AOK Linux for ARMv7 Chromebooks

The easy way to get Arch Linux, Xfce, Firefox, and more running on an old Chromebook

Features

Installing Arch Linux is fully automated. It's easy for a beginner. No Linux experience is required.
A fast, minimalist Xfce Desktop Environment, ready for running the programs you want
Firefox is pre-loaded with UBlock, User-Agent Switcher, and Kill Sticky Headers
Pre-configured 2D Graphics acceleration, Audio enabled, Caps Lock setup, WiFi hotspots compatible, etc.
Mirror checking for speed and improved 24/7 reliability.
AOK Custom Command line utilities for advanced users: dim, spoof, and tpad

Possibly Compatible Chromebooks

HP Chromebook 11 G1
Samsung Chromebook 2 13 (XE503C32)
Samsung Chromebook 2 11 (XE503C12)
Haier Chromebook 11
Medion Akoya S2013
True IDC Chromebook 11
Xolo Chromebook
CTL J2 / J4 Chromebook for Education
eduGear Chromebook K Series
Epik 11.6" Chromebook ELB1101
HiSense Chromebook 11
Mecer Chromebook
NComputing Chromebook CX100
Poin2 Chromebook 11
Positivo Chromebook CH1190
VideoNet Chromebook BL10
ASUS Chromebit CS10
ASUS Chromebook Flip C100P
ASUS Chromebook C201PA
Acer Chromebook 13 (CB5-311)
HP Chromebook 14 x000-x999 / HP Chromebook 14 G3

Minimum Requirements

A Compatible Chromebook
4 GB or larger SD Card or a compatible USB Drive
Internet

Instructions

If Developer Mode is already enabled, skip steps 1-5.
To check if Developer Mode is enabled, you can try opening crosh and bash (see Step 5).

Step 1

Back up your files. Turn off the Chromebook.

Hold esc+refresh and press power.

Step 2

Press ctrl+d when the screen says "Chrome OS is missing or damanged."

Step 3

Press enter when the screen says "To turn OS verification OFF, press ENTER."

Step 4

Press ctrl+d when the screen says "OS verification is OFF".

Never press space. Doing so will disable Developer Mode.

The secret options from this screen are:

Wait 30 seconds - the computer will beep and boot from eMMC (Internal Storage)
Press ctrl+d - immediately boot from eMMC (Internal Storage)
Press ctrl+u - immediately boot from SD Card or USB Drive (External Storage)

Step 5

Chrome OS will walk you through a new installation of Chrome OS.
You will be required to create or login with a Google account.

When setting up the refreshed Chrome OS, you may see the option:

Enable Debugging Features - This is not required, and doesn't work. Ignore it.

When Chrome OS is done installing:

Press ctrl+alt+t for a crosh shell.
Type shell for a bash shell.

Congratulations! You are now using Developer Mode.

Step 8

At a bash shell:

Type sudo install -Dt /usr/local/bin ~/Downloads/aok and press enter.
Then type aok and press enter.

Tips

You can press ctrl+d or ctrl+u as soon as the backlight comes on. You don't have to wait for the "OS verification is OFF" screen.
For help using Arch Linux, visit https://wiki.archlinux.org/

Known Issues

Issues common to latest stable linux kernel distributions on the Samsung Chromebook

Suspend does not work properly, don't use it. Shut down the computer when not in use.
3D Acceleration not yet supported (But definitely possible now due to recent (2019) updates in the Linux Kernel)
* The Microphone does not work.
* The Camera does not work.
* The USB 3.0 port does not work for USB 3.0 devices, only USB 2.0 or older devices.

* For a working Microphone, Camera, USB 3.0, and the ability to fine-tune brightness, install the old Chrome OS kernel:

Download the peach kernel: sudo pacman -Sw linux-peach
Remove the current kernel and its dependency: sudo pacman -R linux-armv7 linux-armv7-chromebook
Install the peach kernel: sudo pacman -S linux-peach
Reboot
The peach kernel is old. the Xfce power management interface may not load. To control brightness use a custom command I created called dim, like so: dim will show you what arguments are valid. sudo dim 300 for example, would set the brightness to 300 (on a scale of 0-2800, 50-2800 to be safe). The dim command will also work with the new kernel, but the scale would be 0-7 (1-7 to be safe).
Changing permissions for the brightness file (like from the archlinuxarm.org wiki) helps and makes it so that xfce4-power-manager might load, and give you a nice gui interface. (note: you also have to be added to the video group for this to work). and then, if it loads, can also see the battery level. There is a file in the system named capacity that has battery percentage, for example:

a@ok / $ sudo find /sys -name capacity
/sys/devices/platform/soc/12ca0000.i2c/i2c-4/i2c-104/104-000b/power_supply/sbs-104-000b/capacity
a@ok / $ cat /sys/devices/platform/soc/12ca0000.i2c/i2c-4/i2c-104/104-000b/power_supply/sbs-104-000b/capacity
49

In an openbox/tint2 setup (not Xfce), tint2 has a feature that displays the battery level reliably, no matter what kernel you're using.

To get back to the latest kernel:

sudo pacman -Syu linux-armv7-chromebook
Reboot

Notes

If you need to use a public Wi-Fi Hotspot with a Landing Page during setup, then see the WiFi Hotspot Help file in "extra".

The default locale is English, US.

This installer sets the power profile to conservative which is optimally efficient. It can drop to 200 MHz (maximum efficiency), or go to 1700 MHz (full speed) as needed. Other power profiles are possible, such as performance, which stays at max speed no matter what. To change the power profile, open a terminal Ctrl+Alt+t and type, for example:
sudo cpupower frequency-set performance
Setting it this way will persist across reboots. For more info, run cpupower.

The best thing about this laptop, honestly, is its battery life. Chrome OS sets the battery governor to "interactive" mode, which is not fast or efficient, while default Arch Linux sets it to "performance" by default which is fast but not efficient. So running this version of Linux can give you better performance than Chrome OS. However, to get the most out of the laptop, conservative is the way to go.

Warnings

Do not attempt to access files on Chrome OS when running Arch Linux unless you know what you are doing. Improperly accessing files on Chrome OS from Arch Linux will cause Chrome OS to ERASE EVERYTHING on the Chrome OS system, including any personal files you may have stored there. In general, don't rely on storing important files on Chrome OS. See the next section.
In rare cases, if the battery is discharged completely for a long period of time, the Chromebook may disable booting from the SD Card or USB, and ERASE EVERYTHING on the eMMC (Internal Memory), and start from a factory default state. This has nothing to do with using a custom OS such as this or enabling Developer Mode. It is a known issue with Chrome OS. For this reason, never store important files solely on the eMMC (Internal Memory) such as within Chrome OS. This does not affect the integrity of the SD Card or USB, or your files on the SD Card or USB.

Thanks

The upstream source for this distribution comes to you from archlinuxarm.org.

https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7/samsung/samsung-chromebook

cubetronic / aok