For at least the past four years, had been using Ubuntu server (headless) on the Stumpy. Now need to use it as a desktop, so I plan to max out RAM and install Ubuntu Desktop but wanted to upgrade UEFI to latest version as a first step.
Firmware tool worked, said successful flash and warned that first boot may take 90 seconds. First boot, nothing but a black screen with my monitor now claiming “Input Type Not Supported”. Waited about 90 minutes before trying a restart with no progress. Still just a black screen with the same warning on the monitor (same message using DP or DVI).
I’m assuming I need to unbrick. I have a raspberry pi (also headless) and CH341. From the pi, flashrom correctly identifies the chip (Winbond W25Q64.V) and I can read the existing flash image (saved to badflash.bin).
I haven’t been able to save the VPD. From what I understand it’s the fact that I’m trying to run the downloaded cbfstool on the pi (compiled for Intel not ARM) but I don’t care about the MAC, so I moved on.
However, it’s not letting me write the latest UEFI.
I’d be concerned that the flasher is not reading the chip properly, because it’s impossible for the IFD to be corrupted when flashing internally – it’s write protected even with the WP screw removed.
zip and attach or link badflash.rom so I can take a look at it
Your doubt about it reading the flash properly was important. I went back and reviewed the pi’s power supply, programmer voltage etc. I was able to get it to flash properly and the post-flash verification was successful. I did my own verification by reading the successful flash and running strings on it to make sure that I saw a intelligible words (I did), where I did not when running strings on the badflash.rom file.
I’ve still got some work to do because although it powers up and the CPU fan spins, I’m still not getting anything on the display… Whether I choose DisplayPort or DVI my monitor is still saying “Input Not Supported”. To be transparent I don’t have a monitor that has DP or DVI, only VGA and HDMI so I’m using a passive DP to HDMI adapter and a passive DVI to HDMI adapter. Both of the adapters are new but I only tested the DP to HDMI adapter prior to beginning this journey and it did work prior to my initial flashing attempt using the flashing tool.
Any feedback about what I’m seeing now or how to proceed would be super helpful.
Not ignoring your request, if it would still be useful to see the badflash.rom or the copy I saved after the successful flash, I’ll be happy to do it, just have to jump through some hoops to get those files off of the raspberry pi since it’s headless…
Did the full flash, unfortunately no luck. Here’s where things stand:
Here’s the link to the following: the dump I did at the start of the unbricking process per the instructions (badflash.rom), the dump after the first successful flash - only to the BIOS region (goodflash.rom) and the dump after doing the full flash (afterfullflash.rom).
While attempting to find a USB stick to copy those files from the headless pi, I came across a rom on a random USB stick called “stock-stumpy-firmware-20200703”. It’s been four years so I can’t remember if I downloaded that from somewhere, or if it’s a backup I made when I originally flashed your stumpy rom back in 2020. Regardless, I figured it was worth a shot, so I full flashed it. With that stock rom, it boots (with video) to the ChromeOS Recovery screen, so at least I know the video actually works… I also found a ChromeOS recovery USB, so I stuck it in, and it acted like it was going through the motions to reinstall, claimed it was complete but then wouldn’t boot up normally, just back to the recovery screen.
Feeling lucky after that, I once again did a full flash of your most recent stumpy rom but no luck, still no video. I then accidentally tried to boot the ChromeOS recovery USB which worked (sort of). It displayed video, a screen saying that my Chrome installation was being repaired, but that seemed to end in boot loop with that happening over and over.
But at least I saw video with your most recent stumpy rom (booting from that ChromeOS receovery USB)… At that point I tried the same with a bootable Linux live USB, but no luck, if it’s doing anything at all I have no way to confirm since there is no video.
sounds like the display init used by the UEFI firmware is not liking your cable/display combination for some reason. would need to flash a debug build and blindly boot a linux USB in order to figure out what the issue is.
Also, booting a ChromeOS recovery USB from the UEFI firmware will appear to work / repair your install but actually do nothing at all.
In the meantime happy to try a debug build. Booting the ChromeOS recovery USB from UEFI was accidental and said it was repairing but appeared to boot loop without making any real progress (but would be pointless anyway per your comments).
Should it be possible to flash the stock rom that I have from 2020 and use the recovery USB to get back to ChromeOS for now? When I tried earlier it acted like it completed the install but booted into recovery mode again rather than booting ChromeOS.
I forgot to mention that with your stumpy rom that I installed in 2020, I was able to get video using these adaptors/display. My issue started once I attempted to flash to the newest rom using the flash tool.
Have there been changes over the past 4 years related to display init? (4 years is a long time, wouldn’t be shocked)
I took a quick look to find older releases, to try finding one that works but haven’t located an archive of older releases yet.
My only other display option is our TV, but I do get video with it. I am going to change the default boot device to USB and see if I can get video from the original display, once booted into a Linux live USB
It may still be interesting to try older releases to get back to a rom that works with my display.