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.