[Assist] Problem with coreboot vs libreboot

[bill-auger]

On Fri, 14 Dec 2018 20:04:01 +0100 Ben wrote:
> I should ask if this
> mailing list is appropriate for my problem.. or if I should rather
> ask for help from libreboot and/or coreboot projects.
> 
> I think people here have Parabola running off both libreboot &
> coreboot machines

it is, and yes some people do - from my experience, most libreboot users
have no trouble installing parabola; but there has always been some
people who have trouble with libreboot and parabola, mostly with the
LiveISOs; but we do not know why that is yet - there is an open issue
about that on the bug tracker now

https://labs.parabola.nu/issues/2108

i think the biggest hurdle here is that no parabola devs have a
computer with libreboot on it; so it would take some co-operation
from users like yourself who can actually demonstrate the problem and
are willing to spend some time experimenting - that is the real blocker
for the bug ticket above - unless the OP or another libreboot user
steps up to be the guinea-pig, the root of the problem may never be
found

frankly the first logical trouble-shooting step in this case is to
re-flash your BIOS back to the factory default and verify that parabola
is actually installed properly and that the standard GRUB can boot it -
then perhaps next re-install parabola with no encryption on a single
partition and try booting that with the libreboot GRUB - you would not
need to keep it that way o/c - this is just basic trouble-shooting to
isolate the cause from the complexity - o/c people generally do not
like that suggestion; but the fact is, there is quite a lot of
complexity in a system with libreboot+luks+multiple-partitions, and the
more complexity there is, the more things that can go wrong; and
isolating the problem is exponentially more difficult if one insists on
testing only the most complex desired configuration - i suspect that the
libreboot users who have no trouble with parabola, are those who
installed in a more humble configuration (e.g. an MBR partition table,
or a single partition, or no encryption, or using legacy BIOS) - thats
just a guess though

i can not recall anyone having a problem with coreboot specifically;
but i think that intersection is quite small, especially if constrained
to that one single model of computer - you would probably be wise to CC
this thread to coreboot or libreboot (whichever you want to use) in
order to reach more users who are running parabola with the same
computer model