nikolas-n / gnu-linux-on-asus-c201-chromebook Goto Github PK

Can anyone suggest a method to unpack this image (on the C201 - I'm working from a crouton chroot) onto a micro SD card (or usb)?

I've tried the following, which is unpacking ok, but it's generating lots of 'Can't create symlink' errors...
From a terminal session, cd into the location where the image is stored, then:
sudo tar -xvf ArchLinuxARM-veyron-latest_with-x11-lightdm-mate.tar.bz2 -C /media/removable/'USB Drive'

I suspect I need to somehow mount my target media in a chroot as /, and then write to it. Just not sure how I can do that on the C201.

I followed your instructions and created the bootable usb then edited it. However, when I hit CTRL+U to boot it, I get stuck on Network Name Resolution. Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status fails once, but then starts so I've no issue with that. I've already went back through everything again and still no luck.

I can't find a Libreboot image for the C201. The Libreboot pages you've linked to don't have it either.

Do I have to compile my own image or does someone out there have a working image I can use? @nikolas-n?

I can't boot the unblobbed Devuan Acer IMG. I followed instructions carefully, but the system simply displays a blank, lit black screen. I had accidentally deviated from instructions prior and flashed the Veyron IMG to the SD card I'm using, and after booting with Ctrl+U it flashed white, then black, then an unlit black screen.

I don't get any output with the Acer image, but at least the screen is lit when blank now? That's something.

This Debian 10 Buster image worked well on my Asus C100 (at least when booting from USB/SD). I suspect if it works for the C100 it will also work for the C201.

Any plans on testing a GuixSD ?

I just spent some time this weekend getting my C100 running linux and I wonder if an image created for the C100 would run on the C201. I gave up trying to make the Arch linux work but I found that the veyron image produced by Kali works fairly well and seems to be updating after some tweaks. As of this moment they have pulled their current veyron link but I found the 2020.1 edition and it shows a lot of promise. KDE desktop seems to be working well but for some reason my XFCE is freezing. Here are some notes I made along the way:

Source for 2020.1 Kali Image (as of 1/3/21 - as of this date Kali has removed the link from its page, but I saw a note at Kali that they hoped to update the veyron image after they worked out a problem):

https://linuxtracker.org/index.php?page=torrent-details&id=20a3d183df46f06fe989ed234c0e2ddd32d4fd30

https://www.kali.org/docs/arm/kali-linux-asus-chromebook-flip/

Info on getting past error in apt-get-upgrade due to libgcc-9 problem: -- https://crazytechgo.com/libgcc-9-dev-install-kali-linux/

Info on expanding the image to a usable size after installing the image (which is only 7 gb or so) to an SD Card:

https://forums.kali.org/showthread.php?27350-Chromebook-expand-resize-grow-partition-rootfs Increase the size to full capacity (from these notes, just install the cloud-guest-utils package and then run growpart and resize2fs using /dev/sda2 as target :

apt download cloud-guest-utils

growpart /dev/sda 2

resize2fs /dev/sda2

Note that the first has the 2 out with a space; the second command references sda2

if use the microsd card then need to use the instructions mmcblk0

Good news everyone! I've figured out a way to do it reliably. The following steps are expected to be taken from a Chromebook that is booted from an sdcard. Modify the device name if you're using USB.

Code:
mkdir growpart
cd growpart
apt download cloud-guest-utils
dpkg-deb -x cloud-guest.utils . #Note: The period at the end is not a typo and is required. It's saying to extract into the current directory.
cd usr/bin
./growpart /dev/mmcblk1 2 # You will need to make sure your sdcard is mmcblk1 - it'll typically be the only one in the output of ls /dev/mmcblk* that has 2 partitions.
resize2fs /dev/mmcblk1p2 # Again, make sure you're using the correct partition. Also note that while the command may seem to be "frozen" - it's working and may take a while.
cgpt repair /dev/mmcblk1

The stock image comes with XFCE. I installed KDE alongside and it seems to work well, but now(?) my XFCE seems to be freezing. KDE had a problem with no network manager showing. I installed plasma-nm and rebooted and the network manager icon appear in the panel. I installed synaptic too and that seems to load, but trying to install something freezes the machine.

Not sure if I should uninstall XFCE or try to get it to stop freezing.

I am toying with the idea of getting a C201 for the bigger screen and I wonder if my image for the C100 would work as is on the C201. Any idea what likelihood of success might be? If anyone has time to test it ought to be as easy as downloading and burning an sd card or usb with the kali image linked above.

These are really nice machines and it would be great to have a community somewhere to support them - maybe here? If the images are interchangeable we might be able to save people a lot of time on some very nice machines.

Installing OS was pretty easy but I cannot expand the image size after installation. System is installed on 1.8 GB partition and cannot be expanded. The wiki says that

The images use recent kernels (4.10, 4.6, and such) which causes a specific
issue when you try to resize or fsck ext{2,3,4}: they use some ext4 features
not yet available in the standard Devuan Jessie e2fsprogs. Because of this, you
are advised to install e2fsprogs from jessie-backports if you are in need of
using these tools on these images.

I could not install e2fsprogs from jessie-backports. I wonder if you had luck with this OS for Asus c201xx

Some of the distros are outdated and don't have ARM support anymore: Kali, Fedora, Ubuntu, but also Libreboot. It might be worth keeping a reference to them but they should at least show a warning.