"Unknown image" for Lenovo T420 ME7.1 updater

[victorn1]

I would like to patch ME for Lenovo T420.

There is ME 7.1 firmware update https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/en/us/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-t-series-laptops/thinkpad-t420/downloads/ds014884 on Lenovo site. After the first run this program unpacks its contents to C:\DRIVERS\WIN\ME

There is ME bin file ME7_5M_UPD_Production.bin But this file is not recognized by me_cleaner.py with "Unknown image" error message.

How can I unpack/repack this file to patch it? Would it be possible to flash the patched file with this FWUpdLcl.exe applet?

[skochinsky]

you can't use the update binary; you need to update the ME first then use me_cleaner on the full flash image

[victorn1]

Then why, for ME images from https://www.win-raid.com/t596f39-Intel-Management-Engine-Drivers-Firmware-amp-System-Tools.html can I use me_cleaner? These images are correctly recognized by me_cleaner.

[skochinsky]

Some of those images are full ME region images and can be processed by me_cleaner, however you'll have to flash them directly to the flash chip as FWUpdLcl update will fail due to missing NFTP

[victorn1]

Can I flash these patched images with "fpt.exe -me"?

[skochinsky]

Can I flash these patched images with "fpt.exe -me"?

Yes, it should work if you have write access to the ME region.

[corna]

Unfortunately Lenovo laptops usually don't have write access to the me region

[tlaurion]

Then why, for ME images from https://www.win-raid.com/t596f39-Intel-Management-Engine-Drivers-Firmware-amp-System-Tools.html can I use me_cleaner? These images are correctly recognized by me_cleaner.

Personally tested the 3 images for 7.x ME from above link:

user@xx20-tests:~/heads$ ~/me_cleaner/me_cleaner.py -r -t -O ~/heads/blobs/xx20/me.bin ~/QubesIncoming/disp5838/7.0.1.1205_SLM_PRD_UPD.bin
Unknown image
user@xx20-tests:~/heads$ ~/me_cleaner/me_cleaner.py -r -t -O ~/heads/blobs/xx20/me.bin ~/QubesIncoming/disp5838/7.1.80.1214_1.5MB_PRD_UPD.bin 
Unknown image
user@xx20-tests:~/heads$ ~/me_cleaner/me_cleaner.py -r -t -O ~/heads/blobs/xx20/me.bin ~/QubesIncoming/disp5838/7.1.92.3273_5MB_PRD_UPD.bin
Unknown image

[Thrilleratplay]

For anyone interested, I created a script that uses a lot of me_cleaner's code with the ME 7.1 update file from Lenovo to create the equivalent of what me_cleaner would produce if minified. It can be found here.