... and another ARM based laptop from Lenovo, this time with Android

Lenovo IdeaPad A10
10' Screen
CPU Rockchip RK3188 (4 cores),
1GB RAM (2GB option available too),
16GB SSD (32 GB option),
Android 4.2

http://liliputing.com/2013/10/lenovo-ideapad-a10-convertible-android-tablet-netbook.html

Available now on Amazon.de for 250 EUR

http://www.amazon.de/Lenovo-IdeaPad-Tablet-PC-Rockchip-Android/dp/B00FDL415G

New ARM Chromebook from HP :)

There are new HP chromebook with ARM CPU.

http://chrome.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-new-hp-chromebook-made-with-google_8.html

Some better pictures can be seen on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FJXVRM8

However, this new HP have nothing more than old Samsung chromebook -
It hassame Samsung CPU, same 2 GB RAM and same 16 GB nand flash

The only plus I can see at the moment is the micro USB for charging.

Weight

• 2.30lb / 1.04kg

CPU

• Exynos 5250 GAIA Application Processor

Memory

• 2GB (4x 4Gbit) DDR3 RAM
• 16GB Solid State Drive

Audio

• Combined headphone / microphone jack
• Digitally-tuned speakers with sound directed up through the keyboard

Battery

• Your Chromebook has up to 6 hours of active use (30 Wh battery)*

Network

• Dual-band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth 4.0

Goodies

• 100 GB Google Drive cloud storage, free for two years**
• 60-day free trial with Google Play Music All Access, and $9.99 per month after that***
• 12 free sessions of GoGo Inflight Internet****

Revert to "secure mode" on Chromebook with Linux installed on internal "SSD"

In case you have installed Linux on internal "SSD", every time you start the Chromebook, you will get:

"Chrome OS verification is turned off"

Because nobody explained what will happen if you press space at this point, I decided to try it.

When you press space bar, the Chromebook ask you for second confirmation, then restarts in "normal" mode.

Then because there is no valid OS, it will not boot and you should restore ChromeOS from SD card or USB flash. During this restore, the data on internal SSD will be deleted.

Why I choose ArchLinux for my Arm Chromebook

My Chromebook came about week ago.

First couple of days I tested several distributions.

I installed over SD card, because several friends asks me all the time about "this Chrome Browser OS".

1. Chrubuntu with KDE - worked OK, but I was not able to click on icons in notification area - e.g. battery, network etc.
2. Chrubuntu with XFCE - it was strange that this distribution did not installed in graphical mode at all. Some file missing at Ubuntu website, so I was unable to complete the installation. After the reboot, I was left in console without X and most important without WiFi.
3. Fedora 19 - Installation was very easy, because basically there was an image that you just dd over the SD card.
   Everything worked OK, except the sound. I was unable to find instructions how to enable the sound.
   After first yum update, the system stop load firmware, e.g. no Bluetooth and no WiFi. Once again I did not found how to fix the issue. What I did was reinstall (because it is image, reinstallation took less 10 min)
4. Finally I decided to go "hacker" way and installed Arch Linux.
   Similarly to x86 installation, Arch did not installed the X for me. This was strange for me, because I expected pre-packaged XFCE.
   However there were no problem to install X, XFCE and Display Manager.
   More difficult was to install sound icon in notification area.
   I will make separate blog post about Arch installation.

Currently all my hardware is supported, except probably the Bluetooth - never tried it.

Here list what is working:

• Video + HDMI. Arch using "accelerated?" driver from ChromeOS. Brightness works from screensaver and XFCE "applet".
• Keyboard + touch-pad.
• USB - both of them. SD card obviously works too.
• Sound works.
• Bluetooth - never tried it on Arch, but no reason not to work, because under Fedora was OK.
• Power management - works, but with some minor problems.
  For example if I unplug power cord, power management did not detect that. I need to suspend in RAM and wake up in order power cord removal to be detected.
  Another time, if I keep the screen lid open and power manager "stop" my monitor, then when I move the mouse, the monitor stay black. Easy fix for this is to close the lid (computer hibernates) and to open it again.

Software that works:

• Chromium browser works. There were no chance for it under Fedora :)
• Flash works using ChromeOS "blob".

Software that not works:

• Firefox not working. Arch people were not able to compile it. I tried to "steal" the Firefox from Fedora 19, but it did not started from first try, so I decided not to do it. I did not use Firefox that much anyway.
• Skype do not work... old issue with Microsoft and ARM.
• Dropbox did not work for same reason.

Linux on ARM Chromebook: xf86-video-armsoc vs. xf86-video-fbdev

Hardware acceleration on Chromebook

Interesting notes on HW acceleration.
Did not tried yet, since still waiting for my device.

http://marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl/2013/04/15/hardware-acceleration-on-chromebook/

Links

Entering debug mode
http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/samsung-arm-chromebook

Samsung ARM Chromebook disassembly and location of BIOS flexible metal ring sticker (on page 2)
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Chromebook+11.6+Teardown/12225/1

Removing skary screen
http://johnlewis.ie/neutering-the-developer-mode-screen-on-your-chromebook/

ChrUbuntu fixes
https://gist.github.com/ilyakatz/5562463

Installing "native" Linux on Samsung ARM Chromebook from ARM.com
http://blogs.arm.com/software-enablement/848-running-linux-on-the-series-3-chromebook/

Installing Arch Linux on Samsung ARM Chromebook
http://craigerrington.com/blog/installing-arch-linux-with-xfce-on-the-samsung-arm-chromebook/

Installing Fedora Linux on Samsung ARM Chromebook
https://www.berrange.com/posts/2013/03/31/automated-install-of-fedora-18-arm-on-a-samsung-google-chromebook/

Olof Johansson's Hack your Chromebook
https://plus.google.com/109993695638569781190/posts/b2fazijJppZ

ARM Chromebook Linux Install
http://www.cims.nyu.edu/~arjun/wordpress/?p=230

Another Ubuntu 13.0 install on ARM Chromebook from Marcin Juszkiewicz
http://marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl/2013/02/14/how-to-install-ubuntu-13-04-on-chromebook/

Chat for installing Fedora on Arm Chromebook
http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-arm-talks/2013-02-22/fedora_on_the_arm_based_samsung_chromebook.2013-02-22-20.01.log.html

Replacing Chrome OS with Debian Jessie on the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook The Right Way
http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1173005-replacing-chrome-os-with-debian-jessie-on-the-samsung-series-3-chromebook-the-right-way/

Installing Arch Linux on the Internal "SSD" of the Series 3 Samsung Chromebook
http://matxor.net/articles/Installing-Arch-Linux-on-the-Internal-SSD-of-the-Series-3-Samsung-Chromebook/

What ARM notebooks are available today

If you want to buy ARM Based notebooks (not a tablet),
there are following possibilities I am aware of:

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The one I call "Chinese crap" :)

• Single Core CPU,
• 256 or 512 MB RAM
• 2 to 4 GB NAND / SSD
• 7' display 1024x600
• 1 to 2h battery
• Android

Those are extremely cheap 50-80 USD piece, but I do not see any practical use of them.

Also 2 hours battery live? C'mon get serious :)

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Toshiba AC100

• Single Core Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU,
• 512 MB RAM
• 8 - 32 GB SSD
• 10' display 1024x600
• 8h battery
• Android 2.1

This device is discontinued, but there are ability to buy one of these brand new.

On EBay.co.uk you can grab one for about 70 GBP.

There are Linux running for AC100

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ASUS Transformers - several models

• ARM CPU up to 4 cores
• 1 GB RAM
• 8 - 32 GB SSD
• 10' - 11' with resolution up to 1920×1200
• Android

These are very nice, but expensive and is unclear how you can put Linux on them.

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GoClever Hybrid

• 2 cores ARM CPU
• 1 GB RAM
• 16 GB SSD
• 10' 
•  15h battery
• Android 4.1

These are priced around 300 EUR including the keyboard.

There are Linux running for GoClever,
but most of the documentation is on Polish language

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Lenovo Yoga 11

• 4 cores Nvidia Tegra T3.0 CPU
• 2 GB RAM
• up to 64 GB SSD
• 11' 1366 x 768
•  10h battery
• Microsoft Windows 8 RT

These are ridiculously priced around 1300 USD.

The model was just discontinued.

I never checked if there is a Linux for these, nor I know if boot-loader is locked.

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Samsung ARM Chromebook

• 2 cores Samsung Exynos 5 CPU
• 2 GB RAM
• 16 GB on board SSD
• 11' 1366 x 768
•  8h battery
• ChromeOS

As I said in previous those are priced brand new as 250 USD, and can be bought in UK for 190 GBP (300 USD).

Just bought mine on EBay.co.uk for ~150 GBP :-)

Behold the notebook of the future - today :)

This is Samsung Series 3 Chromebook.

It current price in USA is just 250 USD.
In Europe you can buy new one from Amazon.co.uk for 190 GBP (300 USD)

Chromebooks are cheap cloud-computing devices that using special Linux based OS, developed by Google, called ChromeOS.

I agree Chromebooks are revolutionary, but this particular Chromebook is very interesting from other prospective - it has ARM processor, not the x86 one.

ARM processors are widely used in cellphones. Those processors are quite fast, but not as fast as modern x86 (e.g. Intel and AMD)

However ARM processors consume less power, so the battery last longer.

Also there is no needing cooling fan, so this also drops the battery consumption.

Finally if the ARM computer uses SSD, NAND (flash) or SD Card, there are no moving parts in the computer and computer works completely silent.
(This can be easily seen with Smart Phones)

AMP processors have one big disadvantage - because they are different architecture, they can not execute x86 programs.

Currently I know only three "good" notebooks with ARM processors and this one is probably most easy to get. I will have post about this later.