Fatdog64-631 for Acer C720 only.
hi rcrsn51,
I have not removed any screws and don't seem to be having any trouble.
the only difference I have noticed is having to press ctrl+l on boot up for the bios to run (do not know if removing the screw would make any difference to this),
apart from that everything seems ok.
the install instructions on this thread seemed to have worked OK for me
hope this helps
I have not removed any screws and don't seem to be having any trouble.
the only difference I have noticed is having to press ctrl+l on boot up for the bios to run (do not know if removing the screw would make any difference to this),
apart from that everything seems ok.
the install instructions on this thread seemed to have worked OK for me
hope this helps
Thanks. So you skipped this step in the Arch instructions?
If you want to make SeaBIOS default, you MUST first remove the write protect screw and then run:
Warning: I'm serious! You HAVE to remove the write-protect screw first! Otherwise the system will be corrupted and you'll need to recover it
# set_gbb_flags.sh 0×489
You don't have to do this, it just enables SeaBIOS to load by default. Like Stripe said, you can hit the ctrl-l instead at every boot. Also removing the screw voids your warranty. There a sticker over one of the screws that says so. It's not hard though, after you get all the screws off the bottom it just snaps apart. Then you move the write-protect screw to the battery enable screw, set your flags and then put everything back.Thanks. So you skipped this step in the Arch instructions?
Quote:
If you want to make SeaBIOS default, you MUST first remove the write protect screw and then run:
Warning: I'm serious! You HAVE to remove the write-protect screw first! Otherwise the system will be corrupted and you'll need to recover it
# set_gbb_flags.sh 0×489
That's a qualified yes. I did like Stripe said except I made a small ext3 partition and a ext4 partition. Some boot loaders are slow at reading ext4, so I made an ext3 partition to hold the kernel and initrd and put my savefolder on the ext4. Also used the fatdog-split-initrd.sh script to split the initrd. That way I could do away with the mem=1950m boot parameter. I said a qualified yes because I initially tried to install legacy grub, but it could not install to the mbr, so maybe so tweaking of the partition would have helped. I just used grub4dos which worked fine. I also used no swap, I think I read somewhere that swap breaks suspend/resume.When you run Gparted on the SSD, do you need to worry about partition alignment or is this handled automatically?
Thanks. I have been confused by articles like this. But I think that with a clean partition, Gparted gets it right for SSDs. You just select "Align to MB" instead of "Align to Cylinder".
I have ordered a used C720. Unfortunately, mine is costing a bit more than $99.
I have ordered a used C720. Unfortunately, mine is costing a bit more than $99.
I've saw articles like that, don't really know how much difference it makes. Probably could use a few more blocks before the first partition, don't think there was enough room for grub legacy.
The c720 is really pretty quick, the cpu is a cut-down version of a 4th generation i series. Mine is a 2Gb model, more ram would have been nice, but it's good enough. I don't use it every day, mainly when I'm traveling. Fast, light and good battery life. When we get 700 stable, I'll make another iso for this.
The c720 is really pretty quick, the cpu is a cut-down version of a 4th generation i series. Mine is a 2Gb model, more ram would have been nice, but it's good enough. I don't use it every day, mainly when I'm traveling. Fast, light and good battery life. When we get 700 stable, I'll make another iso for this.
Here is my understanding of the "SSD Partition Alignment" issue. This may be over-simplified - please feel free to comment.
Conventional hard drives read/write data in blocks of 512 bytes (1/2 K). But SSD's work in larger 4K blocks. When your computer wants to read/write a chunk of data to the SSD, it's best if the chunk fits entirely inside one of these 4K blocks. If it straddles the boundary of two blocks, the SSD has to read/write both of them. That's bad.
So when you format an SDD, you want each partition to start on a 4K boundary. That way, each data block from your computer is guaranteed to fit inside a 4K block on the SSD.
But in conventional partitioning schemes, partitions can start almost anywhere. If they start on old-style cylinder boundaries, they probably won't match up with the 4K blocks.
Here is how Gparted now works with an SSD. It collects the 4K blocks into groups of 256 (4K x 256 = 1 MB). So it sees the SSD as a string of 1MB blocks.
It reserves the first 1MB block for the MBR/partition table, even though a standard DOS MBR only needs a bit of that space. It then starts each partition on a 1 MB boundary. That ensures that each 1MB block of the partition matches up exactly with a whole number of 4K blocks on the SSD. Your SSD is optimized.
If you are using a recent version of Gparted, just select the default "Align to MB" and you are good to go.
This might be a significant issue for Puppy users who have installed SSD's but have formatted them with old versions of Gparted that have "aligned to cylinders".
Here is a test. Run "fdisk -l" and check the Start value for each partition. If it's an odd number like 63, that's bad. The partition is NOT aligned. If it's a power of two, like 2048, that's good.
Here is why 63 is bad. A 4K block on the SSD is equivalent to 8 basic 512 byte sectors. In fdisk, sectors are numbered starting at 0. If your first partition starts at sector 63, there are 63 unassigned sectors before it. But that's one less than a multiple of 4K. So the start of your partition is not aligned with the start of a 4K block.
Conventional hard drives read/write data in blocks of 512 bytes (1/2 K). But SSD's work in larger 4K blocks. When your computer wants to read/write a chunk of data to the SSD, it's best if the chunk fits entirely inside one of these 4K blocks. If it straddles the boundary of two blocks, the SSD has to read/write both of them. That's bad.
So when you format an SDD, you want each partition to start on a 4K boundary. That way, each data block from your computer is guaranteed to fit inside a 4K block on the SSD.
But in conventional partitioning schemes, partitions can start almost anywhere. If they start on old-style cylinder boundaries, they probably won't match up with the 4K blocks.
Here is how Gparted now works with an SSD. It collects the 4K blocks into groups of 256 (4K x 256 = 1 MB). So it sees the SSD as a string of 1MB blocks.
It reserves the first 1MB block for the MBR/partition table, even though a standard DOS MBR only needs a bit of that space. It then starts each partition on a 1 MB boundary. That ensures that each 1MB block of the partition matches up exactly with a whole number of 4K blocks on the SSD. Your SSD is optimized.
If you are using a recent version of Gparted, just select the default "Align to MB" and you are good to go.
This might be a significant issue for Puppy users who have installed SSD's but have formatted them with old versions of Gparted that have "aligned to cylinders".
Here is a test. Run "fdisk -l" and check the Start value for each partition. If it's an odd number like 63, that's bad. The partition is NOT aligned. If it's a power of two, like 2048, that's good.
Here is why 63 is bad. A 4K block on the SSD is equivalent to 8 basic 512 byte sectors. In fdisk, sectors are numbered starting at 0. If your first partition starts at sector 63, there are 63 unassigned sectors before it. But that's one less than a multiple of 4K. So the start of your partition is not aligned with the start of a 4K block.
Kirk,
I have been reading with interest your account of Fatdog64 on the C720, and it generated many questions!
I have a C710, and have been unable to go beyond booting ChromeOS and Ubuntu. Allegedly, ctrl-u in the developer mode will allow booting from USB, but even with an updated bios I was unsuccessful in doing so (I was using a gpt-partitioned USB stick); and there is no “legacy mode
I have been reading with interest your account of Fatdog64 on the C720, and it generated many questions!
I have a C710, and have been unable to go beyond booting ChromeOS and Ubuntu. Allegedly, ctrl-u in the developer mode will allow booting from USB, but even with an updated bios I was unsuccessful in doing so (I was using a gpt-partitioned USB stick); and there is no “legacy mode
[quote="eowens2"]Kirk,
I have been reading with interest your account of Fatdog64 on the C720, and it generated many questions!
I have a C710, and have been unable to go beyond booting ChromeOS and Ubuntu. Allegedly, ctrl-u in the developer mode will allow booting from USB, but even with an updated bios I was unsuccessful in doing so (I was using a gpt-partitioned USB stick); and there is no “legacy mode
I have been reading with interest your account of Fatdog64 on the C720, and it generated many questions!
I have a C710, and have been unable to go beyond booting ChromeOS and Ubuntu. Allegedly, ctrl-u in the developer mode will allow booting from USB, but even with an updated bios I was unsuccessful in doing so (I was using a gpt-partitioned USB stick); and there is no “legacy mode
I changed it to MBR, that might not have been necessary. It's not a normal uefi implementation, you use the SeaBIOS payload to boot, that's why I went with MBR.On the C720, you seemed to boot Fatdog64 from the USB stick in Legacy mode. Then from within Fatdog64 you repartitioned the SSD. Did you leave the SSD with the GPT partition table, or change it to MBR? You mentioned installing Grub4Dos; does that work with UEFI/GPT? On the SSD, did you make only one partition? Filesystem?
No, I made the changes to boot directly into SeaBIOS. See the first post for the Arch linux link.So on power-on, does your C720 boot to the developer screen, then ctrl-d takes you to the (single entry) Grub menu?
Sure, if you have the space and you can patch the kernel modules for those distos.Might it be possible to multiboot (Fatdog64 plus ?Ubuntu, ?Linux Mint?)
This Chromebook line seems to have a really “locked down
Hi all
does anyone know a way to get a network connection from a sandbox (allowing a different ip address to the host machine (either static or dchp assigned))?
as I am trying to use the sandbox as a server to provide services to the lan (without the overheads of using virtualization)
I was thinking of trying to set a bridge to allow both the host and the sandbox to gain access independently to the NIC, but still cant seem to figure out how to connect the sandbox to the bridge.
thanks for reading
does anyone know a way to get a network connection from a sandbox (allowing a different ip address to the host machine (either static or dchp assigned))?
as I am trying to use the sandbox as a server to provide services to the lan (without the overheads of using virtualization)
I was thinking of trying to set a bridge to allow both the host and the sandbox to gain access independently to the NIC, but still cant seem to figure out how to connect the sandbox to the bridge.
thanks for reading
kirk:
This combination of Chromebook+Fatdog is amazing! When I did my install, I ran Gparted and selected Device > Create Partition Table. I made an MS-DOS table to replace the GPT. Grub4Dos liked this better.
Using a save folder instead of a savefile is handy. You can quickly see exactly what stuff you have installed. And it's easy to back up into a tarball.
Here are some modifications I made.
I really like the Chromebook keyboard, but I miss the traditional PgUp,PgDn,Home,End,Del keys. So I made an xbindkeys package that enables them, as discussed here. Is there a way to do this without installing xbindkeys?
If I run a Flash video in Firefox and go to full screen, then press Esc, the video black-screens. The only way out is a Ctrl-Alt-Backspace. But it works fine with HTML5. So I made an applet to turn Flash off/on.
I found that the touchpad is pretty sensitive, so I made another applet to turn it off while using a mouse.
The battery monitor failed to trigger a warning message when the battery was low and Fatdog shut down unexpectedly. Or maybe I missed the message. Instead of tinkering with the monitor settings, I just installed my Batterup. It's not fancy, but it works when you need it.
I took one look at wpa_gui and gave up. Too much information! I installed PeasyWifi instead.
Fatdog has CPUtemp but it's not enabled. I just moved /usr/bin/CPUtemp_tray to /root/Startup. But I doubt if overheating will be a problem.
I can post any of these packages if you want them.
Bill
This combination of Chromebook+Fatdog is amazing! When I did my install, I ran Gparted and selected Device > Create Partition Table. I made an MS-DOS table to replace the GPT. Grub4Dos liked this better.
Using a save folder instead of a savefile is handy. You can quickly see exactly what stuff you have installed. And it's easy to back up into a tarball.
Here are some modifications I made.
I really like the Chromebook keyboard, but I miss the traditional PgUp,PgDn,Home,End,Del keys. So I made an xbindkeys package that enables them, as discussed here. Is there a way to do this without installing xbindkeys?
If I run a Flash video in Firefox and go to full screen, then press Esc, the video black-screens. The only way out is a Ctrl-Alt-Backspace. But it works fine with HTML5. So I made an applet to turn Flash off/on.
I found that the touchpad is pretty sensitive, so I made another applet to turn it off while using a mouse.
The battery monitor failed to trigger a warning message when the battery was low and Fatdog shut down unexpectedly. Or maybe I missed the message. Instead of tinkering with the monitor settings, I just installed my Batterup. It's not fancy, but it works when you need it.
I took one look at wpa_gui and gave up. Too much information! I installed PeasyWifi instead.
Fatdog has CPUtemp but it's not enabled. I just moved /usr/bin/CPUtemp_tray to /root/Startup. But I doubt if overheating will be a problem.
I can post any of these packages if you want them.
Bill
You didn't miss it. It never shows up. One of the little annoying things that gets fixed in the next iteration.rcrsn51 wrote:The battery monitor failed to trigger a warning message when the battery was low and Fatdog shut down unexpectedly. Or maybe I missed the message.
Fatdog64 forum links: [url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=117546]Latest version[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/ke8sn5H]Contributed packages[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/se8scrb]ISO builder[/url]
HOORAY! I am finally making some headway with Fatdog64 on the C710 Chromebook.
I was able to find a copy of SeaBios for the C710/Celeron 847 processor, and did a flashrom-write; now the unit can boot from USB.
I created the bootable Fatdog64-631-Acer-C720-only USB stick, and the C710 boots to the Desktop, but the operating system does not see any of the USB devices: it does not see the drive it booted from (SeaBios sees it, Fatdog64 does not) and does not see a USB mouse. Touchpad is OK.
All of the sda partitions show up on the desktop, no sdb. On Gparted only the sda partitions are visible, no sdb. I cannot mount sdb, therefore I cannot copy vmlinuz and initrd to the hard drive.
I am wondering if perhaps the waitdev=5 parameter might give more time for the USB devices to be detected. I guess that would go in a Grub4dos.cfg, but I have tried running Grub4dos, and it cannot detect the boot USB stick (sdb) either.
So I cannot see a way to tell the boot to slow down a little and detect the USB drives. I would be grateful for any tips.
I was able to find a copy of SeaBios for the C710/Celeron 847 processor, and did a flashrom-write; now the unit can boot from USB.
I created the bootable Fatdog64-631-Acer-C720-only USB stick, and the C710 boots to the Desktop, but the operating system does not see any of the USB devices: it does not see the drive it booted from (SeaBios sees it, Fatdog64 does not) and does not see a USB mouse. Touchpad is OK.
All of the sda partitions show up on the desktop, no sdb. On Gparted only the sda partitions are visible, no sdb. I cannot mount sdb, therefore I cannot copy vmlinuz and initrd to the hard drive.
I am wondering if perhaps the waitdev=5 parameter might give more time for the USB devices to be detected. I guess that would go in a Grub4dos.cfg, but I have tried running Grub4dos, and it cannot detect the boot USB stick (sdb) either.
So I cannot see a way to tell the boot to slow down a little and detect the USB drives. I would be grateful for any tips.
I think so, xvkbd is installed by default. If you look at sevn's preferences (in the tray) you can see where I used it for some of the other keys.So I made an xbindkeys package that enables them, as discussed here. Is there a way to do this without installing xbindkeys?
Yes, it sure does. Looking at the log it seems to be caused by the synaptics touchpad driver. Synaptics also causes a crash with Zarfy. I'll see if I can find a better patch.If I run a Flash video in Firefox and go to full screen, then press Esc, the video black-screens. The only way out is a Ctrl-Alt-Backspace. But it works fine with HTML5. So I made an applet to turn Flash off/on.
Probably missing a kernel module you need for the c710. I removed most of the modules that the c720 doesn't use. If you look at the first page of this thread you'll find were I posted the all-modules-firmware-3.12.18-c720-only.sfs file. That contains all the modules and firmware. Open a terminal and type lsmod before installing that sfs file and rebooting. Then run lsmod again after booting with the sfs installed and compare the results. If there are now more modules listed, those are the ones that are missing.All of the sda partitions show up on the desktop, no sdb. On Gparted only the sda partitions are visible, no sdb. I cannot mount sdb, therefore I cannot copy vmlinuz and initrd to the hard drive.