Thanks very much for the responses. Unfortunately I can't give you the BIOS version because the machine is a brick. I am at a conference this week so it may take a few days to get it fixed.
The first time it broke I used the 20090330 version of tboot, with the latest SINIT downloaded from SourceForge. The second time, this past weekend, I believe I used tboot built from the mercurial tip, which I had downloaded moments before. I am not sure how to proceed after I get my laptop fixed. I can tell you what BIOS version is in the new one, but I will be hesitant to do another run of tboot to see if it breaks it again. Last time, they replaced the motherboard, so I don't expect that the new BIOS version will necessarily be the same as the one that broke. As far as the hang, I believe it occured immediately after the GETSEC[SENTER]. The display went blank. The one thing I noticed, at least the second time, is that the disk drive light was flickering in a smooth, uniform pattern. Maybe 30 times a second, just flickering on and off uniformly. This kind of worried me as I wondered if the failure mode was trashing my disk. After a few seconds, I pressed and held the power button to turn the laptop off. Trying to turn it back on led to the problem I described, where it repeatedly turns itself back off (and back on). One question, would you think that removing and replacing the RTC battery might clear enough internal state to let it boot? Any other interventions or resets that might be possible if I take the laptop apart somewhat? HP does have instructions to do so on the web site. Hal Finney On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 6:18 PM, Wang, Shane<shane.w...@intel.com> wrote: > Hi Hal, > > The reset behavior seems like it is due to the secret flag of TXT. > It looks like BIOS ACM does not clear the secret flag of TXT when hang and > reset happen. > > What version of SINIT and tboot are you using on that laptop? > What did you do to get hang? hang where? > > I am trying to find where the root cause is. > > Thanks. > Shane > > Hal Finney wrote: >> I was traveling recently, and I wanted to do some experiments with TXT >> on the road, so I bought an HP laptop that supports the technology. It >> is an HP EliteBook 6930p. I got it set up with Linux and tboot, >> enabled TPM, VT and TXT, and tried booting tboot and a Linux kernel. >> >> Something went wrong. My laptop hung and I restarted it. But it didn't >> start properly. The power light and other lights came on, but the >> display did not light up. The fan started and disk began spinning, but >> after about a second, the whole thing powered down. The fan and disk >> stopped, and all of the lights went out. Then, after a few seconds, it >> turned itself back on. But once again, after starting the fan and >> disk, and before lighting the display, the laptop shut off. This cycle >> would repeat indefinitely, the laptop turning itself on and off. I >> have to make it stop by pressing and holding the power button. >> >> In short, my laptop was completely broken and useless. >> >> Fortunately, being new it was covered by HP's warranty. They talked me >> through the usual minor fixits on the phone, removing the disk and >> such, and nothing helped. They finally told me to take it to an >> authorized repair shop. The nearest one is 80 miles away so it was not >> super convenient, but I did it. Unfortunately it meant that I was not >> able to take the laptop on my trip and was not able to do my >> experiments. >> >> I got back this week and picked up my laptop from the repair shop. >> They had replaced the motherboard and it worked fine. So I tried >> again. I enabled the new TPM, got VT and TXT enabled, and tried >> launching tboot. >> >> It broke again. >> >> Once again my laptop is useless. It repeatedly turns itself on and >> off, and does not even light up the display. It does not get far >> enough into BIOS to boot from a CD or any other medium. >> >> I am a little worried about once again demanding that HP fix this >> machine under the terms of my warranty. I did not go into any detail >> about what I was doing when it broke the first time. In fact I thought >> it was probably just a defective machine; I did not necessarily >> connect it that much with tboot since I was just getting started with >> it and had only used it for an hour or so. But with the same thing >> happening twice now, it is clear that I am breaking it. And I am not >> running Windows, I am using experimental software, etc. Of course the >> machine is claimed to support TXT, so obviously it should not break >> from running tboot. But this is such a little-known and new technology >> that I'm sure only a few people at HP are familiar with it. I am not >> sure how to proceed with regard to the warranty. >> >> I wonder if anyone at HP reading this might be able to comment? It >> will not be good if HP laptops are turned into bricks by running >> tboot. >> >> Hal Finney >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008 >> 30-Day trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment >> - and focus on what you do best, core application coding. 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