#5422 NORM Never A: Pending firmware update apparently prevents boot until AC power is applied (was: Pending signed firmware update kills DRM'd machine til AC power is applied)

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#5422: Pending firmware update apparently prevents boot until AC power is applied
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  Reporter:  gnu                  |       Owner:  wmb at firmworks.com
      Type:  defect               |      Status:  new              
  Priority:  normal               |   Milestone:  Never Assigned   
 Component:  ofw - open firmware  |     Version:                   
Resolution:                       |    Keywords:                   
  Verified:  0                    |  
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Comment(by cscott):

 It doesn't kill the machine.  You can use the 'alt-boot' key (O) to bypass
 the firmware upgrade.

 Arguably we need a much better message for this case, translated into many
 languages.

 There's another bug filed about enabling firmware upgrade in 'insecure
 boot' mode.  That might also mitigate the problem somewhat.

 Please don't drag "DRM" into it -- this particular problem is entirely
 unrelated.  We can't safely upgrade firmware without redundant power
 sources, and we can't safely boot into an upgrade without doing the
 firmware reflash, since there may be dependencies.  The fact that this
 problem doesn't appear on a developer key'ed machine is an irrelevant
 artifact, and a bug in its own right (trac #5371).

 Future versions of the XO will hopefully remove the hardware problem which
 makes firmware reflash so unsafe (trac #5314).

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/5422#comment:2>
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