failure selecting boot rom

[pljakobs]

I'm not sure this is an 'issue' the way it's meant, but I'm getting this a lot recently (using SMING):

 ets Jan  8 2013,rst cause:1, boot mode:(3,6)

load 0x40100000, len 1220, room 16
tail 4
chksum 0xda
load 0x3ffe8000, len 640, room 4
tail 12
chksum 0xa8
csum 0xa8

rBoot v1.4.2 - richardaburton@gmail.com
Flash Size:   32 Mbit
Flash Mode:   DIO
Flash Speed:  40 MHz

Resetting boot config.
Invalid rom selected, defaulting to 0.
Rom 0 at 0 is bad.
Rom -1 at 0 is bad.
Rom -1 at 0 is bad.
Rom -1 at 0 is bad.

What I have tried:

• re-flashing the app - no change
• make flashinit to clean the flash and then re-flashing the app - no change
• try a brand new ESP8266 - no change in one case and success in another.

I have had odd issues of having to re-boot the esp numerous times but since I've mostly been using a serial speed of 460800baud, all I saw is unprintable characters filling the screen. I assume this is an intermittend issue, sometimes clearing itself with a few re-boots, or rather, I should say, in some cases, it happens in four out of five boots, in other cases, it happens in every boot in a resonable number of tries.

I have mostly suspected worn out flash cells, but this latest occurence is, as said, on a fresh out of the package ESP. I have many more and will try others, but if yo have any other explanation, I would be glad to hear that.

Oh, just for completenes: here's my hwconfig:

make hwconfig

esp_rgbww_firmware: Invoking 'hwconfig' for Esp8266 (debug) architecture

{
    "name": "Two ROM slots with single SPIFFS",
    "comment": "",
    "arch": "Esp8266",
    "options": [
        "4m",
        "spiffs"
    ],
    "bootloader_size": "8K",
    "partition_table_offset": "0x003fa000",
    "devices": {
        "spiFlash": {
            "type": "flash",
            "size": "4M",
            "mode": "dio",
            "speed": 40
        }
    },
    "partitions": {
        "rom0": {
            "device": "spiFlash",
            "address": "0x00002000",
            "size": "992K",
            "type": "app",
            "subtype": "ota_0",
            "readonly": false,
            "encrypted": false,
            "filename": "$(RBOOT_ROM_0_BIN)",
            "unused_before": 0,
            "unused_after": 0
        },
        "rom1": {
            "device": "spiFlash",
            "address": "0x00102000",
            "size": "992K",
            "type": "app",
            "subtype": "ota_1",
            "readonly": false,
            "encrypted": false,
            "filename": "$(RBOOT_ROM_0_BIN)",
            "unused_before": 0,
            "unused_after": 0
        },
        "spiffs0": {
            "device": "spiFlash",
            "address": "0x00200000",
            "size": "512K",
            "type": "data",
            "subtype": "spiffs",
            "readonly": false,
            "encrypted": false,
            "filename": "$(SPIFF_BIN_OUT)",
            "build": {
                "target": "spiffsgen",
                "files": "$(SPIFF_FILES)"
            },
            "unused_before": 0,
            "unused_after": 0
        },
        "rf_cal": {
            "device": "spiFlash",
            "address": "0x003fb000",
            "size": "4K",
            "type": "data",
            "subtype": "rfcal",
            "readonly": false,
            "encrypted": false,
            "filename": "",
            "unused_before": 0,
            "unused_after": 0
        },
        "phy_init": {
            "device": "spiFlash",
            "address": "0x003fc000",
            "size": "4K",
            "type": "data",
            "subtype": "phy",
            "readonly": false,
            "encrypted": false,
            "filename": "$(FLASH_INIT_DATA)",
            "unused_before": 0,
            "unused_after": 0
        },
        "sys_param": {
            "device": "spiFlash",
            "address": "0x003fd000",
            "size": "12K",
            "type": "data",
            "subtype": "sysparam",
            "readonly": false,
            "encrypted": false,
            "filename": "",
            "unused_before": 0,
            "unused_after": 0
        }
    }
}