Difference between revisions of "Chromebooks"
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Revision as of 22:12, 12 June 2013
Flashing your own Coreboot-version and Payload onto your device is do-able, but requires some hardware preperation.
Start
A good place to start is the Chromium site. They have guides howto set your Chromebook into developer-mode and disassembly guides for almost all Chormebooks.
Both things will be nessary, if you want to flash your own version of Coreboot onto your Chromebook (in-system). It is nessary to close a circuit on the motherboard via either a switch, jumper or srew to disable the write-protection of the spi chip. And to use the flashing tool flashrom in ChromeOs, you have to be in the developer-mode. If you already installed a Gnu/Linux-system or likely you can also use the flashrom from there (but then you would be in developer-mode anyway).
Note: The first three Chromebooks are not supported by coreboot at the moment, but flashrom should be working. Mario, Alex and ZGB are running Insyde H2C some UEFI. Snow has das U-Boot nativly installed, but a coreboot port is available. All the others come shipped with Coreboot.
| Release date | Manufacturer | Model | Project Code Name | Disassembly guide | Close cicuit via | Location for Jumper/Screw | SPI-Chip |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2012 | Samsung | Series 3 Chromebox | Stumpy | Jumper | between the Battery and Ram | ||
| May 2012 | Samsung Series 5 | 550 Chromebook | Lumpy | Jumper | between the Battery and Ram | ||
| October 2012 | Samsung | ARM Chromebook | Snow (aka Daisy) | Screw | next to usb3.0-port | ||
| November 2012 | Acer | C7 Chromebook | Parrot | Jumper | between CPU and Fan under plastic | ||
| January 2013 | Lenovo | Thinkpad X131e Chromebook | Stout | ? | |||
| February 2013 | HP | Pavilion 14 Chromebook | Butterfly | Switch | |||
| February 2013 | Chromebook Pixel | Link | Screw |
|
General Hardware Preperation
Use the disassembly guides to disassemble your Chromebook till you see the place were you can put on a jumper or screw in a bolt. Check the out the pictures in the disassembly guides to find the right spot. Either screw or plug on now. For example in Lumpy and Stumpy you have to put a jumper on place between the Battery and Ram next to the Keyboard-Connector. Now assemble again (follow the guide). Now you are ready to flash your own Coreboot-version onto your Chromebook.
Recovery/external programming
Ok, you fucked things up, but on the other hand this will give you the oppotunity to learn external chip-programming, so heads-up. First you will need to locate the SPI-Chip. If you done that you will need an external flashrom programmer (for example the open-hardware tool Bus Pirate). At the moment ask at the coreboot/flashrom mailing list for further details.
