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diff --git a/content/posts/upgrading-and-downgrading-skulls.md b/content/posts/upgrading-and-downgrading-skulls.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..187cf6c --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/upgrading-and-downgrading-skulls.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Upgrading (and Downgrading) Skulls on a Thinkpad laptop" +date: 2020-11-16T22:59:00 +tags: ["Guides", "Hardware", "Linux", "Software"] +--- + +After posting [my previous guide](/flashing-skulls-to-a-thinkpad-x230t/) regarding [Skulls](https://github.com/merge/skulls) I had been running version 0.1.8 on my laptop without issue. Never wanting to leave something good alone though, I decided to endeavor to upgrade the BIOS image to the latest version, because why the hell not. + +The first thing you'll want is to install the two dependencies the script requires. +``` +sudo pacman -S dimdecode flashrom +``` + +Now grab the [latest release](https://github.com/merge/skulls/releases) from the projects Github repository and extract the archive using `tar -xf skulls-x230t-0.0.2.tar.xz`. + +Now, reboot your computer and interrupt grub using your arrow keys before pressing `e` to edit your boot options. + +You want to replace the `quiet` parameter on the `linux` line with `iomem=relaxed` then press F10 to boot with these new options. + +Once booted, navigate back to your extracted skulls directory and run the shell script that will internally flash Skulls: +``` +sudo x230t_skulls.sh +``` + +**Note:** One step I had to do (as I was upgrading from an older *generic* x230 version to a *specific* x230t version) was to skip a compatibility check by altering the `-p internal` parameter to `-p internal:boardmismatch=force`. + +Once completed, you'll now be prompted to shut the computer down. Reboot it and you'll be greeted by the new skulls version. Congratulations! + +### GRUB +During the upgrade, I decided to use the `free` BIOS ROM image, which has the fortunate quirk of booting at native resolution immediately, which makes GRUB's 640x480 resolution look a bit unusual during switches. +This can easily be amended by editing `/etc/default/grub` and adding the line `GRUB_GFXMODE=1366x768x32`, before running `sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg` to apply these changes. + +### Downgrading +Unfortunately, not was all well with my upgrade. Even thought the process completed without issue I noticed strange issues with the computer and firefox crashing intermittently. I tried flashing the non-free image which gave me the exact same response. + +So with only a few moments hesitation I decided to revert to version 0.1.8 again. The process is mostly the exact same as installation (albeit with a different release), however I did get a strange error while installing relating to `Reading old flash chip contents`. As [mentioned (and fixed) in this issue report](https://github.com/merge/skulls/issues/142#issuecomment-593694005), it can be fixed by simply replacing flashroms' `-p internal` parameter with with `-p internal:boardmismatch=force --force --noverify-all`.
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