Install Canoeboot Free BIOS/UEFI boot firmware

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With x86 machines, you can use the SeaBIOS or the GNU boot loader named GRUB as a payload. On ARM systems, you can use the U-Boot payload (coreboot still initialises hardware). An x86/x86_64 U-Boot UEFI payload is also available.

This article will teach you how to install Canoeboot, on any of the supported laptop, desktop and server motherboards of Intel/AMD x86/x86_64 and ARM64 platform. Canoeboot is a Free Software project that replaces proprietary BIOS/UEFI firmware.

ALWAYS remember to make a backup of the current flash, when overwriting it, regardless of what firmware you currently have and what firmware you’re re-flashing it with; this includes updates between Canoeboot releases. Use the -r option in flashprog instead -w, to read from the flash.

PLEASE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE INSTALLING, OR YOU MAY BRICK YOUR MACHINE!! - Please click the link and follow the instructions there, before flashing. For posterity, here is the link again.

This is true even if you’re building from source. On newer Intel platforms where Intel ME is present, Canoeboot provides support while still complying with its own policy, by avoiding overwriting what’s already there, rather than provide a replacement for re-flashing. This means you have to avoid overwriting the Intel ME region at all costs. Other things may also need to avoid being overwritten, so please make sure you read the guide linked above, in great detail.

A lot of older boards don’t need such precautions, but to be sure, please just read the safety guide.

Refer to the following article:
Externally rewrite 25xx NOR flash via SPI protocol

Please be careful not to overwrite Intel ME, if your system has it. You can use the --ifd option in flashprog, along with e.g. -i bios for example, which would only flash the BIOS region. Read the safety guide for more information - other factors must also be considered, specifically when migrating from Libreboot to Canoeboot.

You are strongly advised to have an external flashing setup, and make sure it works, before attempting internal flashing. This, in addition to making a backup of the current flash contents, prior to flashing, whether you dump externally or internally - if only external flashing is available, then it’s usually the case that only external dumping is available too.

Help is available on Canoeboot IRC and other channels.

If you want professional installation, Minifree Ltd sells Canoeboot pre-installed on select hardware, and it also provides a Canoeboot preinstall service if you want to send your machine in to have Canoeboot installed for you.

Leah Rowe, the founder and lead developer of Canoeboot, also owns and operates Minifree Ltd; sales provide funding for the Canoeboot project.

Before actually reading the installation guides, please ensure that your system is fully supported by Canoeboot. More information about the Canoeboot build system can be found in the cbmk maintenance manual, and information about porting new systems in the porting manual.

Canoeboot currently supports the following systems:

• Sony Playstation (PS1/PSX)

• ASUS KFSN4-DRE motherboard
• ASUS KGPE-D16 motherboard

• Dell OptiPlex 7020/9020 MT and SFF - Dell OptiPlex XE2 MT/SFF also known to work
• Acer G43T-AM3
• Apple iMac 5,2
• ASUS KCMA-D8 motherboard
• Dell OptiPlex 7010 MT (known to work, using the T1650 ROM, but more research is needed) - 9010 also known to work. No GPIO changes, so it should be safe to flash.
• Dell OptiPlex 780 variants e.g. MT, USFF
• Dell OptiPlex 7010/9010 SFF (for MT, please use the T1650 image)
• Dell Precision T1650 (the same ROM works on 7010/9010 MT variant)
• Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L motherboard
• HP Elite 8200 SFF/MT (HP 6200 Pro Business probably works too)
• HP Elite 8300 USDT
• Intel D510MO and D410PT motherboards
• Intel D945GCLF

• Lenovo ThinkPad T440p
• Lenovo ThinkPad W541
• Lenovo ThinkPad X230 - Also available on Minifree: https://minifree.org/product/canoeboot-x230/
• Apple MacBook1,1 and MacBook2,1
• Dell Latitude E4300, E6400, E6400 XFR and E6400 ATG, all with Nvidia or Intel GPU
• Dell Latitude E5420, E5520, E5530, E6420, E6430, E6520, E6530, E6230, E6330, E6220 (Intel GPU variants only)
• Lenovo ThinkPad R400
• Lenovo ThinkPad R500
• Lenovo ThinkPad T400 / T400S
• Lenovo Thinkpad T420 / T420S
• Lenovo ThinkPad T430 (but not the T430S)
• Lenovo ThinkPad T500 / W500
• Lenovo ThinkPad T520
• Lenovo ThinkPad T530
• Lenovo ThinkPad T60, X60, X60S, X60 Tablet (with Intel GPU)
• Lenovo ThinkPad X200 / X200S / X200 Tablet
• Lenovo Thinkpad X220 / X200 Tablet
• Lenovo Thinkpad X230 / X230 Tablet

• ASUS Chromebook Flip C101 (gru-bob)
• Samsung Chromebook Plus (v1) (gru-kevin)

• Qemu x86 and arm64

Before internal flashing, you must first disable /dev/mem protections. Make sure to re-enable them after you’re finished.

See: Disabling /dev/mem protection

Canoeboot ROM images are named like this: payload_board_inittype_displaytype_keymap.rom

The payload option can be SeaBIOS, SeaGRUB or U-Boot. If GRUB is available on a given board, in flash, both SeaBIOS and SeaGRUB are provided; SeaBIOS images still have GRUB available via the SeaBIOS menu, and SeaGRUB means that SeaBIOS automatically loads GRUB from flash first (but you can still choose something else, by pressing ESC in SeaBIOS when prompted).

Inittype can be libgfxinit, vgarom or normal. The libgfxinit option means coreboot provides native video initialisation, for onboard graphics. The vgarom option means coreboot executes a VGA option ROM for video initialisation. The normal option means coreboot provides no video initialisation, via VGA ROM or native code.

Displaytype can be txtmode or corebootfb - if inittype is normal, this is ignored because txtmode is assumed.

If payload is seabios instead of seagrub, no keymaps are inserted into flash and only US QWERTY is assumed, otherwise the keymap refers to what is used in GRUB on seagrub payload setups.

If you use a libgfxinit image on a desktop machine, you can still insert a graphics card and it’ll work just fine; its own VGA option ROM will be executed instead, if the primary payload is SeaBIOS, whether that be pure SeaBIOS or a SeaGRUB setup.

Obviously, free EC firmware would be preferable, but it is not the case on all machine. We would like to have free EC firmware on more machines, but for now, we must rely on the vendor in a lot of cases. The EC is usually on a separate flash, so you wouldn’t think about it unless you knew it was there; this is exactly why it’s mentioned, so that you think about it, because proprietary software is bad.

In many cases, the EC firmware must be updated on a separate IC to the main boot flash, and this can usually only be done with the vendor’s own tool, running from the vendor boot firmware, and usually only on Windows, because they provide EC and BIOS/UEFI updates in the same utility. Find out what you need to do for your machine before installing Canoeboot.

It is recommended that you update to the latest EC firmware version. The EC firmware

Updating the EC can sometimes provide benefit depending on the vendor. For example, they might fix power issues that could then enhance battery life.

See: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/BIOS_update_without_optical_disk

Otherwise, check the Lenovo website to find the update utility for your motherboard.

The same wisdom applies to other laptop vendors.

Non-laptops typically do not have embedded controllers in them.

In general, if Canoeboot is already running, you can skip towards the final section on this page, which provides general internal flashing instructions. Internal flashing is when you flash the target machine from the target machine, inside an operating system running on it.

Some boards require special steps, even if Canoeboot is already running, for example if you locked down the flash.

Therefore, before following generic guides, make sure to check first whether your board has special instructions, otherwise use the generic guide at the end of this article.

On all Intel platforms except X4X (e.g. Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L) and i945 ones (e.g. ThinkPad X60, ThinkPad T60, MacBook2,1), an Intel Flash Descriptor is used. If the board has Intel gigabit ethernet, the MAC address is included in flash, and can (must) be changed prior to installation.

You can use nvmutil to change the MAC address. You will perform this modification to the ROM image, before flashing it.

This is referred to informally as Secure canoeBoot.

Full flash lockdown is possible, with cryptographic verification of your Linux kernel and other files, using special features in the GRUB payload.

See: GRUB hardening / Secure canoeBoot

If you already did this, it’s possible that you may no longer be able to flash internally. If that is the case, you must flash externally.

Please read the safety guide.

Unless otherwise stated, in sections pertaining to each motherboard below, an existing Canoeboot installation can be updated via internal flashing, without any special steps; simply follow the general internal flashing guide, in the final section further down this page.

If you have an existing Canoeboot installation but you locked down the flash, updating it will require external flashing.

If you currently have the factory firmware, you probably need to flash externally; on some machines, internal flashing is possible, usually with special steps required that differ from updating an existing installation.

The next sections will pertain to specific motherboards, where indicated, followed by general internal flashing instructions where applicable.

See: Dell Latitude flashing guide

This applies to all supported Dell Latitude models. Remember to update the MAC address with nvmutil, before flashing.

If you’re running one of these with Lenovo BIOS, you must externally flash Canoeboot, because the original firmware restricts writes to the flash.

There machines all use SOIC8/SOIC16 flash ICs. Refer to pages specifically for each machine:

• ThinkPad X200
• ThinkPad T400
• ThinkPad R400
• ThinkPad T500/W500 (R500 is similar)

NOTE: T400S, X200S and X200 Tablet require different steps, because these have WSON8 flash ICs on them, which will require some soldering. Please read the external flashing guide in the section pertaining to WSON.

You can find WSON8 probes online, that are similar to a SOIC8/SOIC16 clip. Your mileage may very, but WSON8 has the same pinout as SOIC8 so you might have some luck with that.

See: External flashing guide - both boards are compatible with the same image.

Internal flashing is possible, from factory BIOS to Canoeboot, but special steps are required.

See: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L installation guide

See: Acer G43T-AM3

MacBook 1,1 requires external flashing. MacBook 2,1 can always be flashed internally. iMac 5,2 can be flashed internally.

Also check the Macbook2,1 hardware page

You must flash it externally (DIP-8 section) - also look at the KGPE-D16 hardware page.

Further information is available on the KCMA-D8 page.

KGPE-D16 installation is essentially the same, with the same type of flash IC (DIP-8). Refer to the external flashing guide.

This board uses LPC flash in a PLCC32 socket. This coreboot page shows an example of the push pin as a proof of concept: http://www.coreboot.org/Developer_Manual/Tools#Chip_removal_tools

See: ASUS KFSN4-DRE guide

Hot-swap the flash IC with another one while it’s running, and flash it internally.

See: Intel D945GCLF flashing guide

Please read about GbE region safety if migrating from Libreboot.

Refer to the 7010/9020 SFF page. Internal flashing also possible. NOTE: If you have the MT variant, read the sections below instead (the SFF ROM is only for SFF).

Please read about GbE region safety if migrating from Libreboot.

This board is essentially identical to the Dell Precision T1650, except that it does not support ECC memory. Same wiring.

You can flash the T1650 image on this machine. NOTE: This applies to the MT variant, specifically. Do not flash T1650 images on the 7010/9010 SFF.

Please read about GbE region safety if migrating from Libreboot.

Refer to the T1650 hardware page. External flashing required, or you can set the Service Mode jumper and flash internally (from vendor firmware, to Canoeboot).

Refer to the 7020/9020 hardware page. Internal flashing (from vendor firmware to Canoeboot) is possible if you set the Service Mode jumper.

See: HP Elite 8200 SFF install guide

See: HP Elite 8200 USDT install guide

T420/T520: T420 flash instructions

T420s/T520 are similar, in terms of assembly/disassembly.

Now, as for X220/X220:

X220/X220 Tablet is essentially the same as the X230, but cannot be flashed internally; you must use an external flasher.

Otherwise, look at X230 disassembly. Note that the X220 has a single 8MB flash, instead of 8MB and 4MB.

Internal flashing from vendor BIOS to Canoeboot is possible, but not recommended. See: IvyBridge ThinkPad internal flashing.

External flashing recommended, but only documented for X230. See: ThinkPad X230 install guide.

Otherwise, refer to external SPI flashing.

Only the Intel GPU is compatible. Do not flash the ATI GPU models.

External flashing guides:

• ThinkPad X60
• ThinkPad X60 Tablet
• ThinkPad T60

These machines can also be flashed internally, by exploiting a bug in the original Lenovo BIOS. If there’s a BIOS password at boot, you should just flash externally.

Internal flashing instructions:

First, please ensure that your CR2032/CMOS battery is working. This is what powers the SRAM containing BIOS settings, and it powers the real-time clock. It also holds the BUC.TS value - this is what we need.

BUC (Backup Control) register contains a bit called Top Swap (TS). The 64KB bootblock at the top of flash is complemented by a backup Top Swap just above it. The one at the end can’t be flashed internally while Lenovo BIOS is running, but the rest of it can be flashed (everything above the main bootblock).

By setting the TS bit, you can make the machine boot from the backup bootblock.

Download the Canoeboot 20160907 utils archive, and in there you will find these binaries:

• flashrom
• flashrom_i945_sst
• flashrom_i945_mx

You’ll also find the bucts tool. Run it as root:

./bucts 1

Now run both of these as root:

./flashrom_i945_sst -p internal -w coreboot.rom
./flashrom_i945_mx -p internal -w coreboot.rom

You’ll see a lot of errors. This is normal. You should see something like:

Reading old flash chip contents... done.
Erasing and writing flash chip... spi_block_erase_20 failed during command execution at address 0x0
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
spi_block_erase_52 failed during command execution at address 0x0
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
Transaction error!
spi_block_erase_d8 failed during command execution at address 0x1f0000
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
spi_chip_erase_60 failed during command execution
Reading current flash chip contents... done. Looking for another erase function.
spi_chip_erase_c7 failed during command execution
Looking for another erase function.
No usable erase functions left.
FAILED!
Uh oh. Erase/write failed. Checking if anything has changed.
Reading current flash chip contents... done.
Apparently at least some data has changed.
Your flash chip is in an unknown state.

If you see this, rejoice! It means that the flash was successful. Please do not panic. Shut down now, and wait a few seconds, then turn back on again.

The main bootblock still isn’t flashed, but you can shut down, wait a few seconds and boot up again. When you do, you’ll have Canoeboot. Please make sure to flash a second time, like so:

flashprog -p internal -w coreboot.rom

Canoeboot recommends flashprog now, which is a fork of flashrom, but we used flashrom in the 2016 release. The macronix/ssh flashrom binaries there are specifically patched; check the Canoeboot 20160907 source code for the actual patches. The patches modify some flash chip definitions in flashrom, to exploit the bug in Lenovo BIOS enabling internal flashing.

You must ensure that the second flash is performed, upon reboot, because otherwise if the CR2032 battery dies, bucts will be reset and it will no longer boot.

When you’ve done the second flash, which includes overwriting the main bootblock, set bucts back to zero:

./bucts 0

The second flash can be done by simply following the general internal flashing guide further down on this page.

Guides:

• ThinkPad T440p flashing guide
• ThinkPad W541 flashing guide

Each machine has it’s own guide:

• HP Elite 8200 SFF/MT (HP 6200 Pro Business probably works too)
• HP Elite 8300 USDT

See: Chromebook flashing instructions

NOTE: The generic flashing instructions (later on this page) apply only to the x86 machines, because the Chromebooks still use flashrom with the -p host argument instead of -p internal when flashing, and you typically need to flash externally, due to Google’s security model.

Canoeboot can be used on QEMU (virtual machine), which is useful for debugging payloads and generally trying out Canoeboot, without requiring real hardware.

See: Canoeboot QEMU guide

NOTE: This mainly applies to the x86 machines.

Please check other sections listed above, to see if there is anything pertaining to your motherboard. Internal flashing means that you boot Linux or BSD on the target machine, and run flashprog there, flashing the machine directly.

If you can’t flash internally, you must flash externally.

Internal flashing is often unavailable with the factory firmware, but it is usually possible when Canoeboot is running (barring special circumstances).

**Always remember to skip flashing Intel ME, when using Canoeboot images, even if you compiled from source, to prevent bricks.

Flash chip size

Use this to find out:

flashprog -p internal

In the output will be information pertaining to your boot flash.

Howto: read/write/erase the boot flash

How to read the current chip contents:

sudo flashprog -p internal:laptop=force_I_want_a_brick,boardmismatch=force -r dump.bin

You should still make several dumps, even if you’re flashing internally, to ensure that you get the same checksums. Check each dump using sha1sum

How to erase and rewrite the chip contents:

sudo flashprog -p internal:laptop=force_I_want_a_brick,boardmismatch=force -w canoeboot.rom

NOTE: force_I_want_a_brick is not scary. Do not be scared! This merely disables the safety checks in flashprog. Flashprog and coreboot change a lot, over the years, and sometimes it’s necessary to use this option. If you’re scared, then just follow the above instructions, but remove that option. So, just use -p internal. If that doesn’t work, next try -p internal:boardmismatch=force. If that doesn’t work, try -p internal:boardmismatch=force,laptop=force_I_want_a_brick. So long as you ensure you’re using the correct ROM for your machine, it will be safe to run flashprog. These extra options just disable the safetyl checks in flashprog. There is nothing to worry about.

If successful, it will either say VERIFIED or it will say that the chip contents are identical to the requested image.

NOTE: there are exceptions where the above is not possible. Read about them in the sections below:

Markdown file for this page: https://canoeboot.org/docs/install/index.md

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