So, I've managed to successfully boot Linux-Libre.
Here are the instructions I followed to generate an image that Depthcharge can boot, I hope this can be used to make a specific Depthcharge-bootable kernel package:
https://notabug.org/nuclearkev/dragora-c201#creating-a-bootable-kernel
All software dependencies of this methods are already present in Parabola (vboot-utils and uboot-tools), and all the other needed files are present on the linked repository.

Any news or progress?
I've been following the process I described above quite successfully for a while now, and the kernel boots without further modification.

Sorry for not answering. These are really exciting news. I'll work on linux-libre-chromebook soon.

Btw, did you use arch-kernel.its or kernel.its? (from the repo you built the kernel)

According to what I see, arch-kernel.its is the same as https://raw.githubusercontent.com/archlinuxarm/PKGBUILDs/master/core/linux-armv7/kernel.its, which needs to be built from kernel source, while kernel.its can be built with the linux-libre image installed in /boot, however there are some other differences (I'm not an expert in ARM and device trees) which idk if they are important.

I've uploaded chromebook-kernel to [libre-testing]
https://git.parabola.nu/abslibre.git/commit/?id=22d17f153183fa86b44816581c1677ca57cc1a79
which uses kernel.its from dragora-c201.git, I'll later upload linux-libre-chromebook which is the same but using arch-kernel.its (so it will be in the linux-libre 4.19.6 PKGBUILD at [libre-testing] soon). After I upload that one, I'd like you to try both and tell me which one works, and if both works, chromebook-kernel will go to [libre] as linux-libre-chromebook.

I use kernel.its.
I'm gonna test the package now, will update soon.

I've uploaded linux-libre-chromebook to [libre-testing]. The only difference with chromebook-kernel is that it uses arch-kernel.its (the same one from ALARM).

Btw, this sign has to be updated every time linux-libre is updated, right?

Yes, it has to be updated every time, IIRC.
Sorry that I didn't reply, I just didn't manage to install it, I forgot if it is possible to install a package from [libre-testing] without pulling all the other packages from there instead of [libre], and anyhow I hadn't had much time today, I'll hop on the IRC tomorrow (around the same time as now-ish) and check all this out/update the issue as needed.

You can use pacman -U <package-url> if you don't want to enable [libre-testing]

Remember to try both, chromebook-kernel and linux-libre-chromebook. If you are asked to remove your-freedom, do it (until I get the working kernel in [libre])

Okay, thanks for the info, in about 10-ish hours I'll test both packages and report back - got a bit of a busy day today...

So, I've hit an unrelated snag.
I tried to update the system beforehand (to minimize variables), but I forgot to run the needed scripts to make the kernel bootable, effectively burning away whatever amount of free time I would have had to test those kernels.
I'll try again tomorrow (IF I have the time), if not, it'll have to wait to Thursday/the weekend.
Really sorry, I think I shouldn't try to mess around with stuff like this after a long and tiring day...

Okay, so chromebook-kernel doesn't work, even though I had successfully managed to boot linux-libre 4.19.6 while manually running the scripts to generate the image and flash it.
So, I'll restore from a backup and try the other kernel, in around two hours-ish I should have an update about linux-libre-chromebook.

UPDATE:
Just installed linux-libre-chromebook, and it works!
Thanks a lot for the effort!

I suspected chromebook-kernel wasn't going to work. I'll move linux-libre-chromebook to [libre] and make an announce in the news, since this is the first time someone reports to successfully boot Parabola in a C201 with linux-libre kernel

Again, thanks a lot for the effort, this is going to help a lot of people trying to run Parabola on fully free (yet still somewhat modern) systems.

linux-libre-chromebook seems does not work for me, or maybe not works on some of C201. (I'm using 2GB RAM version)

At first I tried to use this kernel to boot void-musl-arm, got white screen.
then I tried to install parabola, successfully boot parabola with cros kernel, but always got white screen with linux-libre-chromebook.

currently only two kernel works for me:
1. built followed by this https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Asus_Chromebook_C201#4.13.2B_kernel_configuration (at least it can boot voidlinux), but can't recognize partitions on internal storage and rockchip audio device etc.
2. extracted from devuan-arm, change cmdline and repack with vbutil_kernel, but freeze at random time

I was also tried to change kernel cmdline to add debug or change loglevel to linux-libre-chromebook kernel, but no luck, always got white screen.

does linux-libre-chromebook recognize internal storage (those partitions show in lsblk) and rockchip audio device ROCKCHIP-I2C well?

BTW the way I install linux-libre-chromebook is just download the package and extract it, dd vmlinux.kpart to /dev/sda1 (sda1 is the first partition on my USB stick, sda2 is the root partition)

Did you try installing ALARM and then migrating to Parabola? IMO that's the easiest way to install Parabola in ARM devices

3p7kp4xn wrote:

does linux-libre-firmware recognize internal storage (those partitions show in lsblk) and rockchip audio device ROCKCHIP-I2C well?

Why should it? It's just firmware for non-critical stuff, like some atheros wifi cards and things like that, but all the rest (like audio and filesystem drivers) are in-kernel.

isn't the ARM tarball the easiest way to install? - it was intended to be

bill-auger wrote:

isn't the ARM tarball the easiest way to install? - it was intended to be

I know, but to be honest, I think that it was unnecessary. Having ALARM tarballs and the migration guide (which is easy) makes our tarballs pointless. Plus, our tarball is generic, while ALARM creates tarballs for specific devices and SoCs.

Different to x86, an install ISO lets you test the system before installing it, while on ARM you must directly install the OS (at least in most ARM devices), so in that case there's no reason to bother on creating our own rootfs tarballs if they can easily migrate to Parabola.

With this I'm not saying that we should delete them, but think it twice if it's a good idea before going ahead implementing new stuff. This is my conclusion, at least, based on my experience with ARM.

that does sound reasonable, but is there any non-free software on the basic ALARM system? - if there is, then we can not actually recommend it

Of course there is (it's a base system anyways), afaik only linux kernel and linux-firmware. But it wouldn't be such a terrible thing if we give the advice of installing your-freedom (and by migrating you completely clean your system from non-free crap).

the kernel for sure, i was mainly wondering how much work it would be to explode each of the ALARM tarballs, replace the kernels and whatever else, set the mirrors to parabola, and re-pack them; or would that be more trouble than re-building them in a VM

Are you booting from SD Card or USB? did you tried different storage devices?

3p7kp4xn wrote:

but I can't boot this kernel on voidlinux, still white screen after wait for 20 min.

Of course you cannot boot it, you must install linux-libre (the kernel) and then linux-libre-chromebook (the kernel sign, which dd's to the kernel partition)

Please send us more info, like lsblk and fdisk outputs. Also, how was the performance with ALARM? did it have the same issues of Parabola?

Also, after reading the dmesg log, I searched a bit and found this (check it, as it may be the solution)

P.S.: I see that the NanoPi K2 had the same issue and it was solved by modifying the dts file. However it would be strange for the C201 since CBotulinum could boot Parabola correctly without having to patch the kernel.

If you want I can try to test stuff here, what does the issue seem to be? Or in other words what would you want me to test?

CBotulinum wrote:

If you want I can try to test stuff here, what does the issue seem to be? Or in other words what would you want me to test?

If everything works for you, we don't need you to test anything for now. However, it would be nice if you (or we) could make a wiki page explaining step-by-step how to install Parabola in a Librebooted C201.

Btw, I didn't ask you, did you migrated from ALARM or directly installed Parabola in an SD Card/USB? (this is one of the things I'd write in this future wiki page)

I did actually migrate, was much simpler to do so (plus, I had used ALARM on different devices a few times before, so...)

CBotulinum -

OK, so you basically installed ALARM as explained here and then migrated as explained in our Wiki, right?

Hi I have manage to install on parabola on sd card, works great! But I'm am not able to transfer it to emmc.
when i fdisk I get:
The primary GPT table is corrupt, but the backup appears OK, so that will be used.

I've tried dd the sd card to the emmc but it boot into recovery.
When I dd, it give "error Buffer I/O error on dev mmcblk2, logical block 0", lost async page write on 9 block
and 4: print_req_error: I/O error, dev mmcblk2, sector XXXX

Anyone manage to put it on emmc?

libreantho -

This may help

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/423923/installing-archlinuxarm-in-internal-storage-on-asus-chromebook-c201?noredirect=1#comment763885_423923

https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Asus/C201#Installing_to_internal_memory_from_SD_card
^here at "reconfigure the kernel" skip the vboot_util part since the vmlinuz.signed file is provided in linux-libre-chromebook as /boot/vmlinuz.kpart

link is dead
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/423923/installing-archlinuxarm-in-internal-storage-on-asus-chromebook-c201?noredirect=1#comment763885_423923
so I found information here (urjaman comment was the one that worked best for me):
https://github.com/altreact/archbk/issues/3

1. unmount all partitions on mmcblk2*, if your system automounts things.
2. shrink & move ROOT-B (mmcblk0p5)
   cgpt add -i 5 -b 282624 -s 32 /dev/mmcblk2
3. shrink & move STATE (mmcblk0p1)
   cgpt add -i 1 -b 282656 -s 32 /dev/mmcblk2
4. move & enlarge ROOT-A (mmcblk2p3)
   cgpt add -i 3 -b 282688 -s 30470080 /dev/mmcblk2
5. make a new filesystem on ROOT-A
   partx -a /dev/mmcblk2
   mkfs -t ext4 /dev/mmcblk2p3
6. make mountpoints
   mkdir /tmp/{old,new}root
7. mounts for a clean copy
   mount --bind / /tmp/oldroot
   mount /dev/mmcblk2p3 /tmp/newroot
8. copy system and unmount target
   cd /tmp/oldroot
   cp -a * ../newroot
   umount /tmp/newroot
9. install kernel to KERN-A (mmcblk2p2)
   dd if=/boot/vmlinux.kpart of=/dev/mmcblk2p2
10. set mmcblk0p2 to the high priority and successful
    cgpt add -i 2 -P 10 -S 1 /dev/mmcblk2
11. set mmcblk0p4 to low priority so it is not used
    cgpt add -i 4 -P 0 -S 0 /dev/mmcblk2

unfortunately I get white screen with both parabola and archlinux-arm-chromebook (mainline kernel). I tried with the latest veyron image which did half-boot(system-md hang, it does exactly the same on sd card)

Maybe because of the issue mentioned in the link below? I haven't got an older image to test with downgraded system-md:
https://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=13249&p=59997&hilit=emmc+c201+emmc+c100p#p59997

So I haven't managed to get this to work on emmc... My latest guess would have been to try from an old veyron image(with the 3.14 kernel and unupgraded systemd) install it on emmc and upgrade to parabola afterward. But I haven't managed to get an old image to test.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong and somebody can help.

Megver83 wrote:

OK, so you basically installed ALARM as explained here and then migrated as explained in our Wiki, right?

Yes, that is exactly what I did.

As for the touchpad, I can also say that on my device it doesn't work too, I mean it does get recognized by lsusb, but I have no idea why I can't get it to work (not that I've put much effort or really care about that at the moment).

does this works for the touchpad:

pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics

source: [[https://calvin.me/arch-linux-samsung-arm-chromebook/]]

I followed the wiki instruction to the letter I was able to boot with the ArchLinuxARM-armv7-chromebook-latest.tar.gz but not with ArchLinuxARM-veyron-latest.tar.gz. Migrating from ArchLinuxARM-armv7-chromebook-latest to parabola was straightforward and worked. What I could not do was to get a booting image of ALARM on the EMMC then migrating to parabola. I could also not install parabola to the EMMC from parabola by copying the root and the kernel on the right partition of the EMMC. I managed to get ArchLinuxARM-veyron-latest on the EMMC, But System-md hang and I cannot get to the command prompt. Does anyone managed to install parabola on the EMMC? If so was it with the Veyron image? Was it an old image?

Thanks

IIRC, the touchpad situation wasn't remedied by installing xf86-input-synaptics, anyhow, I might try to get to the bottom of this tomorrow - if I have enough time, since my server has been facing some odd failures in different subsystems, which would probably take a while to debug.

have you modified xorg and changed the mouse preference as in the tutorial link.

Then set-up the config file at /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/70-synaptics.conf

Section "InputClass" 
        Identifier "touchpad" 
        Driver "synaptics" 
        MatchIsTouchpad "on" 
        Option "FingerHigh" "5" 
        Option "FingerLow" "5" 
        Option "TapButton1" "1" 
        Option "TapButton2" "3" 
        Option "TapButton3" "2" 
        Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "on" 
        Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "on" 
EndSection

if it does not work, maybe try this with xf86-input-libinput?:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/324627/touchpad-not-working-properly-after-upgrade-arch-on-chromebook

Hi, I've been following this thread and I'm just wondering if anyone has had any success with installing a system to the internal eMMC? Some of the earlier comments suggested it was proving problematic.

I've been digging and I've found out some things about the eMMC:

It appears that the reason the eMMC partitions are not visible in Linux is because the primary GPT header signature has been set to 'IGNOREME'. Apparently, the standard signature for GPT is 'EFI PART', and this signature is required for Linux to recognize the partition table. I installed the 'vboot-utils' package, which includes the cgpt tool, which can apparently be used to manage Chrome OS GPT tables. The command cgpt legacy -e <device> is supposed to change the header signature back to 'EFI PART'. However, I tried that and it didn't work (just gave me I/O errors).

This suggested some sort of write-protection, so I also downloaded and compiled the 'mmc-utils' package from here. This apparently allows querying/probing of MMC devices. I entered the command mmc writeprotect user get <device> , which shows the write-protect status of the device and got the following output:

# ./mmc writeprotect user get /dev/mmcblk2
Write Protect Group size in blocks/bytes: 16384/8388608
Write Protect Groups 0-0 (Blocks 0-16383), Permanent Write Protection
Write Protect Groups 1-1878 (Blocks 16384-30785535), No Write Protection

So, it seems that permanent write protection is enabled on blocks 0-16383, which covers the PMBR, primary GPT header and table, as well as a partition that seems to contain some 'Chrome OS firmware'. I'm not 100% sure what this 'permanent write protection' means; however, judging by this document, it looks like it may be implemented in the hardware and irreversible(!).

If that is the case, then the eMMC seems to be completely locked-down, with seemingly no possibility to alter the primary GPT. So, unless someone can come up with a clever way of using just the secondary GPT table (which doesn't seem to be locked), I'm not sure that the eMMC will be very usable.

I hate when people do stuff like this ... :-(

I honestly never tried to install to the internal eMMC, nor is that a thing I wish to do.
Having said that though, Debian has a guide for installation on the internal eMMC, you could try that: https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Asus/C201#Installing_to_internal_memory_from_SD_card.
Though I think you need a patched kernel for it, plus, it is kind of inconvenient (eMMC is tiny on this device).

CBotulinum: ok, I will give it a try, although I don't see how it would work, if the partition table has been permanently write-protected. As I said above, I tried altering the GPT signature with 'cgpt legacy -e' and it couldn't do that.

I agree the eMMC isn't huge (~16GB), but it's big enough for a root partition (e.g. for a backup system). It would be nice to be able to use the space and wipe Chrome OS off completely.

That partition could be housing some of the Libreboot files IIRC, maybe that means one would have to remove the write-protect screw?
But that might ruin the bootloader then.
Try asking in #libreboot on freenode, I think they've mapped those partitions out.

I tried the instructions on that Debian page, but got the following when I tried to run 'cgpt add':

# cgpt add -i 5 -s 32 /dev/mmcblk2
WARNING: Primary GPT header is being ignored
ERROR: Entries' crc corrupted
ERROR: -i 5 -s 32 

For those who wish to install to the EMMC.
PrawnOs has implemented a logic to install to emmc(debian) you can check the code here:
https://github.com/SolidHal/PrawnOS/blob/master/scripts/InstallScripts/InstallToInternal.sh

libreantho: Interesting. I will give it a try and report back in a couple of days. Thanks!

I migrated from ALARM to Parabola (using the instructions here). It worked, but there were a handful of minor issues. I will open a new bug report to flag them. I actually now have both ALARM and Parabola installed on different partitions on the microSD (so I can switch between the two for troubleshooting).

The touchpad does not work for me with Parabola either. To me, this looks like a hardware driver issue, not to do with X. There is no 'mouse0' device present in either /dev/input or the /sys device tree. During the ALARM boot, there is a line in the dmesg log that says the 'Elan Touchpad' was recognized; however, that line is not present in the boot log for Parabola. I compared the output of 'lsmod' between the two systems - ALARM had two modules that Parabola didn't: 'Mousedev' and 'Joydev'. I modprobed those into Parabola, but the touchpad still didn't work.

Those were the only modules that ALARM had that Parabola didn't that looked like they could have been relevant to the touchpad (the others were all crypto stuff). So, that suggests to me that the problem may either be a built-in kernel setting that is configured differently in the libre kernel, or perhaps this touchpad is not supported by a free driver? I noticed in ALARM that it seems to be connected to the i2c bus - perhaps there is some 'i2c-hid' option that is not configured in the kernel?

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Definitely a kernel issue. The touchpad works fine if I boot the ALARM kernel & modules with the Parabola root partition.

as this is definitively a kernel issue, please try with Parabola + ALARM non-free kernel (packages: linux-armv7, linux-armv7-chromebook)

you'll have to delete your-freedom for this

P.S: just for commenting. To me it looks like linux-libre doesn't have a good support for ARM hardware (not their fault anyways). Because I remember that in the past I attempted to install Libreboot in a T400 without success, and by using Parabola in a Banana Pi M1. The problem was that the OS didn't detect the /dev/spidev* devices, no matter how many kernel modules I loaded, I could never get it. And my old problem with SPI devices looks to be the same with mouse* devices.

P.S. 2: I use the same Arch{32,ARM} configs for kernels. The only changes I make are to disable options that don't work with blobs.

Megver83: I just installed those ALARM linux packages into Parabola and the touchpad now works. So, from what you said about using the same kernel config as ALARM, does that imply that the touchpad is not supported by the free kernel/drivers?

I fear yes, or at least not OOTB. However, idk if CBotulinum had this problem.

The other option is to check Debian. See if the touchpad works without non-free software and apply any change they make to their libre kernel to ours.

Megver83: ok, I will try the Debian kernel at some point over the next few days.

IDK really about the touchpad, as I never liked the concept at all (on my Thinkpad I've disabled it altogether and use the Trackpoint/a USB mouse), though after some digging around, I think I found something that might help:
https://github.com/hugegreenbug/xf86-input-cmt

Regarding the touchpad: I downloaded the sources for the latest ALARM and linux-libre kernels and then 'grepped' them both for the string "Elan Touchpad". All of the same files that contain that string still appear to be present in linux-libre. The main driver source file seems to be drivers/input/mouse/elan_i2c_core.c, the start of which says it is free software (GPLv2) (although it also says 'copyright of ELAN Microelectronics Corp.').

So, if the driver source file is present in the linux-libre source, then doesn't that point to the problem being configuration-related, if that driver isn't being included in the kernel?

It does appear to be the configuration. I checked the libre kernel config and literally the only mouse option that wasn't enabled is 'elan_i2c_touchpad_support'. If I have time over the next couple of days, I'll see if I can re-compile it with that option and try it out.

(I have also checked and the elan_i2c module is built in to the ARCH kernel)

I compiled the elan_i2c module; loaded it and it works.

crap, sorry for disabling it. I did because the elan_i2c.h file tries to load a blob

here you can see the script I use to remove "blobbed" config lines from the kernel.

https://git.parabola.nu/~megver83/deblob-config.git/tree/versions/4.20

I'll enable it in the next release

Thanks a lot Time4Tea

P.S.: I see that I also disabled CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_ELAN - is this necessary?

I've updated linux-libre

Now it has CONFIG_MOUSE_ELAN_I2C enabled

Please, test it to check that everything is fine now.

Thanks a lot!
Just tested it on my C201, everything seems to be OK.

I upgraded the kernel and the trackpad seems to work fine for me as well.

It seems strange that it was trying to load a blob, and yet the driver seems to work fine without it. I wonder what that blob was for then?

Just so I won't clutter stuff up with a new issue, which WiFi adapters are you using? Because I've tried a TP Link TL-722N (ath9k_htc), but it is extremely unstable at times with the C201...

Have you checked the patch that solidhal did for the debian based prawnOS?
https://github.com/SolidHal/PrawnOS/issues/38
https://github.com/SolidHal/PrawnOS/commit/08bc81f9e969f07d27d7d2070dfda6c2b25efa56

Perhaps it can help fix the problem

But that is a terrible hack, not a great idea, and this device used to work before, so...

Any luck with the wifi? Using a usb hub seem to mitigate the issue for me but it's not running smoothly. Also system-md seem to have a hard time doing shutdown when the usb wifi adapter is plugged-in. I'm using kernel 5.0.2.

Sorry, I haven't checked this discussion for a while and just saw the posts about wifi. I bought one of these wireless USB adapters from Think Penguin:

https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-wireless-n-usb-adapter-gnu-linux-tpe-n150usb

I only got round to trying it today, but it doesn't seem to work well. When I plug it in, it works ok for a minute or two, then it seems to freeze up the whole system (nothing responds to mouse clicks). When I unplug it, the system magically unfreezes and works fine again. So, it seems like possibly an issue with the kernel module?

I have tried it with Parabola (kernel 4.20.11) and ALARM (4.20.6) and the behavior is the same.

It seems this device uses an Atheros AR9271 wifi chip. I don't know if that is the same as the TL-722N that CBotulinum mentioned? Has anyone managed to get a wifi device to work with the C201?

So, basically the same problems I was facing, did you try it with an externally-powered hub? That used to do the trick a while back, but a few months ago it doesn't seem to work here, still, worth a try.

CBotulinum: no, I haven't tried a USB hub, as I don't have one of those unfortunately.

FYI: I created a new issue for the USB wifi here: [[https://labs.parabola.nu/issues/2261]], so that it is flagged as an open issue and can be tracked.

wow - i had no idea this was discussion was still going on after the issue was closed 4 months ago - a discussion this long and covering so many different topics would have been much better on the mailing list

if anyone receiving this messsage, who owns a C201, and is still using the parabola 'linux-libre-chromebook' kernel, or would like to use it, please let us know - we would like to support the C201, but currently none of the parabola devs own one; so we need someone to volunteer to use it regularly ,and report any problems