Libreboot

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A Lemmy community for Libreboot, the essential firmware for fully liberating your laptop!

Libreboot is a free (libre) BIOS/UEFI replacement. Based on coreboot, the aim is to distribute low-level boot firmware that is 100% free software, and easy to use.

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CH341a for Librebooting an X200: Yay or nay? (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'm aware that Leah strongly discourages using CH341a, but I understand that this is chiefly because it's voltage is 5V, whiich risks burning the 1.8V or 3.3V datalines of the devices we're librebooting.

At the same time, I've seen a popular video specifically recommending CH341a when librebooting an X200. I assume this advice should be ignored.

However, Leah also specifies that you can technically tweak the CH341a to reduce it's voltage, following this guidance.

My question is: is this worth it, or is it safer to just use a Beaglebone Black/Raspbery Pi instead? What's your experience been?

I'm unfortunately on a budget, and BB/RPi are both prohibitively expensive for me. Then again, so is a laptop that's bricked thanks to an improperly fixed CH341a.

Have you had problems using a (tweaked or untweaked) CH341a? What's your advice? I really appreciate it. Thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks a ton. I've been looking into this myself, and it seems like the issue was mostly due to a few faulty CH341a models, and it also seems that newer models allow a toggle between 3.3v and 5v. But reassuring that it's worked well for you too.

I think I might get a cheap multimeter as they can come for less than $10, just to be safe. Could be a good long term investment!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are you saying that you got multiple faulty CH341a?

I did ran into an issue of inconsistent chip reading and the issue turned out to be the lack of amps. For that I attached an external power supply. Arduino works as long as the AC plug is used (not the USB).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Oh sorry I meant I've seen reports that the voltage issue was due to a few faulty programmers, I've personally never used one.

Interestingly, this video also brings up amps as the root cause, not volts. I might get an Arduino in that case just for more control, but would you say it's beginner-friendly? This would be my first time attempting libreboot (or any kind of chip programming for that matter)..

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You'd only need to plug the power in and connect the 3v3 & ground to the chip. I was only mentioning this because then you'd never have to set the voltage and a lot of people have it laying around. Otherwise, any DC power supply would do as long as you can get that 3.3v output.