I have a Lenovo X131e which is currently running an old BIOS from johnlewis.ie (4.0-6588-g4acd8ea-dirty, 09/04/2014). It was originally a Chromebook and I replaced the BIOS so there would be no danger of it automatically reinstalling Chrome. I see there is a Lenovo page at https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds029771-bios-update-utility-boot... with what appear to be BIOS updates from 2019 for the x131e, any machine type, but labeled as for Windows. Are other people using this already with Fedora? If I installed it using the Bootable CD image, any reason why the current Fedora-only install wouldn't continue to work? Just want to make sure since it's currently working okay and I just don't like the idea of having an old nonstandard BIOS installed.
BTW, it has an Intel Celeron 1007U CPU and my machine type according to the label is 628323U (6283 for short). That type is not listed as one the BIOS is intended for, however I'm guessing that's only because this was originally a Chromebook?
It SHOULD work. It is just that for these bios updates Lenovo only lists WIn versions.
Just make sure you have not locked the bios firmware before you boot up with the CD you made from the ISO image.
I have been using Lenovo x1--e notebooks for 10 years, all used from ebay, and applying bios updates I downloaded from Lenovo.
This IS my first 131. It is the AMD chip.
On 2/28/25 7:59 AM, Andre Robatino wrote:
BTW, it has an Intel Celeron 1007U CPU and my machine type according to the label is 628323U (6283 for short). That type is not listed as one the BIOS is intended for, however I'm guessing that's only because this was originally a Chromebook?
I burned g8uj35us.iso to a thumb drive using mediawriter and tried booting from it by selecting the thumb drive after "Press ESC for boot menu". It failed with the messages
Booting from Hard Disk... Boot failed: not a bootable disk Booting from CBFS...
Then spewed some messages to the screen and stopped. I was able to recover with Ctrl-Alt-Del. No harm done, anyway, still works fine with Fedora.
Is secure boot turned on? That could cause it not to boot.
Regards
Andrew
On 28 February 2025 16:03:36 "Andre Robatino" robatino@fedoraproject.org wrote:
I burned g8uj35us.iso to a thumb drive using mediawriter and tried booting from it by selecting the thumb drive after "Press ESC for boot menu". It failed with the messages
Booting from Hard Disk... Boot failed: not a bootable disk Booting from CBFS...
Then spewed some messages to the screen and stopped. I was able to recover with Ctrl-Alt-Del. No harm done, anyway, still works fine with Fedora. -- _______________________________________________ users mailing list -- users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to users-leave@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue
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The current BIOS is SeaBIOS. AFAIK all I can do is hit ESC after booting to select the boot device (it boots from the regular SSD by default and then shows Fedora's grub menu if I don't do that). There doesn't seem to be anything like a conventional BIOS menu. And before installing this BIOS I had to open the laptop and flip a switch to allow the firmware to be written, then I left it like that, so it should still be writable.
I have rarely made bootable thumb drives. I always burn such ISO images to CD using K3B then use a USB CD/DVD player/burner (the one I used to make the CD).
But the messages say booting from Hard Disk, not your USB disk. That is suspect.
On 2/28/25 11:02 AM, Andre Robatino wrote:
I burned g8uj35us.iso to a thumb drive using mediawriter and tried booting from it by selecting the thumb drive after "Press ESC for boot menu". It failed with the messages
Booting from Hard Disk... Boot failed: not a bootable disk Booting from CBFS...
Then spewed some messages to the screen and stopped. I was able to recover with Ctrl-Alt-Del. No harm done, anyway, still works fine with Fedora.
The thumb drive was easily recognizable in the boot options, and confirmed in some of the messages that appeared after. Plus, my only other drive on the laptop is the SSD with Fedora (which boots fine), there is no actual HDD. So I think that's just a generic message.
Should also mention that I clean install each new version of Fedora (GNOME Workstation Live) on the laptop using the same thumb drive and also burning the image to it using mediawriter. That always works fine.
On Fri, Feb 28, 2025 at 7:52 AM Andre Robatino robatino@fedoraproject.org wrote:
I have a Lenovo X131e which is currently running an old BIOS from johnlewis.ie (4.0-6588-g4acd8ea-dirty, 09/04/2014). It was originally a Chromebook and I replaced the BIOS so there would be no danger of it automatically reinstalling Chrome. I see there is a Lenovo page at https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds029771-bios-update-utility-boot... with what appear to be BIOS updates from 2019 for the x131e, any machine type, but labeled as for Windows. Are other people using this already with Fedora? If I installed it using the Bootable CD image, any reason why the current Fedora-only install wouldn't continue to work? Just want to make sure since it's currently working okay and I just don't like the idea of having an old nonstandard BIOS installed.
Related to Windows-only support... I encounter this on occasion, like on Acer laptops. I work around this by purchasing a SSD with a USB interface (i.e., thumb drive).[0] The thumb drive is SSD-fast, and usually provides USB 3.0. Then I use Rufus to install Windows on the thumb drive. That gives me a Windows2Go machine so I can install firmware updates.[1] Windows2Go is a version (configuration?) of Windows that runs on a thumb drive instead of a hard drive.
Finally, I boot to Windows on the thumb drive and install the BIOS or UEFI updates. Once the updates are complete, I put the thumb drive back in the desk drawer until I need to perform another firmware update.
Some computers, like some from Dell and HP, support Linux or provide an agnostic procedure that does not depend on Windows. I especially like Dell's procedure. Dell gives you the BIOS/UEFI update as a self-extracting zip file *.exe). But the firmware updater can parse the zip file, so you never need to decompress it. The updater will do it for you. All you need to do is place the EXE file at /boot/efi, then boot into the BIOS, select BIOS Upgrade, and select the EXE from the filesystem.
[0] https://rufus.ie/en/ [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-1...
Jeff
I tried running the firmware-util.sh utility at Mrchromebox.tech, and it looks like it will work (I'm not going to burn the UEFI firmware right now as my existing Fedora install isn't expected to work after that so I'll have to reinstall, which I'll do when F42 goes Gold). The first time I ran it it had some errors and suggested that I boot with the iomem=relaxed kernel option. That worked, and the output was
ChromeOS Device Firmware Utility Script [2025-02-27] (c) Mr Chromebox mrchromebox@gmail.com ********************************************************* ** Device: Lenovo Thinkpad X131e Chromebook ** Board Name: STOUT ** Platform: Intel IvyBridge ** Fw Type: Full ROM / Legacy ** Fw Ver: 4.0-6588-g4acd8ea-dirty (09/04/2014) ** Fw WP: Disabled ********************************************************* ** [WP] 1) Install/Update UEFI (Full ROM) Firmware ** [WP] 2) Restore Stock Firmware ********************************************************* Select a numeric menu option or R to reboot P to poweroff Q to quit
Well that is good to hear.
I really like these Lenovos.
But I wonder if they support Win11; going to have to check out my one 140e that is running Win10 and figure out what to do come 10's EOL. Unfortunately I do need one Win box...
On 3/12/25 1:32 PM, Andre Robatino wrote:
I tried running the firmware-util.sh utility at Mrchromebox.tech, and it looks like it will work (I'm not going to burn the UEFI firmware right now as my existing Fedora install isn't expected to work after that so I'll have to reinstall, which I'll do when F42 goes Gold). The first time I ran it it had some errors and suggested that I boot with the iomem=relaxed kernel option. That worked, and the output was
ChromeOS Device Firmware Utility Script [2025-02-27] (c) Mr Chromebox mrchromebox@gmail.com
** Device: Lenovo Thinkpad X131e Chromebook ** Board Name: STOUT ** Platform: Intel IvyBridge ** Fw Type: Full ROM / Legacy ** Fw Ver: 4.0-6588-g4acd8ea-dirty (09/04/2014) ** Fw WP: Disabled
** [WP] 1) Install/Update UEFI (Full ROM) Firmware ** [WP] 2) Restore Stock Firmware
Select a numeric menu option or R to reboot P to poweroff Q to quit
Since 42 Beta went Gold, I decided to install the UEFI firmware and then F42. Afterwards, it works perfectly. I had 2 issues before: 1) suspend didn't work, and 2) the GRUB menu wasn't responsive on a cold boot (I could see it but not interact), unless I plugged in an external USB keyboard. Both issues are fixed. The firmware utility output is now
ChromeOS Device Firmware Utility Script [2025-03-13] (c) Mr Chromebox mrchromebox@gmail.com ********************************************************* ** Device: Lenovo Thinkpad X131e Chromebook ** Board Name: STOUT ** Platform: Intel IvyBridge ** Fw Type: Full ROM / UEFI ** Fw Ver: MrChromebox-2408.1 (09/14/2024) ** Fw WP: Disabled ********************************************************* ** [WP] 1) Install/Update UEFI (Full ROM) Firmware ** [WP] 2) Restore Stock Firmware ** C) Clear UEFI NVRAM ********************************************************* Select a numeric menu option or R to reboot P to poweroff Q to quit
The script itself was updated since the last time I ran it, and the firmware version is only about 6 months old.
hmmmm.
I have twice had a failure to resume after suspend, and attributed it to having done a dnf update and gotten a new kernel.
If we have a firmware problem in F41 that is fixed in F42, how do we get it back-ported?
On 3/16/25 9:26 PM, Andre Robatino wrote:
Since 42 Beta went Gold, I decided to install the UEFI firmware and then F42. Afterwards, it works perfectly. I had 2 issues before: 1) suspend didn't work, and 2) the GRUB menu wasn't responsive on a cold boot (I could see it but not interact), unless I plugged in an external USB keyboard. Both issues are fixed. The firmware utility output is now
ChromeOS Device Firmware Utility Script [2025-03-13] (c) Mr Chromebox mrchromebox@gmail.com
** Device: Lenovo Thinkpad X131e Chromebook ** Board Name: STOUT ** Platform: Intel IvyBridge ** Fw Type: Full ROM / UEFI ** Fw Ver: MrChromebox-2408.1 (09/14/2024) ** Fw WP: Disabled
** [WP] 1) Install/Update UEFI (Full ROM) Firmware ** [WP] 2) Restore Stock Firmware ** C) Clear UEFI NVRAM
Select a numeric menu option or R to reboot P to poweroff Q to quit
The script itself was updated since the last time I ran it, and the firmware version is only about 6 months old.
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Andre Robatino -
Andrew Pearce -
Jeffrey Walton -
Robert Moskowitz