WLAN compatibility issue of uncommon ThinkPad models

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nadebula.1984
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Joined: 05/01/2018

I purchased one X300 and one X301 from dark market. Yesterday I planned to install an original AR5418 card (for X61) on the X300, but it was rejected by the BIOS. Both X61 and X300 are based on GM965 chipset, and most of them come with Intel 4965. But it seems that X300's BIOS doesn't accept any Atheros card (AR5424 or AR5418), as shown in its HMM, even if they are accepted by ThinkPad models based on the same chipset. Likewise, X301 and X200 are based on GM45 chipset, and most of them come with Intel 5100/5300. According to X301 HMM, there are only Intel cards in the part list, so it probably doesn't accept original AR2425 for X200 either. To sum up, be sure to check the official part list before purchasing machines or cards from dark market.

jxself
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Joined: 09/13/2010

This is the downside of proprietary software (the proprietary BIOS contains a whitelist where it'll only accept certain cards.)

nadebula.1984
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Joined: 05/01/2018

For UEFI based ThinkPads (without Boot Guard), the white list restriction is implemented as an EFI module and can be easily disabled using UEFITool.

But for BIOS based ThinkPads, there isn't such workaround, probably because BIOS is less standardized than UEFI. There are popular "rogue" BIOS images without white list restrictions, but they can never be trusted.

aloniv

I am a translator!

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Joined: 01/11/2011

There are popular "rogue" BIOS images without white list restrictions, but they can never be trusted.

Do you have any proof that the unofficial BIOSes are more malicious than the stock BIOS? As far as I can tell some of them appear to be less malicious since they remove one of the malicious features from the stock BIOS (the wireless whitelist).

nadebula.1984
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Joined: 05/01/2018

Proving the trustworthiness of BIOS images is not my responsibility. It's their developers' responsibility. In order to prove that their BIOS can be trusted, they can simply publish the source codes.

Since they can't do this, it's justifiable for me to label them as "untrustworthy".

SuperTramp83

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Joined: 10/31/2014

> In order to prove that their BIOS can be trusted, they can simply publish the source codes.

In order to prove their BIOS can be trusted, they can simply publish the source code. Then we "reproducibly build" such source on 5 different secure computers located in ultra secret underground safes and we conclude it is indeed safe. x_X