Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)
1–10 of 75 posts
Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)
#2Amazing adventure and great write up! It reads like an adventure novel :-)
> Unfortunately, Lenovo continues to implement a stupid network card whitelist that IBM started over 20 years ago on its ThinkPad models. If the card in the M.2 slot is not advertising a known PCI vendor and product ID in the whitelist contained in the BIOS (now UEFI firmware), the ThinkPad will refuse to boot.
Why?? Are there legitimate reasons for this sort of design behavior other than anticompetitiveness?
Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)
#3Amazing adventure and great write up! It reads like an adventure novel :-) > Unfortunately, Lenovo continues to implement a stupid network card whitelist that IBM started over 20 years ago on its ThinkPad models. If the card in the M.2 slot is not advertising a known PCI vendor and product ID in the whitelist contained in the BIOS (now UEFI firmware), the ThinkPad will refuse to boot. Why?? Are there legitimate reaso…
Yeah it's such a horrible idea. It sucks the ending was just hijacking the usb bus used by the fingerprint sensor :(
Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)
#4Amazing adventure and great write up! It reads like an adventure novel :-) > Unfortunately, Lenovo continues to implement a stupid network card whitelist that IBM started over 20 years ago on its ThinkPad models. If the card in the M.2 slot is not advertising a known PCI vendor and product ID in the whitelist contained in the BIOS (now UEFI firmware), the ThinkPad will refuse to boot. Why?? Are there legitimate reaso…
The usual line that Lenovo gives is that this is for FCC reasons. The argument goes that the laptop is FCC certified as an entire unit, and changing the WiFi card technically invalidates this.
This is quite plainly nonsense. Every other manufacturer allows WiFi adapter replacements because every module on the market must be individually FCC certified.
Technically, the claim does make sense under a creative interpretation of the FCC rules. I think the real reason is likely so you'll buy replacement FRUs from Lenovo under your enterprise support contract, as well as ensuring you use a module that is known to work reliably with the software stack shipped on the machine.
Basically yeah, its an anticompetitive measure.
Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)
#5Amazing adventure and great write up! It reads like an adventure novel :-) > Unfortunately, Lenovo continues to implement a stupid network card whitelist that IBM started over 20 years ago on its ThinkPad models. If the card in the M.2 slot is not advertising a known PCI vendor and product ID in the whitelist contained in the BIOS (now UEFI firmware), the ThinkPad will refuse to boot. Why?? Are there legitimate reaso…
That's also probably against the last right to repair EU laws if the laptop is sold in the EU.
Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)
#6I had to do a similar thing with my T530. I wanted to upgrade to a WiFi 6+Bluetooth card. The built in Bluetooth adapter is very old, I think v4.2. It's also a finicky module with a mezzanine connector, and it's nestled deeply into the internal magnesium frame so the range is abysmal.
I reflashed the BIOS to kill the whitelist, but I'm left with a bigger problem. The WiFi slot offers PCI, but not USB. The WWAN slot has USB, but not PCI.
I ended up tapping into the original Bluetooth connector to steal the USB lines and route them back to the PCI connector.
I had some issues at first with the device not enumerating reliably, but it eventually settled down.
Now I have WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5. Unfortunately the WiFi frontend is extremely bad (it's a Chinese knockoff) and I have pretty bad signal strength even literally on top of the router. But it works well enough and my Bluetooth headphones now work more than 10ft away from the machine.
The major problem is that the only WiFi 6 card available in mini PCIe is knockoff Intel AX210 cards. I suppose that's fair, mPCIe is basically obsolete these days. Unfortunately I don't have space for a M.2 or other adapter. Maybe I could build a custom express card
Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)
#7I had to do a similar thing with my T530. I wanted to upgrade to a WiFi 6+Bluetooth card. The built in Bluetooth adapter is very old, I think v4.2. It's also a finicky module with a mezzanine connector, and it's nestled deeply into the internal magnesium frame so the range is abysmal. I reflashed the BIOS to kill the whitelist, but I'm left with a bigger problem. The WiFi slot offers PCI, but not USB. The WWAN slot h…
>I reflashed the BIOS to kill the whitelist
Still boggles my mind that people praise ThinkPads as an option for those looking for repairability and upgradability while casually talking about the built-in BIOS whitelist designed to block all that.
To me that means an instant black ball.
It's cool hackers are patching this out, but this anti-consumer feature should not be present in the first place in something people recommend.
Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)
#8I had to do a similar thing with my T530. I wanted to upgrade to a WiFi 6+Bluetooth card. The built in Bluetooth adapter is very old, I think v4.2. It's also a finicky module with a mezzanine connector, and it's nestled deeply into the internal magnesium frame so the range is abysmal. I reflashed the BIOS to kill the whitelist, but I'm left with a bigger problem. The WiFi slot offers PCI, but not USB. The WWAN slot h…
>I reflashed the BIOS to kill the whitelist Still boggles my mind that people praise ThinkPads as an option for those looking for repairability and upgradability while casually talking about the built-in BIOS whitelist designed to block all that. To me that means an instant black ball. It's cool hackers are patching this out, but this anti-consumer feature should not be present in the first place in something people…
The hardware itself (on most thinkpads I’ve owned anyway) is really nice to work on, with service manuals available, lots of parts, good community support.
Flashing the BIOS is also usually well documented.
I wish the BIOS flashing was not needed tbh, but at least it’s possible.
Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)
#9I had to do a similar thing with my T530. I wanted to upgrade to a WiFi 6+Bluetooth card. The built in Bluetooth adapter is very old, I think v4.2. It's also a finicky module with a mezzanine connector, and it's nestled deeply into the internal magnesium frame so the range is abysmal. I reflashed the BIOS to kill the whitelist, but I'm left with a bigger problem. The WiFi slot offers PCI, but not USB. The WWAN slot h…
>I reflashed the BIOS to kill the whitelist Still boggles my mind that people praise ThinkPads as an option for those looking for repairability and upgradability while casually talking about the built-in BIOS whitelist designed to block all that. To me that means an instant black ball. It's cool hackers are patching this out, but this anti-consumer feature should not be present in the first place in something people…
I run Libreboot on my ThinkPad and it works great.
Re: Adding a USB port to the ThinkPad X1 Nano (the hard way)
#10> I use a Logitech mouse which can connect wirelessly to a USB dongle over RF, providing lower latency and better battery life than Bluetooth
In my experience this has not been true at all now that most Logitech mice use LE ("Bluetooth Smart") rather than BT. The only advantage the RF dongle has is that it works without an OS.... or on an OS without a BT/LE stack, like here.