Suggested was that I add the output of dmesg|grep DMI. Unfortuntely, I have been unable to keep the firmware up-to-date, since Windows is required to do so. There is a LinuxBIOS project I scanned one in a blue moon, but I never found anything I felt sure enough about to try out, so I've got pretty much what was on the computer when I got it (second hand, but quite new at the time and still pretty much in the shape I got it in).

So, here's the output:

[    0.000000] DMI: Hewlett-Packard HP Compaq nc6220 (PU982AW#ABA)/308A, BIOS 68DTU Ver. F.13 02/27/2007

cit: "I have been unable to keep the firmware up-to-date, since Windows is required to do so."


you can download hiren's boot CD
http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd
or virus free from here
http://www.heise.de/download/hirens-bootcd-1186184.html


boot from CD, start the "Mini Windows XP" from it and *try*[1] to update your bios.

BIOS (double check this !!!):
http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/readIndex?sp4ts.oid=447304&swLangOid=8&swEnvOid=1098


HINT: 
with my acer NB I need to keep my power cord plugged in during bios update !
if not it's prevent to start the BIOS Update without any message.

[1]
I do this with an WinPE, so I never tried BIOS update via Hiren ...

I've been fiddling with FreeDOS, trying to get it onto a USB stick, but it wouldn't boot, then another hour with Hiren's and, finally, with the help of mini WinXP, I got the BIOS flashed to the most recent version: 07/24/2009 F.16 !!!

I am so encouraged, I might try to flash my desktop one day soon, too :-O I wonder how I could flash the firmware of my amplifier, though?

Anyway, back to the TPM. Unfortunately, nothing has changed :-( The status is as indicated in Comment 1.

Please attach the logs from the install, either from /tmp/*log before rebooting or from the failed install in /var/log/anaconda if you can get to it using a rescue disk.

Created attachment 1156306 [details]
anaconda.log

Created attachment 1156307 [details]
journal.log

There was nothing called *log in /tmp, just x and unix sockets and stuff.

I scoured /var and /var/tmp and /var/log and the only things that seemed at all relevant (and that you asked for) are: anaconda.log and journal.log.

In case it is significant, I still have not been able to boot the computer or get past the grub rescue prompt, despite having tried numerous times. The attached files should therefore be unaltered from their state at the time of installation.

There should be a program.log next to the anaconda.log, that'll have the output  of the grub2 install in it and may show something useful.

Created attachment 1156416 [details]
program.log

I just noticed at the end of the program.log that it shows me creating a user account for myself. I sure hope it doesn't show my user or root passwords in any of these files :-O

Darn, there's no indication of what's going wrong in the logs.

No, passwords aren't logged. Even with the anaconda-tb-* object dump we filter them out.

I still cannot get past the TPM error and the subsequent display of the grub rescue prompt.

Is there a fix? How do I get my computer booted and running?

There is no fix, but there is a work around which is to downgrade to the Fedora 23 grub package and grub2-install. I posted a draft of the steps on the test@ list.

Created attachment 1160008 [details]
Don't fail on TPM errors

This should work around the issue

(In reply to Matthew Garrett from comment #15)
> Created attachment 1160008 [details]
> Don't fail on TPM errors
> 
> This should work around the issue

I used to build my own custom kernels back in the late '90s, due to the need for special hardware drivers/modules/whatever, but I haven't done so for aeons. I was told a few years ago that the whole kernel building procedure has totally changed.

I don't know if this is affected, but...

How do I apply this patch?

And, I suppose that means—assuming that I do finally get the machine running—that I must exclude grub from dnf updates... until a fix is found (or is this the actual fix?), for Fedora 24 or for as long as I continue to use this old, but still good, computer?

Peter it's a grub patch, not a kernel patch. If you can't apply the patch to the source rpm and compile it yourself and test it, it may be possible to get a scratch build for you to test.

(In reply to Chris Murphy from comment #17)
> Peter it's a grub patch, not a kernel patch. If you can't apply the patch to
> the source rpm and compile it yourself and test it, it may be possible to
> get a scratch build for you to test.

Chris, I chrooted like you said and I now have a running computer, with the F23 grub2 installed :-)

Yeah, it would be a lot easier to get a scratch rpm ;-)

matthew: you've got a tabs/spaces mix in that patch (your change uses spaces, the original uses tabs)

The original was incorrect

well fine, but your patch winds up with the whitespace on the relevant line being one tab followed by two spaces. that's never right. ;)

Scratch build: http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/taskinfo?taskID=14193080

Peter, download these:
https://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org//work/tasks/3082/14193082/grub2-2.02-0.30.1.awb.i686.rpm
https://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org//work/tasks/3082/14193082/grub2-tools-2.02-0.30.1.awb.i686.rpm

Then 'dnf upgrade *rpm' and then 'grub2-install <dev>' where <dev> is your boot drive, presumably /dev/sda. Then reboot. My expectation is you may briefly see the TPM error but it won't be fatal now.

Oops, I see what you mean. Yup, will fix that before submitting it properly.

OK, guys, I installed grub2-2.02-0.1.awb*.rpm and I catch a glimpse of something, so brief that I can barely register whether it really is there (the TPM error Chris mentions?), before the grub menu appears. It works!!!

So, is this patch now live and all future grub2 updates will have it? I'm not going t end up with a non-patched grub2 from updates or updates-testing, am I?

"So, is this patch now live and all future grub2 updates will have it?"

No. I don't usually send grub changes to production, I leave that to pjones. He's the expert, I'd prefer he look over this before it gets pushed out properly.

"I'm not going t end up with a non-patched grub2 from updates or updates-testing, am I?"

If Peter does a 0.31 build of grub2 without including this patch, you would get it (I actually intentionally version my scratch builds to be superseded by the next 'normal' build, so you don't get stuck out on a non-supported limb).

(In reply to Adam Williamson from comment #26)
> If Peter does a 0.31 build of grub2 without including this patch, you would
> get it (I actually intentionally version my scratch builds to be superseded
> by the next 'normal' build, so you don't get stuck out on a non-supported
> limb).

Uhhh...? So, you mean that the next update will not have the patch unless Peter (Jones) builds with the patch? So, I will need to be very cautious when upgrading, unless I receive notification here that a package numbered such and such will be okay, right?

I'm pretty sure that upgrading the grub package doesn't do a grub2-install, so you're fine.

Well, it's working, but it's not perfect.

Due to another problem, now resolved, I had to reinstall grub. Since then, things have changed, mysteriously. I checked and there have been no grub2 updates and I that I still have this 'awb' scratch version installed.

What now happens is that after the BIOS screen, an intermediate screen appears that is filled from top to bottom with TPM error messages. Without me doing anything (or did I hit return once? no, I think not), it switches to the grub menu.

Well, that would be ok, but...

When I select a kernel from the menu and type return, the screen blanks and the TPM error message appears with the word More underneath. I click return and another line of TPM error with more ad infinitum. This goes on until I reach the end of the screen or even further (the message is always exactly the same, so it is not possible to determine whether scrolling is occuring), and then, all of a sudden, it boots!

I presume all of those error messages actually do nothing and grub simply reaches its timeout and boots.

It's not pretty. Other than that, everything seems to be working.

well, the patch basically tells grub that when it gets a TPM error it should just print it and carry on, instead of blowing up.

so yeah, if the error occurs multiple times, it'll get printed each time, presumably.

per IRC discussion this morning, pjones is planning to drop the whole TPM patch set for F24 as it's clearly not ready.

Nominating as a Final FE, obviously fixing non-booting systems is a good thing.

+1FE it's affecting some x86_64 as well it seems so it could possibly even be a conditional blocker

+1 FE.

This bug was discussed at the 2016-06-06 blocker review meeting [1] and determined to be an AcceptedFreezeException as it currently breaks boot. QA approval was given to fix this bug or drop the TPM patchset as part of the freeze-breaking grub2 update.

[1] https://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-blocker-review/2016-06-06/f24-blocker-review.2016-06-06-16.00.txt

grub2-2.02-0.33.fc24 has been submitted as an update to Fedora 24. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2016-c4d43baacc

Hey so if people could grab this update and install it, then do a 'grub2-install /dev/sdX' pointed at your boot drive, reboot, and report back if it's fixed, that'd be great!

I installed the packages and installed grub2 and rebooted.

After the BIOS screen, there was a momentary transitional screen that went by fairly fast. It appeared to have a period in the upper left corner. Then, the grub menu appeared. After I selected the uppermost (default) kernel, there was another transitional screen with a flashing cursor in the upper left corner. This lingered for a bit, before transitioning to the plymouth boot sequence.

I'm not sure I ever saw these two transitional screens before (the period or whatever it was immediately before and the flashing cursor immediately after the grub menu), but everything progressed as it should and the computer appeared to work normally... and no unsightly, albeit inactivated, TPM error messages. Yay!

I should add that I only tried the update on my i686 laptop that had problems. The x86_64 desktop was working just fine and I have not tried the update there (here).

Build 2.0.2-0.33 fixes problem for me, on HP model ProLiant DL585 G5 BIOS A07.

grub2-2.02-0.33.fc24 has been pushed to the Fedora 24 testing repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for
instructions on how to install test updates.
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2016-c4d43baacc

grub2-2.02-0.33.fc24 has been submitted as an update to Fedora 24. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2016-c4d43baacc

grub2-2.02-0.34.fc24 has been pushed to the Fedora 24 testing repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for
instructions on how to install test updates.
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2016-c4d43baacc

grub2-2.02-0.33.fc24 has been submitted as an update to Fedora 24. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2016-c4d43baacc

grub2-2.02-0.33.fc24 has been submitted as an update to Fedora 24. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2016-c4d43baacc

grub2-2.02-0.33.fc24 has been submitted as an update to Fedora 24. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2016-c4d43baacc

grub2-2.02-0.33.fc24, grub2-2.02-0.34.fc24 has been pushed to the Fedora 24 testing repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for
instructions on how to install test updates.
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2016-c4d43baacc

grub2-2.02-0.34.fc24 has been pushed to the Fedora 24 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.