Coreboot fails to initialize on ASUS A8V-E SE

[Jonathan Rogers]

I just built coreboot from SVN using the kconfig system for my ASUS
A8V-E SE. However, I never get anything after the "now booting...
fallback" message on the serial port. Also, the hard drive activity
light stays on solid.

I had coreboot working fine on this exact board over a year ago. Then,
I had to use the manual build method. Back then, even when the video
card didn't initialize, I got a lot more output on the serial port.

What should I try next? Do I still need to use the manual build method
for this board?

[Myles Watson]

> I just built coreboot from SVN using the kconfig system for my ASUS
> A8V-E SE. However, I never get anything after the "now booting...
> fallback" message on the serial port. Also, the hard drive activity
> light stays on solid.
>
> I had coreboot working fine on this exact board over a year ago. Then,
> I had to use the manual build method. Back then, even when the video
> card didn't initialize, I got a lot more output on the serial port.
>
> What should I try next? Do I still need to use the manual build method
> for this board?

It looks like there are quite a few differences between the old build's
CONFIG_* settings and Kconfig's settings.  Does the old way still work for
you with the latest svn?  If so, we can fix Kconfig to match and try that.

Thanks,
Myles

[Myles Watson]

On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 3:14 PM, Myles Watson  wrote:
> > I just built coreboot from SVN using the kconfig system for my ASUS
> > A8V-E SE. However, I never get anything after the "now booting...
> > fallback" message on the serial port. Also, the hard drive activity
> > light stays on solid.
> >
> > I had coreboot working fine on this exact board over a year ago. Then,
> > I had to use the manual build method. Back then, even when the video
> > card didn't initialize, I got a lot more output on the serial port.
> >
> > What should I try next? Do I still need to use the manual build method
> > for this board?
>
> It looks like there are quite a few differences between the old build's
> CONFIG_* settings and Kconfig's settings.  Does the old way still work for
> you with the latest svn?  If so, we can fix Kconfig to match and try that.

Here's the patch that makes most of the important things match.
There's really no good reason to go back to the old way of building.
Let's just fix what we're using.

Signed-off-by: Myles Watson

Thanks,
Myles

[Peter Stuge]

Myles Watson wrote:
> Here's the patch that makes most of the important things match.
> There's really no good reason to go back to the old way of building.
> Let's just fix what we're using.
>
> Signed-off-by: Myles Watson

Acked-by: Peter Stuge

[Rudolf Marek]

Hi,

Please can you compare  last 128 bytes of image? I suspect that ROM SIP for HT 
bus settings is not right. I mean it is same issue as M2V-MX SE.

It should contain:

0007FF80 AA 00 44 50 │ C2 0F 97 61 │ AA 00 44 50 │ C2 0F 97 61 │ AA 00 44 50 
?.DP?.?a?.DP?.?a?.DP
0007FF94 C2 0F 97 61 │ AA 00 44 50 │ C2 0F 97 61 │ AA 00 44 50 │ C2 0F 97 61 
?.?a?.DP?.?a?.DP?.?a
0007FFA8 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00 
....................
0007FFBC 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00 
....................
0007FFD0 80 FF 0F 00 │ FF FF FF FF │ FF FF FF FF │ FF FF FF FF │ FF FF FF FF 
??..????????????????
0007FFE4 FF FF FF FF │ FF FF FF FF │ FF FF FF FF │ E9 11 00 FF │ FF 00 00 00 
?????????????..??...
0007FFF8 E9 5F 00 FF │ D0 FF FD FF │

Repeated AA 00 44 50 at 0007FF80

I will go out of internet for a weekend, so I can help next week or Sunday.

Eventually I can try with mine A8V-E SE if it does boot with normal bios at least...

Rudolf

[Myles Watson]

On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 2:30 AM, Rudolf Marek  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Please can you compare  last 128 bytes of image? I suspect that ROM SIP for
> HT bus settings is not right. I mean it is same issue as M2V-MX SE.

Thanks.  I always forget about that.

You can try the attached patch.  Make sure to:
rm -rf build
make oldconfig
make

after applying the patch.

Signed-off-by: Myles Watson
> It should contain:
>
> 0007FF80 AA 00 44 50 │ C2 0F 97 61 │ AA 00 44 50 │ C2 0F 97 61 │ AA 00 44 50
> ?.DP?.?a?.DP?.?a?.DP
> 0007FF94 C2 0F 97 61 │ AA 00 44 50 │ C2 0F 97 61 │ AA 00 44 50 │ C2 0F 97 61
> ?.?a?.DP?.?a?.DP?.?a
> 0007FFA8 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00
> ....................
> 0007FFBC 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00 │ 00 00 00 00
> ....................
> 0007FFD0 80 FF 0F 00 │ FF FF FF FF │ FF FF FF FF │ FF FF FF FF │ FF FF FF FF
> ??..????????????????
> 0007FFE4 FF FF FF FF │ FF FF FF FF │ FF FF FF FF │ E9 11 00 FF │ FF 00 00 00
> ?????????????..??...
> 0007FFF8 E9 5F 00 FF │ D0 FF FD FF │
>
> Repeated AA 00 44 50 at 0007FF80

hexdump -C build/coreboot.rom | tail
*
0007ff80  aa 00 44 50 c2 0f 97 61  aa 00 44 50 c2 0f 97 61  |..DP...a..DP...a|
*
0007ffa0  aa 00 44 50 c2 0f 97 61  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |..DP...a........|
0007ffb0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
0007ffd0  80 ff 0f 00 00 00 41 53  55 53 00 41 38 56 2d 45  |......ASUS.A8V-E|
0007ffe0  20 53 45 00 2a 00 00 00  25 00 00 00 00 00 08 00  | SE.*...%.......|
0007fff0  e9 11 00 ff ff 00 00 00  e9 5f 00 ff e0 ff fe ff  |........._......|
00080000

Thanks,
Myles