Install RBoot on Dell Latitude laptops

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Please read GbE safety as well, before following this guide.

This document will teach you how to install RBoot, on various models of Dell Latitude laptop motherboard, namely Dell Latitude E4300, E6400, E6400 XFR, E6400 ATG, E5420, E5520, E5530, E6420, E6430, E6520, E6530, E6230, E6330, E7240, and E6220; you must only install RBoot on models with Intel graphics. RBoot is a Free Software project that replaces proprietary BIOS/UEFI firmware.

In case any models are unlisted in the above paragraph, you should also check the full list of supported Dell Latitude models on the RBoot hardware compatibility page.

All of the Dell Latitude models can be flashed internally, which means that you do not need to disassemble them.

PLEASE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE INSTALLING, OR YOU MAY BRICK YOUR MACHINE!! - Please click the link and follow the instructions there, before flashing. For posterity, here is the link again.

Please also disable /dev/mem protection, otherwise flashprog and dell-flash-unlock won’t work. You can re-enable the protections after flashing.

Please also disable SecureBoot, if you’re using a UEFI-based Dell Latitude.

Make sure to set your own MAC address in the ROM image before flashing. Please read the nvmutil manual which says how to do this.

Vendor files not required for Dell Latitude E6400 if you have the Intel GPU.

If you have the Nvidia model, please use the e6400nvidia_4mb target, and make sure to run the inject script prior to flashing.

On everything except E6400, RBoot only supports the variant with an Intel GPU. Therefore, you must only purchase a Dell Latitude that has the Intel graphics; even on E6400, this is good advice, due to issues with the Nvidia GPU on E6400, documented later in this guide.

You can flash RBoot directly from the vendor (Dell) BIOS, without taking the machine apart. It can be done entirely from your operating system, hopefully a free GNU/Linux-libre distribution.

Check util/dell-flash-unlock in the rbmk.git repository.

Go in there:

cd util/dell-flash-unlock
make

With this program, you can unlock the flash in such a way where everything is writeable. Information about how to use it is in the README.html file which is included in that program’s directory, or you can read it online here:

https://browse.rboot.org/rbmk.git/plain/util/dell-flash-unlock/README.md

Please make sure that you do fully read the README, because it contains useful information.

Literally just run that program, and do what it says. You run it once, and shut down, and when you do, the system brings itself back up automatically; on some systems, you have to boot the machine back up manually, after power down. Then you run it and flash it unlocked. Then you run it again. The source code is intuitive enough that you can easily get the gist of it; it’s writing some EC commands and changing some chipset config bits. The EC on this machine is hooked up to the GPIO33 signal, sometimes called HDA_DOCK_EN, which sets the flash descriptor override thus disabling any flash protection by the IFD. It also bypasses the SMM BIOS lock protection by disabling SMIs, and Dell’s BIOS doesn’t set any other type of protection either such as writing to Protected Range registers.

MAKE SURE to back up the original firmware image first:

flashprog -p internal -r factory.rom

When you flash it, you can use this command:

flashprog -p internal -w rboot.rom

Where rboot.rom is your Dell Latitude ROM. Make sure it’s the right one. If flashprog complains about multiple flash chips detected, just pick one of them (doesn’t matter which one). On most Dell machines, the most correct would probably be this option in flashprog: -c MX25L3205D/MX25L3208D.

So:

flashprog -p internal -w rboot.rom -c MX25L3205D/MX25L3208D

When you see flashprog say VERIFIED at the end, that means the flash was successful. If you don’t see that, or you’re unsure, please contact the RBoot project via IRC.

Machine-specific disassembly instructions are not provided, but you can find the hardware maintenance manual for your Latitude module online. Just search for it. The flash chips(s) is/are usually under the keyboard/palmrest. Near to the PCH/southbridge.

Note that you often have to provide a high current for VCC, because the flash chip will share a common voltage rail with other power-hungry ICs on the board, or the flash ICs will share a common MISO/MOSI line without resistance, with chip selects controlled by PCH, and/or the PCH itself might be live while flashing - so you need to set the drive strength high.

Take stock of the above advice, which is also mentioned on the external SPI flashing guide.

Please read the external SPI flash guide

External flashing is usually not required, on these machines.

Some Dell Latitudes use a single flash chip, so you can just use the ROM images as-is.

If there are two flash chips, you must split the ROM images. Check the silk screen on the board, and the first chip might be labelled something like SPI1, second one SPI2. Figure out which one is first.

Look at the part number on the chip and find the flash size for it. For example: a 10MB flash might be 2MB for SPI1 and 8MB for SPI2, so you would do:

dd if=rboot.rom of=spi1.rom bs=1M count=2
dd if=rboot.rom of=spi2.rom bs=1M skip=2

Adapt accordingly, to the exact flash configuration on your machine. 16MB is likely one chip. 12MB is usually SPI1 8MB and SPI2 4MB so you would do:

dd if=rboot.rom of=spi1.rom bs=1M count=8
dd if=rboot.rom of=spi2.rom bs=1M skip=8

If in doubt, just ask on RBoot IRC.

SPDX-License-Identifier: GFDL-1.3-or-later

Markdown file for this page: https://rboot.org/docs/install/latitude.md

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