302 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
302 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
---
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date: 2014-09-26T00:00:00-05:00
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title: "Fedora on an Acer C720P Chromebook"
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tags: [howto, free-software, fedora, fedora-planet, en_us, english, open-source, report]
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---
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Yes, you are reading correctly: I decided to buy a freacking Chromebook.
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I really needed a lightweight notebook with me for my daily hackings
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while waiting for my subway station, and this one seemed to be the best
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option available when comparing models and prices. To be fair, and
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before you throw me rocks, I visited the [LibreBoot X60's
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website](http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/ibm-lenovo-thinkpad-x60-coreboot/)
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for some time, because I was strongly considering buying one (even
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considering its weight); however, they did not have it in stock, and I
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did not want to wait anymore, so...
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Anyway, as one might expect, configuring GNU/Linux on notebooks is
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becoming harder as time goes by, either because the infamous [Secure
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Boot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_boot) (anti-)feature, or
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because they come with more and more devices that demand proprietary
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crap to be loaded. But fortunately, it is still possible to overcome
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most of those problems and still get a GNU/Linux distro running.
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References
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----------
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For main reference, I used the following websites:
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- [ACER Chromebook C720P: touchpad and touchscreen do not
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work](https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1045821), a bug
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related to the Fedora support for the machine.
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- [Fedora 20 (LXDE LiveCD) on my Acer c720p
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Chromebook](http://pnmyers.blogspot.ca/2014/04/fedora-20-lxde-livecd-on-my-acer-c720p.html),
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by Perry Myers.
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- [Acer C720
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Chromebook](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Acer_C720_Chromebook),
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a wiki page from Arch[GNU/]Linux.
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- [Chromebook](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chromebook), a
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wiki page from Arch[GNU/]Linux.
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I also used other references for small problems that I had during the
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configuration, and I will list them when needed.
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Backing up ChromeOS
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-------------------
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The first thing you will probably want to do is to make a recovery image
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of the ChromeOS that comes pre-installed in the machine, in case things
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go wrong. Unfortunately, to do that you need to have a Google account,
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otherwise the system will fail to record the image. So, if you want to
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let Google know that you bought a Chromebook, login into the system,
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open Chrome, and go to the special URL `chrome://imageburner`. You will
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need a 4 GiB pendrive/sdcard. It should be pretty straightforward to do
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the recording from there.
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Screw the screw
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---------------
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Now comes the hard part. This notebook comes with a [write-protect
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screw](http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/acer-c720-chromebook).
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You might be thinking: what is the purpose of this screw?
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Well, the thing is: Chromebooks come with their own boot scheme, which
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unfortunately doesn't work to boot Linux. However, newer models also
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offer a “legacy boot” option
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([SeaBIOS](http://www.coreboot.org/SeaBIOS)), and **this** can boot
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Linux. So far, so good, but...
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When you switch to SeaBIOS (details below), the system will complain
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that it cannot find ChromeOS, and will ask if you want to reinstall the
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system. This will happen **every time** you boot the machine, because
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the system is still entering the default BIOS. In order to activate
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SeaBIOS, you have to press CTRL-L (Control + L) **every time you boot**!
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And this is where the screw comes into play.
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If you remove the write-protect screw, you will be able to make the
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system use SeaBIOS by default, and therefore will not need to worry
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about pressing CTRL-L every time. Sounds good? Maybe not so much...
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The first thing to consider is that you will lose your warranty the
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moment you open the notebook case. As I was not very concerned about it,
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I decided to try to remove the screw, and guess what happened? I
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stripped the screw! I am still not sure why that happened, because I was
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using the correct screw driver for the job, but when I tried to remove
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the screw, it seemed like butter and started to “decompose”!
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Anyway, after spending many hours trying to figure out a way to remove
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the screw, I gave up. My intention is to always suspend the system, so I
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rarely need to press CTRL-L anyway...
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Well, that's all I have to say about this screwed screw. If you decide
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to try removing it, keep in mind that I cannot help you in any way, and
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that you are entirely responsible for what happens.
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Now, let's install the system :-).
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Enable Developer Mode
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---------------------
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You need to enable the Developer Mode in order to be able to enable
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SeaBIOS. To do that, follow [these
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steps](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chromebook#Enabling_Developer_Mode)
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from the Arch[GNU/]Linux wiki page.
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I don't remember if this step works if you don't have activated the
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ChromeOS (i.e., if you don't have a Google account associated with the
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device). For my use, I just created a fake account to be able to
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proceed.
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Accessing the superuser shell inside ChromeOS
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---------------------------------------------
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Now, you will need to access the superuser (`root`) shell inside
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ChromeOS, to enable SeaBIOS. Follow [the steps described in the
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Arch\[GNU/\]Linux wiki page](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chromebook#Accessing_the_superuser_shell).
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For this specific step, you don't need to login, which is good.
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Enabling SeaBIOS
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----------------
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We're almost there! The last step before you boot your Fedora LiveUSB is
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to actually enable SeaBIOS. Just go inside your superuser shell (from
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the previous step) and type:
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```console
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> crossystem dev_boot_usb=1 dev_boot_legacy=1
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```
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And that's it!
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If you managed to successfuly remove the write-protect screw, you may
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also want to enable booting SeaBIOS by default. To do that, [there is a
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guide](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chromebook#Boot_to_SeaBIOS_by_default),
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again on Arch[GNU/]Linux wiki. **DO NOT DO THAT IF YOU DID NOT REMOVE
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THE WRITE-PROTECT SCREW!!!!**
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Booting Fedora
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--------------
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Now, we should finally be able to boot Fedora! Remember, you will have
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to press CTRL-L after you reboot (if you have not removed the
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write-protect screw), otherwise the system will just complain and not
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boot into SeaBIOS. So, press CTRL-L, choose the boot order (you will
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probably want to boot from USB first, if your Fedora is on a USB stick),
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choose to boot the live Fedora image, and... bum!! You will probably see
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a message complaining that there was not enough memory to boot (the
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message is “Not enough memory to load specified image”).
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You can solve that by passing the `mem` parameter to Linux. So, when
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GRUB complains that it was unable to load the specified image, it will
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give you a command prompt (`boot:`), and you just need to type:
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```console
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boot: linux mem=1980M
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```
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And that's it, things should work.
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Installing the system
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---------------------
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I won't guide you through the installation process; I just want to
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remember you that you have a 32 GiB SSD drive, so think carefully before
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you decide how you want to set up the partitions. What I did was to
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reserve 1 GB for my swap, and take all the rest to the root partition
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(i.e., I did not create a separate `/home` partition).
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You will also notice that the touchpad does not work (neither does the
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touchscreen). So you will have to do the installation using a USB mouse
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for now.
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Getting the touchpad to work
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----------------------------
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I strongly recommend you to read [this Fedora
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bug](https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1045821), which is
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mostly about the touchpad/touchscreen support, but also covers other
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interesting topics as well.
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Anyway, the bug is still being constantly updated, because the proposed
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patches to make the touchpad/touchscreen work were not fully integrated
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into Linux yet. So, depending on the version of Linux that you are
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running, you will probably need to run a different version of the
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scripts that are being kindly provided in the bug.
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As of this writing, I am running Linux 3.16.2-201.fc20, and the script
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that does the job for me is [this
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one](https://bugzilla.redhat.com/attachment.cgi?id=937274). If you are
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like me, you will never run a script without looking at what it does, so
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go there and do it, I will wait :-).
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OK, now that you are confident, run the script (as `root`, of course),
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and confirm that it actually installs the necessary drivers to make the
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devices work. In my case, I only got the touchpad working, even though
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the touchscreen is also covered by this script. However, since I don't
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want the touchscreen, I did not investigate this further.
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After the installation, reboot your system and at least your touchpad
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should be working :-). Or kind of...
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What happened to me was that I was getting strange behaviors with the
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touchpad. Sometimes (randomly), its sensitivity became weird, and it was
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very hard to move the pointer or to click on things. Fortunately, I
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found the solution in the same bug, in [this comment by Yannick
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Defais](https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1045821#c3). After
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creating this X11 configuration file, everything worked fine.
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Getting suspend to work
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-----------------------
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Now comes the hard part. My next challenge was to get suspend to work,
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because (as I said above) I don't want to poweroff/poweron every time.
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My first obvious attempt was to try to suspend using the current
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configuration that came with Fedora. The notebook actually suspended,
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but then it resumed 1 second later, and the system froze (i.e., I had to
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force the shutdown by holding the power button for a few seconds). Hmm,
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it smelled like this would take some effort, and my nose was right.
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After a lot of search (and [asking in the
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bug](https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1045821#c63)), I found
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out about a few Linux flags that I could provide in boot time. To save
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you time, this is what I have now in my `/etc/default/grub` file:
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```console
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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="tpm_tis.force=1 tpm_tis.interrupts=0 ..."
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```
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The final `...` means that you should keep whatever was there before you
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included those parameters, of course. Also, after you edit this file,
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you need to regenerate the GRUB configuration file on `/boot`. Run the
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following command as `root`:
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```console
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> grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
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```
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Then, after I rebooted the system, I found that only adding those flags
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was still not enough. I saw a bunch of errors on `dmesg`, which showed
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me that there was some problem with EHCI and xHCI. After a few more
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research, I found the [this
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comment](https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1364521#p1364521)
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on an Arch[GNU/]Linux forum. Just follow the steps there (i.e., create
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the necessary files, especially the
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`/usr/lib/systemd/system-sleep/cros-sound-suspend.sh`), and things
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should start to get better. But not yet...
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Now, you will see that suspend/resume work OK, but when you suspend, the
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system will still resume after 1 second or so. Basically, this happens
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because the system is using the touchpad and the touchscreen to
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determine whether it should resume from suspend or not. So basically
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what you have to do is to disable those sources of events:
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```console
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echo TPAD > /proc/acpi/wakeup
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echo TSCR > /proc/acpi/wakeup
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```
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And voilà! Now everything should work as expected :-). You might want to
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issue those commands every time you boot the system, in order to get
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suspend to work every time, of course. To do that, you can create a
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`/etc/rc.d/rc.local`, which gets executed when the system starts:
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```console
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> cat /etc/rc.d/rc.local
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#!/bin/bash
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suspend_tricks()
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{
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echo TPAD > /proc/acpi/wakeup
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echo TSCR > /proc/acpi/wakeup
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}
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suspend_tricks
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exit 0
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```
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Don't forget to make this file executable:
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```console
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> chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.local
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```
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Conclusion
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----------
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Overall, I am happy with the machine. I still haven't tried installing
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[Linux-libre](http://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/index.en.html)
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on it, so I am not sure if it can work without binary blobs and
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proprietary craps.
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I found the keyboard comfortable, and the touchpad OK. The only extra
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issue I had was using the Canadian/French/whatever keyboard that comes
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with it, because it lacks some useful keys for me, like Page Up/Down,
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Insert, and a few others. So far, I am working around this issue by
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using `xbindkeys` and `xvkdb`.
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I do not recommend this machine if you are not tech-savvy enough to
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follow the steps listed in this post. If that is the case, then consider
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buying a machine that can easily run GNU/Linux, because you feel much
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more comfortable configuring it!
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