[PLUG] Chromebooks and Linux

[Ben Koenig]

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

On Monday, January 17th, 2022 at 8:47 PM, John Jason Jordan <johnxj at gmx.com> wrote:

> For some time I have been shopping for a computer to hold while
>
> reading in a recliner, hence weight is an issue. I started looking at
>
> tablets, thinking that I could get one with a separate keyboard for
>
> times when the touchscreen was not adequate. But lately I've discovered
>
> that nowadays there are lots of Chromebooks that are "2-in-1" capable,
>
> that is, the keyboard is detachable. Of these the one currently at the
>
> top of my list is the Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook Duet 5 13.3, which is
>
> available for ~$400.
>
> The problem is that I'd much rather have a real distro instead of
>
> Chrome OS. Yes, I know that Chrome OS is based on Linux, but it's kind
>
> of limiting, plus I'd like to stay away from Google, if possible. The
>
> problem is trying to find information about putting any other OS on the
>
> Duet 5 13.3. For example, I stumbled on Gallium, an Xfce/Ubuntu 'for
>
> Chromebooks' spin-off, but their hardware support page lists only
>
> Chromebooks several years old. Plus, the Duet 5 13.3 has a Snapdragon 7
>
> CPU, which they don't even mention, and I know next to nothing about
>
> CPUs. I also checked Ubuntu forums, but didn't come up with much
>
> Does anyone know about putting Linux on Chromebooks? Or websites
>
> dedicated to the issue? Suggestions welcome!


I went through this for my Pixel Slate to install Slackware. The same process applies for any of the x86 ChromeOS device - You have to go through 2 steps

Step one, prepare the ChromeOS device for OS level changes. This typically involves enabling developer mode, disabling firmware write-protect and other steps depending on the model.
GalliumOS has a good description of these steps: https://wiki.galliumos.org/Installing/Preparing

Step two, Once you have a standard bootloader installed, you can proceed to install whatever OS you want.

You'll want to start by looking for any instructions specific to the lenovo ideapad you are looking at. Some models can be a pain when it comes to disabling WP and there's no user support if something goes horribly wrong.