Developer Gets OpenSUSE Running On $249 Google Chromebook 81
sfcrazy writes "Andrew Wafaa, an ARM developer who is responsible for porting openSUSE to ARM, just got his hands on the Chromebook, and he managed to run openSUSE on it." Hopefully that means other distros can be soon ported to the Chromebook as well.
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
I think adding either of those to anything is like multiplying by zero
Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)
Why not Debian? (Score:1)
Re:Why not Debian? (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess the feat is not to redo some porting of code to arm, which debian has done, but to configure the system/add drivers to support the chromebook.
IMHO if chromebook wants to sell more than a tablet it must work as a real laptop, and a linux distro is at the moment the only way to have a complete personal computing experience on arm.
Re: (Score:1)
Google is explicitly selling the Chromebook as being different from a "real laptop". Why would they suddenly change that just because you want a cheap Linux machine?
Re:Why not Debian? (Score:5, Interesting)
IMHO if chromebook wants to sell more than a tablet it must work as a real laptop, and a linux distro is at the moment the only way to have a complete personal computing experience on arm.
this is only really going to happen when ARM SoC vendors get out of the "vertical market" mentality, and stop trying to control everything. this is a really in-depth topic so i'll describe it briefly (yes, briefly - despite appearances)
the problem is that ARM SoCs have typically come from the "embedded" space, as "appliances", where android is now also considered to be an "appliance". what that means is that typically a device is designed by the SoC vendor themselves (a "reference design"), the software is written by the SoC vendor themselves, and the whole package sold, usually as a GPL-violating product, to factories who do NOT have ANY software expertise AT ALL.
these factories receive a set of instructions:
1) make PCB
2) assemble PCB in case
3) insert "boot sd/mmc card" to flash OS onto device
4) pack in box
5) sell box.
the chromebook is absolutely *no* exception to this.
what we're doing with the Rhombus Tech initiative, through the EOMA-68 hardware specification, is drawing a line in the sand, where the CPU is now on a Credit-Card-sized "module" along with the RAM and NAND Flash, but that's only half the story. because the CPU Cards can go into literally *any* EOMA-68-compliant mass-volume device, the CPU *has* to be considered to be "General Purpose". every CPU *has* to be "open" (or, alternatively, the burden is on the proprietary software vendor (e.g. apple or microsoft) or on the GPL-violating vendor to support literally every possible combination of devices that could possibly be out there or imagined).
so we're turning things around: turning SoCs back towards where they ought to be (and are already in the x86 world): general-purpose processors that can run any OS.
Re: (Score:2)
While I dig the principle behind it, lacking the space/ability to run external cooling, adequate power, or backwards-compatible high speed IO, it seems more like a solution in search of a problem than a truly beneficial design, at least from the consumer perspective.
the EOMA-68 specification includes backwards-compatibility through the three key buses: USB3 (which can do all the way back to USB1.1), SATA-III (which can do all the way down to 150mbit/s if you really get stuck), and Gigabit Ethernet (which can do 10 as well as 100). all of these are through auto-negotiation.
the reason for specifying a 3.5 watt limit is precisely *because* this is a mass-volume standard. in mass-volume products you simply do *not* put in moving parts like fans. the margins are too ti
Re:Why not Debian? (Score:5, Interesting)
The point of the Chromebook is not to sell hardware. The point of the Chromebook is to sell the Google model of doing everything on the cloud. Selling cheap systems running a "real laptop" OS is an unprofitable low-margin business that's of no interest even to hardware companies, never mind a services company like Google.
Hackers are hacking Chromebooks because they're hackers. The commercial viability of the combination is nil.
Re: (Score:2)
Afacit google's goal isn't necessarily to offer a "complete computing experience" it is to offer tools that encourage people to use their services. While they don't seem to mind letting (and sometimes even helping) us techies re-purpose their kit to run things that aren't associated with google services it's not the primary goal of the devices.
Re: (Score:1)
I guess the feat is not to redo some porting of code to arm, which debian has done, but to configure the system/add drivers to support the chromebook.
IMHO if chromebook wants to sell more than a tablet it must work as a real laptop, and a linux distro is at the moment the only way to have a complete personal computing experience on arm.
Google is selling Chromebook as their advertising platform... You might also get vendor lock in. You can't use the Gmail interface without using Gmail itself. Although you can indeed use Gmail via IMAP+SMTP.
Re: (Score:1)
Yes - please give credit to where credit is due.
Debian ARM port [debian.org]
Re: (Score:2)
RISC-OS was a nice OS for it's day but while it's quick afaict it is still a cooperative multitasker allowing any one process to lock things up. There is also the issue that running older software requires a third party emulation layer which is only available for a handful of devices (and costs money for some of them).
Re: (Score:2)
So, once Chromium OS runs on the Chromebook, there's no reason for any other Linux-based OS to run on it.
Re: (Score:2)
Why not NetBSD? Oh, wait. It probably already does.
Re: (Score:3)
Maybe he just prefers SuSE?
Several years ago, I ported SuSE onto my PowerPC iBook G3 because I liked it and it was the distro I ran on my main desktop machine.
("porting" in this case mostly meant bootstrapping a build environment and working around a few bugs. The source RPMs already had PPC build targets.)
Ubuntu, too. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ubuntu, too. (Score:4, Interesting)
Yup. This is what I had a mind to do, but the stupid GPU driver situation on ARM makes life more than a little painful.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Ubuntu, too. (Score:4, Interesting)
Sorry but chromeOS led me directly to the idea of a real emacsOS when I read your comment.
Re: (Score:2)
At least in Debian it's only for amd64 i386 kfreebsd-amd64 powerpc
Why haven't OEMs caught on? (Score:4, Interesting)
This is a great idea - a lightweight, attractive, inexpensive ARM-powered notebook running GNU/Linux. But, I wonder why Samsung and others haven't bothered to "officially" offer it? I think a system like this, running KDE, could be very appealing to a present Windows 7 user, versus switching to a higher-priced system running Windows 8 and its unfamiliar "Modern" interface.
Re: (Score:2)
Wait until you see KDE running on it first, i bet it will be dismal and defeat the whole purpose and turn people off of 'alternatives' permanently.
To the average guy, percieved speed is more important than openness, or even cost.
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re: (Score:1)
The question is not why Google didn't do it. The question is, why haven't Samsung and other hardware considered it on their own, since we now see that it might be possible?
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Because it's an even more niche product than a Chromebook that have so far sold extremely poorly.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
> Why aren't they selling OSX machines, as well?
They would be sued by Apple for software piracy.
Re:Why haven't OEMs caught on? (Score:4, Insightful)
Good thing he didn't say Google but Samsung and others.
Re:Why haven't OEMs caught on? (Score:4, Funny)
Because no one but nerds actually want a Chromebopk.
I'd like any kind of bopk
Re: (Score:3)
Because there's no software vendor that is both willing and able to put the money into polishing, marketing, and supporting a "GNU/Linux" style operating system the way Microsoft is doing with Windows 8/RT or Google is with Android/ChromeOS, and hardware vendors want to stick to their core competency rather than trying to soft
Re: (Score:2)
I can already get a laptop with Win7 for $249; I'm sure that soon I'll be able to get one with Win8. So for a present Win7 user, I don't see this as very appealing since their software won't run on it...
You might change your mind when you've tried Win8
Re: (Score:2)
You realize the chromebook is made by samsung? The only difference is that they installed chromeOS and not debian.
News??? (Score:5, Funny)
Keep those quality stories coming Timothy.
Re:News??? (Score:5, Funny)
This is what it takes to get in the news? (Score:5, Insightful)
Step 1. Buy a Chromebook
Step 2. Use ChromeOS for half a day.
Step 3. Follows instructions you got from SOMEONE ELSE (a Google-employed developer, at that) on how to load openSUSE onto a Chromebook.
Step 4. Enjoy being on slashdot front page getting credit for what someone else told you how to do.
Geez.
Re: (Score:1)
I bet your the type of person who makes outlandish claims like "Coloring a color by numbers pictures is not art worthy of hanging in the Met".
Re: (Score:1)
Geez.
Re:Impressive. (Score:5, Insightful)
Try installing Windows XP on your Window RT device.
Re: (Score:2)
I think that was his point. It wont be so common place with upcoming hardware, so this may be one of the last 'modern' devices.
( no, we arent there yet, it was just his prediction as we are going that way.. slowly... )
Re: (Score:2)
an Linux is the outlier is my point.
Ran it on my $189 eeePc 3 years ago (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
Ran it on my $189 eeePc 3 years ago
Geez.. do you have a time machine??
Re: (Score:2)
Geez.. do you have a time machine??
Nope - believe it or not, there was such a thing as openSUSE three years ago. Didn't need a time machine.
Re:Shocking! (Score:5, Informative)
No, the Chromebook lets you turn it off. Unlike Windows ARM tablets.
Man this place is full of Microsoft shills these days.
citation required (Score:1)
"...exact same UEFI secure boot..."
Not really the same at all. And many other ARM Chromebooks are using u-boot, not UEFI.
citation required -- yourself. (Score:2)
There are only 2 models of ARM Chromebook, both from Samsung, and they differ only in the presence of 3G on the more expensive one, while the less-expensive one is WiFi-only. There are a few models of x86 Chromebooks that have been on the market (though, IIRC, only the Samsung Series 5 550 is still in production.)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Breaking News (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Joking aside, how sad is it that it is now newsworthy that someone was able to successfully install an operating system of their choice onto a device that they own?
I weep for the future.
Great work (Score:2)
With a decent Linux distro on it, this certainly becomes more interesting. Now give it a non-glare screen and longer battery life and I'll buy it. :-)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The photo shows a text console. if that's all it will do, it's worthless.
?! Computers where worthless before the Xerox star [wikipedia.org]?
Re: (Score:1)
Nice! (Score:3)
Suddenly I care about the Chromebook!