Arch Linux

knotic

Member

Registered: 2015-12-03

Posts: 7

Acer Chromebook R 11: Dead keyboard

Hi!

I'm trying to install Arch on the Acer Chromebook R 11 (Model CB5-132T) and I can't get the keyboard to work.

Booting the installer with John Lewis' RW_LEGACY BIOS works (https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook- … -download/), however the internal keyboard does not work at the login prompt. Plugging in an external USB-keyboard works.

I tried some kernel parameters like "i8042.dumbkbd=1" and this seems to resolve some issues (with this I at least get the "AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as ..." line in dmesg, which is part of the puzzle, I think), but the keyboard is still dead.

Here is the output of "journalctl -b", extra kernel parameters are "apic=debug debug i8042.nopnp=1 i8042.dumbkbd=1":
http://pastebin.com/raw/HU36Auhp

If someone has the expertise to spot something in there, which could help pinpoint the problem, I would be very grateful.

Thanks!

Last edited by knotic (2016-06-16 16:44:25)

alaskanarcher

Member

Registered: 2016-04-30

Posts: 50

Re: Acer Chromebook R 11: Dead keyboard

I too have no use of my keyboard on my Acer Chromebook 14, CB3-431. External USB keyboard works.

EDIT:

Following up on this post. The keyboard issue was due to missing support for Braswell SOCs. Since around kernel 4.2 Arch Linux is now using the correct kernel build parameter: CONFIG_PINCTRL_CHERRYVIEW=y so the internal keyboard now works.

I also recommend using Mr. Chromebox's firmware scripts over John Lewis' for newer Chromebooks. It appears that Matt Devo (AKA Mr. Chromebox) has been putting more time into supporting his fw than John Lewis seems to have recently.

Last edited by alaskanarcher (2016-12-07 12:12:12)