[PLUG] Chromebooks and Linux

[Russell Senior]

Not being able to print to a local USB connected printer in ChromeOS
(you had to enroll your printer with google, and send your documents
to google so they could send it back to your printer) used to be a big
"NO THANK YOU" from me. I think someone told me that's no longer the
case, but I'd already installed Gallium on my two Toshiba Chromebook
2's. I kind of like Gallium, although new Chromebooks with higher res
displays are hard to come by and it seems like the development pace
has slowed recently, 3.1 is still based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, which is
still supported upstream, but is coming up on 4 years old.

On Mon, Jan 17, 2022 at 10:28 PM elcaseti <elcaseti at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The Snapdragon 7 is an ARM CPU, so there might not be any distros that
> would support that Duet 5 13.3.  If you do end up buying a Chromebook, I
> agree that you really don't want to use ChromeOS.  I used a Chromebook at
> my library recently, & it was so limiting, that it was almost useless.  I
> was unable to print a PDF from a USB jump drive, & it doesn't get more
> basic than that.  I asked a librarian if he knew how to do this, & he said
> I don't think you can do that on our chromebooks!
>
> On Mon, Jan 17, 2022 at 9:12 PM Ben Koenig <techkoenig at protonmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 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.
> >