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Debian Chromebook

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Updated 13-Apr-2024

Because ChromeOS is simply ridiculous in terms of resource requirements (on devices meant for it), the only proper approach is to install or boot from a USB drive running Debian Linux (in this case, Debian Stable.

There are various steps involved in getting this working. This is meant to document them.

Basically it is a combination of the Breath and the Chrultrabook projects.

Contents
Chromebook developer mode
Breath bootable ISO
Boot off USB drive ISO
Replace Debian 12 Kernel
Write the system to the local drive
Install, Configure, Tweak

Chromebook developer mode

  • When Chromebook is turned off, hold down Esc + Refresh + Power
  • Once it goes into Developer screen, type Ctrl + D
  • After a reboot, when going into the Developer screen, type Ctrl + Alt + F2 (aka right arrow)
    • This will enable booting off of a USB drive

Breath bootable ISO

  • On a separate computer (preferably Linux), create a bootable ISO
  • I prefer the command FEATURES=ISO,KEYMAP bash setup.sh xfce debian stable (debian testing doesn't support the audio script below)
  • Use Balena etcher or similar to burn a bootable ISO

Boot off USB drive ISO

  • Boot the Chromebook, when the white developer screen comes up, count to 5 and then type Ctrl + U.

Replace Debian 12 Kernel

There is a script that helps replace the Debian 12 kernel in order to make the audio work. Unfortunately in my case this doesn't enable the internal audio devices (speaker/headphone or microphone), though it does make it possible to plug in USB audio, which then works. Yes, it is an extra piece of hardware, but it does indeed work. I am using a Unitek Y-247A USB sound card sold under the brand UGREEN.

Note that for this to work, one needs to install some utilities, such as ``

Write the system to the local drive

For this, we use the Breath command [install-to-internal-storage](https://cb-linux.github.io/breath/docs.html#/internalstorage) after determining which drive to write to (most likely /dev/mmcblk0), using lsblk.

Install, Configure, Tweak

sudo chown -Rv _apt:root /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/
sudo chmod -Rv 700 /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/