, which is recommended be be applied before installing coreboot to ensure long-term reliability of the device. That said, most laptops that still work likely have this fix already applied, and you can always externally flash the TB3 firmware update at the same time as flashing coreboot.

If your device becomes bricked due to this issue, the only resolution is to externally flash the updated/fixed TB3 firmware flash (which is located on a separate flash IC from the main firmware).

The Lenovo TB3 FW update can be obtained from Lenovo’s site.

The Libreboot project has some more information about the issue and how to externally flash the TB3 firmware.

## Initial Setup

Follow the coreboot tutorial to:

- install dependencies/prerequisites

- clone the coreboot repo

- build the coreboot toolchain

You will also need to clone the deguard repository, in order to bypass BootGuard.

## Required proprietary blobs

When flashing the T480/T480s for the first time, the following blobs are required for a full flash image:

- Flash Descriptor (IFD)

- Management Engine (ME)

- Gigabit Ethernet (GBE)

These will either be extracted from the vendor firmware on the device or downloaded as needed.

Additionally, the T480/T480s make use of Intel’s Firmware Support Package (FSP) for memory and silicon init. FSP is provided by default as part of the coreboot build, no user intervention is required.

## Reading the vendor firmware

The T480/T480s have a single flash chip, a 16 MiB W25Q128 in a SOIC-8 package. The flash chip uses the following layout:

    00000000:00000fff flash descriptor (fd)
    00fff000:00000fff platform data (unused)
    00001000:00002fff gbe
    00003000:006fffff me
    00700000:00ffffff bios

To read the vendor firmware, disconnect external power and remove the back of the laptop according to the T480 Hardware Maintenance Manual. Disconnect/remove the battery (and CMOS battery if equipped). Attach a chip clip to the flash. Use an external programmer (ch341a, raspberry Pi, etc) and flashrom to read the chip.

## Preparing the binaries

The IFD and GBE need to be extracted from the vendor firmware backup read from the flash chip. See Extract IFD binaries. Rename the extracted files to `ifd.bin` and `gbe.bin` and move them to the `binaries` folder you created per the instructions.

### Preparing the ME with deguard

Please review the documentation on the use of the deguard utility.

Since the T480/T480s is already a supported target, we simply need to download/extract the donor image, then generate the “deguarded” ME firmware image

The donor ME binary required for use with the deguard utility can be downloaded as part of the Dell firmware updater. After downloading, use Dell_PFS_Extract.py to extract the required ME firmware image from the updater:

    python Dell_PFS_Extract.py Inspiron_5468_1.3.0.exe

The resulting binary should be renamed `me_donor.bin` and moved to the `binaries` folder with the IFD and GBE.

Then, generate the deguarded ME firmware image:

    ./finalimage.py --delta data/delta/thinkpad_t480 --version 11.6.0.1126 --pch LP --sku 2M --fake-fpfs data/fpfs/zero --input ../coreboot/binaries/me_donor.bin --output ../coreboot/binaries/me_deguarded.bin

The command above assumes you are running deguard from the root of the deguard repo, that the deguard and coreboot repos are checked out under the same parent directory, and that your ME donor firmware is in the `binaries` subdirectory of coreboot (along with the IFD/GBE binaries). Adjust the paths as necessary if that is not the case.

### Preparing the IFD

In order to use the modified ME firmware binary generated by deguard above, we need to set the HAP bit in the IFD using `ifdtool`:

    util/ifdtool/ifdtool -p sklkbl -M 1 binaries/ifd.bin

The modified IFD will be saved as `ifd.bin.new`. Rename the original file to `ifd.bin.orig` and the HAP-enabled one to `ifd.bin`

## Building coreboot

You can use `make menuconfig` or `make nconfig` to select the mainboard (Lenovo T480 or T480s), enable the inclusion of the IFD/ME/GBE binaries, and select your payload and options. You can also just use the following defconfig:

    CONFIG_VENDOR_LENOVO=y
    CONFIG_IFD_BIN_PATH="binaries/ifd.bin"
    CONFIG_ME_BIN_PATH="binaries/me_deguarded.bin"
    CONFIG_GBE_BIN_PATH="binaries/gbe.bin"
    CONFIG_HAVE_IFD_BIN=y
    CONFIG_BOARD_LENOVO_T480=y
    CONFIG_HAVE_ME_BIN=y
    CONFIG_HAVE_GBE_BIN=y
    CONFIG_PAYLOAD_EDK2=y

Save the above to a file called `defconfig` in your coreboot directory, then run:

    make defconfig
    make -j"$(nproc)"

Upon successful compilation, you will have a file `coreboot.rom` in the `build` directory ready to flash.

## Flashing instructions

The initial flash of coreboot with the modified IFD and deguarded ME must be done using an external programmer:

    sudo flashrom -p <programmer> -w coreboot.rom

Subsequent flashes can be done internally and need only modify the `bios` region of the flash:

    sudo flashrom -p internal -w coreboot.rom --ifd -i bios -N

The `coreboot.rom` flashed on subsequent flashes does not need to contain the IFD/ME/GBE binaries if only flashing the `bios` region.

## Known Issues

- Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt 3 controller does not work

  - Lower (right) USB-C port only works for charging/DP alt mode, not USB/PCIe data

- Some Fn+F{1-12} keys aren’t handled correctly

- Nvidia dGPU is finicky

  - Needs option ROM

  - Power enable code is buggy

  - Proprietary driver does not work at all

  - Nouveau only works on linux 6.8-6.9

- Headphone jack detection

  - Both headphone jack and speakers work when manually selected via pulseaudio

## Verified Working

- Integrated graphics init with libgfxinit

- video output: internal (eDP), miniDP

- ACPI support

- keyboard and trackpoint

- SATA

- M.2 SATA SSD

- NVMe

- USB

- Ethernet

- WLAN

- WWAN

- Bluetooth

- Virtualization: VT-x and VT-d

- Internal flashing (after initial flash with unlocked IFD)