SeaBIOS does not always recognice the USB key as boot device

[Matthias Apitz]

Hello,

I have some (yes, some) Acer C720 Chromebooks which are "rooted" to
enter SeaBIOS to boot any OS from USB or SSD. This works fine, in
general.

I have one particular USB key, which says on attach to a FreeBSD system about itself:

Aug  5 20:55:13 c720-r276659 kernel: da0: <JetFlash Transcend 8GB 8.07> Removable Direct Access SCSI-4 device 
Aug  5 20:55:13 c720-r276659 kernel: da0: Serial Number KWUQE9E8
Aug  5 20:55:13 c720-r276659 kernel: da0: 40.000MB/s transfers
Aug  5 20:55:13 c720-r276659 kernel: da0: 7487MB (15335422 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 954C)
Aug  5 20:55:13 c720-r276659 kernel: da0: quirks=0x12<NO_6_BYTE,NO_RC16>
Aug  5 20:55:13 c720-r276659 kernel: GEOM: da0: the secondary GPT header is not in the last LBA.
Aug  5 20:55:13 c720-r276659 kernel: GEOM: diskid/DISK-KWUQE9E8: the secondary GPT header is not in the last LBA.

This one (and only this one in all my C720) on power-on is not reliable detected
as boot device. A press on ESC only offers the internal SSD to boot from. If
it is detected (in 1 of 10 power cycles), it boots fine.

What can I do, apart of trashing the USB key?

Thanks

matthias

SeaBIOS does not always recognize the USB key as boot device

[Paul Menzel]

Dear Matthias,

Am Mittwoch, den 05.08.2015, 21:03 +0200 schrieb Matthias Apitz:
> I have some (yes, some) Acer C720 Chromebooks which are "rooted" to
> enter SeaBIOS to boot any OS from USB or SSD. This works fine, in
> general.
>
> I have one particular USB key, which says on attach to a FreeBSD 
> system about itself:
>
> Aug  5 20:55:13 c720-r276659 kernel: da0: Flash Transcend 8GB 8.07> Removable Direct Access SCSI-4 device 
> Aug  5 20:55:13 c720-r276659 kernel: da0: Serial Number KWUQE9E8
> Aug  5 20:55:13 c720-r276659 kernel: da0: 40.000MB/s transfers
> Aug  5 20:55:13 c720-r276659 kernel: da0: 7487MB (15335422 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 954C)
> Aug  5 20:55:13 c720-r276659 kernel: da0: quirks=0x12
> Aug  5 20:55:13 c720-r276659 kernel: GEOM: da0: the secondary GPT header is not in the last LBA.
> Aug  5 20:55:13 c720-r276659 kernel: GEOM: diskid/DISK-KWUQE9E8: the secondary GPT header is not in the last LBA.
>
> This one (and only this one in all my C720) on power-on is not 
> reliable detected as boot device. A press on ESC only offers the 
> internal SSD to boot from. If it is detected (in 1 of 10 power 
> cycles), it boots fine.
>
> What can I do, apart of trashing the USB key?

give more information, so when the SeaBIOS developers look into it,
they have what they need.

Please publish the commit hash you build SeaBIOS from and the config
file.

Additionally, build SeaBIOS with debug level 8 and publish the logs
from a working and non-working boot. If you build SeaBIOS with CBMEM
console support, you’ll find the logs in the output of `cbmem -c`.

Thanks,

Paul

SeaBIOS does not always recognize the USB key as boot device

[Matthias Apitz]

El día Thursday, August 06, 2015 a las 07:43:13AM +0200, Paul Menzel escribió:

Hello Paul,
> give more information, so when the SeaBIOS developers look into it,
> they have what they need.
>
> Please publish the commit hash you build SeaBIOS from and the config
> file.
>
> Additionally, build SeaBIOS with debug level 8 and publish the logs
> from a working and non-working boot. If you build SeaBIOS with CBMEM
> console support, you’ll find the logs in the output of `cbmem -c`.

I understand as a developer the request for more detailed information.
But I do not have the infrastructure to build Coreboot / SeaBIOS and
flash this into the Acer C720 Chromebook. For sure, I also do not have at the
moment the knowledge how to do so, but this is a matter of reading
documentation.

The C720's I'm using are modified in the BIOS so they do not boot anymore
ChromeOS, but via SeaBIOS any other OS, in my case FreeBSD CURRENT.

The only detailed information I have is the version string which says
SeaBIOS on power on: SeaBIOS ver. 20131001_113210-build123-m2

Let me know if I could read any further information out of the BIOS
using the booted FreeBSD. Or does exist some kind of images to write to
an USB key and boot from which could get more information?

Thanks in any case for your attention.

matthias

SeaBIOS does not always recognize the USB key as boot device

[Kevin O'Connor]

On Thu, Aug 06, 2015 at 09:30:22AM +0200, Matthias Apitz wrote:
> El día Thursday, August 06, 2015 a las 07:43:13AM +0200, Paul Menzel escribió:
>
> Hello Paul,
> > give more information, so when the SeaBIOS developers look into it,
> > they have what they need.
> >
> > Please publish the commit hash you build SeaBIOS from and the config
> > file.
> >
> > Additionally, build SeaBIOS with debug level 8 and publish the logs
> > from a working and non-working boot. If you build SeaBIOS with CBMEM
> > console support, you’ll find the logs in the output of `cbmem -c`.
>
> I understand as a developer the request for more detailed information.
> But I do not have the infrastructure to build Coreboot / SeaBIOS and
> flash this into the Acer C720 Chromebook. For sure, I also do not have at the
> moment the knowledge how to do so, but this is a matter of reading
> documentation.
>
> The C720's I'm using are modified in the BIOS so they do not boot anymore
> ChromeOS, but via SeaBIOS any other OS, in my case FreeBSD CURRENT.
>
> The only detailed information I have is the version string which says
> SeaBIOS on power on: SeaBIOS ver. 20131001_113210-build123-m2
>
> Let me know if I could read any further information out of the BIOS
> using the booted FreeBSD. Or does exist some kind of images to write to
> an USB key and boot from which could get more information?

Hi Matthias,

It looks like you are running an older version of SeaBIOS (from 2013).
There were a number of USB fixes since that time.  It also looks like
you are running a custom (non chromeos) rom.  I recommend you upgrade
to a more recent version of the software - either from where the
custom rom was originally obtained or from another source.  The
coreboot download page ( http://www.coreboot.org/Download_coreboot )
lists this site as a source of Chromebook roms:
https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download/

If you continue to experience USB problems after upgrading seabios,
then you'll need to obtain the coreboot and seabios debug logs.
Briefly this is done on Linux with something like:

$ git clone http://review.coreboot.org/coreboot.git
$ cd coreboot/util/cbmem/
$ make
$ sudo ./cbmem -c

The logs should be forwarded to the seabios mailing list (
[e-mail] ) along with a description of the problem.

Cheers,
-Kevin