ASUS Chromebook C201

This is a chromebook, using the Rockchip RK3288 chipset. It uses an ARM CPU, and has free EC firmware (unlike some other laptops). More RK3288-based laptops will be added to libreboot at a later date.

NOTE: This board is unsupported in libreboot 20150518. To use it in libreboot, for now, you must build for it from source using the libreboot git repository.

More info will be added later.

Flashing instructions can be found at ../install/index.html#flashrom

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The screw

It's next to the flash chip. Unscrew it, and the flash chip is read-write. Screw it back in, and the flash chip is read-only. It's called the screw.

EC firmware

It's free software. Google provides the source. Build scripts will be added later, with EC sources provided in libreboot, and builds of the EC firmware.

Depthcharge

These systems do not use the GRUB payload. Instead, they use a payload called depthcharge, which is common on Chromebooks.

Issues

Non-free drivers needed in linux kernel for video acceleration; it's possible to use it without video acceleration.

Non-free drivers needed for built-in (soldered) wifi; it's possible to use an external USB wifi dongle. Check index.html#recommended_wifi.

Comes preinstalled (from the factory) with Google ChromeOS. This is a GNU/Linux distribution, but it's not general purpose and it comes with proprietary software. It's designed for SaaSS. Libreboot recommends that all users of this laptop replace ChromeOS with Debian or Fedora. No FSF-endorsed distribution is available yet, but Guix and Trisquel might be easy enough to port.

If you go with Debian, make sure to not enable the non-free and contrib repositories.

If you go with Fedora, make sure to delete Linux and replace it with Linux-libre.

Copyright © 2015 Francis Rowe <info@gluglug.org.uk>
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Updated versions of the license (when available) can be found at https://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html

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