[ale] hacking the Acer chromebook 13

[Jim Kinney]

no delete key, backspace only

Power button is above top right of keyboard.
F-keys are also gone but ctl-alt-[->] is ctl-alt-F2 (second key left of
ESC).

On Fri, Nov 7, 2014 at 3:11 PM, JD <jdp at algoloma.com> wrote:

> I have only 2 questions.
>
>             Does it have a DELETE key and where is the power key?
>
>
>
>
> On 11/07/2014 12:26 PM, Jim Kinney wrote:
> > Got one of these beasties. It has the NVidia Tegra K1 cpu with 192 cuda
> cores
> > and quad 64-bit arm cpu, amazing power efficiency and a 1080p 13" screen
> that's
> > rather decent for less than $400.
> >
> > Now for the challenge, get a non-chromeOS Linux distro to run on this
> thing.
> >
> > Not that the shipping chromeos is bad. It's not. OK. It's actually
> pretty nice
> > for what it does.
> >
> > BUT...
> >
> > It has no VPN support for the SSL thing used at work. It does support
> IPSEC and
> > OpenVPN but not the F5 Big IP thing.
> >
> > The chrome browser dropped support for mozilla plugin api so the spice
> client
> > browser plugin is now DOA.
> >
> > Yeah. The two things I was specifically planning to use - vpn from
> anywhere to
> > get to work-based VM over a spice connection for a near live-feel full
> desktop
> > environment.
> >
> > bummer
> >
> > The system has a TPM that will block running a non-google signed kernel
> unless
> > it's in developer mode. Easy enough to get into (and a nice security
> feature is
> > going into developer mode from trusted mode wipes all user data out - no
> > password leakage - and the user space is all encrypted anyway). Entering
> dev
> > mode effectively turns off the TPM.
> >
> > The recover image installs onto a USB thumb drive and uses some very
> strange
> > partitioning:
> > GPT with a EUFI support partition plus another 11 partitions!
> > parted reports errors in the formatting of the thing but the unit is
> happy with it.
> > The process uses a partition called KERN-A and ROOT-A, KERN-B and ROOT-B
> for
> > supporting a current version of kernel and filesystem plus a backup or
> newly
> > upgraded version.
> >
> > The system supports 3 pairings of this so there's room for a different
> > filesystem. I've seen some notes on using those extra partitions (on the
> SSD,
> > not on the thumb drive recovery device) to allow dual booting in other
> hardware
> > (older chromebooks). Ubuntu 14.10 and Fedora 21 have support for the
> Tegra K1 on
> > the Jetson board (kernel 3.10+). That's a development board that's
> pretty much
> > the same thing as the Acer mainboard except the Acer has no serial port.
> :-( and
> > uses soldered-on SSD and RAM.
> >
> > I need to be able to extract the weird setting from the recovery image
> > partitioning so I can recreate them with new data bits. And this is
> where I get
> > to learn more stuff.
> >
> > Note: I intend to keep the google kernel (maybe) as it has good hardware
> support
> > for the system but use my own filesystem tree so I can add firefox and
> toys for
> > other needs. I have a 32 GB SSD (and 4GB DDR3 RAM :-) so space is not to
> shabby.
> >
> > Ideas are welcome for reading partition data. I'll post what I see from
> this later.
> >
> > --
> > --
>



-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III

Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain
at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail.
It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain


*http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
<http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/>*
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