Q4B08.rom works in debricking too 1.75 B1

[James Cameron]

On Sat, Sep 03, 2011 at 12:29:16PM -0400, Martin Langhoff wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 3:17 AM, James Cameron <quozl at laptop.org> wrote:
> > On Fri, Sep 02, 2011 at 11:39:47PM -0700, Cherry Withers wrote:
> >> I don't know if this was verified already or not, but it seems to work
> >> so far.
> >
> > Thanks, you've been brave. ?The worst outcome would have been a brick.
> 
> Why would this be risky? Developers who receive a B1 as shipped from
> factory (bricked) are being advised to upgrade to Q4B06 in the wiki,
> but I'll happily substitute that for the latest released OFW.

The risk is low, but not zero.  We don't test during release that this
particular brick condition is fixed.  Only one specific path in the code
is activated (the efface-md stuff), and it depends on circumstances that
only occur after manufacturing.  It could be tested for during release,
but we've better things to do.

> > so I really don't recommend testing a
> > new version unless you have the electronics equipment available for
> > reprogramming of the SPI FLASH chip.
> 
> That's bogus -- we are asking *all* recipients of B1 units to test
> with the latest version of OFW as it is released. If you brick your
> unit doing so, help us debug the situation, and don't worry about the
> hw. If you cannot unbrick it, I'll gladly send another one.

Sorry if it wasn't clear, but the context was testing a new version by
trying to use it to debrick this particular brick condition.  My
recommendation is to debrick using a version that has been tested for
fixing that condition.

After the debrick, sure, flash the latest version, or let the software
build do that for you ... once it is working.  Doing both steps at once
means that if there's a problem we have to consider more underlying
causes.

I would really like to hear from the technical team when a new release
of OpenFirmware is tested against the remaining stock of bricked B1,
then I'd be happy to recommend that version.  I don't have a supply of
bricked B1, and you do.

-- 
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/