DragonFly now runs on the Acer c720 (Haswell) Chromebook

Matthew Dillon dillon at apollo.backplane.com
Tue Jan 7 13:22:44 PST 2014


    This is the Intel haswell-based chromebook.  DragonFly now runs on it.
    I've got the boot loader, keyboard, wireless(g), and mouse working.
    I will try to get wireless(n) working (might be easy).

    You have to follow the linux instructions for enabling the BIOS to boot
    non-chrome OS's:

	https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Acer_C7_Chromebook

    Once you've done this you can install DragonFly on a usb stick.  It is
    also possible to wipe the internal SSD and install DFly there.  If you
    do that, be sure to build a chrome recovery usb stick (you'll have to
    google that).  You don't need a fancy gpt partition or anything...
    the normal install should work with e.g. a 1G 'a' /boot partition and
    the rest of it a 'd' root hammer partition.

    For DragonFly to recognize the trackpad, in /boot/loader.conf:

	if_ath_load="YES"
	ig4_load="YES"
	cyapa_load="YES"

    And in /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

	Section "InputDevice"
		Identifier  "Mouse0"
		Driver      "mouse"
		Option      "Protocol" "ps/2"
		Option      "Device" "/dev/cyapa0-67"
	EndSection

    For the wireless, in /etc/rc.conf:

	wlans_ath0="wlan0"
	ifconfig_wlan0="DHCP WPA"

    And in /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf:

	network={
	    ssid="SSIDGOESHERE"
	    scan_ssid=1
	    psk="PASSWORDGOESHERE"
	    priority=2
	}

	(additional network {} blocks)

    Xorg will auto-config (doesn't need a xorg.conf).  Use 'xorg --configure'
    to generate a xorg.conf file and then move it to the correct place and
    edit it to fixup the mouse.

	--

    Also, the internal SSD is only 16GB, so if you want to run off of
    an internal SSD I'd recommend buying one and replacing it.  I got
    a 128G SSD and stuffed it in there.  This is the M.2 FORM FACTOR,
    *NOT* a standard SSD and not the intel micro SSD stuff.

    Also suggested in /etc/sysctl.conf:

	hw.cpu_mwait_halt=0x44
	hw.cpu_mwait_spin=0x11

    Other issues: DragonFly currently does not recognize USB plug/unplug
    events on this laptop.  Dunno how easy it would be to get that working, 
    but that means anything you plug in has to be plugged in at boot time.

    Finally, note that DragonFly does not employ sleep mode when the cover
    is closed (at least not yet, and it would be a while before we could do
    it), so battery life is limited to the on-time life which will be
    somewhere around 4-5 hours.

					-Matt
					Matthew Dillon 
					<dillon at backplane.com>



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