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Models covered
Acer Chromebook 11 C740

The lightweight Acer Chromebook comes with a Broadwell processor, user upgradeable SSD, Linux support for all hardware, coreboot and 10+ hours of battery life for less than 300€/300$. It works well with Debian, requiring only minimum setup. The pre-installed SSD is quite small, but upgradeable.

Sub-models

All sub-models have the following configuration:

• CPU: Intel Celeron 3205U (Broadwell) Dual-core 1.50 GHz
• Screen: 11.6" (1366 x 768) 16:9

• WiFi: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

• Bluetooth: Intel 7260 Bluetooth
• GPU: Intel HD Graphics Broadwell GT1

• SSD: 22mm x 42mm M.2 SSD (user upgradeable)

Overall Status

Legend :
= OK ; Unsupported(No Driver) ; = Error (Couldn't get it working); [?] Unknown, Not Tested ; [-] Not-applicable
= Configuration Required; = Only works with a non-free driver and or firmware

Important Note

Before Debian can be installed, the legacy boot payload (SeaBIOS) needs to be updated and firmware boot options need to be changed

1. Disable the firmware write protect by removing the 13 screws on the bottom, then pry off the plastic cover (start at the back)
2. Remove the write protect screw (flat black screw close to the SSD)
3. Enable developer mode:
   1. Power on the device

   2. Press and hold Esc + F3 (Refresh) + Power to enter recovery mode

   3. Press Ctrl + D to enter developer mode, you will be asked to confirm and the system will be wiped

   4. Press Ctrl + D at the white boot splash to boot ChromeOS

   5. On the login-screen, enable wifi (select ssid and input password) or use another method to make sure, the system has internet access (e.g. use a usb ethernet adapter). The BIOS update procedure will need internet access.
4. Access the superuser shell:

   1. Once booted, press Ctrl + Alt + F2 (Forward)

   2. Login with username chronos (no password)

   3. Type sudo bash

5. Use the firmware-util.sh script from Matt DeVillier: https://github.com/MattDevo/scripts.

   1. In the menu, select "Update Legacy Boot Payload"
   2. Then select "Set Firmware Boot Options"
6. Power off the machine, optionally install a new SSD

7. Attach a USB stick prepared with the DebianInstaller (if you plan to install via WiFi, use an appropriate netinst image, e.g. the netinst jessie 8.1 non-free CD images with firmware). You may prefer the i386 flavour which will save some space on the limited ssd.

8. Power on the machine and press Esc at the SeaBIOS prompt and select the USB stick

9. When you select Install at the DebianInstaller menu, you will most likely get an error message: Undefined video mode number: 314

   1. Press enter

   2. Type 7 to select the VESA mode and press enter

10. Install as usual

Configuration

Display

Intel HD Graphics Broadwell GT1 using the i915 kernel driver

GRUB will fail to setup a graphical terminal, so edit /etc/default/grub and uncomment the GRUB_TERMINAL=console line then run update-grub. If you want a graphical grub screen, put "GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=gfxterm" and "GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768x16" into /etc/default/grub and run update-grub.

You will not see any boot output from the kernel until the i915 module is loaded, so to make sure it is loaded as soon as possible, add the line i915 to /etc/initramfs-tools/modules then run update-initramfs -u

Audio

The audio is covered by the snd_hda_intel module, the specific model is alc283-dac-wcaps, no additional configuration is necessary.

Mouse

The touchpad works perfectly out of the box.

Power Management

Suspend works out of the box.

If you want to lower the power usage, run powertop and look at it's recommendations.

Do not enable the SATA link power management, everything will seem normal at first and later you will get read/write errors which often end up with the kernel remounting the root filesystem as read-only.

WiFi

Works out of the box assuming the firmware-iwlwifi package is installed.

Keyboard

The keyboard has no "page up", "page down" and "delete" key.

Keyboard Hotkeys

The keyboard top row hotkeys (Back, Forward, etc) generate F1 to F10 key events.

Most can be mapped to generate appropriate actions using the Gnome keyboard settings in the control panel.

If you want to map the brightness up/down, one way is to install the xdotool package and to create custom mappings in the Gnome control panel to xdotool key XF86MonBrightnessDown and xdotool key XF86MonBrightnessUp.

System Summary

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Host Bridge -OPI [8086:1604] (rev 08)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Integrated Graphics [8086:1606] (rev 08)
00:03.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Audio Controller [8086:160c] (rev 08)
00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP USB xHCI Controller [8086:9cb1] (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio Controller [8086:9ca0] (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #1 [8086:9c90] (rev e3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP LPC Controller [8086:9cc5] (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI Mode] [8086:9c83] (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation Wildcat Point-LP Thermal Management Controller [8086:9ca4] (rev 03)
01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 [8086:08b1] (rev cb)

lsusb

lsusb -v | grep -E '\<(Bus|iProduct|bDeviceClass|bDeviceProtocol)' 2>/dev/null

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 8087:07dc Intel Corp. 
  bDeviceClass          224 Wireless
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Bluetooth
  iProduct                0 
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:57cf Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 
  bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association
  iProduct                1 HD WebCam
      (Bus Powered)
  bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association
  (Bus Powered)

USB Host controllers entries (without OHCI, UHCI, EHCI) are removed too.

Resources

Useful Links

• https://github.com/MattDevo/scripts

• https://github.com/hugegreenbug/distro-mods/tree/master/acer_c740/common

• https://launchpad.net/~hugegreenbug/+archive/ubuntu/cmt

Credits

• Matt DeVillier

• Hugh Greenberg

• DavidHärdeman (who wrote the initial version of this page)

CategoryLaptopComputer