Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I have an old chromebook and am trying to run Fossapup 9.5 from a usb stick. All seems good, it boots to a desktop, the touchpad works and the buttons, I can select programs and options by clicking. Quickstart runs. In fact everything I have tried to run seems to work, except that the keyboard does not work, which means that I cannot enter any characters. The machine is an Acer C738 chromebook that has had the BIOS replaced/modified (not by me) to run Ubuntu 22.04, which does run fine, complete with keyboard input. Ubuntu is installed and running from the emmc drive. There is no chromeos. Fossapup is on a usb stick and I can get to the bios and select boot from the usb and all looks great, except for the keyboard issue. It doesn't help to save and create a savefile and restart. I didn't find anything in the list of manually added drivers that seemed promising. In fact, I made it fail to boot by trying to add a chromebook driver ;-( Thank you for any assistance.

Ubuntu is probably not using a chromeos driver under a kernel compiled for chromeos; but rather a driver compiled for the kernel used by Ubuntu. Does Ubuntu provide applications which will enable you to find out what kernels and drivers it is using?

Drivers are kernel-specific, but I don't think --guessing, untested-- so specific that a mere point change renders them unusable: point change 5.19.05 >5.19.17.

In short it may be possible to swap to a Puppy 'huge' kernel --including drivers--nearly identical to that used by Ubuntu. And if the required driver is not included in that huge kernel, compile it or flinch both driver and firmware from Ubuntu.

Yah. I know. Lots of assumptions and guess-work. But not being able to type under Fossapup means you can't use Puppys applications to find out what's missing, nor examine what kernel Ubuntu uses nor which of the files in Ubuntu's driver and firmware folders are actually used.

mikeslr wrote: Tue Dec 20, 2022 2:40 pm

But not being able to type under Fossapup means you can't use Puppys applications to find out what's missing, nor examine what kernel Ubuntu uses nor which of the files in Ubuntu's driver and firmware folders are actually used.

Seems like part of the process of fixing fossapup to use the chromebook keyboard might be pluggin in a USB keyboard to do the kernel work. Bottom of the line logitech is a about 20 bucks and comes with a dongle and mouse. Its actually one of my favorite keyboards.

https://www.newegg.com/logitech-mk120-9 ... nd%20mouse

@playdayz

Try swapping kernels to this one:
https://archive.org/download/Puppy_Linu ... oz.tar.bz2

Good Chromebook info here:
viewtopic.php?t=431&hilit=acer

wizard

@wizard Hi wizard, thanks, I will. I did try huge kernel 5.4.53, I'm pretty sure, it was the fossapup kernel in the huge kernel directory. I used change-kernel and everything seemed great. But oddly when I booted, not only did the keyboard still not work but now the touchpad didn't work either. That puzzled me. So I went to s15 pup and everything was beautiful.

This Chromebook is not really a Chromebook anymore. It was prepped by a guy on ebay who was modifying the bios and then loading Ubuntu or Kali or maybe mint and selling them for $60. With the s15 pup it is a really nice little machine. Of course it's puppy so it's nice and brisk. It is an Acer c738t.

All Puppy versions will work, but not on all possible computers.

That is why there are several Puppy versions.

The keyboard is usually one of the things that always works.

I have Fossapup64 9.5 booting and running OK on a HP ChromeBook.
Everything works.

I was going to suggest trying to change the keyboard settings in the mouse/keyboard wizard->Advanced configuration -> Keyboard Model

Actually, really strange things can sometimes be fixed, by doing a completely new download of the Puppy ISO, delete the old install, and do a new one, using the new ISO.

@playdayz - Welcome. Are you the original playdayz, creator of Lucid pup many years ago?

@mikeslr
Haha, i finally figured out i could use the xvkbd virtual keyboard
@wizard
Bingo 5.4.27-ubuntu64oz
@bigpup
i dig my little chromepuppy; all working in Fossapup 9.5 now and S15Pup
@ozsouth
Yes and that's your kernel that solved my problem i bet

Thanks all

@playdayz - Welcome BACK! Glad that kernel was useful to you. I mostly use a newish Chromebook (with Linux Crostini) these days.