Suggestions for efficient development setup for Google Chromebooks

[Paul Menzel]

Dear coreboot folks,

Do you have any suggestions on how to get an efficient development
setup for Google Chromebooks, which I’d describe as laptops with
soldered flash ROM chip. In my case, it’s a Medion AKOYA S2013
(google/veyron_jaq), and an Acer Chromebook R 13 (google/elm).

I have access to a BeagleBone Black, a compatible clip and a Dediprog
EM100-Pro. As the flash ROM chip is not soldered, I guess only the
first two are of interest, as the chip is soldered and I am unable to
remove the chip, and solder a socket on it.

I ask, because maybe I miss some unknown “feature” of the Google
Chromebooks, or there could be an emulator, like AMD SimNow, or
something similar.

Thanks,

Paul

[Julius Werner]

The only special thing about Chromebooks is that they have a
standardized debug header, specified here:
https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/servo

The header is not populated on consumer devices, but the footprint
should still be there so you can solder it yourself. You can also just
solder to the UART pins directly which are probably the most
interesting ones to you. There are SPI lines on it too and it's even
possible to hook up an EM100 over it, although I'm not 100% sure of
the details for that (I usually find that the ROM itself flashes fast
enough so I don't need an emulator).

Feel free to ask if you have any questions about how coreboot works on
your Jaq or Elm, happy to help!

On Sun, Oct 1, 2017 at 11:31 PM, Paul Menzel
 wrote:
> Dear coreboot folks,
>
> Do you have any suggestions on how to get an efficient development
> setup for Google Chromebooks, which I’d describe as laptops with
> soldered flash ROM chip. In my case, it’s a Medion AKOYA S2013
> (google/veyron_jaq), and an Acer Chromebook R 13 (google/elm).
>
> I have access to a BeagleBone Black, a compatible clip and a Dediprog
> EM100-Pro. As the flash ROM chip is not soldered, I guess only the
> first two are of interest, as the chip is soldered and I am unable to
> remove the chip, and solder a socket on it.
>
> I ask, because maybe I miss some unknown “feature” of the Google
> Chromebooks, or there could be an emulator, like AMD SimNow, or
> something similar.
>
> Thanks,
> Paul
>
> coreboot mailing list: [e-mail]
> https://mail.coreboot.org/mailman/listinfo/coreboot