[coreboot] Lenovo Thinkpad X201: cannot boot encrypted Debian w/Coreboot & GRUB2

[Sam Kuper]

On 22/03/2017, Nico Huber <nico.h at gmx.de> wrote:
> On 22.03.2017 17:03, Sam Kuper wrote:
>> -- 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.
[...]
> The only thing that is skipped is the display initialization. SeaBIOS
> does a legacy boot and detects the installed GRUB, runs it etc...
[...]

Interesting. A few days ago, I tried running Coreboot on the X201 with
a SeaBIOS payload and no SSD installed. IIRC, SeaBIOS did provide a
display at that point. But maybe I am misremembering, and the SeaBIOS
display was actually something I only saw in QEMU.

That aside (which on reflection probably *was* in QEMU), your
explanation makes perfect sense :) I hadn't realised that Coreboot's
default would be *not* to initialise a display.

> 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).

Good to have this confirmed. From a GRUB prompt, I hope I will be able
to find and boot the Debian installation.

>> 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,

Very much so; will try it ASAP. Thank you!