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Enable Linux on your Chromebook

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techman-001:
Getting a new  Linux laptop is harder and harder these days with some high end Windows10 laptops having a Windows ONLY BIOS that needs to be replaced before anyone can install another OS. Other laptops have password protected GPU's or Windows only hardware.

I'm still using a Lenovo X61S notebook made in 2000 because of the Linux friendly design. It runs MX Linux.

However Chromebooks seem to have changed this situation with a easy to enable Linux facility

A friend bought a Asus Chromebook C523 for $289 USD at Amazon recently: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KY8QV1D?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details
and found that to run native Debian Linux apps all you have to do is the following:


    Chrome Book startup-> Settings->
    Linux(Beta)
    Turn on
    Install (will download 300mb of data)

   Installing Linux …Starting Linux container

    CLI
    apt-get update
    apt-get upgrade
    apt-get install <whatever>

<whatever> appears in the Chrome Book menu after install

Some stats from her Chromebook.
uname -a
Linux penguin 4.19.44-04937-gd773af751792 #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Aug 8 21:43:29 PDT 2019 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Her disk stats after installing Linux Hexchat using the above.
5gb in use; 46.7gb available

Rick Law:
Interesting...  Thanks, I was just thinking about getting a Chrome book as my backup since my XP backup laptop went on strike.

westfw:
I installed "Gallium" (a linux variant) on a low-end refurbished chromebook (~$100.)It was scary as hell ("stuff some aluminum foil in this connector to write-enable the bios flash, so that you can install a new one"), but not really "difficult."  ("Just follow the instructions you found on the web.")  Fun, essentially...

techman-001:

--- Quote from: westfw on September 20, 2019, 09:44:34 am ---I installed "Gallium" (a linux variant) on a low-end refurbished chromebook (~$100.)It was scary as hell ("stuff some aluminum foil in this connector to write-enable the bios flash, so that you can install a new one"), but not really "difficult."  ("Just follow the instructions you found on the web.")  Fun, essentially...

--- End quote ---

Running it in a Chroot or on the bare metal ?

A new Chromebook enabling Linux via a container is childs play as detailed in my post, but it may not be available on older models such as yours, and of course it won't replace Chrome, the two just coexist.

Of course Chrome is Linux anyway under the covers.

techman-001:

--- Quote from: techman-001 on September 19, 2019, 04:22:29 am ---Getting a new  Linux laptop is harder and harder these days with some high end Windows10 laptops having a Windows ONLY BIOS that needs to be replaced before anyone can install another OS. Other laptops have password protected GPU's or Windows only hardware.

However Chromebooks seem to have changed this situation with a easy to enable Linux facility

A friend bought a Asus Chromebook C523 for $289 USD at Amazon recently: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KY8QV1D?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details


--- End quote ---

Update:

Kicad (schematic capture and PCB layout) works fine on the Chromebook, she only had to install the Debian Kicad package under Debian with "apt-get install kicad"

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