Re: [Libreboot-dev] release candidate for first 2016 libreboot release

[Johannes Krampf]

Hi Leah!

I tested on x200_8mb and t400_8mb. (I'm happy to provide more detailed 
specs if that would be helpful.)

x200 with Trisquel:
* boots GRUB ✓
* boots GNU/Linux properly as before ✓
* no weird issues ✓
* suspend ✓
* text mode ✓

t400 with Parabola:
* boots GRUB ✓
* boots GNU/Linux properly as before ✗
* no weird issues ✗
* suspend ✗
* text mode (not tested)

My T400 has a DVD drive. Grub starts successfully and the first boot 
option is automatically selected.

At this stage I can observe the (pretty!) picture of the GNU and the 
penguin for multiple (at least 5) minutes. I didn't wait to see if 
there's a timeout.

If I remove the DVD drive, there's a delay of a few seconds after the 
first boot options was selected. This was not the case on the x200. Then 
I see number of messages like "errors: disk ata2,1 not found" and 
finally "Press any key to continue..." on the screen before the 
operating system (OS) is booted. Contrary to the message, the OS is 
booted without requiring a key press.

During the OS boot I see a number of error messages:
DMAR: Failed to map dmar2
i915 0000:00:02.0: Invalid ROM contents
[drm:intel_cpu_fifo_underrun_irq_handler [i915]] *ERROR* CPU pipe A FIFO 
underrun

They don't seem to have any ill effects. The "Invalid ROM contents" 
message is also shown on the x200.

When I insert the DVD drive after boot, some errors are shown, but the 
drive works after an (automatic) hard reset of the SATA link and I was 
able to play an audio CD.

Suspend works, but resume unfortunately does not. When the machine 
should resume, I hear a brief DVD drive noise, but the screen stays 
black and the sleep LED keeps lit. The power LEDs are also lit. Pressing 
the power button briefly or closing and opening the lid have no effect.

Note that I previously used a custom grub.cfg which directly booted my 
kernel and did not need to enumerate devices for a delay-free boot on 
the T400. I had issues with resume previously.

I have a docking station and tried to compile a custom coreboot with 
serial logging to investigate the resume failure, but I bricked the 
machine each time. Unbricking means taking the whole machine apart and 
is not fun.

I would like to solder wires to the flash chip so I don't have to take 
the machine apart each time, but there's only little space between one 
row of pins and the memory socket and I'm not confident enough in my 
rudimentary soldering skills. :-(

Anyway, I'm happy to perform further tests, but I would prefer to keep 
the need to unbrick to a minimum.

- Johannes

On 07/20/2016 11:48 AM, Leah Rowe wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Hi,
>
> https://libreboot.org/beta/experimental-82-g5090b51/
>
> coreboot was updated for X200, T400, R400, T500 and GA-G41M-ES2L. Can
> people with these boards test those ROM images and report results back
> to this list?
>
> NOTE: brick risk is high. Make sure to have your SPI programmer ready.
>
> Expected behaviour:
> * boots GRUB, boots GNU/Linux properly as before
> * no weird issues
> * suspend should now work on laptops listed above, as should resume.
> * text mode should work (see new txtmode images for laptops above)
> * improved raminit for ga-g41m-es2l (e.g. 800mhz dimms, etc. ask
> damo22 for more information. damo22 is in the IRC channel)
>
> - --
> Leah Rowe
>
> Libreboot developer
>
> Use free software. Free as in freedom.
> https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
>
> Use a free operating system, GNU/Linux.
> https://www.gnu.org/
>
> Use a free BIOS.
> https://libreboot.org/
>
> Support freedom. Join the Free Software Foundation.
> https://fsf.org/
>
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