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Clarifications on recommended ChromeOS recovery images #359

@sebanc

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@sebanc

Some might wonder why "rammus" and "samus" recovery images are recommended for Intel CPU despite a large choice (for AMD there is only "grunt", so it is simpler), this is a quick explanation.

First, there is no reason to think my device is similar to this Chromebook so I should use this recovery image. Globally ChromeOS recovery images are all very similar aside from the kernel, modules, firmwares and userspace config files. All those elements are replaced by brunch when rebuilding the rootfs, so there is no reason to think that way.

Things to take into account when choosing a recovery image:

  • Supported CPUs,
  • TPM needs to be 2.0 (there are ownership issues with TPM 1.2: no direct access to chrome://flags and changing channels),
  • Android apps and Crostini support,
  • Compatible usb camera framework (no ipu3 camera).

Globally "rammus" is recent and has the widest CPUs support (Intel Gen >= 4 + Atom/Pentium CPU) which is why it is recommended. However, it currently has camera issues with some devices, if you are in that case, "reef" has an older but more compatible usb camera framework and should work the same.
Note: eve, nami, hatch... have the same features than rammus but are compatible with significantly less CPU (they only work with Intel Gen >= 4 but excluding Atom/Pentium CPUs).

For devices with Intel Gen <= 3, the choice of recovery images with both android apps and crostini support is much more limited, there is only samus and lulu (from r83) as far as I know. However, both are TPM 1.2 and suffer from the ownership issues.

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