Best products from r/libreboot

> They put those screws bc they don’t want you opening the device

Oh absolutely, it's just one of those nasty habits of denying you the right to repair like Stallman talked about. They could easily just put a plain - shaped screw everywhere that can be opened even with a knife's tip ,but they don't, they put all kinds of whacky screws everywhere from triangles to hexagons to + with an x overlay it's nasty.

> So, I’ll start mapping out the order I’ll do everything in and what you’ve previously recommended.

That is a good idea, in the meantime get a good screwdriver set that is magnetic. Even though I had tons of screwdrivers at home, for all kinds of work (my grandpa was a mechanical engineer, he was very well supplied), none of them seem to work on these devices especially devices coming from the US. It's just one of those stupid divergencies like the imperial unit system, why not be different just for the sake of it, annoying everyone else who can't understand or use your tools.

I got a good screwdriver set now, with all possible screw types, you can get an electrical one too, however I would not recommend that (at all) since when working with electronics it could easily hurt the board if you slip it.

Just get a good manual screwdriver set with magnetic handle. I got mine which is magnetic and the tip of it can be replaced. The bottom screws on the laptop all open with the PH00 head, while the screws in the monitor need the PZ00 heads, they won't work vice versa so it's important you get both heads for the screwdriver.

Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Olympia-Tools-76-506-N12-Precision-Screwdriver/dp/B005N97LWI/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=pz00+screwdriver&qid=1569919588&s=gateway&sr=8-1

> Also, if you have any detailed noob friendly tutorial on flashing the ROM for Libreboot on a T400 I’d be down to give that a go as well, granted I need the raspberry pi and that clip, but I plan to work on that as soon as I can find noobish instructions.

Oh that is a pain in the ass, I would not want to get into that. The T400 is a monster with like 100 screws, and I find no benefits of using it really. I mean yes it has modern hardware and it's the most powerful Libre machine but if I need performance I'd just settle for an X200 which is a bit less powerful but much easier to do.

After all easiness is also important because it's important for you to be able to do it and have control over your board. I don't own an X200 but I might buy one in the future if I need more performance. But I don't think I will buy a T400, I'd rather wait for a Libre SBC to come out which might be a reality in 5-10 years. I would not even buy a Librebooted T400 because as I said, there are mor issues there than just the BIOS, and if I can't control my computer and take out unecessary parts (due to the complexity of the T400 chassis) I'd rather not use it.

> I also have a R61i that I’m curious to see if it can be flashed, there must be more than what’s simply on the Libreboot site, and I don’t mind once I learn how to master the process take the chance and try the flash on untested systems to find out if other devices can be freed up.

Not every PC can use Libreboot, in fact only very few can, but many PC's can use Coreboot which is the upstream provider for Libreboot. The downside is that Coreboot will never be free, since it comes with proprietary bits, so it's almost like pointless to install that. I would still prefer Coreboot over the legacy BIOS, but I would never trust that computer fully.

I like this TP-Link one. It has an external antenna, and is one of few that has free firmware in Linux so it works out-of-the-box.