Guides

Part 1 got Arch Linux ARM booting on the C101PA with a mainline kernel, Sway, and working audio and backlight. This post is everything that came after: turning a proof-of-concept install into a small laptop I actually reach for — a modern shell, real applications (including ones that officially don’t exist for this platform), compressed swap, an encrypted home directory, and the hardware quirks that only show up once you use the machine every day. ...

The ASUS Chromebook Flip C101PA is a cheap, quiet, fanless ARM laptop that has been end-of-life on ChromeOS for years. It is still a perfectly good machine for browsing, writing, and light development — and it makes an excellent secondary Linux laptop if you are willing to install Arch Linux ARM on a microSD card. The official Arch Linux ARM guide is the starting point, but as of now it no longer works as written. The published rootfs ships the ancient 4.4 ChromeOS kernel, and current Arch userland (systemd) refuses to run on it — first boot fails with Failed to mount early API filesystems / Freezing execution. This guide bakes in the fix: replace the kernel and firmware with mainline before the first boot. ...