X220 lost "high resolution" VESA/framebuffer modes after BIOS upgrade

[Knez]

Hi!

A couple of months ago I updated my BIOS to the latest hacked version found here: http://x220.mcdonnelltech.com/resources/ to be able to use my X220 as a hackintosh.
After upgrading the BIOS the X220 lost the ability to find the native screen resolution before loading the drivers from the OS.

Typical things are the bootscreen for OSX or Windows showing in the monitors native resolution, text only mode in linux showing in the monitors native resolution.
All i get now is 640x480 stretched over the screen which looks terrible.

Same phenomenon when using an external monitor connected through my Mini Dock 3. It's almost like the machine lost all the built in VESA graphics modes and just defaults to 640x480.
Anything I can do about it? All I did was flash 1.46 and run "use setup defaults" in the BIOS option menu.

It's not really an issue, it just somewhat spoils an otherwise great machine.

[RealBlackStuff]

That BIOS has quite a few extras, that are not normally available.
I suggest you go into BIOS and press F9 to reload all the defaults, then F10 to save them.
Or reinstall that BIOS.

McDonnell says:

Please note the warning on the Advanced menu in the BIOS: Setting items on this screen to incorrect values may cause the system to malfunction!

[Knez]

That BIOS has quite a few extras, that are not normally available.
I suggest you go into BIOS and press F9 to reload all the defaults, then F10 to save them.
Or reinstall that BIOS.

McDonnell says:

Please note the warning on the Advanced menu in the BIOS: Setting items on this screen to incorrect values may cause the system to malfunction!

I haven't touched the advanced menu, all I ever did was install the BIOS, load the defaults and change what needed changing from the McDonnell page to get OSX running.
Will resinstall the BIOS today.

IIRC I didn't install the official 1.46 BIOS before flashing on the modified version. Is going with the official, unmodified BIOS beforehand mandatory?

[RealBlackStuff]

AFAIK it's advisable, but apparently not mandatory.

[Knez]

I solved this today. For some reason my machines doesnt like BIOS 1.46, modified or original. I reverted to 1.43 original and then modified and all is back to normal again.

Sometimes going bleeding edge isnt the answer.

[skx]

Sometimes going bleeding edge isnt the answer.

it should not be the case though for bios updates

[axur-delmeria]

I see two possible explanations

- Some functions (like the high-res VESA modes) were removed to make room for Spectre mitigations

- newest Intel Video BIOS removes said high-res modes for some reason.

[skx]

Then it is not a bug but a feature

[johnmcdonnell]

Sorry about the late reply, but I just came across this thread.

I posed a question about this issue a while back to the creator of the modified BIOS, VladikSS at bios-mods.com:

Your 1.44 BIOS appears to use Intel vbios version 2089 while your 1.43 BIOS used Intel vbios 2119. Was there something that required rolling that back?

His response:

Indeed, this mod uses stock vbios. 2119 vbios version was taken from Oleh modifications, and is not so stable on Linux. I tried to transfer configuration from stock vbios to the latest available version but it didn't work, that's why I decided to leave stock version.

https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread- ... #pid139124

His v1.46 modified BIOS also includes the stock vbios version 2089 that unfortunately doesn't support the native 1366x768 VESA graphics mode.