Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[alonivtsan]

The problem is we do not know anything about the proprietary firmware. It  
could have been as well programmed to perform malicious tasks. Or, which is  
give or less the same, it could have been written terribly, full of (sec)  
bugs, and therefore exploitable. Trouble is also most firmware gets very  
rarely, if ever, updated.
So you are stuck with buggy, insecure firmware that you (or anyone in your  
place) can not fix.


Stock BIOS updates are usually only provided in the first few months of a  
laptop's release in order to resolve issues such as difficulties installing  
operating systems that are not shipped with the laptop. Once the main issues  
are addressed by the laptop manufacturer no BIOS updates are to be expected  
and users rarely if ever perform BIOS updates. As long as the BIOS update is  
based on the last BIOS revision for your laptop it should be as secure as the  
stock BIOS.

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[greatgnu]

>Unless of course you can prove that the developers of these BIOSes inserted  
rogue code your claim seems devoid of merit.


The problem is we do not know anything about the proprietary firmware. It  
could have been as well programmed to perform malicious tasks. Or, which is  
give or less the same, it could have been written terribly, full of (sec)  
bugs, and therefore exploitable. Trouble is also most firmware gets very  
rarely, if ever, updated.
So you are stuck with buggy, insecure firmware that you (or anyone in your  
place) can not fix.

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[alonivtsan]

Any "rogue" firmware modified by 3rd party can never be trusted.

Sounds like FUD to me. The original firmware can be trusted even less as it  
includes the wireless firmware whitelist antifeature. If I understand  
correctly the 3rd party BIOS images are made by disassembling the stock  
BIOSes so their security should be comparable. Unless of course you can prove  
that the developers of these BIOSes inserted rogue code your claim seems  
devoid of merit.

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[alonivtsan]

Middleton's BIOS isn't more free than the factory BIOS, and it might be worse  
security-wise


What makes you think it is less secure than the original BIOS? It sounds like  
FUD to me.

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[xliang9550]

In the X200/X201 HMM part list section, there is only one WLAN card from  
Atheros, namely FRU number 43Y6511. It's a very-low-end AR2425 half-height  
card. Unfortunately, this card is only usable on X200/s series. You can see  
the supported machine model list in the mail column of the table. All machine  
models 74xx and 20xx belong to X200/s series. To my best knowledge, there is  
no Atheros card for Nehalem-based ThinkPads (X201/s, T410/s, W510). However,  
if you can buy some 43Y6511 cards, they are still useful. You can use them on  
X200, T/R400, T/W500 series without removing the white-list restrictions.  
They may be useful for those who need free/libre WLAN card but have  
difficulties modifying their firmware.

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[Mason Hock]

> Such part/accessory information can be found in the hardware maintenance
> manual (HMM) for older ThinkPad models, but not newer ones. For more
> recent models (starting Nehalem or SandyBridge), the HMMs no longer
> contain a rather verbose "Part List" section.

Okay, so my friend has an X201, so I'm looking at this,

http://tim.id.au/laptops/lenovo/thinkpad%20x200%20x200s%20x200si%20x201%20x201i%20x201s.pdf

and I see a "Parts List" section. On page 168 (176 in the pdf) it looks
like the WiFi card is labeled "7", so I should look up by FRU all of the
WiFi cards listed on pages 190-192 (198-200 in the pdf) and check
h-node to see if any of them work with free software?


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Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[xliang9550]

I have 15 years of ThinkPad hardware maintenance/repair experience (since in  
2004 when I received my Bachelor degree).


Such part/accessory information can be found in the hardware maintenance  
manual (HMM) for older ThinkPad models, but not newer ones. For more recent  
models (starting Nehalem or SandyBridge), the HMMs no longer contain a rather  
verbose "Part List" section.


In some cases, you can't replace the WLAN card because of the whitelist  
restrictions, and you can't replace the firmware because of Boot Guard.  
Examples include models based on Haswell/Broadwell ULV processors. Rumor says  
that starting Skylake, ThinkPads no longer have whitelist restrictions. But  
I'm not interested in anything newer than Haswell (normal voltage).

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[Mason Hock]

> This card (42T0825) should work on any 945/965 chipset based ThinkPads
> (R6x, T6x, X6x and Z61 series).

I'm interested to know where you got this information, as this sort of
thing is very valuable to know. Each laptop listed in h-node has a
"wifi model" field saying whether or not the WiFi card works with free
software. It also has a "does the device prevent installing wifi cards
not-approved by the vendor?" field, to which the answer is usually "not
specified," but there is no field for "do any WiFi cards approved by the
vendor work with free software." I would love to have this knowledge for
Macbook models and more recent Thinkpad models.


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Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[xliang9550]

A wise decision. As long as the WLAN adapter bears the correct FRU number, it  
should be authorized by the original firmware.


This card (42T0825) should work on any 945/965 chipset based ThinkPads (R6x,  
T6x, X6x and Z61 series). There are several variants designed for different  
regions around the world (according to local laws or regulations), though.  
For example, certain variants may have certain mode(s) disabled. Check the  
"part list" section of the hardware maintenance manual (HMM) for details.

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[Mason Hock]

> benou.fr/~ben/updating-thinkpad-x61-bios.html

Middleton's BIOS isn't more free than the factory BIOS, and it might be
worse security-wise, so I only want to resort to that if it is the only
way to install a freedom-respecting WiFi card. I have ordered an AR5418,
and if nadebula is correct that it is whitelisted I will stick with the
factory BIOS. If I can't get that card to work then I will try to
install Middleton's using your link. Thanks for finding and sharing
that.


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Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[greatgnu]

A decent GUI unarchiver is peazip -> http://www.peazip.org/

cheers o/

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[xliang9550]

The FRU ID for AR5418 (Z61, X6x, R6x, T6x series) should be 42T0825. Just  
search this FRU number. All my said ThinkPad models (with original firmware)  
use said WLAN card.


Hint: The screws securing X61 series' WLAN cards and WWAN/Turbo memory cards  
are very hard to twist. A good screwdriver is needed.

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[alonivtsan]

I tried extracting the archive mentioned with unar version 1.10.1 on  
Hyperbola and I encountered the same errors. The cause of the issue is that  
some RAR files cannot be extracted using unar although most files should work  
fine as unar does support newer versions of the RAR format.

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[alonivtsan]

Did you try the method which was posted here?
benou.fr/~ben/updating-thinkpad-x61-bios.html

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[Mason Hock]

Thanks everyone. I'll look into the AR5418 for now.


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Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[xliang9550]

Update: unar 1.10 is available in Debian stable (stretch). But Trisquel 8 is  
based on the previous version of Ubuntu, so its packages are even more  
outdated.


https://packages.debian.org/stretch/unar

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[jason]

The package you want is called unar. Notice the missing "r". It's for The  
Unarchiver, which supports newer rar versions than unrar-free does:  
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/free-rarv3-extraction

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[xliang9550]

AR5418 11abgn 300 Mb/s is good enough, so I kept the original firmware.

Any "rogue" firmware modified by 3rd party can never be trusted.

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[alonivtsan]

AR5424 doesn't support N speeds so I wouldn't bother with it.

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[xliang9550]

Don't trust 3rd-party BIOS modifications. I don't see it necessary to remove  
the white-list of X61/T61/R61. There are two powerful Atheros cards  
authorized by Lenovo's original BIOS, namely AR5424 and AR5418. Be sure to  
purchase one with FRU ID (i.e. original Lenovo part) and you won't be blocked  
by the white-list.


To unpack proprietary RAR packages, I don't find anything better (freer) than  
"unar". Just download the latest version from Debian's testing/unstable  
repository, as long as your system meets the dependencies.

Re: [Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[alonivtsan]

Same as these bug reports:
issues.hyperbola.info/index.php?do=details_id=1140
bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=859346

You can get the Middleton img file for X61 from here:
www.benou.fr/~ben/updating-thinkpad-x61-bios.html
www.benou.fr/~ben/bin/bios.img.xz

[Trisquel-users] extract rar file freely?

[Mason Hock]

In this thread[1] someone suggested Middleton's BIOS, which appears to
be a modified version of the Lenovo BIOS for the X61 that removes the
hardware whitelist. It doesn't seem to be free, but neither is the BIOS
it replaces, and if it makes it possible to install a freedom-respecting
WiFi card then I consider it better freedom-wise than keeping the
factory BIOS.

The problem is that the necessary files are distributed as a rar
archive, and I'm not sure how to extract it using free software.

I installed unrar-free,

$ sudo apt install unrar-free

downloaded the archive,

and attempted to extract it.

$ unrar x 
Dual-IDA_SATA-II_Whitelist_SLIC21_ThinkPad_X61_X61s_BIOS_(2.22-1.03).rar

Some of the files did extract correctly, but most of them said FAILED. I
then tried unar,

$ unar 
Dual-IDA_SATA-II_Whitelist_SLIC21_ThinkPad_X61_X61s_BIOS_\(2.22-1.03\).rar

and it seemed that not as many failed, and I got a more descriptive
error message for the ones that did fail.

  BIOS update + CTRL-FN swap/32-bit/$01B2000.FL1  (2316822 B)... Failed! 
(Attempted to read more data than was available)
  BIOS update/32-bit/$01B2000.FL1  (2316822 B)... Failed! (Attempted to read 
more data than was available)
  BIOS update + CTRL-FN swap/32-bit/$01B2000.FL2  (2103350 B)... Failed! 
(Attempted to read more data than was available)
  BIOS update/32-bit/$01B2000.FL2  (2103350 B)... Failed! (Attempted to read 
more data than was available)
  BIOS update + CTRL-FN swap/32-bit/06f1.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong 
checksum)
  BIOS update/32-bit/06f1.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong checksum)
  BIOS update + CTRL-FN swap/32-bit/06f4.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong 
checksum)
  BIOS update/32-bit/06f4.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong checksum)
  BIOS update + CTRL-FN swap/32-bit/06f5.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong 
checksum)
  BIOS update/32-bit/06f5.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong checksum)
  BIOS update + CTRL-FN swap/32-bit/06f9.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong 
checksum)
  BIOS update/32-bit/06f9.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong checksum)
  BIOS update + CTRL-FN swap/32-bit/06fa.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong 
checksum)
  BIOS update/32-bit/06fa.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong checksum)
  BIOS update + CTRL-FN swap/32-bit/06fb.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong 
checksum)
  BIOS update/32-bit/06fb.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong checksum)
  BIOS update + CTRL-FN swap/32-bit/06fd.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong 
checksum)
  BIOS update/32-bit/06fd.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong checksum)
  BIOS update + CTRL-FN swap/32-bit/10661.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong 
checksum)
  BIOS update/32-bit/10661.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong checksum)
  BIOS update + CTRL-FN swap/32-bit/10671.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong 
checksum)
  BIOS update/32-bit/10671.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong checksum)
  BIOS update + CTRL-FN swap/32-bit/10674.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong 
checksum)
  BIOS update/32-bit/10674.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong checksum)
  BIOS update + CTRL-FN swap/32-bit/10676.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong 
checksum)
  BIOS update/32-bit/10676.HSH  (163 B)... Failed! (Wrong checksum)
  BIOS update + CTRL-FN swap/#1.iso  (6387712 B)... Segmentation fault

Searching for these two errors ("Attempted to read more data than was
available" and "Wrong checksum") and "unar" I was able to find a few bug
reports, but none with solutions.

Until now I have been fortunate enough to never have had to deal with a
rar file, but from what I can gather it is not a free format, and free
tools for extracting them like unrar-free and unar can only open some
rar files. Does this look like a file that can't be extracted freely, or
is there another issue here? Is it worth trying a newer version of unar?
Trisquel 8 has 1.9 and it looks like 1.10 is available in Debian
testing.


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