Ok, here is a link to a google drive folder with the cbmem (windows) and dmesg (ubuntu LTS live usb) command output. I’ve also included the images of your windows device tree (joem) versus mine (happybrahma) to show which devices that you have that I am missing.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1P6sbbaAPYryEiZe1NaLyCMurTDMsinrn?usp=drive_link
I also added some screenshots of some of the individual driver errors that I could find to the shared google folder.
Hey Joe, for your 516ge, did you purchase install both the tb4 and sof drivers, or just the sof? My guess is that those chromebook usb drivers in your tree are from the coolstar tb4 drivers, but just double checking.
Yes i purchased both
You should just install it (even if you dont plan on buying it) just to see if it addresses the the issues
Hey Joe,
I already purchased, licensed, installed both the sof and tb4 drivers on my 516ge. I was just wondering if I should not have installed the tb4 drivers since this chromebook does not have usb4/tb4 hardware. Sounds like what I did is correct.
I’ve gone through all the instructions again, and just can’t find anything that I missed. I wonder if I somehow botched the licensing steps for the two paid drivers, but I can’t figure out a way to verify that my licenses are working.
I did this whole process recently on my acer cb515-1wt, including purchasing/licensing both paid drivers, and everything worked, so I figure I have the procedure correct.
There is also no way to re-do the licensing (upload the unsigned and download the signed) short of purchasing another pair of licenses. Seems like overkill given that I think I did this correctly, but I really just want a away to verify.
Anyhow, thanks a lot for for all the help. Hopefully I’ll get a response from coolstar at some point.
Anything license related will be through coolstar at this point.
in the past, i’ve had to get a new license re-generated on a CB with a failed NVME drive. that i RMA’d from the vendor.
I did take a picture of the serial number of the bad drive (after i pulled it) - along with the signed file to show proof that it was getting replaced and generated a new unlicensed file along with a picture of the new drive (showing the serial on the drive as well) – got credited on Coolstar’s portal to regenerate a new license.
of course if that sounds like too much - just give up a starbucks for a day and just get another license.
How to validate a license file
If you pull the signed.lic file from your system32\drivers and leave none in there --reboot and look at device manager - there should be an exclamation mark for both SOF and TB4 - when getting properties you should see ‘License Violation’ related warning.
Replacing the signed license files back in system32\drivers and reboot - should make the warnings go away (to validate your licenses are good)
Hey Joe,
Thanks for that! I moved my signed license bins, rebooted, and got the exclamations and “license Violation” errors. I restored them to system32/drivers, rebooted, and the exclamations/violations went away. Looks like my license bins are good. I got some response from coolstar on the discord windows channel, and he is taking a look at some acpi dump info from my 516ge. Hopefully they will figure something out.
This is related to an acpi issue, mrchromebox should be getting updated roms out soon
For completion, this issue was resolved completely by mrchromebox firmware 4.22.1. Now running 4.22.2 and all is working as well.
Hi,
Quick question did your keyboard backlight work from beginning? I solved all other issue except keyboard backlight just want to know if yours worked out.
Thank you!
Hey, no, the backlight never worked on my the 516ge with any of the recent firmwares or windows versions. There was an announcement from CoolStar on the discord windows channel about this (below). Windows 11 23H2 and newer changed how the keyboard backlight drivers work. CoolStar’s drivers have not been updated yet to support the new way windows manages the keyboard backlight.
Not really sure of all the details. My acer cb515-1wt chromebook keyboard backlight works, but that one is just white. I think this is specific to RGB backlilghts as CoolStar mentions below.
Quote from CoolStar:
"
@everyone Heads up for those using chromebooks with keyboard backlights, especially those with RGB A future update of the keyboard backlight driver will require Windows 11 23H2, and will drop support for all versions of Windows prior to that, including Windows 10, and pre-23H2 Win11. Keyboard backlight will become integrated with Windows Dynamic Control, so if you have any other RGB peripherals that support it it’ll integrate with those!"
Thank you very much for your answer!
Was spending time on the rgb backlight and nothing really worked. Now I understand why.