88 lines
4.0 KiB
HTML
88 lines
4.0 KiB
HTML
<p>As I had mentioned in a previous post about ARM boards, I have
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recently acquired an ASUS C201P chromebook which I have started to use
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more on a daily basis. The advantages of this laptop is that it can be
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run with completely free/libre software, firmware, and drivers -
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although you will need a wifi adapter to avoid the proprietary wifi
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card, which is kind of crap anyways. You can find the information on how
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to libreboot it
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<a
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href="https://libreboot.org/docs/install/c201.html"
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target="_blank" >
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here
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</a>
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(I had a hard time finding this, so you're welcome). It's
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actually quite a simple process, and unlike other laptops where you
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require all kinds of hardware flashes to install libreboot, on this the
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only hardware manipulation you need is to take out a screw...
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literally.</p>
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<p>Then, once you have libreboot installed, you just have to install the
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Linux distro. I personally prefer Arch-based distros, so that's what I
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tried to install. Luckily ArchLinuxARM exists. Now one option you have
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is to install the distro on an external SD card, which is what the
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<a
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href="https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7/rockchip/asus-chromebook-flip-c100p"
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target="_blank" >
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installation guide
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</a>
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shows you how to do. However, what I wanted to do - and what I've done -
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is to install it on the internal eMMC.</p>
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<p>So, why would you want to install your OS onto the internal eMMC?
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Firstly, so you don't have to manually tell the laptop to boot into the
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external SD slot every time you boot up, for fear of accidentally
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booting into the horror that is ChromeOS. But secondly because the
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internal eMMC is much faster than your external SD, so startup speeds
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are very nice.</p>
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<p>One option you have in order to install a Linux distro onto the eMMC
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is to use something like
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<a
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href="https://github.com/SolidHal/PrawnOS"
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target="_blank" >
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PrawnOS
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</a>
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which is built specifically for the ASUS C201. However, this is debian
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based. However, simply using the ArchLinuxARM instructions verbatim that
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are meant for an external SD on the eMMC is not going to work either -
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trust me, I've tried. So I was considering what the rest of my laptop's
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life was gonna be like, having to always be ready to press the right key
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combination on startup for fear of booting into an OS so bad, it's only
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slightly better than Windows. That was, until I remembered that I had a
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friend who had installed PrawnOS on his ASUS C201's eMMC. Why was this
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important? It meant that I could see how PrawnOS partitions the eMMC,
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and simply copy that.</p>
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<p>Therefore, if you want to install ArchLinuxARM on the eMMC, you've
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got to use the following partition setup:</p>
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<code>
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Disk /dev/mmcblk2: 14.7 GiB, 15762194432 bytes, 30785536 sectors<br />
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Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes<br />
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Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes<br />
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I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes<br />
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Disklabel type: gpt<br />
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Disk identifier: 5CD647E1-DAD1-4E4A-B9D5-F87D00D1DCAE<br />
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<br />
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Device Start End Sectors Size Type<br />
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/dev/mmcblk2p1 20480 86015 65536 32M ChromeOS kernel<br />
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/dev/mmcblk2p2 86016 30785501 30699486 14.7G Microsoft basic data<br />
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</code>
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<p>The main thing you gotta pay attention to here are the sectors.</p>
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<p>Anyways, you're almost done. The only thing that's left is... to
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compile a custom kernel. Yup, wasn't gonna be that easy. Luckily,
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there's a guy who setup a <code>PKGBUILD</code> that builds everything
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for you more or less automatically. Although I will warn you that it has
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a lot of drivers disabled, such as the Atheros ones. So if you want
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those enabled you'll have to uncomment a line in the
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<code>PKGBUILD</code> file that says <code>make menuconfig</code> so
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that during the build process you can enable the needed drivers or
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modules. And trust me, there are a lot of them you may want to
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enable.</p>
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<p>After this, if I haven't forgotten anything, it should work... I
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hope. At least it works for me.</p>
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