BIOS patches?

[yllwfsh]

Regarding: https://github.com/johnnync13/Xiaomi-Mi-Air/commit/94455a1c88fc69f11362166995397c7d27c4d71b

I had no idea! That's very interesting. My laptop seems to boot fine with opencore without any mods though...

Can you teach us how to patch the BIOS and/or provide some scripts?

Thanks!

[yllwfsh]

I did a bit more research about the MSR 0xE2 / CFG-Lock problem and if BIOS patching is necessary.

First of all my MSR 0xE2 is really locked:

These are my relevant OC config.plist values:

After a quick test with Cinebench and Intel Power Gadget open it seems that native CPU power management is working:

Also no problems with sleep/wake, all my devices are working.

@johnnync13 What's your opinion on this? Still necessary to patch BIOS? What would i gain in features?

[johnnynunez]

It works better than you !! And it is to safety and easy

[gmallios]

I think with Locked MSR and Clover/OC you use a community made frequency table which does not fully utilize native power management and you lose performance and/or battery life. I think there is a MSR Unlock script from Cr0wTom but we need to test it. ( https://github.com/Cr0wTom/Mi-Notebook-Pro-Mods )

[yllwfsh]

Ok sounds plausible but I cannot risk testing it at the moment on one of my main working machines. Anyone else volunteering? ;)

Btw, these Cr0wTom scripts are for the Notebook Pro, they might not work with the Notebook Air BIOS (plus several versions going around) ...

[gmallios]

I think @johnnync13 knows exactly which patches work and i'm willing to test them. I had terrible battery life on macOS ( 3-4 hours max ) and that's the reason i switched back to windows. I hope we can figure it out.

[johnnynunez]

No use script of Xiaomi laptop pro. Every laptop is different

[gmallios]

I used the CFG unlock and DVMT patches on my Xiaomi Mi Air 13.3(2018) as i found its motherboard is the same (Timi1703) with the Xiaomi Pro one and all went fine.

[timmmmmmmmm]

I'm happy to be the second person to test the Cr0wTom patches @0x47726567 mentioned. Would there be any effects on how Windows runs? And most importantly @0x47726567, to which BIOS version did you apply the patches?

[gmallios]

I forgot to mention that i used daliansky's BIOS patches because Cr0wTom's didn't work for me(there was a missing file?).I'm using XMAKB3M0P0100B bios. Also, I haven't noticed any difference on Windows yet and i didn't expect anything to change in Windows.

[johnnynunez]

In hackintool you have a test if you CFG Lock is unlocked and more parameters

[johnnynunez]

if you follow open core tutorial to unlock cfg it's easy...

[johnnynunez]

Anyone send me backup Bios P100C? I do script to add folder OpenCore shell

[johnnynunez]

https://khronokernel-2.gitbook.io/opencore-vanilla-desktop-guide/post-install/post-install/msr-lock

[johnnynunez]

I have great news! https://github.com/johnnync13/Xiaomi-Notebook-Air-1Gen/issues/47

[johnnynunez]

@yllwfsh @0x47726567 @elGiank @timmmmmmmmm anyone have the latest exe bios p100d?

[yllwfsh]

No sorry. I bricked my laptop once with a flash to version 120C 🤦‍♂️ so I never touched the BIOS again haha. Currently on version 100B

[johnnynunez]

@yllwfsh here is all laptops bios https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RIqdN3C9UDBN0KPwazyaerW1bEApivqN

[johnnynunez]

@yllwfsh with this version, can you send me a backup?

[johnnynunez]

I have been able to extract bios. setup_var 0x3C 0x00 to unlock CFG Lock. I will upload Excel with all Xiaomi laptops variables to unlock cfg and more things like enable speedshift, unlock mc lock etc Setup.txt

[johnnynunez]

@yllwfsh tutorial uploaded!!!!

[yllwfsh]

@johnnync13 Thx! I'm sorry i was not quick enough to respond yesterday. I'll have to make some time to try your instructions but it looks very simple so should be no issue!

[johnnynunez]

@yllwfsh I finished the tutorial. See on bios folder

[yllwfsh]

@johnnync13 Where did that latest BIOS version come from? Is there any improvements for the laptop? I'm really scared to update, afraid to brick my laptop again. I guess i'll try the cfg-lock first on my current BIOS.

[johnnynunez]

@yllwfsh I always have the BIOS updated to the latest version

[yllwfsh]

Strange: When I try the Mod Grub Shell and enter setup_var 0x3C (without value to read the current state), I get 0x00 (disabled). But the verifyMSr2.efi says locked. What am I doing wrong?

[yllwfsh]

setup_var also tells me "expected a different size of the Setup value (got 1800 bytes) Continue with care..."

Is that the same for you?

[yllwfsh]

If you like here is my BIOS backup (made with flashrom in Linux): backup_XMAKB3M0P100B.bin.zip

[gmallios]

@yllwfsh In case i brick my laptop, how did u un-brick it?

[yllwfsh]

@yllwfsh In case i brick my laptop, how did u un-brick it?

You won't like the answer ;)

Normally you have to use an EEPROM programmer and open the laptop to program the EEPROM directly...

In my case it didn't work and I had to use Xiaomi Warranty when I was on a business trip in China. I told them the laptop got bricked with a firmware update. They fixed it in the end...

I was lucky.

[yllwfsh]

@johnnync13 (See my posts above for more info and my BIOS backup) I finally worked up the courage to just try it and typed setup_var 0x3C 0x00 and it gave me the following error:

error: can't set variable using efi (error: 0x000000000000008)

[QQQQQQQQiu]

@johnnync13 (See my posts above for more info and my BIOS backup) I finally worked up the courage to just try it and typed setup_var 0x3C 0x00 and it gave me the following error:

error: can't set variable using efi (error: 0x000000000000008)

I also got this error

[johnnynunez]

@yllwfsh @lang-ji have you tried to modify bios lock and bios guard before to change CFG Lock?

[yllwfsh]

@yllwfsh @lang-ji have you tried to modify bios lock and bios guard before to change CFG Lock?

No, didn't know I had to. I might give it a try later

[johnnynunez]

@yllwfsh I will see if the Xiaomi pro has the same values from mi air to use recoding scripts..

[QQQQQQQQiu]

@yllwfsh @ lang-ji在更改CFG锁之前，您是否尝试过修改BIOS锁和BIOS保护？

![Uploading image.png…]()

@yllwfsh I will see if the Xiaomi pro has the same values from mi air to use recoding scripts..

@yllwfsh @lang-ji have you tried to modify bios lock and bios guard before to change CFG Lock?

No, didn't know I had to. I might give it a try later

@yllwfsh @lang-ji have you tried to modify bios lock and bios guard before to change CFG Lock?

ohhh.. Looks like it's already 0x00

[yllwfsh]

ohhh..Looks like it's already 0x00

No it's not reading the proper value or it can't read the bios at all... See you got an error on the last line

[johnnynunez]

@yllwfsh I upload another grub shell. Try this too

[yakuri354]

I have this error too

[yllwfsh]

@yllwfsh I upload another grub shell. Try this too

No change. I've included a screenshot:

Especially the readout for value 0xEC is weird: it says 0x02, but that's not possible, it should be 0 or 1. Maybe it's reading the wrong part of the BIOS for the settings?

[yllwfsh]

Here's my version of setup.txt extracted from my BIOS dump btw:

setup.txt

[johnnynunez]

I'm good news! The values from Xiaomi Mi air are the same from Xiaomi Pro

[yllwfsh]

I'm good news! The values from Xiaomi Mi air are the same from Xiaomi Pro

So we can just use daliansky's BIOS scripts then?

[johnnynunez]

@yllwfsh I modified shell to do a bypass. You can try 6 and 8 options Scripts.zip

[johnnynunez]

@yllwfsh any news?

[gmallios]

I'm good news! The values from Xiaomi Mi air are the same from Xiaomi Pro

So we can just use daliansky's BIOS scripts then?

Yup as i reported i used those patches and they worked. It was kinda risky though as i thought it was just a rebrand of the air series( i think they use both the Timi 1703 board )

[johnnynunez]

@0x47726567 I fix coffee lake gaming with the same error, and CFG Lock now is unlocked

[johnnynunez]

you should use the last release OC https://github.com/johnnync13/Xiaomi-Mi-Air/releases/tag/v7.0.3

[yllwfsh]

@yllwfsh any news?

Thx for asking! Took a little time, had to find my Windows SSD and install it. Ran the scripts and everything is unlocked now! (Unlocked CFG Lock, SpeedShift, Voltage)

[yllwfsh]

@johnnync13 Do you know anything about raising the TDP limit of 15W? In Windows with Intel XTU I cannot really change the limit. It works for a few seconds 25-30W and then the laptop kicks the CPU down to 15W...

[johnnynunez]

The scripts on Xiaomi pro, I think that works on macOS