[Bug 2130734] Re: Get this error after upgrade to 25:10: piboot-try: New boot assets in /boot/firmware/new failed

[Dave Jones]

Sorry, I meant to reply to this earlier but it fell off my radar last
month. Yes, there is a requirement on the Pi 4 specifically that the
bootloader firmware is at (or later than) 2022-11-25 (noted in the
release notes [1] but these are admittedly non-trivial to dig through at
the moment).

As such, I'm not sure there's much else I can do in flash-kernel itself.
There is likely a case to be made that a quirk should be added to
ubuntu-release-upgrader warning anybody on a Pi 4 with EEPROM version
earlier than 2022-11-25 that they must upgrade their boot EEPROM before
upgrading Ubuntu (I imagine this is likely to bite quite a few upgraders
from noble to resolute in the coming cycle).

I'll re-target this for ubuntu-release-upgrader and see what I can add
there.

[1]: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/questing-quokka-release-
notes/59220#p-151948-raspberry-pi

** Also affects: ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Changed in: ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Confirmed

** Changed in: flash-kernel (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Invalid

** Changed in: ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu)
    Milestone: None => ubuntu-26.04

** Changed in: ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu)
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Dave Jones (waveform)

** Changed in: ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu)
       Status: Confirmed => Triaged

** Changed in: ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided => High

** Summary changed:

- Get this error after upgrade to 25:10: piboot-try: New boot assets in /boot/firmware/new failed
+ Warn upgraders of Pi 4 EEPROM requirements

** Description changed:

+ Users on the Pi 4 upgrading to questing (and the forthcoming resolute)
+ should be warned if their boot EEPROM version is earlier than
+ 2022-11-25, as earlier EEPROMs cannot deal with the newer boot layout.
+ 
+ This test is only necessary on the Pi 4; earlier models do not have a
+ boot EEPROM, and the Pi 5's boot EEPROM was recent enough at release. A
+ reasonable test would probably be to check for the 2711 CPU in
+ /proc/cpuinfo, the presence of the rpi-eeprom-update script (which is
+ seeded and should always be available on a Raspberry Pi install), and
+ the bootloader timestamp extracted from the runtime device-tree.
+ 
+ In the event the boot EEPROM is too old, u-r-u should simply abort the
+ upgrade, and inform the user why. It must *not* attempt to force the
+ EEPROM update itself.
+ 
+ [ Original Description ]
+ 
  Get this error after upgrade to 25:10: piboot-try: New boot assets in
  /boot/firmware/new failed
  
  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 25.10
  Package: flash-kernel 3.109ubuntu6
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.14.0-1017.17-raspi 6.14.11
  Uname: Linux 6.14.0-1017-raspi aarch64
  ApportVersion: 2.33.1-0ubuntu3
  Architecture: arm64
  CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
  CloudArchitecture: aarch64
  CloudID: nocloud
  CloudName: unknown
  CloudPlatform: nocloud
  CloudSubPlatform: config-disk (/dev/mmcblk0p1)
  Date: Wed Nov  5 17:03:02 2025
  ImageMediaBuild: 20241007.1
  ProcEnviron:
-  LANG=C.UTF-8
-  PATH=(custom, no user)
-  SHELL=/bin/bash
-  TERM=xterm-256color
-  XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
+  LANG=C.UTF-8
+  PATH=(custom, no user)
+  SHELL=/bin/bash
+  TERM=xterm-256color
+  XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
  SourcePackage: flash-kernel
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to questing on 2025-11-05 (0 days ago)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2130734

Title:
  Warn upgraders of Pi 4 EEPROM requirements

Status in flash-kernel package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  Users on the Pi 4 upgrading to questing (and the forthcoming resolute)
  should be warned if their boot EEPROM version is earlier than
  2022-11-25, as earlier EEPROMs cannot deal with the newer boot layout.

  This test is only necessary on the Pi 4; earlier models do not have a
  boot EEPROM, and the Pi 5's boot EEPROM was recent enough at release.
  A reasonable test would probably be to check for the 2711 CPU in
  /proc/cpuinfo, the presence of the rpi-eeprom-update script (which is
  seeded and should always be available on a Raspberry Pi install), and
  the bootloader timestamp extracted from the runtime device-tree.

  In the event the boot EEPROM is too old, u-r-u should simply abort the
  upgrade, and inform the user why. It must *not* attempt to force the
  EEPROM update itself.

  [ Original Description ]

  Get this error after upgrade to 25:10: piboot-try: New boot assets in
  /boot/firmware/new failed

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 25.10
  Package: flash-kernel 3.109ubuntu6
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.14.0-1017.17-raspi 6.14.11
  Uname: Linux 6.14.0-1017-raspi aarch64
  ApportVersion: 2.33.1-0ubuntu3
  Architecture: arm64
  CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
  CloudArchitecture: aarch64
  CloudID: nocloud
  CloudName: unknown
  CloudPlatform: nocloud
  CloudSubPlatform: config-disk (/dev/mmcblk0p1)
  Date: Wed Nov  5 17:03:02 2025
  ImageMediaBuild: 20241007.1
  ProcEnviron:
   LANG=C.UTF-8
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   SHELL=/bin/bash
   TERM=xterm-256color
   XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
  SourcePackage: flash-kernel
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to questing on 2025-11-05 (0 days ago)

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