According to a comment there, it's not hardware, it's a BIOS setting.

> I've been able to successfully get past Lenovo's lock through direct bios flashing. I'm looking into better solutions, hopefully I can find a way to do this without an external programmer. I was going to keep people updated from the Lenovo forum, but as this is no longer an option I will keep people updated from here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/53ri0m/warning_micro...

Yes, but it's a setting that causes the hardware to behave differently, and which would need driver support to function.

The problem is that it's locked.

As a default it would be fine, if it could be changed without removing the BIOS chip.

I agree completely with that. I responded because I partially disagreed with your earlier statement; I think it misses the point.

It's a locked UEFI setting causing a problem: true. The setting is causing a piece of hardware to behave in a mode not handled by the current Linux driver: also true. So there are two ways of looking at it.

First: It's a software issue that Lenovo should clear up (i.e. remove the locks on the appropriate parts of the UEFI configuration)

Second: It's a hardware issue that the Linux community can address by writing a driver for the alternate hardware mode.

Right, but it also breaks official microsoft windows media. How much sense does that make?

For RAID hardware, it's not that unusual to have a device that isn't supported by standard Windows install media. To install Windows, you'd put the Intel-provided driver on another medium (or slipstream it into the Windows one), and click "load driver" in the installation GUI.

Lenovo apparently wants to treat that computer as an appliance; if someone borks their installation enough that even a system restore won't fix it, it's a call to Lenovo support, and a bill if the machine's out of warranty.

For customers whose Windows installations are working correctly, it's access to a faster, more power-efficient driver. That's how it makes sense, IMO.