Another Chromebox bites the dusts - and converts to Kubuntu

[claydoh]

Chrome OS devices need a customized firmware to be able to boot another OS. A linux USB installer won't work otherwise. Luckily they don't make it terribly difficult to do.

I use Gallium OS on my Chromebook, which has some hardware specific kernel fixes that provide keyboard support among other things. It is 16.04 based but with that custom kernel. Haven't tried 18.04 yet but 17.04 and 17.10 distros don't have working keyboard and sound out of the box. I believe more current kernels may have good support baked in.

I like Chrome OS and my refurbished Acer CB 14" is actually a nice piece of unibody aluminum hardware, especially for the price new or used. Unlike chromeboxes however, there are few CBS that have upgradeable ram or drives.


The CPU is a quad core Celeron and has 4gb ram so it runs Plasma just fine (via Neon). It doesn't use much more ram than the default Xfce at idle. The screen is 1080 ips to boot.
Most of the time I'm in Chrome OS, running a couple of Android apps, plus a couple of Linux programs such as Libreoffice and Quassel IRC client via Crouton.


I think these have a potential to be useful linux laptops. I got tired of always fixing and replacing things on the old laptops I can get for less than 200 dollars.


Sent from my LG-H931 using Tapatalk

[Qqmike]

Interesting. My experience is only with my home-built PCs and not with any off-the-shelf machines.

I found a nicely written script that loads custom firmware onto the box giving me full control ...

This is the part I hope to know more about. If you had not used that script, could you still have (1) partitioned the disk as you wish using a bootable USB/CD? and (2) Booted the PC and installed Kubuntu from your live installer medium?

I guess I'm asking, was the existing ASUS EFI firmware friendly enough to do as you wish, without any custom firmware scripts?

I'm somewhat familiar with ASUS here on my main machine (also about 3 years old, custom built), and to a lesser extent on my wife's off-the-shelf Best Buy Windows 10 laptop.

[oshunluvr]

We needed a PC in another part of the house for the kids to use for homework and I had a fairly new (3 years old) Asus Chromebox PC (not a laptop, which is a "Chromebook") with an i3-1.7GHz CPU and an unused 24" monitor in a closet. My wife had been using it in the kitchen, but she got a laptop last year and so this box sat in my office closet waiting for a new home.

I really don't like ChromeOS much (better than Winblows of course) so I wanted to put Kubuntu on it.

First, I did an upgrade; replacing the old 16GB SSD and 2GB RAM with 128GB/8GB.

Then I went through the "unlocking" procedure that allows other OSs to be installed.

I found a nicely written script that loads custom firmware onto the box giving me full control and removing a nagging splash screen warning you you're in developer mode every time you boot the PC - and offers the option to wipe out your work and restore ChromeOS. -thanks but, no thanks.

Finally, booted to Kubuntu 18.04 from a USB stick and attempted installation.

The first two attempts to install didn't work. I eventually figured out that I had not partitioned correctly for EFI - which I had never used before - and this PC requires EFI. Finally, I just let the installer have the entire SSD and auto-partition and format without me mucking with it.

I now have a lovely. compact, PC that sits nestled to the back of a monitor running 18.04 flawlessly - and it's quick too. I haven't tweaked anything yet, but it boots as fast or faster than my powerful desktop. Wifi and all the other hardware worked out-of-the-box. Well, I haven't tested sound yet due to lack of speakers, but everything else works.