nitrocaster FHDmod Forum Thread

FHD-panel is attached to eDisplayPort #3 pins of the docking port. PWM-Signal for backlight brightness is leached from LVDS (internal display connector).

Irreversible modification (milling) to the lid is needed to fit the new panel.

Official Install Guide

Lenovo Bios & a current Coreboot build will work without modification

Without a modified VBT (video bios table) or VGA-OtionROM LVDS still needs to stay active. Otherwise backlight of the FHD-panel will turn off, as soon as LVDS is turned off. This leads to a light increase in head and power consumption.

X will align panels next to each other by default. To align panels above each other to get rid unreachable desktop areas use this bash script on X startup:
The script creates a large enough framebuffer to attach an external FHD-display and positions LVDS-1 in the top left corner of the new FHD panel attached to PD-3

fhdfix.sh

#!/bin/bash
DISPLAY=:0  xrandr --fb 3840x1080 --output DP-3 --primary --size 1920x1080 --left-of LVDS-1 --output LVDS-1 --off && xrandr --output LVDS-1 --auto --mode 640x360

x230 @ coreboot

Coreboot Native Graphics Init

Coreboot Sandybridge Build Tutorial

These steps should create a bootable coreboot-image for the x230 with seabios.

This image will only work with a the FHD-mod.

LVDS-output will not be available.

If/when the fhd-mod gets accepted into coreboot, you can skip steps #2 & #3.

# 1. clone coreboot repo
git clone https://review.coreboot.org/coreboot.git
cd coreboot
 
# 2. checkout the fhd patch (c&p from download at https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/28950 )
git fetch https://review.coreboot.org/coreboot refs/changes/50/28950/3 && git checkout FETCH_HEAD
 
# 3. apply all commits from master branch that happened after the patch was submitted
git rebase master FETCH_HEAD
 
# 4. get the submodules
git submodule update --init --checkout
 
# 5. build coreboot crosscompiler environment (may take a while)
make crossgcc-i386 CPUS=4
 
# 6. create x230 specific defconfig (remove comments in the last 5 lines if you want to add optional secondary payloads)
cat << EOF > config/defconfig
CONFIG_USE_OPTION_TABLE=y
CONFIG_TIMESTAMPS_ON_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_USE_BLOBS=y
CONFIG_VENDOR_LENOVO=y
CONFIG_CBFS_SIZE=0x400000
CONFIG_BOARD_LENOVO_X230_FHD=y
CONFIG_DRIVERS_PS2_KEYBOARD=y
CONFIG_PCIEXP_L1_SUB_STATE=y
CONFIG_PCIEXP_CLK_PM=y
CONFIG_SEABIOS_PS2_TIMEOUT=2000
CONFIG_H8_SUPPORT_BT_ON_WIFI=y
CONFIG_MAINBOARD_USE_LIBGFXINIT=y
CONFIG_GENERIC_LINEAR_FRAMEBUFFER=y
# CONFIG_SEABIOS_MASTER=y
# CONFIG_COREINFO_SECONDARY_PAYLOAD=y
# CONFIG_MEMTEST_SECONDARY_PAYLOAD=y
# CONFIG_NVRAMCUI_SECONDARY_PAYLOAD=y
# CONFIG_TINT_SECONDARY_PAYLOAD=y
EOF
 
# 8. create new .config with the parameters from the defconfig you just created
make defconfig
 
# 9. take a look at the created configuration
make menuconfig
 
# 10. build coreboot image
make

add photo, pretty plz

Pins on both flash-chips:

Screen (furthest from you)
	     __
  MOSI  5 --|  |-- 4  GND
   CLK  6 --|  |-- 3  N/C
   N/C  7 --|  |-- 2  MISO
   VCC  8 --|__|-- 1  CS

Edge (closest to you)

4M chip is closer to display
8M chip is closer to front edge

Connect programmer to top 4M chip

#read upper 4M
sudo flashrom -p ch341a_spi -c "MX25L3206E/MX25L3208E" -r top_0.rom
sudo flashrom -p ch341a_spi -c "MX25L3206E/MX25L3208E" -r top_1.rom
md5sum top*
 
#read lower 8M
sudo flashrom -p ch341a_spi -c "MX25L6406E/MX25L6408E" -r ifdmegbe_1.rom

official docu

useful details

#prepare top 4M
dd of=top.rom bs=1M skip=8 if=coreboot.rom
 
sudo flashrom -p ch341a_spi -w top.rom -c "MX25L3206E/MX25L3208E"

write whole flash

#write lower 8M
sudo flashrom -p ch341a_spi -c "MX25L6406E/MX25L6408E" -w ifdmegbe_1.rom
 
#write upper 4M
sudo flashrom -p ch341a_spi -c "MX25L3206E/MX25L3208E" -w top.rom

To allow internal flashing, the IFD of the upper flash chip has to be unlocked. this can be archieved with

ifdtool -u ifdmegbe.rom

add “iomem=relaxed” to kernelcommandline during boot

flash command is:

sudo flashrom -p internal --layout x230-layout.txt --image bios --write coreboot.rom

content of x230-layout.txt:

x230-layout.txt

0x00000000:0x007fffff ifdmegbe
0x00800000:0x00bfffff bios