Re: [Libreboot] Bricked my c201

[fatih . balli]

Hello,

I had a similar problem with bricking my c201 device yesterday. I am  
not sure if it is completely related, but the case seemed very close.

After installing archlinux on sd card, I dared to remove the internal  
16gb /dev/mmcblk0 completely so I can migrate my installation to it. I  
had set

dev_default_boot=usb
dev_boot_signed_only=0
dev_boot_usb=1

which worked fine. Then I happen to disable developer mode on  
libreboot, which failed booting anyhting. I was asking myself is it  
not too loose by means of security to let any device bootable by just  
Ctrl+D, Ctrl+U. I was so wrong, I reenabled the developer mode and my  
booting parameters became:

dev_default_boot=internal
dev_boot_signed_only=0 (which is OK)
dev_boot_usb=0 (can't boot usb)

Shortly, I locked myself out by not having internal kernel to boot,  
and having disabled usb-booting. The first impression was I had to  
remove spi flash chip, however libreboot warning message indicated  
there should be recovery image. I prepared the recovery image with  
Google's guide and booted as recovery USB.

If you have low battery, the device shuts itself without giving  
reason, so I thought there was some problem with recovery because of  
it is not original coreboot but libreboot etc. I pluged DC power and  
it continued recovery.

At this point use Ctrl + Alt + F3 to see detailed log. If you wait  
long enough you will realize that there is updater5.sh script and it  
complains that the firmware version is not "veyron-speedy" but  
"libreboot-experimental". I tried to find the code (hoping it was  
free), but failed to do so. Nevertheless, the logs clearly indicated  
that the internal drive partitions are being created, written  
correctly with no complaint etc... But the final result is this "an  
unexpected error occurred". And it does not work obviously.

I restarted recovery. Opened the active log with Ctrl + Alt + F3,  
waited carefully until partitions are being created, and at the very  
moment it started writing partition 3 (it starts with 12nd partition  
and comes down to 1st one in reverse order) I held the power button  
down for ~10 secs and cut the power. I started the laptop and there it  
is: running CrOS. I was able to return the initial setting thankfully.

So I think if you can run the recovery image, you have high  
probability of recovering your device even without opening it. Hope it  
helps.

-Fatih