Updated 05-Sep-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).
- Note: there is GalliumOS but it seems to have stalled development.
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.
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 testingdoesn'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 after determining which drive to write to (most likely /dev/mmcblk0), using lsblk.
Install, Configure, Tweak
- xfce4-terminal version 1.1.1 (Debian Testing)
- Configure
ctrl+candctrl+vto be copy and paste - Also run the following to fix an
aptissue
- Configure
sudo chown -Rv _apt:root /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/
sudo chmod -Rv 700 /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/
- menulibre - install via apt
wget curl htop nano rsync git neofetch gnome-disk-utility- Degoogled Chromium
- Codium