Samsung Chromebook 2 Questions

[schmidtbag]

So I've been considering getting a the XE503C12 but there are some things I'd like to know that there doesn't seem to explicitly be any information on:

1. Can I install to the internal eMMC, or is it required I use the SD slot? I'm guessing all I have to do is use /dev/mmcblk0 but I'm not sure if there's a reason I should avoid that (aside from losing Chrome OS).
2. Does Bluetooth work? I know the install page lists that the device supports BT 4.0, but it doesn't say if ALARM supports the chipset.
3. What kernel is used?
4. How is the GPU performance? I'm not expecting to play games, but if I were to connect an external display, could it play 1080p videos from youtube without stuttering? Are compositing effects (for something like kwin) GPU accelerated?
5. How are processes designated or switched between the A7 and A15 cores?

[WarheadsSE]

1) to eMMC, yes, once you have booted off a different media first (can't format your in-use root media)
2) I haven't actually tried it myself.
3) linux-chromebook2 (https://github.com/archlinuxarm/PKGBUIL ... hromebook2)
4) Remember that it is a Mali w/ 3D GPU functions only, but I have gotten it to work with the help of the right Mali binary pile, using kwin_gles (wibbles wobble ..). The GPU does not accelerate flash. There is an on-chip VPU though I can't say if it would be used with flash directly (I'd be using pepper, or direct HTML5)
5) You can set the mode (big.LITTLE pure or full HMP) but generally speaking, lower-load & background processes will get knocked to the A7's

[schmidtbag]

1. Ah ok, makes sense. Thanks for the heads-up.
2. Do you know if the Bluetooth chipset is at least supported? If bluez at least acknowledges its existence then I'm not really too concerned. I don't see why it wouldn't work, but I have encountered a SoC system where bluetooth couldn't be detected.
3. Hmm, I'm surprised it's stuck at 3.8. But as long as it performs ok I guess it's not a big deal. Hopefully something newer will come out at some point.
4. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't GLAMOR allow 2D acceleration using 3D hardware accelerators? Or is that not Mali compatible? GPU accelerated flash hardly works on x86 either, and most websites I visit have switched to HTML5. That being said, how is HTML5 video performance in your perspective?
5. As long as the A7 cores can be used properly, that's fine with me.

[WarheadsSE]

2) Not in front of it at the moment, and have not so much as installed bluez
3) that's the current officially supported kernel source from ChromeOS, and mainlining of Exynos5 is still in progress.
4) GLAMOR does not support Mali. I haven't had any issues with the 1080p playback on my XE503C32
5) Yup

[schmidtbag]

Well, I suppose I'll take my chances with bluetooth. Worst case scenario, I'll just use a USB bluetooth adapter.

As long as Samsung, Google, or whoever maintains the kernel hasn't given up on maintaining it, that's all I care about. Even the Exynos 4 series also uses the 3.8 kernel, which is why it surprised me this was in the same position.

As long as the overall usage and video playback is smooth, that's good enough for me. I'm not expecting this to be amazing, I just want it to be better than the system I'm currently using as an everyday PC (a 3.7GHz Core2 Duo with a GT 630 on nouveau drivers). My current system just BARELY can handle 1080p fullscreen, and stutters if any video is 60FPS.


Anyway thanks for the info, I think I'll consider getting this.

[schmidtbag]

So I got the chromebook and Arch is running fine on it so far. So, how exactly do I port it over from the flash drive to the eMMC? Would it be as simple as just doing:

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M

or is that an incredibly stupid idea?

[WarheadsSE]

Never copy from any media you are booted off of.

[schmidtbag]

Well let me put it this way:
Let's say the bootable flash drive is /dev/sda, and let's say I get a second flash drive called /dev/sdb.
On a separate computer, I'll clone sda to sdb.
Then, plug both flash drives back into the chromebook. Assuming it boots from /dev/sda (doesn't matter which one is sda since they're both exact clones), would it be safe to clone /dev/sdb to the internal storage, and would it work properly?