# hamishcoleman/thinkpad-ec

Infrastructure for examining and patching Thinkpad embedded controller firmware

Repository: https://github.com/hamishcoleman/thinkpad-ec
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/thinkpad-ec
Language: Perl
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Last push: 2025-05-11T12:28:40+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 42/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 21, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3784, "days_push": 479, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1192, forks 128 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:56.406028+00:00)

## What it is
A Linux command-line toolkit for extracting, examining, and patching ThinkPad xx30-series embedded controller (EC) firmware. Its main purpose is enabling classic 7-row keyboards on xx30 ThinkPads, with optional patches such as disabling battery validation.

## Use cases
- install a classic 7-row keyboard on a ThinkPad x230 or t430
- patch ThinkPad embedded controller firmware
- disable the authentic battery validation check on a ThinkPad
- downgrade EC firmware to a pre-CVE-2019-6171 version
- reverse engineer ThinkPad EC firmware
- make Fn keys work with a retro keyboard mod

## When to choose
- You own a supported xx30-series ThinkPad (t430, x230, t530, w530, etc.) and want the classic keyboard
- You need to modify EC firmware on a pre-lockdown BIOS version
- You want to study or hack on ThinkPad embedded controller internals

## When to avoid
- Your BIOS/EC is on a signed, locked-down firmware version and you cannot downgrade
- You are not comfortable opening your laptop and performing hardware modifications
- You need a supported, warranty-safe firmware update process
- You are not running real Linux

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: reverse-engineering, cli, developer-tools
- domain: hardware, embedded-systems, developer-tools, security
- platform: cli, python
- tags: thinkpad, embedded-controller, firmware, keyboard-modding, xx30-series, bios, firmware-patching, linux

## Member repositories
- hamishcoleman/thinkpad-ec (main) score 42

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:56.406028+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:22:30.027049+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/hamishcoleman/thinkpad-ec (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:56.406028+00:00, sha a8f1183a04ce)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.