[petecat1]

I have one that I haven't tried your firmware on for over a year.  Would anything have changed in that time, or is there some way to update the chromebox and try?  Or is it unlikely to make a difference?

if you have one that's in Developer Mode, or you don't mind wiping to put in Developer Mode, then please do flash the RW_LEGACY firmware and see if SeaBIOS will boot (optionally try to boot a USB). Whatever is/was broken was on Google's end so quite possible it got fixed since you last tried  

I boot the CN65 in Developer Mode and get the rabbit, hit escape and get your Boot screen.  I select to boot from an SD card with a newly installed chrome recovery.  I get the chrome logo, and then it gets stuck on Your system is repairing itself. Please wait.  Eventually it returns to the boot screen.
1. Do you know how to get past that screen?
2. If I forget about trying to restore chrome, can I flash the RW Legacy firmware from a USB at the boot screen?  Or can it only be installed via the shell?
Thanks

[Matt Devo]

I boot the CN65 in Developer Mode and get the rabbit, hit escape and get your Boot screen. 

that's not Developer Mode, that's the UEFI firmware boot splash.

I select to boot from an SD card with a newly installed chrome recovery.  I get the chrome logo, and then it gets stuck on Your system is repairing itself. Please wait.  Eventually it returns to the boot screen.

you can't use ChromeOS Recovery media outside of ChromeOS recovery mode. Booting it from the UEFI firmware does nothing.

1. Do you know how to get past that screen?

past in what sense? trying to restore ChromeOS?
You need to boot a Linux USB, run my script, and restore the stock firmware first. Then reboot, and reload the OS from Recovery Mode.

2. If I forget about trying to restore chrome, can I flash the RW Legacy firmware from a USB at the boot screen?  Or can it only be installed via the shell?
Thanks 

not sure why you're wanting to go back to stock+RW_LEGACY firmware as you already have the UEFI firmware, but it can only be installed via my script when run from ChromeOS / with the stock firmware.

[petecat1]

just to feed back: The Legacy boot is stell broken in the CN65/Chromebox3.  Ctrl-L does nothing.  When I changed the GBB flags through your firmware to select Legacy boot it just went to a blank screen.  So I re-set the factory defaults and switched off developer mode.  Done for now.

[MrBuyakah]

My Chromebox won't take updates past Chrome 76.x.  An alternative is to install Cloudready, rather than going though the recovery procedure.
https://www.neverware.com

[imagamer2k]

Quick and maybe stupid question. I have skimmed the thread, read some 10 pages but I must have missed it.
Is disabling Firmware Write Protect absolutelly necessary or do I correctly understand with it enabled I might still be able to have dual boot setup with 30 s boot delay? I don't feel capable of dissassembling my HP ChromeBox and I just would like to test this out before trying to find someone who can do that part for me.

You do not need to remove the write protect screw for a dual boot setup if you're not going to change the boot options, though I recommend doing it at the beginning so you don't have to open up the box down the road. And even if you don't want to change the boot delay, you should use the script option to set it anyway, since it will prevent accidentally leaving developer mode (via spacebar) on the boot screen.

If the write protect screw was removed upon initial setup, is there an easy option for recovering from accidentally hitting spacebar during bootup, and leaving developer mode? Asking for a friend  :doh!:

Thanks

[Matt Devo]

If the write protect screw was removed upon initial setup, is there an easy option for recovering from accidentally hitting spacebar during bootup, and leaving developer mode? Asking for a friend  :doh!:

assuming a dual boot setup -- simply re-enter Developer Mode, and re-set the dev_boot_legacy flag. Your dual-booted Kodi/Linux OS will be fine as long as you didn't perform a ChromeOS recovery

[imagamer2k]

If the write protect screw was removed upon initial setup, is there an easy option for recovering from accidentally hitting spacebar during bootup, and leaving developer mode? Asking for a friend  :doh!:

assuming a dual boot setup -- simply re-enter Developer Mode, and re-set the dev_boot_legacy flag. Your dual-booted Kodi/Linux OS will be fine as long as you didn't perform a ChromeOS recovery

Success...Thanks Matt!!

Another question. I am currently running dual boot ChromeOS and OpenELEC v6.0.3/Kodi v15.2...If I wish to update to the latest LE/Kodi, I understand I need to do this manually, but can I still use your E-Z Setup Script to do it? Should I create install media using option 7 (is this usb or sd media?), and then follow that up by running option 2, to retain my dual boot?

Thanks!

[Matt Devo]

Success...Thanks Matt!!

Another question. I am currently running dual boot ChromeOS and OpenELEC v6.0.3/Kodi v15.2...If I wish to update to the latest LE/Kodi, I understand I need to do this manually, but can I still use your E-Z Setup Script to do it? Should I create install media using option 7 (is this usb or sd media?), and then follow that up by running option 2, to retain my dual boot?

Thanks!

Updating a dual boot setup can be tricky, since it involves either manually resizing the partitions, or doing a full reset and then reinstall using the script. The easiest way IMO is to boot a Linux USB and use gparted to shrink partition 7 (LE storage) and enlarge partition 6 (LE kernel). then reboot and manually update LE by placing the tar in the update folder and rebooting

[rodddogg]

It's been a while since I've upgraded my kodi box or even touched this script (~4+ years).. I'm not sure I remember how to boot back into the E-Z setup script mode or even remember the hotkeys. My issue is trying to upgrade to latest libreelec but my system partition FAT size is too small to upgrade so not sure if I should just blast this thing or use gparted; any insight would be appreciated.

[Matt Devo]

It's been a while since I've upgraded my kodi box or even touched this script (~4+ years).. I'm not sure I remember how to boot back into the E-Z setup script mode or even remember the hotkeys. My issue is trying to upgrade to latest libreelec but my system partition FAT size is too small to upgrade so not sure if I should just blast this thing or use gparted; any insight would be appreciated.

there's no reason to use the EZ Setup script at this point, unless you have a dual-boot setup and want to start fresh -- in which case you'd need to do a full reset first.

on a standalone setup, either do a fresh install from USB, or boot a live USB and use gparted to resize the partitions to make the 1st partition (KERNEL) 1GB

[rodddogg]

It's been a while since I've upgraded my kodi box or even touched this script (~4+ years).. I'm not sure I remember how to boot back into the E-Z setup script mode or even remember the hotkeys. My issue is trying to upgrade to latest libreelec but my system partition FAT size is too small to upgrade so not sure if I should just blast this thing or use gparted; any insight would be appreciated.

there's no reason to use the EZ Setup script at this point, unless you have a dual-boot setup and want to start fresh -- in which case you'd need to do a full reset first.

on a standalone setup, either do a fresh install from USB, or boot a live USB and use gparted to resize the partitions to make the 1st partition (KERNEL) 1GB

Thanks for quick reply Matt. Question is to boot from live USB, do I need to intervene with any keys or it just boots directly after power up?

[Matt Devo]

Thanks for quick reply Matt. Question is to boot from live USB, do I need to intervene with any keys or it just boots directly after power up?

 assuming you did a standalone setup a few years ago, you likely need to press ESC for the boot menu when prompted, then select the USB from the list. What I would recommend though is probably to boot a Linux USB, update to the latest UEFI firmware using my script, and then reboot / do a clean install of LE. You can always back up your userdata before / restore it after using the built-in LE backup/restore function.

[rodddogg]

Thanks for quick reply Matt. Question is to boot from live USB, do I need to intervene with any keys or it just boots directly after power up?

 assuming you did a standalone setup a few years ago, you likely need to press ESC for the boot menu when prompted, then select the USB from the list. What I would recommend though is probably to boot a Linux USB, update to the latest UEFI firmware using my script, and then reboot / do a clean install of LE. You can always back up your userdata before / restore it after using the built-in LE backup/restore function.

It is a standalone LE build. I also thought it was ESC but it just skips and boots straight into LE so not sure that's it. Yeah I don't mind blasting the whole config and starting with latest Kodi build; it's why I started doing this anyway.

[Matt Devo]

It is a standalone LE build. I also thought it was ESC but it just skips and boots straight into LE so not sure that's it. Yeah I don't mind blasting the whole config and starting with latest Kodi build; it's why I started doing this anyway.

 if there's no 'Press ESC for Boot Menu' prompt, either it's happening before the display comes on (in which case you need to hit it earlier), or it's not showing because your USB stick isn't being detected (in which case, try another USB stick or USB port -- it is **NOT** related to what is on the USB drive, re-writing it will not change the outcome)

[rodddogg]

It is a standalone LE build. I also thought it was ESC but it just skips and boots straight into LE so not sure that's it. Yeah I don't mind blasting the whole config and starting with latest Kodi build; it's why I started doing this anyway.

 if there's no 'Press ESC for Boot Menu' prompt, either it's happening before the display comes on (in which case you need to hit it earlier), or it's not showing because your USB stick isn't being detected (in which case, try another USB stick or USB port -- it is **NOT** related to what is on the USB drive, re-writing it will not change the outcome)

Worked perfectly. Thank you sir!