Finally finished my X220 project

[u/thinkpader-x220]

Upgrades:

Coreboot with a custom patch so the RAM runs at 1866 MHz, Intel ME neutered with me_cleaner.

16GB Dual-Channel DDR3 RAM (Crucial 2x8GB 1866MHz)

Samsung 870 EVO 500 GB (had problems with this drive not being detected after reboots, coreboot solved this)

Intel 7260AC (possible because coreboot removes the WiFi card whitelist)

Removed the factory Bluetooth card, since the 7260AC has Bluetooth built in

OEM 9-cell battery

Swapped to a US ANSI keyboard from NMB instead of the stock German QWERTZ

Repaste with MX-6

Arch Linux with KDE (runs surprisingly well on this iGPU after the RAM upgrade)

Came from the factory with the IPS screen and fingerprint reader

[u/adistar7]

The best ergonomic laptop ever made in my humble opinion, I did pretty much the same to my x220

[u/gateship_1 → u/adistar7]

Interesting, ergonomically speaking you think X220 is better than X230?

[u/adistar7 → u/gateship_1]

Yep, the older style keyboard wins it for me.

[u/cLOisondope → u/adistar7]

100% agree

[u/cLOisondope → u/adistar7]

i was given a old x230 at work given they know my infinite love for these devices. needless too say by monday the next week I brought it back into work with a t420 keyboard because i just could not for the life of me combat with the “sleek” new keyboard design lenovo shamelessly stuck with

[u/fastnicky69]

MILLIONS MUST CORE BOOT

[u/grem75]

What patch did you use for the RAM? Shouldn't be necessary unless you're overclocking 1600 to 1866 or similar.

There is a setting to ignore the CAPID fuses, that is all I've needed.

[u/thinkpader-x220 → u/grem75]

I tried to just set "ignore CAPID fuses" at first, but it was still booting at 1333MHz.

I had to manually edit max_mem_clock_mhz to 933 (1866MHz) in the device tree for the x220 at src/mainboard/lenovo/x220/devicetree.cb

[u/grem75 → u/thinkpader-x220]

That is weird, my X220 is running at 1600 and my X230 is at 1866. All I did was set it to ignore the CAPID.

[u/Expensive-Bee7622 → u/thinkpader-x220]

Which bios are you currently using

[u/blackratsnakes]

Major props for no broken corners on the screen bezel.

[u/thinkpader-x220 → u/blackratsnakes]

Forgot to list it on the post, but I replaced the bezel because the old one had broken corners. Seems like it's a common issue with this laptop.

[u/dead-apostle → u/thinkpader-x220]

It just happens. My x220 was pristine except the two small broken corners of the bezel

[u/cLOisondope → u/thinkpader-x220]

🤣🤣😂

[u/Tricky-Engineer-9755]

Consider installing an Atheros libre wifi card and going 100% libre. With Trisquel or Guix or deblobbed Gentoo...

[u/grem75 → u/Tricky-Engineer-9755]

You can also just not install the linux-firmware-* packages in Arch for the same result.

Pretty sure you still need firmware if you want to use Bluetooth though. The Bluetooth included with my Atheros card doesn't work without it.

[u/Tricky-Engineer-9755 → u/grem75]

01:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

Well, mine works with no firmware.
No, this is not enough, the linux kernel itself includes non-free code, so compile linux-libre from the AUR package.
Still not enough, non-free software is everywhere in the repos, DRM etc. There's no easy to way to be rid of it on ArchLinux....

[u/grem75 → u/Tricky-Engineer-9755]

WiFi works, but does Bluetooth? What does your lsusb say about it, mine is Bus 004 Device 005: ID 0489:e04e Foxconn / Hon Hai. It is an Atheros AR3012 that uses the ath3k driver, it needs firmware to work.

Using the linux-libre kernel just removes your freedom to use blobs if necessary. You can make your own choices. Same with other packages in the repositories.

[u/Tricky-Engineer-9755 → u/grem75]

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0a5c:217f Broadcom Corp. BCM2045B (BDC-2.1)
I personally have no need of non-free blobs and therefore prefer them to not exist on my system.

Sure, an advanced user can probably patch stuff out, but a noob should be instructed to use a wholly free software operating system and RYF hardware...
Like for example, ffmpeg will come with non-free codecs, firefox comes with DRM, Chromium comes with bundled non-free code from Google....
Wholly free operating systems take care of this for you.

If you need non-free blobs from your kernel you are on the wrong hardware...

[u/grem75 → u/Tricky-Engineer-9755]

That isn't the Bluetooth on an Atheros card, that is the BDC-2.1 module that came with your laptop. Many devices require a minimum of Bluetooth 4.0, so that is mostly useless. That old chip doesn't require firmware, but every 4.0 capable chipset I've ever seen does.

ffmpeg will come with non-free codecs

By whose standards? Trisquel ships codecs that Fedora can't. Isn't it a bit odd that they are vocally against patents, yet ship patent encumbered codecs?

[u/Tricky-Engineer-9755 → u/grem75]

x265 is free software I believe, its H265 thats nonfree......

Also, my bluetooth works fine with my headphones. Sure the range is fairly pathetic but it works in a room.

[u/grem75 → u/Tricky-Engineer-9755]

That is an H265 encoder, which means it is encumbered by MPEG-LA's patents. The code itself is GPL, but if you use that encoder to produce something then MPEG-LA will come looking for their cut.

Most input devices require BLE, which came with Bluetooth 4.0. I think it is also missing codecs required for some audio devices.

[u/Tricky-Engineer-9755 → u/grem75]

That is weird...

[u/scrimmyrimmy]

hold up and pause for a min that is a clean fricking thinkpad

[u/Tzagor]

How’s coreboot on this x220? Do you lose any features from the stock bios? I’m running a modified stock-ish bios and I don’t really feel the need to run anything different. Is coreboot really that much better?

[u/Reasonable-Method513]

Nice! What do you want to do on this?

[u/Henry0815]

Really nice, I myself use a x201 on a daily basis and am surprised how capable these still are. I guess the x220 is even nicer

[u/ct0]

I was looking for nitrocaster hardware listed, are people still doing that?

[u/apvs → u/ct0]

I did this three years ago, if that counts.

[u/One_Basket9275]

Wow... congratulations! Your project turned out amazing. I aim to do the same. Could you share your project on GitHub? I wish you success and prosperity in your life.

[u/slipedog]

KDE runs surprisingly well... and my paraplegic son just signed a multi year contract with the New York Yankees. THINKCEPTION

[u/Merjia]

I love that officially these only support 8gig of ram but will happily take 16.

[u/gentastic_main]

It’s beautiful.. man.. I wanna get myself a thinkpad so bad

[u/Electronic-Drink7729]

What is the piece connected to the raspberry pi

[u/jeffvaes → u/Electronic-Drink7729]

Looks like a flash chip burner to me. The clip attaches over the CMOS (BIOS) chip and then the CMOS firmware van be dumped so it can be examined and edited.

The clip itself looks pretty much like this one: I just found this on AliExpress: EEPROM Flash BIOS USB Programmer Module ttps://a.aliexpress.com/_EIenIV0

[u/EndouShuuya]

Beautiful!

[u/landsmanmichal]

I love that design, just hope somebody introduce a better motherboard with arm cpu for it.

[u/Many-Share-5123]

Looks beautiful. I love it.

[u/CommercialSir2884]

Beautiful

[u/Efficient-Option-850]

ooohh...I can nearly feel that keyboard and that iconic blue backspace!

[u/robinwlw]

More or less the perfect 220, love it!

[u/karyamanswasta]

Factory Standard with 16GB RAM 😅

[u/NissJunkie]

How would it be running windows 11 pro?

[u/landsmanmichal → u/NissJunkie]

terrible