(UEFI) Dell XPS 15z L511z modded BIOS - and HOWTO

[Florin9doi]

In the bios 2143 posted here at the offset 0acdh say it's for desktop. Maybe it's related by text mode problem. The bios 2130 posted here it's for mobiles.

I tryed the bios 2130 on my notebook and vesa mode (1366*768) and text mode works, but brightness it's still inverted. If anyone have the same notebook and wish to investigate the problem, i found still two bioses with same version on different notebook: http://www.sendspace.com/file/ux7kwy

[jkbuha]

You're right Florin. I missed that. The clue is to search for $VBT at offset 0xac0h

[nebster]

@TimeWalker
If you have a look in:
https://github.com/NikolajSchlej/PMPatch...UefiLzma.h
the file contains <<<<<<< HEAD and similar. These stop it compiling on all OS's for me. =(

Can you uploaded an unmodified BIOS that the patcher works on and the corresponding modified BIOS?
On the L702X BIOS, it doesn't find most of the patches. Maybe that's what is causing it to be different.

[TimeWalker]

@nebster

>>PMPatch.exe L511ZA11.exe L511ZA11_mod.exe

PMPatch 0.5.3
PowerManagement module not found.
Nested PowerManagement module not found.
Nested PlatformSetupAdvancedDxe.efi at 006B47E4 patched.
Nested PowerManagement2.efi module at 006223FC patched.
Dell RAW file checksums corrected.
CpuPei module not found.

Enclosed are the patcher v0.5.3 binary and a patched 15z A11 bios as well as the original.
http://www.mediafire.com/?q0152inrc205366

---

If your BIOS is somewhat similar to ours, @Florin9doi then you can try something .. it's a neat trick hehe.
Basically for our Tiano laptops when you press the Fn combination an appropriate EC query is executed _Q80 and Q81 for brightness controls.
The query passes a scancode (which is not your regular keyboard scancode but a WMI code rather) in a form of

Code:

Store (0x03, ^^^^AMW0.INF0)
                            Store (Zero, ^^^^AMW0.INF1)
                            Store (0xE006, ^^^^AMW0.INF2) <---- this code for brightness increase
                            Store (Local0, ^^^^AMW0.INF3)
                            If (LEqual (DMFG, Zero))
                            {
                                Notify (AMW0, 0xD0)
                            }

Code:

Store (0x03, ^^^^AMW0.INF0)
                            Store (Zero, ^^^^AMW0.INF1)
                            Store (0xE005, ^^^^AMW0.INF2) <---- this code for brightness decrease
                            Store (Local0, ^^^^AMW0.INF3)
                            If (LEqual (DMFG, Zero))
                            {
                                Notify (AMW0, 0xD0)
                            }

Basically you could invert them in your DSDT (make Q80 call 0xE005 and Q81 call 0xE006) and reflash the module into the BIOS. This way your keys will get back to normal ...
Of course if your BIOS uses regular keyboard scancodes and ACPI methods to control the backlight then it's not really possible to invert.

[jkbuha]

That brings up a good point.

Should we try patching the DSDTs in the BIOS? Is it worth it (we use overrides anyway in OSX), and how do we go about doing this?

@Florin9doi - your BIOS doesn't use ACPI to control backlight, I know because of the DellWMI kext patch we use. Is the inverted brightness only in OSX or also in Windows?

---

On another note I have successfully patched v2130 for all ports so it's working fine now. But I'm using the *mobile* version that was posted here. So we need to find the *mobile* variants for 2137 and 2143 around, otherwise I'm going to have to trawl through mindless 64kb gunk trying to find out what is laptop specific code...

[TimeWalker]

Simple .. extract the module .. for my vostro it has the GUID of 7E374E25-8E01-4FEE-87F2-390C23C606CD_1_943 .. disassemble it using IASL -d -2 (to emit ACPI 2.0 compliant output) .. patch what you need and then compile using IASL again, avoid compiler's optimizations .. they can cause serious issues. You need't worry about the size because this module has no checksumm afaik.

About the VBIOS ... that's why I was looking for a Mobile 2137 or higher and that's why I've asked about the origin.. because desktop VBIOS differs... I just don't know how exactly (but we know it lacks text mode 3 support)...

[jkbuha]

Here's the funny thing though. Lenovo's 2137 bios (for Lenovo B430, Thinkpad Edge E430/53) is *desktop* version...

EDIT: Now I know why I had issues. The above file was for the Lenovo ThinkSTATION (ie: desktop). I've found the correct Lenovo bios under product code H0ET70WW

UPDATE: Running patched Lenovo v2137 with all text modes and ports enabled. Whew - finally! Will be updating main page shortly.

[nebster]

@TimeWalker
Figured out why my output is different! =)
@CodeRush's patcher doesn't recalculate the CRC32 checksums!

I'm on to implementing the patching subsystem now.

[TimeWalker]

Upload the module separately if possible @jkbuha.
And try running ePsa ... it worked for me and passed with 17R's v2130 with patched connectors table.

[jkbuha]

First post updated and I've attached the patched v2137 here as well.

ePSA passes with flying colours on my machine with this mod.

Enjoy!