I experienced similar headaches, putting Coreboot on about 10 laptops. A few things to add: * For laptops that require extensive disassembly, once you realize

I experienced similar headaches, putting Coreboot on about 10 laptops. A few things to add: * For laptops that require extensive disassembly, once you realize that one day you might have to recover a bad software-based flashing, requiring disassembly again, you might be willing to cut a hole in the laptop: https://www.neilvandyke.org/coreboot/#cutouts https://www.neilvandyke.org/coreboot/#cutouts * Something like an IBM/Lenovo Hardware Maintenance Manual is a big win. Lately I even label removed screws with the page or section number of the manual that described their removal. https://www.neilvandyke.org/coreboot/#intro https://www.neilvandyke.org/coreboot/#intro * The flaky in-circuit reading&writing of the flash chip with hardware probes ranges from frustrating to maddening, for software person me. For example, I had an "assembly line" for Coreboot-ing seven ThinkPad X200 units, but in-circuit reading and writing failed different ways, multiple times, with pretty much every unit. And I fried a rare-ish variant of the ThinkPad T60 motherboard (I guess when current took a path it really wasn't supposed to). * Had I only needed to do one laptop, afterwards I'd think that was rough, but that it would go much smoother next time, once I knew what I was doing. Not so. I never knew what I was doing. I did about 10 laptops, and each one was a pain. Maybe an EE/CE would do it much better, with better technique, or better tools? * I really like the idea of open source boot firmware (and I hate UEFI complexity and dodginess). Now, if I could just get Coreboot and a good TrackPoint keyboard on Purism/Framework/System76/etc....