Efistub patch breaks 5.10 for me

Efistub patch breaks 5.10 for me

[Klaus Kusche]

Hello,

tried to boot 5.10.1 (my first attempt to boot a 5.10.x).

Displays

EFI stub: WARNING: [Firmware Bug]: LoadOptions is an EFI_LOAD_OPTION descriptor
EFI stub: WARNING: [Firmware Bug]: Using OptionalData as a workaround

for one or two seconds on the notebook display.

Then, the notebook display becomes completely black
and the notebook does not boot and does not react to anything
(hard poweroff needed).

5.9.15 works fine.

Of course, this could be some other change 5.9 --> 5.10,
but I think Efistub is the first suspect.

Directly booting from UEFI to linux, no bootloader.

Dell Precision Mobile 7740,
dmidecode says BIOS version 1.7.0, 01/07/2020.

My kernel has *no* command line arguments at all
or at least, it should not have any
(fully static kernel with no modules or initrd,
all kernel parameters configured into the kernel).

In 5.9.15, dmesg displays only a \x01 for the command line.

Next step?
Is there sonething to try out?
Are there any patches I should reverse-apply?
Should I open a bug at buzilla.kernel.org?

Thanks for any help!

-- 
Prof. Dr. Klaus Kusche
Private address: Rosenberg 41, 07546 Gera, Germany
+49 365 20413058 klaus.kusche@computerix.info https://www.computerix.info
Office address: DHGE Gera, Weg der Freundschaft 4, 07546 Gera, Germany
+49 365 4341 306 klaus.kusche@dhge.de https://www.dhge.de

Re: Efistub patch breaks 5.10 for me

[Ard Biesheuvel]

On Thu, 17 Dec 2020 at 13:37, Klaus Kusche <klaus.kusche@computerix.info> wrote:
>
>
> Hello,
>
> tried to boot 5.10.1 (my first attempt to boot a 5.10.x).
>
> Displays
>
> EFI stub: WARNING: [Firmware Bug]: LoadOptions is an EFI_LOAD_OPTION descriptor
> EFI stub: WARNING: [Firmware Bug]: Using OptionalData as a workaround
>
> for one or two seconds on the notebook display.
>
> Then, the notebook display becomes completely black
> and the notebook does not boot and does not react to anything
> (hard poweroff needed).
>
> 5.9.15 works fine.
>
> Of course, this could be some other change 5.9 --> 5.10,
> but I think Efistub is the first suspect.
>
> Directly booting from UEFI to linux, no bootloader.
>
> Dell Precision Mobile 7740,
> dmidecode says BIOS version 1.7.0, 01/07/2020.
>
> My kernel has *no* command line arguments at all
> or at least, it should not have any
> (fully static kernel with no modules or initrd,
> all kernel parameters configured into the kernel).
>
> In 5.9.15, dmesg displays only a \x01 for the command line.
>
> Next step?
> Is there sonething to try out?
> Are there any patches I should reverse-apply?
> Should I open a bug at buzilla.kernel.org?
>
> Thanks for any help!
>

Hello Klaus,

Please try reverting

4a568ce29d3f48df95919f82a80e4b9be7ea0dc1

"efi/x86: Add a quirk to support command line arguments on Dell EFI firmware"

If this fixes things, I will let Arvind come back to you with more
detailed questions about your use case, although I suspect it may have
something to do with not having a command line at all.

Thanks,
Ard.

Re: Efistub patch breaks 5.10 for me

[Klaus Kusche]

Hello,

On 17/12/2020 13:41, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
>> tried to boot 5.10.1 (my first attempt to boot a 5.10.x).
>>
>> Displays
>>
>> EFI stub: WARNING: [Firmware Bug]: LoadOptions is an EFI_LOAD_OPTION descriptor
>> EFI stub: WARNING: [Firmware Bug]: Using OptionalData as a workaround
>>
>> for one or two seconds on the notebook display.
>>
>> Then, the notebook display becomes completely black
>> and the notebook does not boot and does not react to anything
>> (hard poweroff needed).
> 
> Hello Klaus,
> 
> Please try reverting
> 
> 4a568ce29d3f48df95919f82a80e4b9be7ea0dc1
> 
> "efi/x86: Add a quirk to support command line arguments on Dell EFI firmware"

Thanks for the quick response.

Efistub is *not* the culprit:

With the patch reverted, the two efistub error messages are gone.
And with the two errormessages not occupying the display and my attention,
I noticed that the kernel actually came up for fractions of a second
before the display went dark.

AMD radeon seems to be the culprit: 
After unconfiguring it, the system comes up fine in text mode,
both with and without the efistub patch.

And with the efistub patch applied, 
dmesg actually shows an empty command line instead of the \x01,
as it should.

-- 
Prof. Dr. Klaus Kusche
Private address: Rosenberg 41, 07546 Gera, Germany
+49 365 20413058 klaus.kusche@computerix.info https://www.computerix.info
Office address: DHGE Gera, Weg der Freundschaft 4, 07546 Gera, Germany
+49 365 4341 306 klaus.kusche@dhge.de https://www.dhge.de

Re: Efistub patch breaks 5.10 for me

[Ard Biesheuvel]

On Thu, 17 Dec 2020 at 14:39, Klaus Kusche <klaus.kusche@computerix.info> wrote:
>
>
> Hello,
>
> On 17/12/2020 13:41, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> >> tried to boot 5.10.1 (my first attempt to boot a 5.10.x).
> >>
> >> Displays
> >>
> >> EFI stub: WARNING: [Firmware Bug]: LoadOptions is an EFI_LOAD_OPTION descriptor
> >> EFI stub: WARNING: [Firmware Bug]: Using OptionalData as a workaround
> >>
> >> for one or two seconds on the notebook display.
> >>
> >> Then, the notebook display becomes completely black
> >> and the notebook does not boot and does not react to anything
> >> (hard poweroff needed).
> >
> > Hello Klaus,
> >
> > Please try reverting
> >
> > 4a568ce29d3f48df95919f82a80e4b9be7ea0dc1
> >
> > "efi/x86: Add a quirk to support command line arguments on Dell EFI firmware"
>
> Thanks for the quick response.
>
> Efistub is *not* the culprit:
>
> With the patch reverted, the two efistub error messages are gone.
> And with the two errormessages not occupying the display and my attention,
> I noticed that the kernel actually came up for fractions of a second
> before the display went dark.
>
> AMD radeon seems to be the culprit:
> After unconfiguring it, the system comes up fine in text mode,
> both with and without the efistub patch.
>
> And with the efistub patch applied,
> dmesg actually shows an empty command line instead of the \x01,
> as it should.
>

Thanks for reporting back, and good luck debugging the radeon driver :-)