Hi Sam,
On 22.03.2017 17:03, Sam Kuper wrote:
Steps followed:
...
- On spare PC, in Coreboot directory:
-- make distclean && make nconfig
-- Choose "Lenovo" as mainboard vendor.
-- Choose "ThinkPad X201 / X201s / X201t" as mainboard.
-- Choose "Add Intel descriptor.bin file".
-- Choose "Add Intel ME/TXE firmware".
-- Choose "GRUB2" as payload.
You didn't select any option to initialize the display.
- After about 10 minutes, the fan spins up for a few seconds, then
spins back down. This repeats roughly every 10 minutes.
I guess, you are at the GRUB console here, just without display.
N.B. with the same X201, a day or two ago, I was able to use a Coreboot build with a SeaBIOS payload to boot a non-encrypted Debian installation from the SSD. Oddly, when I did that, there was no SeaBIOS menu displayed, nor any GRUB2 menu displayed, even though the unencrypted Debian install had placed a GRUB2 instance on the SSD: it was as though Coreboot skipped both its own SeaBIOS payload in the flash chip, AND the Debian-installed GRUB2 on the SSD, and somehow went straight to the Debian login prompt.
The only thing that is skipped is the display initialization. SeaBIOS does a legacy boot and detects the installed GRUB, runs it etc...
Anyhow, I didn't want a non-encrypted Debian installation, I wanted an encrypted one: hence the attempt above. I guess maybe what's happening is that Coreboot is somehow this time skipping its GRUB2 payload much as it previously seemed to skip its SeaBIOS payload, and likewise skipping the Debian-installed GRUB2 instance on the SSD as it did previously. Only this time, instead of finding an unencrypted drive with a Debian kernel that it knows how to boot, Coreboot is instead finding an encrypted partition that it doesn't know how to do anything with.
The GRUB payload, by default, doesn't have any configuration file and will wait at the prompt (no matter if the disk is encrypted or not).
Is my interpretation plausible? In any case, how would more experienced Corebooters suggest I proceed?
Easiest option seems to be to select CONFIG_MAINBOARD_DO_NATIVE_VGA_INIT
Hope that helps, Nico