T430 BIOS dump and ME binaries?

[geokoder]

Is it possible to read the BIOS of this machine without a hardware chip? Is there a working backup tool?

I'm attempting to build coreboot and am having some issues getting the descriptor, gde, and ME binaries. Are those binaries signed to individual machines, or can I save myself some time and rip them from another T430 board I have lying around?

[Dudu2002]

Is it possible to read the BIOS of this machine without a hardware chip? Is there a working backup tool?

I'm attempting to build coreboot and am having some issues getting the descriptor, gde, and ME binaries. Are those binaries signed to individual machines, or can I save myself some time and rip them from another T430 board I have lying around?

Hi
you got a brick?
recovery bios - using SPI-programmer+SOIC8 clip only

[bryceadamprescott]

Is it possible to read the BIOS of this machine without a hardware chip? Is there a working backup tool?

I'm attempting to build coreboot and am having some issues getting the descriptor, gde, and ME binaries. Are those binaries signed to individual machines, or can I save myself some time and rip them from another T430 board I have lying around?

Flashrom, the non-vendor tool to read and flash firmware, does not work with T430 internally. The easiest way to read and write firmware is with a Raspberry Pi 3 ($35) and Ponoma SOIC 8 pin clip ($20). Ebay sells CH134a USB chip reader/writer for cheap but I haven't had any luck with the one I ordered.

The major variation on the T430 Motherboards is that some are Intel GPU only and others are Optimus (Intel + NVidia GPU). Besides that, there always could be slight variations and revisions; these variations could be enough to make official Lenovo firmware unusable on "sister" boards but, besides the NVidia chip, Coreboot shouldn't have any issues dealing with these variations.

I'm also trying to get Coreboot to work. I have been able to get Coreboot up and running with the Intel GPU only but haven't had any luck getting any video from the NVidia GPU. Below are Dropbox links to various useful files like firmware dumps and Coreboot builds:

T430_Optimus_Combined_Unmodified.bin

T430_Optimus_ME_Cleaned_Combined.bin
T430_Optimus_Extracted_GBE.bin
T430_Optimus_Extracted_Descriptor_Shrunk.bin
T430_Optimus_Extracted_ME_Disabled_Shrunk.bin
T430_Optimus_Coreboot_Seabios_Text.bin
T430_Optimus_Coreboot_Seabios_Text.config
T430_Optimus_Coreboot_Seabios_VGA.bin
T430_Optimus_Coreboot_Seabios_VGA.config

Please keep in mind that the Coreboot images are a WIP. The T430 Coreboot binaries probably will work on non-Optimus motherboards.