So it seems that Nirav has confirmed details on y-combinator.
The chromebook edition runs coreboot instead of the insyde BIOS, has no fingerprint sensor, the top cover is made with the older formed-aluminum method, and there is a new speaker system.
Searching more through the y-combinator thread, he also confirms details about upgrading a current Framework to the chromebook (particularly that there seems to be a different webcam needed for the chromebook mainboard)
However, the chromebook keyboard is compatible with the standard mainboards, which means that the standard keyboards may be compatible with the chrome board?
That’s all the details I could find, but I think it would be nice if Framework could work on pooling all this info together and making a post on this forum for all the people who want to know these details. It would make a lot of people happy to have all this info clearly laid out instead of having to hunt through a separate forum’s post.
Yep, we’ll be writing up some Knowledge Base content with more detail on this. It requires some detail, because there are basically two levels of compatibility:
Compatibility that is thoroughly tested and validated for full functionality.
Things that connect together that happen to work, but may or may not work well or do the thing you want them to do.
As a concrete example of this, purely physically and electrically, you can take a current 12th Gen Intel Core-based Framework Laptop and swap just the Mainboard for a Chromebook Edition Mainboard, but:
The webcam and touchpad firmwares for ChromeOS are different, so they may or may not enumerate or work correctly.
ChromeOS has a specific compatibility list for SSDs that doesn’t currently include the SN750, SN770, or SN850 drives we sell on the Marketplace, but does include SN730. In practice, the other drives will probably work anyway, but neither we nor Google will promise that.
The keyboard is going to be confusing, because the function keys and some of the meta keys are different on Chromebooks.
WiFi probably won’t work if you have an AX210.
The speakers won’t be the same ones as what comes on the Chromebook Edition, though will otherwise work fine.
The Top Cover will be the CNC one instead of the original 11th Gen-style formed one that Chromebook Edition comes with.
The Fingerprint Reader won’t work, and will only act as a power button.
Each one of those things are items that can be resolved by picking up the relevant Chromebook Edition module from the Marketplace.
Glad to see you’ll be clarifying things. I totally understand that there are lots of complicated differences between the two, so hopefully everyone is able to be patient for the full compatibility list on the Knowledge Base! Thanks for working hard to answer everyone’s questions and keeping up the transparency in communication.
Aren’t Chromebooks most popular with students, who are notoriously rough on their computers? Maybe the bottom cover should be CNC milled as well to improve the ruggedness.
Is it possible to replace the regular mainboard of framework laptop with a framework chromebook mainboard and keep everything else the same?
I am asking because I desire coreboot which chromebook has and intel me disabled same thing. And I would want to run legacy, meaning run linux off of it.
This being said, I don’t know how difficult it is to activate developer mode and then relax settings for that to work.
I have installed text mode linux distros before in case you are curious how much I know about linux, etc…
Also install third party android on a phone before.
Unfortunately, the chromebook mainboard also requires a few other parts to be replaced for compatibility. I believe it’s just the webcam module and the touchpad, but be aware that you will also not be able to use the fingerprint reader, as the chromebook version also has a power button with no fingerprint reader. There is also a specific chromebook keyboard, which I believe has been proven to not be necessary, but you won’t have the chromeos specific functions that that keyboard has.
Would it be good for what I wanted it for though? and if not, which parts would I need to buy separately to move to the new format.
Btw, fingeprint reader, touchpad and webcam are stuff I don’t use primarily anyways. I detest webcam and microphones but also touchpads are in between the annoyance of webcam and microphone.
I myself prefer trackpoint or if not, a mouse.
But yeah, would it be good for my purposes is a question I need answered.
looks like getting linux onto the Framework chromebook is indeed possible
I have not personally done this nor do I own the Framework Chromebook, so someone else will have to respond to the feasibility of it.
that said, if you don’t need any of the hardware on the webcam module (webcam, mic, ambient light sensor, etc) or the use of a trackpad or fingerprint reader, then yeah, all the other components are exactly the same, and you can just swap the mainboards no problem.
the chromebook mainboard does indeed use coreboot, though I don’t know if they also disable intel me.
Also to answer your last question, Framework is an American company, headquartered in San Francisco
@zapdust , as someone who recently used MrChromebox’s guide to wiping a Framework Chromebook and installing Linux - why wouldn’t you just install Linux on the board you have?
In that article I discuss the steps I took to convert my Chromebook board to Ubuntu, but it’s not without annoyances or inconvenience.
To me, it just seems unnecessarily complicated to buy a new main board just to wipe it and struggle with the small annoyances I’m going through I started with a Framework Chromebook, but I’d would’ve rather had a standard Framework configuration and installed Linux myself.
Actually a question occurs to me, do both framework laptops allow adding whatever wifi card you want? I ask because sometimes the bios has a whitelist lockdown function. I assume framework is lax about this, but I felt I should ask.
Also wondering, if I can ask for boot guard and intel me to be disabled on ordering a device. I know coreboot isn’t an option yet though.
I assume that is true until they hire someone trustworthy to do that procedure, due to them not wanting to screw things up and cause problems for their customer.
Those are different for compatibility with ChromeOS. However @zapdust plans to install Linux instead. Afaik it’s unknown if it will work, but I suspect it probably will (especially since the webcam is just a USB webcam and the fingerprint reader is just a USB fingerprint reader).
There is no whitelist but certain cards just don’t work. Not really frameworks fault, the be200 causing the amd board to not post is somewhere between amd and intels fault. And the intel cards with their proprietary interface not working on amd is obviously also not frameworks fault.
this is a good point that I didn’t think about. I assumed that the incompatibilities had to do with the BIOS and T2 security chip, didn’t even think they’d be software limitations!
As I wondered… maybe I will just buy DIY for now as cheap as possible and get an upgrade when corebooted and/or intel me disabled becomes an option. Pondering… but I don’t know when it will arrive or if anyone has uploaded DIY guide for this, meaning doing the framework laptop building
Phoenix is apparently getting opensil so coreboot on the amd board could eventually happen relatively easily. Without opensil it’s a lot harder but still possible.
Posting from my FW13 Chromebook. I updated to newest, checked everything, shut down. Removed top cover, disconnected battery, removed stock AX210, installed BE200, reconnected everything, booted up. No problems booting (which my AMD 13 would not do), and it sees the PCI device, but ChromeOS itself does not have any drivers for the BE200. Might work later, maybe much later, but there would have to be an official Chromebook model with BE200 first.
I started with a Framework Chromebook, but I’d would’ve rather had a standard Framework configuration and installed Linux myself.