Re: [Libreboot-dev] Test report: mb2,1 - 2015-12-16 (unstable)

[Eemeli Blåsten]

Dear Albin and Francis and all others in this mailing list,

I have a macbook 2.1 too and built libreboot and a rom a few days ago.
In particular I built everything on the libreboot git master branch at
commit 7c5fc471cfcdc48086491c87773a3667ae016873 "docs/src/*/c201*: it's
packages, not package (fix typo)".

I built the rom "macbook21_svenska_vesafb.rom" and switched to my old
grub.cfg using cbfstool. Before that I had added the line
"terminal_output --append cbmemc" to that grub.cfg. I do not know what
it does, but it seemed to have been added in one of the commits since
the release version from May. The config file is appended at the end of
this email.

Using this setup seems to have very few problems. In particular it got
rid of the "--MORE-- Unknown key 0x77 detected issue" that I have
experienced consistently using the 20150518 release. For reference see
my posts (eemeli) here:
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/librebooted-macbook-21?page=1

About the issues Albin reported:
- I do not have any problems with USB keys in grub. They get detected
when inserted before turning the laptop on and also while in grub. I can
start a Trisquel live USB using the isolinux option, and search for the
GuixSD grub configuration and run it without problems.
- About powering off in grub: if I press the power on/off-button quickly
the screen will just blank. I have to press it continuously for a few
seconds to power the laptop completely off.

Only issues I would report:
- Powering on: I have to press the button quite long (3-4 seconds). If I
press it for only 1-2 seconds then the laptop will occasionally continue
and boot, but more often than not I will just see the green led near the
webcam turn on for a split second and then the laptop will turn off. I
always got the impression that this seems like it would not have had
enough power to turn all necessary components on and then just "dies
off". I do not remember if I had the same issue with the original
factory rom.
- A long delay after decrypting my hard drive and before loading linux.
After I type my password into the grub "cryptomount -a", I have to wait
about 30 seconds, then get greeted by the message

> Slot 0 Opened
> error: PATA passthrough failed.
>
> Press any key to continue...

and only after that will grub start loading linux from the decrypted
drive. I had that same behaviour with two different hard drives and with
all versions of libreboot since macbook 2.1 was supported.


Best regards,
Eemeli

PS: the grub.cfg I referred to in the email:

set prefix=(memdisk)/boot/grub

insmod nativedisk
insmod ehci
insmod ohci
insmod uhci
insmod usb
insmod usbserial_pl2303
insmod usbserial_ftdi
insmod usbserial_usbdebug

# Serial and keyboard configuration, very important.
serial --speed=115200 --unit=0 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1
terminal_input --append  serial
terminal_output --append serial
terminal_input --append at_keyboard
terminal_output --append cbmemc

gfxpayload=keep
terminal_output --append gfxterm

# Default to first option, automatically boot after 1 second
set default="0"
set timeout=1

# This is useful when using 'cat' on long files on GRUB terminal
set pager=1

# # Play a beep on startup
# play 480 440 1
insmod jpeg

background_image (cbfsdisk)/background.png
loadfont (memdisk)/dejavusansmono.pf2

keymap svenska
menuentry 'Load LUKS Operating System' {
    cryptomount -a (ahci0,gpt1)
    set root='lvm/cryptgrp-rootvol'
    linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/mapper/cryptgrp-rootvol
cryptdevice=/dev/mapper/cryptgrp-rootvol:root splash
    initrd /initrd.img
}
menuentry 'Load Operating System' {
    insmod ahci
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod part_gpt
    for x in (ahci0,1) (ahci0,2) (ahci0,3) (ahci0,4); do
        if [ -f "$x/grub/libreboot_grub.cfg" ] ; then
            set root=$x
            configfile /grub/libreboot_grub.cfg
        fi
        if [ -f "$x/boot/grub/libreboot_grub.cfg" ] ; then
            set root=$x
            configfile /boot/grub/libreboot_grub.cfg
        fi
    done

    set root='ahci0,1'
    linux  /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 rw
    if [ -f "/initrd.img" ] ; then
        initrd /initrd.img
    fi
}
menuentry 'Parse ISOLINUX menu (ahci0)' {
    insmod ahci
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod part_gpt
    for x in (ahci0,1) (ahci0,2) (ahci0,3) (ahci0,4); do
        set root=$x
        if [ -f "/isolinux/isolinux.cfg" ] ; then
            syslinux_configfile -i /isolinux/isolinux.cfg
        elif [ -f "/syslinux/syslinux.cfg" ] ; then
            syslinux_configfile -i /syslinux/syslinux.cfg
        elif [ -f "/boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg" ] ; then
            syslinux_configfile -i /boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
        elif [ -f "/boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg" ] ; then
            syslinux_configfile -i /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
        fi
    done
}
menuentry 'Parse ISOLINUX menu (USB)' {
    insmod usbms
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod part_gpt
    for x in (usb0) (usb0,1) (usb0,2) (usb0,3) (usb0,4); do
        set root=$x
        if [ -f "/isolinux/isolinux.cfg" ] ; then
            syslinux_configfile -i /isolinux/isolinux.cfg
        elif [ -f "/syslinux/syslinux.cfg" ] ; then
            syslinux_configfile -i /syslinux/syslinux.cfg
        elif [ -f "/boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg" ] ; then
            syslinux_configfile -i /boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
        elif [ -f "/boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg" ] ; then
            syslinux_configfile -i /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
        fi
    done
}
menuentry 'Parse ISOLINUX menu (CD/DVD)' {
    insmod ahci
    insmod ata
    insmod iso9660
    for x in (ata0) (ahci1); do
        set root=$x
        if [ -f "/isolinux/isolinux.cfg" ] ; then
            syslinux_configfile -i /isolinux/isolinux.cfg
        elif [ -f "/syslinux/syslinux.cfg" ] ; then
            syslinux_configfile -i /syslinux/syslinux.cfg
        elif [ -f "/boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg" ] ; then
            syslinux_configfile -i /boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
        elif [ -f "/boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg" ] ; then
            syslinux_configfile -i /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
        fi
    done
}
menuentry 'Switch to grubtest.cfg' {
    set root='cbfsdisk'
    configfile (cbfsdisk)/grubtest.cfg
}
menuentry 'Search for GRUB configuration (grub.cfg) outside of CBFS' {
    insmod ahci
    insmod usbms
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod part_gpt
    for x in (ahci0,1) (ahci0,2) (ahci0,3) (ahci0,4) (usb0) (usb0,1)
(usb0,2) (usb0,3) (usb0,4); do
        if [ -f "$x/grub/grub.cfg" ] ; then
            submenu "Load Config from $x" $x {
                root=$2
                source /grub/grub.cfg
                unset superusers
            }
        fi
        if [ -f "$x/boot/grub/grub.cfg" ] ; then
            submenu "Load Config from $x" $x {
                root=$2
                source /boot/grub/grub.cfg
                unset superusers
            }
        fi
        if [ -f "$x/grub2/grub.cfg" ] ; then
            submenu "Load Config from $x" $x {
                root=$2
                source /grub2/grub.cfg
                unset superusers
            }
        fi
        if [ -f "$x/boot/grub2/grub.cfg" ] ; then
            submenu "Load Config from $x" $x {
                root=$2
                source /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
                unset superusers
            }
        fi
    done
}