Installation fails on HP 5101 with EBIOS read error - issue introduced with 0.8.3 RC4, and present in Final

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Restore Snow Leopard DVD (10.6.0) to USB key
2. Run NetbookBootMaker 0.8.3 RC4 or later (RC5 and Final show the problem)
3. Attempt installation from USB key

What netbook are you using this on?

HP 5101

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

USB keys created with 0.8.2 Final, 0.8.3 RC1, RC2, or RC3 all boot into the SL 
installer.
USB keys created with 0.8.3 RC4, RC5, or Final all output "EBIOS read error: 
Error 0x01" many 
times on-screen and no further progress can be made (I have to forcibly power 
down the 
machine).

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?

Problem occurs with 0.8.3 RC4, RC5, Final.
USB key created with 10.6.0 DVD, run from a 10.6.2 MacBook.

Please provide any additional information below.

With RC3 the grey Apple appears first, it gives an error 
"efi_inject_get_devprop_string NULL 
trying stringdata" followed by the EBIOS error at least 20 times.  With RC5 and 
Final, the disk 
selection screen with progress bar is shown followed by a blank grey screen. 
The EBIOS error 
then appears at least 20 times.

I also tried installing Leopard on the machine, which worked very well until I 
attempted to update 
with a recent version of NBI (I'd previously successfully updated to 10.5.7).  
After trying to update 
with NBI 0.8.3 Final, booting the machine gave a KP with the error "unable to 
find driver for this 
platform:\"ACPI\".\n"@.........IOPlatformExpert.cpp:1407

I recreated the USB key with each NBM version in turn to confirm the issue, and 
have now 
reverted to 0.8.3 RC3, which works fine.

I guess I'm stuck from upgrading to 10.6.2?

Original issue reported on code.google.com by w...@005.org.uk on 13 Feb 2010 at 10:14

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Correction to the "additional information" section - it should read "with RC4 
the grey Apple appears first....", not 
"with RC3".

Original comment by w...@005.org.uk on 14 Feb 2010 at 1:05

[GoogleCodeExporter]

It appears that this is caused by the UHCIReset entry in com.apple.Boot.plist - 
if I remove that key/string pair 
from the file on the USB stick (in the hidden /Extra directory) then the EBIOS 
error goes away on boot.  I assume 
that entry was introduced with 0.8.3 RC4, which lines up with the behaviour I 
saw with the different 
NetbookBootMaker versions.

I need to do some more testing but there seems to be a pause during boot caused 
by a timeout, now that the 
UHCIReset entry has been removed.

Original comment by w...@005.org.uk on 17 Feb 2010 at 11:24

[GoogleCodeExporter]

A little more investigation shows that I can boot off the USB stick (with 
UHCIReset
removed) in verbose mode, and the installer starts up.  If I boot in normal 
mode, I
eventually end up with the 'circle with a cross through it' overlayed on the 
Apple
logo and it sticks there.  I'll keep investigating, but are there any 
recommendations
for this situation?

Original comment by w...@005.org.uk on 18 Feb 2010 at 8:52