BIOS Upgrade

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This page is meant to describe ways to update the BIOS on a ThinkPad that only runs Linux for users that don't have ready access to Windows. If you have Windows on your ThinkPad you can just boot into it and follow instructions on the IBM website.

Updating the BIOS in Linux (with few exceptions) is not officially supported by IBM/Lenovo. However there are work arounds.


ATTENTION!
By following any of the instructions here you are accepting the very real risk of turning your ThinkPad into a big expensive paper weight, as a firmware update gone wrong can create unfix-able problems. Proceed at your own risk!

Downloading New Firmware

ATTENTION!
Flashing the wrong firmware for your hardware may cause permanent damage to your ThinkPad. It is up to you to confirm that the firmware you are using is correct.

A list of links to firmware downloads can be found at BIOS Upgrade Downloads for most Thinkpad models. You can also check the Lenovo Support website's driver matrix.

Lenovo provides firmware upgrades in a variety of packages:

  • Diskette
  • Non-diskette
  • Linux diskette
  • BIOS Utility
  • Bootable CD

Not every type of package is available for every model.

The BIOS Utility and Bootable CD packages combine the BIOS and ECP firmwares. For the other packages, there is one for each firmware.

Help needed
Can an image be extracted from a "Linux diskette" .exe file?

The Linux diskette is just the Diskette package that runs on Linux instead of Windows/DOS. It's unknown if a boot image can be extracted from it.

You may need to try different packages to find the one from which you can extract a boot image.

Two Firmwares: BIOS and ECP

ATTENTION!
Flashing incompatible firmwares may cause permanent damage to your ThinkPad.

It is important to understand that Thinkpads from IBM have two separate firmwares: the BIOS, and the Embedded Controller Program (ECP).

A given BIOS version will require a certain version of the ECP. You must read the IBM/Lenovo website or .txt files to confirm which BIOS is compatible with which ECP, and the order in which to update them'.

The IBM documentation is sometimes unclear about the order in which these two firmwares should be updated. When in doubt, update the ECP first, and then the BIOS. Make sure to do the two updates immediately one after the other. (Newer models from Lenovo update both the ECP and the BIOS at the same time, so you don't have to worry about it.)

Installed Firmware

You can check the current BIOS and ECP versions on your ThinkPad by using dmidecode. For example:

# dmidecode -s bios-version 

1RETDRWW (3.23 )

# dmidecode -t 11 

# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.33 present.
Handle 0x0029, DMI type 11, 5 bytes
OEM Strings
        String 1: IBM ThinkPad Embedded Controller -[1RHT71WW-3.04    ]-

Showing BIOS version 3.23 (1RETDRWW) and ECP version 3.04 (1RHT71WW).

DMI IDs

Please consider updating the List of DMI IDs before (and after) updating your BIOS.


Updating Thinkpad X Series

The special update instructions for X1, X1 Carbon, X1 Carbon G2, X1 Carbon G3, X1 Carbon G4, X1 Carbon G5, X1 Carbon G6, X1 Carbon G7, X1 Carbon G8, X1 Extreme, X1 Extreme G2, X1 Hybrid, X13, X20, X21, X22, X23, X24, X30, X31, X32, X40, X41, X41 Tablet, X60, X60s, X60 Tablet, X61, X61s, X61Ls, X61 Tablet, X100e, X120e, X121e, X130e, X131e, X140e, X200, X200s, X200 Tablet, X201, X201i, X201s, X201si, X201 Tablet, X201i Tablet, X220, X220i, X220 Tablet, X220i Tablet, X230, X230i, X230s, X230 Tablet, X230i Tablet, X240, X240s, X250, X260, X270, X280, X300, X301, X390, X395 Thinkpads are quite long. You can find them at the page BIOS_Upgrade/X_Series.

Updating Firmware

There are two basic steps to updating the firmware (either the BIOS or the ECP) on a ThinkPad not running Windows:

  1. Extract a bootable update image
  2. Boot from that image

Extracting an update image

This installer appears to be a 32bit windows .exe which is designed for updating the BIOS directly from a running Windows OS. It turns out that this .exe is really a wrapper license program around Windows .cab files (see BIOS-Bootsplash). If you install the Linux program cabextract you can expand these .cab files directly. Run the following:

$ cabextract FILENAME.exe

This will extract 8 files in the current directory. One of them will be FILENAME.img. In this discussion, "FILENAME" represents the name of the Non Diskette file that you downloaded, such as "1NHJ04US".

The non Diskette download was not extractable for at least the version 3.23 (T41p), but the diskette version worked perfectly - cabextract delivered a .img file to continue here...



Booting from update image

BIOS Upgrade Paths

For every firmware (either BIOS or Embedded Controller program) update on the IBM web site there used to be two different firmware update programs provided. The Diskette Updater and the Non Diskette Updater. For newer Lenovo Models the Diskette Updater is replaced with a bootable CD-Image and the Non Diskette Updater is renamed BIOS Update Utility, both of which update the BIOS and the Embedded Controller program at the same time. A list of links to firmware downloads can be found at BIOS Upgrade Downloads for nearly all Thinkpad Models.

The Diskette Updater

ATTENTION!
Using the floppy disk method is NOT recommended. If the floppy fails while flashing, your ThinkPad may be permanently damaged.


The Diskette updater appears to be a 16 bit DOS program which asks you to accept a license agreement. It will run in Windows, DOS, OS/2, or Dosemu perfectly, but requires a real floppy disk attached via a real floppy controller. A USB Floppy Drive typically will not work.

Tips:

  • Use a clean (in the physical sense) floppy and floppy drive
  • Test floppies for errors before starting update process
  • Have multiple copies of the update disks ready--if one should fail, replace it with a copy
  • Should DOS complain of a read error, only respond wth "Retry".


ATTENTION!
Should the system encounter a disk read error during the flash process, and you select "Abort", your system could be permanently damaged.


The Bootable CD Image

Newer models from Lenovo can be updated using the Bootable CD Image. This should be the easiest way for non-Windows users and also maybe a more secure way for Windows users, as well. As the image is provided as a plain ISO-file without any Windows enclosure, you can simply burn it to a CD-R/RW with any modern operating system, as long as you have a CD/DVD-RW Drive and are then able to boot from it.

Extracting a Bootable CD-ROM Image from the Non Diskette Updater

ATTENTION!
Though this process was successfully tested on one version of .exe files found on IBMs website this doesn't mean it will work for all of them. Proceed at your own risk. Consult the list at the bottom of this page to see other users' experience with your model Thinkpad.

This installer appears to be a 32bit windows .exe which is designed for updating the BIOS directly from a running Windows OS. It turns out that this .exe is really a wrapper license program around Windows .cab files (see BIOS-Bootsplash). If you install the Linux program cabextract you can expand these .cab files directly. Run the following:

$ cabextract FILENAME.exe

This will extract 8 files in the current directory. One of them will be FILENAME.img. In this discussion, "FILENAME" represents the name of the Non Diskette file that you downloaded, such as "1NHJ04US".

The non Diskette download was not extractable for at least the version 3.23 (T41p), but the diskette version worked perfectly - cabextract delivered a .img file to continue here...

You can test that this is really a floppy image by running:

# mkdir mntfloppy
# mount -o loop FILENAME.img mntfloppy
# ls -la mntfloppy

If the results of # ls -la mntfloppy look like a dos floppy, and no read errors were displayed, you have a pretty good chance that the floppy image is usable.

Unmount the image after you are done:

# umount mntfloppy

Now, you can proceed to Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image, below.

Booting the image with syslinux

Once the image is extracted from the Non Diskette Updater, it can be booted directly through GRUB without the need of burning a CD. This method has been tested on T42 with a broken DVD-ROM, but it should be applicable to any ThinkPad.

1. Download the Non Diskette Updater.

2. Extract the images using cabextract (see previous sections for details). Let's say that the image file is called 1RUJ37US.IMG (replace with the actual filename).

3. Make sure that syslinux package is installed in your system. Locate the memdisk file from the syslinux package. In case of openSUSE 11.1, it is placed in /usr/share/syslinux/memdisk. On Ubuntu 9.04, it can be found at /usr/lib/syslinux/memdisk.

Hint:
If you use rpm, try calling $ rpm -q syslinux --list

4. Copy both the image and memdisk files into /boot directory. You must be root to do this.

# cp ./1RUJ37US.IMG /usr/share/syslinux/memdisk /boot/

5. Open /boot/grub/menu.lst in your favourite editor.

6. Copy the active section and edit title, kernel, initrd according to this example: 

title IBM BIOS update
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /boot/memdisk
    initrd /boot/1RUJ37US.IMG
NOTE!
The root section must remain unchanged. This tells GRUB, on which partition the image is located.
ATTENTION!
Do not modify the original section in /boot/grub/menu.lst. You might not be able to boot back to the operating system

Updating via CD/DVD Drive

The whole thing gets more complicated if you neither have Windows nor a floppy drive installed. This is what this page is intended to describe.

Creating a Floppy Image

If you have created a boot floppy on another machine, you need to create an image file of that floppy. This can be easily done in linux by running a command line:

# dd bs=2x80x18b if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/floppy.img

You can also create a floppy image by using Ken Kato's VMware's back. It is a free Windoze tool that creates a virtual floppy drive and allows you to produce an image file ready to be ISO'ed. Note: you might have to 'manually' (through application's interface) assign the virtual drive a volume letter in order to be seen by IBM's application (as, by default, it seems not to do it).

You should verify this floppy.img as explained above.

Creating a Bootable CD from a Floppy Image

Once you have your floppy image, either from imaging a real floppy, or from extracting them via the cabextract method above, you need to make a boot CD out of it.

The eltorito bootable CD standard is a wonderful thing. What this means is that a bootable CD can be made with a bootable floppy in such as way that the CD believes that it is a 2.88 MB floppy drive. This allows you to replace a boot floppy by a boot CD in nearly all situations.

It is very easy to create such a bootable CD ISO image in Linux using the mkisofs tool. To do this run a command as follows:

# mkisofs -b bootfloppy.img -o bootcd.iso bootfloppy.img

where bootfloppy.img is the name of the .img floppy image file, for example 1NUJ10US.IMG.

Note: This creates a CD with one file on it and marks that file as the boot image. For more info on this read $ man mkisofs.

You can now burn the bootcd.iso in your favorite CD burning program.

To get an overview which models have been tested with this version, here is a list:

Does work:

Model Tested by
600E (2645-4AU)
  • George Tellalov <gtellalov_dontspamme@bigfoot.com>. BIOS 1.16 from spsdin36.exe worked perfectly with the method bootable cd from floppy image. I highly recommend this upgrade because it made my ibm-acpi module load (it wouldn't load before) and fixed some suspend to ram problems. Here's the cd image I used. Use at your own risk. You can send me a chocolate if it works for you ;)
600E (2645-5bU)
  • Mike Vincent<matchstc-putobvioushere.com>. Bios 1.16 from spsdin36.exe and then to the boot cd worked great for me. Thought I had bricked it three separate times using a "real" floppy! Each from different diskettes .The updater would start, give me the "going to take30 seconds" speech...and then access the HD for 10 minutes. Each time it would reboot fine. Did the cd as described above...worked great first time. Perhaps 10 year old seldom used floppy disc drives have some challenges?
600X (2645)
  • Jonathan Byrne <jonathan@RemoveThisToMailMe.yamame.org>. BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe worked perfectly using cabextract/CD method.
600X (2645)
  • Andy Barnes <andy@RemoveThisToMailMe.itchypaws.co.uk>. As per Jonathan above, extracted BIOS 1.11 from spsuit55.exe using cabextract, created a CD boot image and burnt to CD. Worked flawlessly - thanks to everyone who contributed to this article!
A20p (2629-6VU)
A21e (2628-JXU)
  • Amit Gurdasani <gurdasani at yahoo dot com>. BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method. Alarmingly, after the BIOS update, the laptop beeped but did not shut down as was indicated onscreen -- that was frozen on the "do not shut down the laptop" screen. On power down and up again, the BIOS setup showed the newer BIOS image running, and Linux booted up fine. Linux ACPI didn't complain about the BIOS being too old either.
A31p (2653)
  • Matthias Meinke largeeddy@gmx.at, BIOS 1.09 1NET15WW flashed fine with cabextract/CD method.
A31 (2652)
  • Aaron Denney, BIOS 1.13 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method. The cabextract/CD method also worked for BIOS 1.10.
R30
  • Jarrod, 30 August 2007, Thinkpad R30 Type 2656-E0M. BIOS updated to 1.40 (1CETF0WW) using floppy disk/mkisofs/cdrecord. Worked fine, no problems.
R31
R40
R50 (1836-3SU)
  • jlbartos <jlbartos at hotmail dot com>
R50e (1834-PTG)
  • item <item at freemail dot hu> : successfully finished with cabextract/CD method for "1wuj25us.exe" (BIOS version 1WET90WW (2.10), Release Date: 2006/12/22)
  • Christos Nouskas <nouskas at gmail dot com>: upgraded to BIOS version 1WET90WW (2.10) and EC version 1VHT28WW (1.04) using GRUB (BIOS first / EC second)
R51 (1829)
  • Robert Uhl <rob dot uhl at gmx dot de>, Jellby <jellby at yahoo dot com>
R51 (1830-RM7)
  • Will Parker <stardotstar at sourcepoint dot com dot au> successfully flashed 3.20 using existing 3.04 ECP and retained custom boot splash.
R51 (2887)
  • Ingo van Lil <inguin at gmx dot de>
R52 (1858)
  • Stuart McCord <stuart dot mccord at gmail dot com> flashed both BIOS and ECP using cabextract, BIOS flashed first as on IBM website
T20
  • Franz Hassels <fhassel at suse dot com>
T22
  • Daniel Maier <nusse teamidiot de>
  • Mathias Behrle (with cabextract/CD method, Version 1.07 => 1.12) --Mathiasb 11:58, 14 December 2006 (CET)
  • Bob Skaroff (cabextract/CD), 1.06 => 1.12
  • Leo Butler (cabextract/CD), 1.11 => 1.12
T23
  • Bart Snapp <snapp at uiuc dot edu> Note: I followed IBM's instructions to flash the BIOS *first* and the Embedded Controller *second*.
  • Moy Easwaran: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a via cabextract and CD-boot. The BIOS-update exe generated errors in Windows 2000.
  • Joe Renes: BIOS 1.18 / EC 1.06a on 2006-03-20 via cabextract and CD-boot. Piece of cake.
  • Raphael Errani: BIOS 1.20 / EC 1.06a on 2006-11-06 via cabextract and CD-boot (using mkisofs). Worked without errors. 1st Bios, 2nd EC
  • Myron Getman: BIOS 1.20 / EC 1.06a on 9/10/08 via cabextract --> k3b --> CD-boot. Worked like a charm. First BIOS update with Linux!
  • Leo Butler: BIOS 1.13 / EC 1.04 to 1.20/1.06a via cabextract and syslinux/memdisk boot through grub. Worked like a charm and no wasted CD.
T30
  • Martin Gühring <guehring at gmail.com> BIOS 2.10 via cabextract the Non-Diskette BIOS -> mkisofs in the directory the exe was extracted to generate the iso -> burn the iso -> boot the CD
T40
T40p
  • Lukas Krähenbühl, ismo at pop dot agri dot ch
  • Thomas Achtemichuk, tom at tomchuk dot com. BIOS 3.15 flashed fine with cabextract/CD method
T41
  • Lev Givon (Bios 3.15 / EC 3.04) <lev at columbia dot edu>
  • Ernesto Hernández-Novich (Bios 3.19 / CP 3.04) < emhn at usb dot ve >
  • James Ballantine (Bios 3.21 / CP 3.04) using nondisk/cabextract/CDRW
T41p
  • Nils Newman, work great. (Version: Bios 3.14 / Embedded Controller 3.04)
T42
  • Dan (BIOS 3.20 / EC 3.04, cabextract/CD method) <tronic171 at evilphb.org>
  • Hirosh Dabui <hirosh@dabui.de>
  • magarzo <mdr.magarzo at gmail.com> (BIOS v.3.23 / Embedded Controller v.3.04 / both with cabextract to non-diskette v. plus Bootable CD {T42 Type: 2373-JXG}
T42p
  • Robert Schiele <rschiele@uni-mannheim.de>, Joern Heissler <joern@heissler.de>, Hirosh Dabui <hirosh@dabui.de>
T43
  • Conrad Rentsch <Conrad dot Rentsch at t-online dot de> (Version: Bios 1.29 / Embedded Controller 1.06)
  • Tom Heady <tom-thinkwiki.org@punch.net>
  • Florian Boucault <florian at boucault dot ath dot cx> (Model : 1871-W34 & Version: Bios 1.23 / Embedded Controller 1.03)
  • Till Heikamp <t dot heikamp at geniusbytes dot com> (Model 2886, Bios 1.22 to 1.29, Embedded Controller 1.03 to 1.06)
T60
  • Roman Komkov <roman at komkov dot org dot ru> (Model 1951, Bios 1.07 to 2.13) Successfully upgraded from CD Image
T61
  • Kai Weber <kai.weber at glorybox dot org> (Bios 1.06 to 1.26) Successfully upgraded from CD Image
X20
  • Neil Caunt <retardis at gmail dot com>
X21
  • Patrick Leickner <ranma at web dot de>, (BIOS 2.21->2.25 / EC 1.31->1.36) via non-disk/cabextract/mkisofs/cdrecord
X22
  • David Emery <dave at skiddlydee dot com>, (EC 1.30, BIOS 1.32 using non-disk/cabextract/CD method)
X23
  • Nils Faerber <nils dot faerber at kernelconcepts dot de> (Embedded Controller 1.30, BIOS 1.32 with cabextract/CD method)
X30
  • Hella Breitkopf, www (Embedded Controller 1.04, BIOS 1.07 with cabextract/CD method)
  • William Roe <willroe at gmail dot com> (Embedded Controller 1.06, BIOS 1.09 - cabextract/mkisofs/wodim)
X31
  • Grzegorz KuÅ›nierz <koniu at sheket dot org> (Embedded Controller 1.08, BIOS 3.01 with cabextract/CD method)
X40
  • Robbie Stone <robbie@serendipity.cx>
  • Andy Shevchenko <andy.shevchenko@gmail.com> (Fine by cabextract/CD method)
Z60m
  • Morle 01:09, 17 Nov 2007 (CEST), (Embedded Controller 1.18 and Bios 1.24 with cabextract/CD method)

Does not work:

Model Tested by

Updating via Grub and a Floppy Image

ATTENTION!
Many have warned not to use the SYSLINUX image-loader MEMDISK to boot the images! Some flash tools may crash in that situation! Proceed at your own risk!


Floppy images may be booted from Grub via a utility called MEMDISK, which may be compiled from the SYSLINUX source. Copy the compiled memdisk image and the floppy image to your boot directory and configure grub as follows: 

title     Bios Flash
kernel    /boot/memdisk
initrd    /boot/FILENAME.img

Again, proceed at your own risk.


MEMDISK worked

Model BIOS ECP Tested by Notes
R30 2656-64G v.1.40 Yuri Spirin
R40 2723 1OHJ11WW.IMG 1PUJ25US.IMG Qunying memdisk from syslinux 3.70 (slackware 12.1)
R51 2888
T40 2373 1RUJ37US.IMG 1RHJ10U2.IMG Euphoria memdisk from syslinux 1:3.31-4 (Debian package version)
T40 2373 1RHJ10U2.IMG
(3.04, 2004-11-15)		 1RUJ37US.IMG
(3.23, 2007-07-03)		 Morphics cabextract and memdisk from syslinux 3:1.36-4ubuntu5
T41p 2373 1RUJ37US.IMG
(3.23, 2007-07-03)		 Deggel cabextract and memdisk from syslinux 3.71 on gentoo
T41p 2373 James Lee
X31 2673-CBU Jan Topinski
X31 2672-CXU TheAnarcat
X31 2673-58G FaUl
X31 2672-PG9 Starox a big moment between starting update and the updating window
X40 2371 2.07 1uuj21us.exe 1.62 1uhj10us.exe Jakob Truelsen Worked on two X40-2371
X40 2386 2.08 1uuj22us.exe 1.62 1uhj10us.exe Galen Seitz memdisk from syslinux 3.61


MEMDISK did not work

Model BIOS ECP Tested by Notes
T43 2668-F7G 1.29 1YUJ18US.IMG Maus3273 I got into the bios program, but the machine never restarts after initiating the upgrade.
X41 2525-FAG 2.09 74UJ15US Uwe Kleine-König booted fine (Debian syslinux 2:3.71+dfsg-5), but didn't succeed to write, just hang at "Don't restart or remove diskette etc. pp" (not bricked). Worked fine via CD method.
X41 2525-F8G 2.06 74UJ12US.IMG
2.07 74UJ13US.IMG
2.09 74UJ15US.IMG		 Lauri Koponen hangs while initializing the actual BIOS flashing process
ECP: 1.02 74HJ03US.IMG works

Updating with Network Boot Image

BIOS, Embedded Controller (EC), CD/DVD and Harddisk firmware disks can be booted over the network with PXELINUX as part of the SYSLINUX package.

This requires that you have a DHCP and tftp server configured and setup properly on your network, and is probably not for the faint of heart.

Make sure the firmware bootdisk is in linux 'dd' format, as the self-extracting .exe disks from the IBM website cannot be booted directly as such.

This worked on the R31, X22, T21, T30 and T41p with various firmware updates.


On X22, works with EC 1.30 but NOT with BIOS 1.32


After updating

DMI IDs

Please consider updating the List of DMI IDs after (and before) updating your BIOS.


Special Cases

  • In one case, see (APM setup on a type 2379 ThinkPad T40), it was not possible to upgrade the BIOS from Windows XP; a downgrade to Windows 98 was required to successfully run the BIOS upgrade app. The symptoms in this case were that, once the files had been extracted to the hard disk, and the machine was to reboot into the upgrade app, it would beep and hang just before reboot, requiring a power cycle. Once the power was cycled, it would simply reboot back into XP without performing any BIOS upgrade actions. So even if you have Windows, you may still need to use the info on this page.
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