Aurora

A tool similar to Ventoy for ChromeOS RMA shims and recovery images based on Alpine Linux

What works? What doesn't?

Recovery ✅
Payloads menu ✅
Booting other shims ✅
Wifi ✅
Synaptic ❌

Priorities

1. Wifi on all possible ARM boards
2. general improvement
3. aurora 2.0
4. docs

Building

Dependencies

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -Sy wget curl gptfdisk rsync binwalk e2fsprogs && yay -S vboot-utils

Debian:

sudo apt install wget curl bash e2fsprogs gdisk cgpt rsync

Alpine:

apk add curl wget bash e2fsprogs gptfdisk sgdisk cgpt rsync

Building

git clone --recursive https://github.com/AerialiteLabs/Aurora.git
cd Aurora

Run the following command with a raw shim and the architecture of the Chromebook you have.

sudo bash Aurora /path/to/shim.bin

Alternatively, you can automatically download a nanoshim and build it with the following command:

sudo bash Aurora <board> --auto

If you don't want to build a shim yourself (or aren't able to), prebuilts are available on the download server.

Flashing

Linux/FreeBSD:

Assuming you're still in the Aurora/ directory and have just built it:

First, run lsblk and look for the USB's identifier (the letter after sd); replace "X" with it.

sudo dd if=<board>-aurora.bin of=/dev/sdX bs=1M status=progress

Otherwise, do if=/path/to/<board>-aurora.bin if you aren't working in the same directory as the prebuilt.

Replace sudo with your privilege-escalation tool of choice.

Windows:

Download Rufus, select your USB, select board-aurora.bin (download from prebuilts, or try to build with WSL).

macOS:

Download Balena Etcher, select your USB, select board-aurora.bin.

ChromeOS (personal/unenrolled device)

Download a prebuilt, get the Chromebook Recovery Utility. Start CRU and click the gear icon in the top right, press "use local image" and navigate to the prebuilt. Select your USB, and let it do its thing.

Booting

After flashing, do the normal steps to boot sh1mmer, then plug it into your Chromebook. It will automatically extend the rootfs to fill the rest of the drive. On future boots, if you're connected to the Internet, it will automatically update itself. You can then either download recovery images or shims in Aurora itself, or put them on Aurora by mounting the 4th partition of the device on another Linux/ChromeOS machine and copying them into the relevant directory inside /usr/share/aurora/images on the mounted drive (there's images/recovery, images/shims, and images/gurt [yo]).

Booting Other Shims

• Here's a list of shims that we've tested and they work:
  1. SH1MMER (contains cryptosmite, icarus, and br0ker)
  2. KVS
  3. Aurora (great scott!)
• Here's a list of shims we're gonna make work and test:
  1. Shimboot (properly)
  2. Any future shims that are made

Uploading Files via another computer

1. Use AFT on page 2 (recommended)
2. Use a Linux computer with ROOT ACCESS
   
   ChromeOS Files will NOT WORK! Use VT2 or Crostini USB passthrough if you only have a Chromebook.

Credits

• Sophia - Lead developer of Aurora, Got Wifi
• Mariah Carey - Bugfixing and bugtesting, mostly the latter
• xmb9 - [PRIISM] Made Priism, Giving Aurora the ability to Boot Shims & Use Reco Images
• EpicDevices - Inspired the wifidevice variable and also is very epic
• Synaptic - Emotional Support
• kraeb - [IRS] QoL improvements and initial idea
• Alva - [IRS] Brainstormed how to do wifi, helped with determining wireless interface
• kxtz - Misc. README changes
• Evie - Literally nothing