
Linux Only BIOS Update - Hydraulix989
http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/products/Laptops-and-netbooks/Yoga-Series/yoga-900-13isk2/downloads/DS119354
======
buckbova
> (Linux Only) BIOS Update for Windows 10 (64-bit) - Yoga 900-13ISK2

What's the context?

Edit:

[https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-
Discussion/Yoga-900-13ISK...](https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-
Discussion/Yoga-900-13ISK2-BIOS-update-for-setting-RAID-mode-for-
missing/td-p/3339206)

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/21/lenovo_denies_plot_w...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/21/lenovo_denies_plot_with_microsoft_to_block_linux_installs/)

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/28/lenovo_downward_dogs...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/28/lenovo_downward_dogs_with_yoga_bios_update_supporting_linux_installs/)

~~~
Hydraulix989
Context (looks like my more descriptive title was edited and shortened):

Lenovo's consumer ultrabooks have Intel RAID controllers that are BIOS locked
into a proprietary single-drive RAID ("fake RAID") mode, we confirmed this
through REing:

Linux does not support Intel's new proprietary single-drive RAID mode; many
users were upset when they purchased these new Yoga ultrabooks and found out
that they could not install Linux on them -- Linux would not detect the drive
at all, despite all sorts of effort.

The Intel RAID controllers DO support backwards-compatible AHCI and NVMe
modes, usually you can change this in the BIOS (on almost ALL PCs, that is the
case).

Lenovo initially promised a BIOS update to add the setting back in, but kept
stalling.

After several months, community members reverse engineered Lenovo's BIOS and
found that had Lenovo added a single if/goto statement to the OEM BIOS source
code that jmp'd out of the code that displayed the setting: Lenovo's BIOS was
modified to intentionally remove the SATA controller mode setting.

Another user JTAG flashed their BIOS themselves with a patch to re-enable the
SATA controller setting. After changing the drive back out of RAID mode, said
user confirmed and showed proof that Linux booted, installed, and otherwise
worked fine.

One user asked a Lenovo Rep about installing Linux, and he/she responded,
"This system has a Signature Edition of Windows 10 Home installed. It is
locked per our agreement with Microsoft."

Forum members and Redditors got (understandably) angry.

Lenovo started mass releasing PR damage control to the press within 24 hours,
pointing the finger at such malarkey as their advanced hinge design, the huge
risk they took using a bleeding edge Intel controller, Intel not providing
Linux drivers for their new hardware, battery life degrading if a user
switches out of fake RAID on Windows, Linux RAID mode being inferior to
Windows and incapable of supporting crazy new Intel hardware (which warranted
a thorough technical rebuttal from none other than developer of Linux RAID
himself, Alan Cox), etc.

Microsoft released a statement as well saying they don't block Linux on
Windows 10 Signature Edition PCs.

Lenovo started moderating and censoring their forums heavily, deleting many
posts (including the multi-paged BIOS discussion with the REing), still no
BIOS update, plenty of (still) angry users purchasing the laptop, learning the
hard way it does not support Linux, and (in some cases) being unable to return
it to the store or Lenovo.

TODAY: Lenovo backed down from their position of refusing to release a BIOS
update this morning. They published BIOS updates with the SATA setting
enabled.

------
AndrewLanders
I think the note that "This BIOS is NOT intended for use with machines running
a Windows operation system" is rather telling. People saw the Lenovo BIOS
issue as an anti-Linux move, but really I think it's an anti-Windows 7 move.

~~~
wyldfire
I think there's hardly any "anti" anything here.

Team member: "boss man, we screwed up. let's enable some of our customers to
get a quick fix!"

Boss: "Hmm, ok, sure patch looks good QA team will have them ship shape in 7
weeks once we redo WHQL testing"

Team member: "boss this only benefits our linux customers so we don't need to
do WHQL"

Boss: "hmm we don't have a linux test suite so QA says that there was no
regression with this new release. Good job! Just don't let any of our windows
customers use this release. You can tell g3ntoo04 that he can have this BIOS
update but don't put it on the support website."

~~~
yuhong
I wonder if the fact that it is IdeaPad not ThinkPad don't help here.

------
sliken
How about for the lenovo 721s? The 721s has the same disabled AHCI/RAID
problem.

~~~
Hydraulix989
I would post about it on the Lenovo Community forums. You really have to
pressure Lenovo to get them to help you.

------
cunotaco
Title not editorialised at all, uh?

~~~
Hydraulix989
Not sure I agree with you, given the facts surrounding the ordeal (SOMETHING
prompted Lenovo to release this BIOS update, after all).

Now the edited title ("Linux Only BIOS Update") is much more confusing,
judging by everybody else's comments. The BIOS isn't actually Linux only
either; Windows runs just fine on it.

~~~
sliken
Sure it does, but it allows windows users to _GASP_ reinstall from microsoft
provided media and avoid whatever crap/malware that lenovo includes.

Thus the "linux only" label.

~~~
Hydraulix989
Right, and Lenovo didn't write the title of this post, but the mods changed it
to match Lenovo's though.

