Re: [Libreboot] Bricked my c201

[fatih . balli]

Hi Albin,

I wiped my internal flash again, and tried this one more time. At the  
first try I failed. (at this trial I started to press power button  
constantly as soon as i see "Installing partition 3 to /dev/mmcblk0").  
At the second time I waited partition 3 to finish and tried again and  
it worked. (by the time laptop powered down, the last console message  
was "Installing partition 2 to ...") I think you are right that there  
is a somehow precise timing on that, but given it worked in few  
trials; I suggest you try again if possible.

You might wonder why I tried at partition 3. cgpt show /dev/mmcblk0  
gives the partition layout, and I thought I needed a reliable kernel  
(at parititon 4) and rootfs (at partition 5).

When you let the installation complete, it realizes that firmware  
version is not "veyron-speedy" and reverts things back. Hard resetting  
machine lets me disable that verification -- and since we only need  
internal memory to have signed bootable kernel it works.

I hope it helps you as well. I have come to rely very much on this  
procedure, I wiped my internal device without hesitation :)

Recovery file:  
chromeos_8172.60.0_veyron-speedy_recovery_stable-channel_speedy-mp-v3.bin
md5sum: ae26e41c72ee6c76f821e9356fe72cd7

Cheers,


Quoting Albin <address@hidden>:

> Hi Fatih,
>
> I was able to run the recovery image and open the detail log with Ctrl +
> Alt + F3 as you explained.  Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me to
> reinstall ChromeOS by either letting the recovery process finish (up to
> verification, where it fails like you explain) or by interrupting it by
> powering down when writing to a) partition 3, b) to partition 1 or c) to
> the "stateful" partition.
>
> Maybe this is about very precise timing?  Did you try to power down at
> some other points in the recovery process and that didn't work, or did
> you just randomly try it at the partition 3 stage and it happened to work?
>
> I'm glad that you were able to recover and sent this email to the list,
> even if I haven't managed to reset my own computer.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Albin
>
> Den 2016-06-29 kl. 03:26, skrev address@hidden:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I had a similar problem with bricking my c201 device yesterday. I am not
> > sure if it is completely related, but the case seemed very close.
> >
> > After installing archlinux on sd card, I dared to remove the internal
> > 16gb /dev/mmcblk0 completely so I can migrate my installation to it. I
> > had set
> >
> > dev_default_boot=usb
> > dev_boot_signed_only=0
> > dev_boot_usb=1
> >
> > which worked fine. Then I happen to disable developer mode on libreboot,
> > which failed booting anyhting. I was asking myself is it not too loose
> > by means of security to let any device bootable by just Ctrl+D, Ctrl+U.
> > I was so wrong, I reenabled the developer mode and my booting parameters
> > became:
> >
> > dev_default_boot=internal
> > dev_boot_signed_only=0 (which is OK)
> > dev_boot_usb=0 (can't boot usb)
> >
> > Shortly, I locked myself out by not having internal kernel to boot, and
> > having disabled usb-booting. The first impression was I had to remove
> > spi flash chip, however libreboot warning message indicated there should
> > be recovery image. I prepared the recovery image with Google's guide and
> > booted as recovery USB.
> >
> > If you have low battery, the device shuts itself without giving reason,
> > so I thought there was some problem with recovery because of it is not
> > original coreboot but libreboot etc. I pluged DC power and it continued
> > recovery.
> >
> > At this point use Ctrl + Alt + F3 to see detailed log. If you wait long
> > enough you will realize that there is updater5.sh script and it
> > complains that the firmware version is not "veyron-speedy" but
> > "libreboot-experimental". I tried to find the code (hoping it was free),
> > but failed to do so. Nevertheless, the logs clearly indicated that the
> > internal drive partitions are being created, written correctly with no
> > complaint etc... But the final result is this "an unexpected error
> > occurred". And it does not work obviously.
> >
> > I restarted recovery. Opened the active log with Ctrl + Alt + F3, waited
> > carefully until partitions are being created, and at the very moment it
> > started writing partition 3 (it starts with 12nd partition and comes
> > down to 1st one in reverse order) I held the power button down for ~10
> > secs and cut the power. I started the laptop and there it is: running
> > CrOS. I was able to return the initial setting thankfully.
> >
> > So I think if you can run the recovery image, you have high probability
> > of recovering your device even without opening it. Hope it helps.
> >
> > -Fatih