Google Kahlee: The First AMD-Powered Chromebook

[AndyChow]

If it has the same "Enable dev mode > hold keys > wait x seconds" shit that all chromebooks i am aware of have is DOA for me.

Why don't you ctrl-d and don't wait?

Anyway, Chromebooks are all about battery life, so AMD is not really interesting, unless it's Zen. And since they removed native SSH, sure you have a plugin, but it's less attractive to me.

[AndyChow]

I don't know anything about this. What does it do and why is it bad?

It's just if you're booting something else. Ctrl-d boots from disk, ctrl-u from the usb or micro-card. It's really not an issue, and you don't have to wait. You need to enable developer mode to boot non-signed images. Otherwise, it's awesome out of the box, very secure, fast, the perfect laptop solution to be mobile.

[starshipeleven]

I don't know anything about this. What does it do and why is it bad?

That's the way of dualbooting used in their default Coreboot board firmware. The Chromebooks are handled like... well, an embedded device. So they don't really have provisions for multibooting, you are exploiting a recovery feature after you turned off firmware signature checks, and that's clunky.

https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7/rockchip/asus-chromebook-flip-c100p#installation

Note: After enabling developer mode, you will need to press Ctrl-D each time you boot, or wait 30 seconds to continue booting.

https://www.howtogeek.com/210817/how-to-enable-developer-mode-on-your-chromebook/

Although this shouldn't be a major issue if you can just reflash the thing with a normal Coreboot anyway (and you usually can).

https://mrchromebox.tech/#devices

https://www.coreboot.org/Chromebooks

[starshipeleven]

Ah, crap. You'd think that Google had enough weight to be able to get ES of Zen-based stuff for their Chromebooks.

I think it's a bit too soon to code-drop that, but this device shows that Google or OEMs making Chromebooks are still interested in AMD as this is based off a pretty newish chip.
Zen designs will start appearing in a year or so.

[franglais125]

AndyChow starshipeleven thanks for your answers!

[hajj_3]

Meh, you will probably be able to get a zen chromebook within the next 9 months, that will have way more performance and better battery life.

[Adarion]

Ah, crap. You'd think that Google had enough weight to be able to get ES of Zen-based stuff for their Chromebooks.

Well, that MAY still happen. But I guess
a) Ryzen was too fresh (and this one is already longer in planning)
b) they might want a slightly more matured tech
c) and that's the main point: RyZen at the moment is a pure CPU, but google will probably want an APU for a chromebook. Those are just usually more power efficient and also cheaper than a CPU+dGPU solution.

[Brane215]

I think it's a bit too soon to code-drop that, but this device shows that Google or OEMs making Chromebooks are still interested in AMD as this is based off a pretty newish chip.
Zen designs will start appearing in a year or so.

That might be reasonable for some other name. Not for Google. Engineering samples are flying around and NONE seem to ended at google.
Raven Ridge should be available THIS YEAR, which means ES chips existed LAST YEAR.

They are dragging their feet for an arch and a process that:

- should behave exceptionally well in notebooks
- should break many barriers with their MOBILE APU with HBM2

WTF?

[ResponseWriter]

The deal breaker for me is the lack of F keys on a Chromebook. There is only 11 usable keys in the top of the keyboard. Obviously, I talking about using a conventional distro in one of them.

Likewise. I came close to buying what looked like a great Chromebook (hoping to add some form of Linux) until I noticed that, and lack of SD slot on this particular model.

Now waiting to see what Raven Ridge has to offer in useful devices. Meanwhile, my netbook from 2009 lives on.

[chithanh]

There is one Chromebook which I was somewhat interested in, which is the HP Chromebook G1
It ticks all the boxes:

• 3200x1800 screen
• USB Type-C connector with USB Power Delivery and DisplayPort Alternate Mode
  • This means only 1 cable for port replication/power/video output! How cool is that?
• Less than 1.5 kg
• 8 GB RAM
• reasonable price (800€ here)

except sadly, it has an Intel CPU.

If something like that comes with AMD processor, then it is an instant buy for me. Most AMD laptops have low-resolution screens, >2 kg weight and/or lacking USB-C features.