Better support for Chromebooks

Chromebooks do have very limited hardware in terms of storage and RAM. But it is still the cheapest solution to a truly open source notebook, as it allows to replace its coreboot based bootloader with your own coreboot and payload (f.e. Tiano Core or Seabios).

By installing a standard proposal of Tumbleweed or Leap with btrfs you will be left with about 2-3 GB of free storage on a 16 GB eMMC storage for installing packages and saving files. In addition to that many features like hibernation, suspend and function buttons (TTY switching) don't work out of the box.

There is a special Ubuntu based distribution for Chromebooks available called "Gallium OS" (https://galliumos.org/). They do have a lot of patches and some neat configuration for XFCE4 to make it perfectly work on Chromebooks by still looking very nice and offering a lot of storage. But you know what it lacks? Correct, some Geeko love ;)

In this project following steps could be done to improve the openSUSE support on Chromebooks:

  • port Chromebook specific patches of "Gallium OS" to Factory and upstream them if necessary/possible
  • custom setup proposal for Chromebooks in Tumbleweed or a custom Image for Chromebooks
    • including a modified XFCE configuration with openSUSE branding
    • minimum selection of packages necessary for a proper desktop session (f.e. replace LibreOffice with smaller solutions)
  • openSUSE Leap 15 Image for Chromebooks
    • including a modified XFCE configuration with openSUSE branding
    • minimum selection of packages necessary for a proper desktop session (f.e. replace LibreOffice with smaller solutions)

Looking for hackers with the skills:

kiwi kernel linux ux ui yast

This project is part of:

Hack Week 17

Activity

  • over 6 years ago: tdz liked this project.
  • over 6 years ago: michals liked this project.
  • over 6 years ago: SLindoMansilla liked this project.
  • over 6 years ago: aspiers liked this project.
  • over 6 years ago: mbrugger liked this project.
  • over 6 years ago: suntorytimed liked this project.
  • over 6 years ago: suntorytimed added keyword "ui" to this project.
  • over 6 years ago: suntorytimed added keyword "yast" to this project.
  • over 6 years ago: suntorytimed added keyword "kernel" to this project.
  • over 6 years ago: suntorytimed added keyword "linux" to this project.
  • over 6 years ago: suntorytimed added keyword "ux" to this project.
  • over 6 years ago: suntorytimed added keyword "kiwi" to this project.
  • over 6 years ago: suntorytimed originated this project.

  • Comments

    • suntorytimed
      over 6 years ago by suntorytimed | Reply

      I can provide test hardware (Dell Chromebook 11 Education and Asus C200MA) with Coreboot and Tiano Core on it.

    • suntorytimed
      over 6 years ago by suntorytimed | Reply

      The more I think about it, the more I want to do this as a hacker myself. Too many project ideas but not enough time add-emoji

      • mbrugger
        over 6 years ago by mbrugger | Reply

        You know that we have support for an arm based chromebook? https://en.opensuse.org/HCL:ARMChromebook ask @algraf for more info add-emoji

    • jevrard
      over 6 years ago by jevrard | Reply

      Keep me informed, I am following GalliumOS (waiting for the new version!), and I'd be pretty happy to know more about your plans.

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