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rob thijssen 3762f13d8b docs: correct the firmware split — graphics needs a Windows blob too

I had this wrong. The claim that accelerated graphics works on the firmware
Fedora ships does not survive contact with the device tree.

Fedora does package an sdm845/a630_zap.mbn, which is what led me astray, but
that is the generic Snapdragon 845 zap shader. The C630's node in
sdm850-lenovo-yoga-c630.dts names qcom/sdm850/LENOVO/81JL/qcdxkmsuc850.mbn
specifically — model-signed, present only in the machine's Windows partition.
Until it is supplied the display is unaccelerated.

Also add qcslpi850.mbn and qcvss850.mbn, which were missing entirely, and
attribute the sensor hub to slpi_pas rather than cdsp_pas. The list is now
every firmware-name property in the mainline device tree rather than a
recollection of forum posts, so it should be complete: eight files, not five.

WiFi and Bluetooth are unaffected — ath10k WCN3990 including wlanmdsp.mbn is
genuinely redistributable and genuinely shipped.

Add a section on locating the blobs on an old backup, for the case where
Windows is long gone from the machine.

Only comments changed in config/packages/base.pkgs, so the package set hashes
identically and the staged base stays valid.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01XWRjNJMistCy6ngXH5aJLS

2026-07-27 12:51:01 +03:00

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Installing on the Yoga C630

Before you start

Leave Windows in place. Lenovo ships firmware updates only through Windows, and the per-model Qualcomm blobs Linux needs live in that partition — wiping it means losing accelerated graphics, audio and the sensor hub permanently. Update everything through Lenovo Vantage first.

Disable Secure Boot. The image is not signed for it:

Press Fn+F2 during startup, go to Security → Secure Boot → Disabled, or
Settings → Update & Security → Recovery → Advanced startup → UEFI Firmware Settings

Write the image

zstd -d fedora-44-minimal-lenovo-yoga-c630-*.img.zst
sudo dd if=fedora-44-minimal-lenovo-yoga-c630-*.img of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=direct conv=fsync

Check /dev/sdX twice. An 8 GiB stick is enough for minimal, 16 GiB for workstation; the root filesystem expands to fill whatever you use.

First boot

Insert the stick and power on holding Fn+F12 for the boot menu, or enter setup with Fn+F2 and put USB ahead of the internal drive.

GRUB should appear with one entry. It has already been told which device tree to load — the C630's UEFI does not supply one, which is the whole reason the devicetree line exists in the boot loader entry.

First boot does two slow things: it relabels the filesystem for SELinux and grows the root partition. Several minutes on a USB stick is normal. Log in as fedora / fedora and set a new password when prompted.

Extract the Qualcomm firmware

Accelerated graphics, audio, the sensor hub and video decode do not work until you do this:

sudo c630-firmware
sudo reboot

See firmware.md if it cannot find the Windows partition.

Installing to internal storage

Once the USB image is behaving, copy it onto the internal UFS.

Shrink the Windows partition from within Windows (Disk Management → Shrink Volume) rather than from Linux — Windows is fussy about its own filesystem being moved underneath it.

Then, booted from USB, write the image to the free space. The simplest approach that keeps Windows intact is to create the partitions by hand and copy the filesystems across rather than dd-ing the whole image, since dd would overwrite the existing GPT and the Windows ESP:

sudo gdisk /dev/sda — add a /boot partition (1 GiB, type 8300) and a root partition (type 8300) in the free space. Keep the existing Windows ESP.
mkfs.ext4 -O ^orphan_file,^metadata_csum_seed /dev/sdaN for both.
Copy the running system across with rsync -aHAX --exclude=/dev --exclude=/proc --exclude=/sys --exclude=/run --exclude=/boot, then /boot separately.
Copy EFI/fedora from the USB stick's ESP onto the Windows ESP, and edit EFI/fedora/grub.cfg so the --fs-uuid matches the new /boot.
Update /etc/fstab and the root=UUID= in /boot/loader/entries/c630-*.conf to the new UUIDs.

Finally, point the firmware at GRUB from an Administrator command prompt in Windows:

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\fedora\grubaa64.efi

Windows resets this on some updates. To get back, boot the USB stick and run it again, or use efibootmgr from Linux.

If it does not boot

The kernel command line is the first thing to change. It lives in options in /boot/loader/entries/c630-*.conf, and GRUB lets you edit it for one boot by pressing e.

Symptom	Try
Hangs immediately after GRUB, no kernel output	Wrong or missing device tree — check the `devicetree` line points at a file that exists in `/boot/dtb-*/qcom/`
Boots then freezes partway	Drop `efi=noruntime`, or add `pd_ignore_unused` if it is missing
USB dies during boot	Add `modprobe.blacklist=qcom_q6v5_pas`
Cannot find root filesystem	The initramfs is missing the UFS drivers — see `overlay/etc/dracut.conf.d/10-c630.conf`
90-second stall early in boot	Add `systemd.tpm2_wait=0`

Adding earlycon and ignore_loglevel will tell you a great deal more about which of these it is.

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