I find myself with one spare Chromebook, and I figured I’d see what else I can do with it.
Possibly. Which model?
Question: Is it possible to put Linux on an x86 Chromebook?
Submitted 2 days ago by Powderhorn@beehaw.org to technology@beehaw.org
Comments
helix@feddit.org 2 days ago
pretty sure this is the Apollo Lake platform and it’s very annoying to get proper Linux to run there: issei.space/blog/linux-on-apollo-lake/
I would only recommend you do this when you have a good idea how GNU/Linux works and have a second device to use once you need to tinker with your Chromebook to fix the inevitable issues.
If this is your only system: don’t do it.
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 1 day ago
Yeah, I’m literally looking for a distro that I can slap Firefox on and nothing else. The battery life on my main system has gotten to the point that “atrocious” would be an improvement, and, well, my dad’s not going to be using the Chromebook I got him in 2021, seeing as how he’s dead. Much like my laptop battery.
rozodru@pie.andmc.ca 2 days ago
It’s possible, I’ve done it, but then I questioned myself as to why I did it.
If you’re someone who loves to tinker and just try to get something to work for the sake of getting it to work and as a hobby project like me, then yeah, have at it.
If you’re doing it to actually make it a viable and daily use pc…meh.
depending on the chromebook sometimes it’s just not worth the struggle. you have the limited storage space, you potentially have quirks if the chromebook is one of those that can also be flipped around and used as a tablet. I had one and getting the screen rotation to work was a nightmare. The one I got linux on all it could really do is use a terminal and surf the web/potentially stream stuff but that’s about it.
If you’re looking to do it Veronica Explains has a great video on peertube about how to do it which helped me alot.
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 1 day ago
I’d just be using it so that I don’t have to be plugged in all the damn time, as is needed with my daily driver.
samwise_gamgee@beehaw.org 2 days ago
I did this with a Lenovo N42-20. Worked really well, I got a usable Debian machine with Xfce and great battery life.
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 1 day ago
My whole goal is to just have a browsing machine. My main laptop is four years old (same age as the Chromebook, actually), but the battery has degraded to the point that I’m lucky to get a half-hour not being plugged in. Given the storage limitations, even VLC would be an extravagance, so I was just looking to do a somewhat slim install that gets me Firefox. I’d love to do KDE Neon, but that’s a bit overkill for a single-app use case.
Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
I’ve heard Chromebooks are such a pain to put alternative OSes on due to their BIOs. Are there efforts to just reflash these things so they aren’t beholden to Alphabet? That would be the most libre-resistance move: “Un-Chrome” the device permanently.
Hmm as I was typing this I did a quick search: libreboot.org/docs/install/chromebooks.html
…but that’s only for ARM Chromebooks.
Vittelius@feddit.org 2 days ago
docs.mrchromebox.tech provides custom coreboot firmware for a variety of ChromeOS devices. Once you’ve flashed it on your Chromebook, you should be able to just install Linux on it
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 2 days ago
Cool. I’ll do some research from there. Ironically, I wish Google still worked for basic queries.
Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Neat, saw this just after I posted. Gonna bookmark this!
Vittelius@feddit.org 2 days ago
You’ll also probably want to bookmark this: docs.chrultrabook.com/docs/…/post-install.html#ge…
The Chrultrabook project makes the distro run a bit smoother once it’s installed by providing fixes for the audio stack and custom keyboard layouts to make the top row of keys work properly among other things
smeg@feddit.uk 2 days ago
I’ll second this, seemed to work without any issues. You can even install ChromeOS Flex on it if you still want to use a Chromebook after they stop getting updates!