Board:lenovo/w520
The wiki is being retired!
Documentation is now handled by the same processes we use for code: Add something to the Documentation/ directory in the coreboot repo, and it will be rendered to https://doc.coreboot.org/. Contributions welcome!
Specification
The W520 comes in 4 quad-core configurations, and 1 dual-core configuration. The quad-core configurations support RAM up to 32GB.
Compared to the superseding W530 model it notably features the conventional keyboard, an eSATA port, and full-size DisplayPort connector.
For more detailed specifications, please refer to the ThinkWiki
Patch history
In November 2016 Charlotte Plusplus has made an initial attempt (mailinglist posts) based on the T520 firmware, with added romstage additions for ram init. This patch was committed in full to the mailing list, but not as a diff to the Gerrit infrastructure. In February 2018 Nico Rikken again customized the T520 firmware, and delivered a working patch set.
Proprietary components status
- CPU Microcode (optional)
- VGA Option ROM (optional): the native graphics initialization tested gave video artifacts in SeaBIOS. When using VGA Bios there were none.
- ME(Management Engine) => you do not have to touch it (just leave it where it is). Also the stripped down T420 version can be re-used.
- EC(Embedded Controller) => you do not have to touch it (just leave it where it is)
Known issues
- The 2 USB 3.0 slots on the side are not working for boot media, just the USB 2.0 slot on the back.
Issues reported by Charlotte Plusplus
In 2016 some issues were reported. These need to be verified base on the most recent W520 patch.
- Native VGA init is not working reliably (discussion thread).
- The coreboot configuration consumes more power than the vendor BIOS does, so some additional settings might be required. (discussion thread).
- No ACPI event when (dis)connecting the bay.
Works
- CPU (4 cores, 8 threads)
- Suspend and resume
- Ethernet port (GbE blob was put into place)
- Speakers
- Webcam (which is an internal USB-device)
- 4 RAM-slots
- Booting GNU Linux from USB using SeaBios
- Speakers
- PCIe Wifi
- Fan
- Touchpad, trackpoint and keyboard
- Ethernet
- Keyboard ACPI events
Flashing
The location of the chip is similar to the T520:
When flashing with a Raspberry Pi no external power is needed. The 3V source from the GPIO is sufficient. The pins WP and HOLD can be left floating.
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