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[Libreboot] Bricked my c201


From: Albin
Subject: [Libreboot] Bricked my c201
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 01:27:32 +0100
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Icedove/38.4.0

Fellow libreboot users,

When trying to replace ChromeOS I managed to brick my newly purchased
c201 and will now try to recover by reflashing the factory firmware. If
you wish to know exactly what happened, please see the exchange below
between Paul K. and myself.

I'll try to report anything new I learn that could be useful to others
who want to run free on the c201.

Best regards,

Albin

Den 2015-12-14 kl. 19:39, skrev Paul Kocialkowski:
> Hi,
>
> Le jeudi 10 décembre 2015 à 22:42 +0100, Albin a écrit :
>> I believe that I just bricked by c201 and would really appreciate any
>> quick feedback. This is what I did:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> I followed the Debian guide here:
>> https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Asus/C201
>>
>> It involves copying and signing the ChromeOS kernel from internal memory
>> to an SD card.
>>
>> Then, before rebooting, I ran crossystem dev_boot_signed_only=1.
>>
>> Now, at the libreboot screen, the only warning message there is the one
>> saying that booting from external memory is possible.
>
> That makes sense.
>
>> Pressing Ctrl+U results in a *beep*, i.e. the Debian kernel on the SD
>> card won't get loaded.
>
> Make sure you set up the partitions correctly. It has to be an EFI
> filesystem and I recall that some special properties for CrOS have to be
> set.

I tried to follow the Debian guide exactly so I didn't try to do
anything else than what's written here:
https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Asus/C201

Either there is something wrong with the guide or I made mistakes when
when trying to follow it.

>> Pressing CTRL+D, i.e. booting from internal
>> memory, gives me the screen "Welcome to recovery mode! Please insert an
>> external recovery media.".
>>
>> Previously, even with libreboot, I could boot ChromeOS from internal
>> memory with boot_signed_only enabled. Now I can't boot at all!
>>
>> I never got to the part about installing to the internal memory so I
>> don't understand what's happened.
>>
>> Do you have any idea about could have gone wrong and what I can do to
>> recover?
>
> That's strange. If all you did was extract the kernel and set
> "crossystem dev_boot_signed_only=1", there is no reason why it would
> refuse booting. That is, assuming that you didn't already replace
> ChromeOS with something else.

It's possible that I made a mistake that damaged both the ChromeOS
install and the SD image that I was trying to create since there were a
long series of commands that had to be entered as root.

> I guess your best shot here is to boot
> externally and set the internal memory straight.

Unfortunately I cannot do this. See below.


Den 2015-12-14 kl. 19:42, skrev Paul Kocialkowski:
> Hi,
>
> Le jeudi 10 décembre 2015 à 23:57 +0100, Albin a écrit :
>> One more detail: I tried to use Google's standard (proprietary) recovery
>> tool. The program first verifies the integrity of the recovery media and
>> then shows the following:
>>
>> System recovery is in progress... This will take a few minutes. Please
>> do not turn off the computer or disconnect the power.
>>
>> After a while, however, the following message is shown:
>>
>> An unexpected error has occurred. Please refer to this URL for
>> troubleshooting tips:
>>
>> https://www.google.com/chromeos/recovery
>>
>> I guess that one can expect Google's proprietary tool to verify the
>> integrity of the boot firmware and since it's been modified it refuses
>> to reinstall ChromeOS.
>
> It might, I haven't tried it yet (I'm a bit surprised, though). However,
> it should be happy if you reflash the backup of the internal flash
> (assuming you kept it).
>
>> Do you think that external flashing is the only way for me to recover at
>> this stage? (I've still got the backup image.)
>
> I suggest that you get it booting externally (assuming that you still
> have the extracted kernel image, that is signed with the original Google
> keys). Then, you'll have all the flexibility you need to recover from
> this.
>
> Otherwise, it's always possible to reflash the backup flash image
> externally and reinstall ChromeOS from the recovery media.
>

Running Google's proprietary recovery program on libreboot firmware not
only didn't work to reinstall ChromeOS (as explained above) but it also
disabled external booting *and* the signed-kernel requirement, and
warning messages on the libreboot screen changed accordingly. The fact
that the recovery program turned off signed-kernel verification doesn't
help me because the data on the internal storage is no longer a bootable OS.

I will try to reinstall the factory firmware (externally) and then make
another attempt to liberate the computer.

Thank you for your feedback Paul!

Albin


>> 2015-12-10 22:42 skrev Albin:
>>> Hi Paul,
>>>
>>> I believe that I just bricked by c201 and would really appreciate any
>>> quick feedback. This is what I did:
>>>
>>> I followed the Debian guide here:
>>> https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Asus/C201
>>>
>>> It involves copying and signing the ChromeOS kernel from internal
>>> memory
>>> to an SD card.
>>>
>>> Then, before rebooting, I ran crossystem dev_boot_signed_only=1.
>>>
>>> Now, at the libreboot screen, the only warning message there is the one
>>> saying that booting from external memory is possible.
>>>
>>> Pressing Ctrl+U results in a *beep*, i.e. the Debian kernel on the SD
>>> card won't get loaded. Pressing CTRL+D, i.e. booting from internal
>>> memory, gives me the screen "Welcome to recovery mode! Please insert an
>>> external recovery media.".
>>>
>>> Previously, even with libreboot, I could boot ChromeOS from internal
>>> memory with boot_signed_only enabled. Now I can't boot at all!
>>>
>>> I never got to the part about installing to the internal memory so I
>>> don't understand what's happened.
>>>
>>> Do you have any idea about could have gone wrong and what I can do to
>>> recover?
>>>
>>> All the best,
>>>
>>> Albin
>



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