Will lenovo give us an efi flash for the napa t60's?

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grahamdavis · #1 Post by **grahamdavis** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:10 pm

Because napa thinkpads are using the 945 chipset, the boot firmware can be made to run efi instead of bios. In fact, some rumors have said that thinkpads ARE running efi, but with a bios emulator. But my question is more about the character of lenovo than anything.

Vista will not be shipping with efi support--at first. And santa rosa thinkpads will have efi instead of bios (chipset 965). So my question is weather lenovo would leave us napa thinkpad users in the dust, not giving us an efi flash, or will have mercy and compile an efi implementation for current napa systems. I dont really need efi, but I would like efi, because of it's insane coolness.

Will an efi flash be available for us napa users when Vista supports it?

lophiomys · #2 Post by **lophiomys** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:53 am

to my knowledge SantaRosa also supports EFI, in addition to BIOS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible ... _Interface
says that EFI is a kind of dying 64-bit thingy, and that it wont
be supported for Vista 32 bit realeases by MS, and only maybe later for
64 bit releases.

I personally would look forward to a LinuxBios/OpenBios/OpenFirmware
solution, but couln't find any indication that this could be realized sometimes
soon.

#3 Post by **tomh009** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 12:17 pm

Microsoft's official statements say that they will support UEFI in 64-bit Vista, but not in the initial RTM release as there were too few implementations to test it effectively.

32-bit UEFI is indeed a dead end, as people will be migrating to 64-bit in any case.

grahamdavis · #4 Post by **grahamdavis** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:51 pm

My question, though, is weather 64 bit t60 users will be able to enjoy efi. 32 bit is on its way out, and so is efi for 32 bit, as its not really needed. I use x86_64, and I want a flash from Lenovo. Do you think its going to be available?

#5 Post by **tomh009** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 3:21 pm

That's the $1M question indeed. But I fear that no one that actually knows the answer will be posting here ...

grahamdavis · #6 Post by **grahamdavis** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 3:45 pm

I called tech support (ts):

me "Hello, I have a question about future support of efi on current thinkpads"
ts "Could I get your machine type?"
me "Well, my question really applies to all current napa laptops and possibly desktops"
ts "Ok, do you have a product number?"
me "Its really more about future support for efi, the succesor to the bios thats installed. Will lenovo put out a flash for efi-ing the firmware? Could I be a beta tester? I dont run xp so I wouldn't have to worry about xp boot issues."
ts "I am not sure what 'efi' is"

awkward silence

me "Ok, thanks. Is there a number I could get to talk to some engineer or something, because its sort of an uncommon question, and it has to do with the 945 chipset's ability to support efi."

awkward silence

me "Just a number, or some way I could find out form more of a designer of engineer or something?"
ts "Sir, this is tech support."
me "I know, but maybe you can connect me with an engineer at lenovo."
ts "I have never heard of 'efi', and this is tech support, in Atlanta, Georgia"
me "Thank you for your help"
ts "Any other things I can do for you?"
me "No thanks, take care."
ts "Goodbye."

How do you get through to the engineers at lenovo? Anyone have any inside connections? Thanks.

#7 Post by **JaneL** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 3:58 pm

grahamdavis wrote:How do you get through to the engineers at lenovo? Anyone have any inside connections? Thanks.

I'm not sure why you wanted to torment tech support for information about unannounced software, but you can try asking at http://www.lenovoblogs.com/ They'll probably tell you they don't discuss unannounced products, but you can express your interest in beta-testing something.

own6volvos · #8 Post by **own6volvos** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 7:09 pm

grahamdavis wrote: How do you get through to the engineers at lenovo? Anyone have any inside connections? Thanks.

Brings back memories of trying to do the same with Apple when the intel mac mini first came out. I was trying to find out if all 4 USB ports were on the same bus. I was going to use the thing for a mini server, and wanted gigabit in and out. Started talking to a supposed engineer, who then directed me to the wonderful quad g5 desktop units since they had 2 gigabit lan ports, and are built for being servers. I just wanted something mildly faster than my g3 333mhz box for some mild routing and file sharing

Will lenovo give us an efi flash for the napa t60's?

Will lenovo give us an efi flash for the napa t60's?

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