Reader
kruug writes:
Several users noted certain new Lenovo machines' SSDs are locked in a RAID mode, with AHCI removed from the BIOS. Windows is able to see the SSD while in RAID mode due to a proprietary driver, but the SSD is hidden from Linux installations -- for which such a driver is unavailable. Speaking to The Register today, a Lenovo spokesperson claimed the Chinese giant "does not intentionally block customers using other operating systems on its devices and is fully committed to providing Linux certifications and installation guidance on a wide range of products."
Complaints on Lenovo's forums suggest that users have been unable to install GNU/Linux operating systems on models from the Yoga 900S to the Ideapad 710S, with one 19-page thread going into detail about the BIOS issue and users' attempts to work around it.
Re:Good news for me
By TheGratefulNet
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2016-Sep-21 15:16
• Score: 5, Informative
• Thread
you don't know the whole story.
lenovo is many companies. their business laptop division is nothing like the 'yoga crap' that they sell consumers with crapware.
that said, there are issues you need to know about hp and lenovo (those are the 2 that come to mind). they both lock down the pci-e slot so that you can't install your own wifi mini-pcie card due to a blacklist/whitelist in the bios. I bought a t420s laptop a few years ago since it was what we used at work and they seemed very reliable and repairable, too. only after I tried to install an intel gig-wifi card (ac) did it refuse to boot on me. I did find a hacked bios on one of the forums and it works fine, but I have NO IDEA what is really going on and if there is spyware in that hacked bios due to the 'helpful user' who made the bios hack for me. I really cant be sure what was done to that hacked bios, but at least I do get to use the wifi card I want.
other than that, its been a good laptop, it has been repairable and its built pretty well.
the spyware and phone home stuff does not tend to exist on the business level lappies. business guys would not put up with that, generally; only 'yoga users' (lol, what a name!) would.
so, pick the right model of lenovo and be sure you get the right wifi card from purchase. oh, and I tried BUYING the 'right' wifi card after the sale. impossible to do. no one would sell me one and even lenovo would not. incredible. you have to configure it with the ac wifi you want when you buy it. or, take your chances with hacked bios, which I would not really want to do again.
Re:Linux has history of problems with laptops
By Baloroth
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2016-Sep-21 15:34
• Score: 4, Interesting
• Thread
Rather ironically, the Thinkpad series of laptops from Lenovo have excellent (in my experience) Linux compatibility. Lenovo even publishes compatibility certifications for them. I use Mint on a T450s and it worked nearly-perfectly out of the box (only issue I has is with the touchpad, but I prefer the nub mouse anyways and leave the touchpad disabled most of the time).
BIOS security and Flash
By unixisc
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2016-Sep-21 16:23
• Score: 4, Insightful
• Thread
Former flash memory industry worker here. Flash does not work that way. Write Enable is attached to whatever logic circuitry is there - to be asserted following the sequence of address/data write cycles from the CPU or controller to the flash. Write Enable is a dynamic signal tied to the controlling circuitry and logic - it's not something connected to a switch that can be turned on or off by the system's owner.
What you are thinking about is something called Write Protect - which locks a flash, but this can't be a standard solution, b'cos no 2 vendors implement it the same way. Some lock the entire flash i.e. the entire BIOS. Some lock the entire top few sectors and/or bottom few sectors. Some allow the user to select which sectors are to be locked when Write Protect is asserted. Yet, some flash have no Write Protect pins at all. Motherboard vendors - meaning the Asusteks, Gigabytes, Quantas, Compals, Arimas, et al are always cutting deals w/ the likes of flash vendors for the cheapest flash out there, and their designers are required to have interchangeable parts so that they can pit their suppliers in a price pissing contest w/ each other. Since WP# varies, result is the designers would deliberately either make WP# a no-connect, or tie it high to make sure it's permanently disabled. Thereby defeating your solution.
The whole history of BIOS started w/ it first being on PROM/EPROMs. But then, as motherboards became more advanced and in-system re-programmability became necessary, flash memory started replacing them. Usually, it would lock the 'boot blocks' of the flash - meaning either the top few or bottom few sectors, depending on where the boot code of the OS was supposed to reside. However, the rest of the flash was still exposed and vulnerable to being corrupted, which is why the UEFI and the Core Boot conventions were developed.
The real solution to this whole boot thing is the respective projects - be it GRUB or Linux or BSD - coming out w/ a comprehensive solution to UEFI. I know that FreeBSD has come some way in that, but still doesn't allow it such that I can set UEFI protection while still booting from an USB drive (which is how TrueOS wants to distribute the OS). That would help a lot more than playing footsie w/ the default settings of the PC.
Re:Never attribute to malice ...
By iris-n
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2016-Sep-21 16:34
• Score: 5, Insightful
• Thread
If the issue was only that Linux lacked drivers for their SSD configuration that wouldn't be a problem (even though a bit of a dick move from their side). The problem is that there was BIOS setting to change the configuration from RAID to AHCI, but this setting was locked down. The person had to go through some pretty heroic lengths to unlock it.
Not having a Linux driver? That's explainable by stupidity.
Not having a legacy compatibility mode? Could have been explained by stupidity if it were the case.
Having a legacy compatibility mode, but making it inaccessible without a soldering iron? That's just malice.
And frankly, if the company is even considering locking down the BIOS like this, it shows that they have a very weird idea about who owns the damn laptop, and they're never getting my money.
Re:Paranoia amongst the minority.
By Pentium100
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2016-Sep-21 16:38
• Score: 5, Interesting
• Thread
So you're saying that despite technology changing and different things being tried, two companies that don't care at all about linux didn't go out of their way to ensure compatibility with your essentially niche desire to install an unsupported os on their machines is somehow a conspiracy against you?
And yet, as far as I understand this, they disabled the option to turn off fakeraid in BIOS, an option that is present in all PCs that support fakeraid, including the older laptops. Disabling the option does not make Windows run better, so there had to be another reason for doing it. If the reason is not to screw Linux users, then what was it?