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How to liberate a Chromebook
- sowbug 8y agoOr just follow Google's instructions if you want the same outcome without the invective: https://www.chromium.org/a/chromium.org/dev/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/samsung-sandy-bridge https://www.chromium.org/a/chromium.org/dev/chromium-os/deve....
- monochromatic 8y agoThose don’t tell you how to flash the BIOS though.
- dmoy 8y agoNot on that page directly, but it links right to a other page detailing how to flash bios. (The other page has a section titled almost exactly like that)
- lisper 8y agoThe link you refer to is not so easy to identify, and the linked-to page is missing some critical information. Specifically, it says: "You'll have to locate the Write Protect jumper and enable it." But it gives you absolutely no clue where the write-protect jumper is, or how to find it. For this critical step, you are on your own. It's pretty clear that Google really doesn't want people doing this. (Not that I blame them. But still, the OP page does add quite a bit of value IMHO.)
- jayd16 8y agoThe jumpers are device specific. You'll have to look up where the vendor put it.
- sofaofthedamned 8y agoAgreed. OP is one angry human being.
- mindslight 8y agoAre we really so far gone that expressing a strong opinion with a little hyperbole is interpreted as "anger" ? The adjective I'd use to describe OP's writing is "resolute". And in these days when surveillance and other corporate monsters continually bathe us in soft nudging to acquiesce to their agendas, it is a stance that's quite necessary.
- jayd16 8y agoBut its totally misplaced emotion. The whole design goal of a chromebook is constantly push signed OTA updates. They give you a hardware switch to turn off the signature checks. His comment that a hardware key you'd certainly lose is better than a jumper is pretty weak. If you don't like them, fine, but this just comes off as nerd rage in an attempt at saying "I am very smart."
- mindslight 8y agoUnfortunately the Arbiter of Emotion was not there to correct his frustration during the unlocking. The Chromebook's model is obviously consistent with Google's fleshed out security model. But this model is at odds with Free users, and there isn't one straightforward way to reconcile the two, but rather various ones that will each attract their own criticism. Individuals don't have the luxury of massaging their opinions with a PR department, and conflict (with the corporate narrative) draws attention to rough points. People aren't going to express things perfectly - one can either work to be tolerant of varying personalities and colorful overstating, or retreat to the safe space of sanitized corporate press releases. Ask yourself what is your motivation to shit on him with classical bullying ("nerd rage"). Some casual ranting about security models while tediously reflashing a BIOS is not an attempt to say "I am very smart".
- 8y ago
- cbhl 8y agoHaving followed these instructions before, they're not quite suitable for making a Chromebook run an alternative operating system for the average user. A developer, sure. But every time you boot up the computer, you hear an annoying beep and have to wait ten seconds, during which you're a few keystrokes away from wiping the machine and restoring it to a pristine copy of Chrome OS. The reasons for this design are documented: https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/developer-mode https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/... (Of note, the newer Chromebooks no longer require a physical hardware switch or jumper to be toggled. The hardware folks said this was expensive, so newer devices let you enter developer mode by holding the correct keys on boot.) For now, if you truly want to give a Chromebook running another OS to someone, you have to replace the EEPROM: https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/firmware-boot-and-recovery https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/... https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/verified-boot https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/...
- saltylicorice 8y agoYou don’t have to replace the EEPROM. You can just open the case and briefly disconnnect the battery to disable write protect, and then flash whatever you like.
- xg15 8y ago> An attacker with physical possession of the device over an extended period. The attacker has access to tools including a soldering iron. Yeah, if that is the vulnerability scenario they see necessary to "protect" me against, it's pretty clear I'm not the owner of the machine. I think the anger if warranted. More broadly, I find the distinction between "normal users" and "developers" in that article pretty telling. I guess the goal isn't anymore to make everyone Computer-Literatur enough to run anything else than Chrome OS.
- anoncake 8y ago> I guess the goal isn't anymore to make everyone Computer-Literatur Good. Even by the standards of comic book villainy, that was an insane idea.
- abc-xyz 8y agoI don't know about you but I find it maddening that you have to take apart the laptop and risk damaging the hardware simply to install another OS, and I'd feel just as frustrated as the author if I had to deal with that..
- saltylicorice 8y agoYou don't have to open the case to go to developer mode. If you want debug features without opening the case, there is https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/ccd https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/ccd
- abc-xyz 8y agoThings like these are why I never bothered looking into getting a Chromebook.. developer mode? debug features? The article you liked is even more confusing.. Why can't people just stick a bootable USB in the laptop and install whatever OS they desire?
- Latteland 8y agoThis person is confused about the security intentions of the device. Google tells you how to install alternate os' on there. It doesn't have easily upgradable storage in part because that makes them cheaper, but some have had upgradable stoage. My chromeos Asus desktop brick like device has upgraded memory and storage. Look at Mac laptops for serious anti upgrade efforts. Part if the restrictions are to prevent virii or other rootkit like takeover of the machine.
- KenanSulayman 8y ago> Erase all personal data on the "stateful partition" (i.e., user accounts and settings - no worries, though, since all data is in the cloud!).
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- charlesism 8y agoIt would be nice if there were a link to purchase the right jumper. I'd rather spend 50 cents, and permanently enable write access, than mess around with the screwdriver.
- sosodev 8y agoHow you enable write access varies by model. For mine you simply remove a screw. That said, I'm not sure you'd want to enable it permanently. That sounds dangerous.
- tyingq 8y agoJam some aluminum foil in the hole and seal with epoxy? It's a 6 year old Chromebook, so the financial risk is pretty low :)
- charlesism 8y agoThat is true. I didn't realize it was six years old
- TheRealPomax 8y agoPermanent write access to the chip that houses your bios? Do you want an unremovable virus? Because this is how you get an unremovable virus. You want to unlock that chip only for exactly as long as you are going to knowingly change its data yourself, and then lock it right back up.
- charlesism 8y agoCheers. I hadn't thought about that. I just saw the photo, and it doesn't look like a pleasant way to work. Screwdriver breaking something off, ESD, etc.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- sosodev 8y agoI did something similar with my Chromebook. I flashed the bios and installed Arch + Sway + GalliumOS patches. It's been a pretty stellar experience so far.
- elliotpage 8y agoTo echo some of the other comments - this looks like a useful guide but the attitude is atrocious. You only need to make your anti-google complaint once and then move on.
- classichasclass 8y agoWhy is he running Chromium, then, after all that? Or am I misidentifying the browser in the final screen shot?
- sosodev 8y agoIt's probably Chromium. GalliumOS defaults to Chromium with some fixes to make it more Chromebook like.
- TheRealPomax 8y agoPerhaps because unlike Chrome, Chromium actually _is_ open source.
- sk0g 8y agoThe tone of this article is off putting to the point of being unreadable, and I'd say I'm more privacy conscious than the average technologist...
- wishinghand 8y ago> The tone of this article is off putting to the point of being unreadable Now who's exaggerating? I'm largely in the middle of privacy vs convenience but I can get through the information just fine.
- TheRealPomax 8y agoI can't tell if "if remove all /eight/ screws" is meant as a "look how few we used back then" or as a "look how many screws that is!" comment. It's eight screws. Even my ancient Dell Inspiron has more than that...?
- Stratoscope 8y agoThe very next sentence answers your question of why /eight/ is emphasized: > Four of the screws are hidden under the pads for the feet...
- TheRealPomax 8y agoHow is that an answer? So does every other laptop I've ever owned that has "feet" pads rather than shaped bits of chassis. That's like going "and then I had to REMOVE the outlet part from the wall socket box so I could switch live and ground!" as if that's somehow crazy unexpected.
- raintrees 8y agoMaybe because some have never had the pleasure of taking apart modern equipment and might consider resorting to force, without the knowledge of those four other screws? I consider it a helpful reminder to count to verify I have gotten them all.
- Stratoscope 8y agoI don't understand your objection. It's standard practice to include notes like this in directions for hardware disassembly. For example, take a look at the ThinkPad Yoga 460 Hardware Maintenance Manual: https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/p40_yoga14_mt20fy_yoga460_hmm_en_sp40j47499_01.pdf https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/p40_yoga14_mt... Go to "1020 Base cover assembly" on page 71 (page number at the bottom of the page, not the PDF page number). Note how it instructs you to remove the three caps (feet) to reveal those screws.
- _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
- Tsubasachan 8y agoBut why? Buy a cheap laptop, reinstall windows (acquire Enterprise LTSC), profit. I rarely give the tech industry money.
- amelius 8y agoI'd buy one of these, if they would support Linux properly: https://liliputing.com/2018/07/handheld-pc-face-off-gpd-pocket-2-vs-one-mix-yoga.html https://liliputing.com/2018/07/handheld-pc-face-off-gpd-pock...
- TheRealPomax 8y agoI think you just made your own case for why to do this? Your solution costs money, this guy's solution costs however much a few inches of clear tape costs. Between the two "I rarely give the tech industry money" kind of suggests you are on board with repurposing old tech rather than just buying something new?
- yingw787 8y agoHmm. I appreciate the sentiment behind the author's desire to do this. But I'm wondering: - Did it void a warranty if it was still valid, and the tampering with the case had damaged some hardware that the end user can't fix on her own? - Does the user require knowledge of GalliumOS, and understand that updates may need to be pulled manually? - Can common college programs in her major be run on GalliumOS and on the hardware defined by Chromebooks (low-end)? Can she run SSH to Linux or VNC for Windows w/o difficulty? I agree having one corporation say to the poor and the young and the otherwise disenfranchised that a corporate, locked-down operating system is good for you is not a great idea. It trades your freedom for convenience, and no matter how appealing that may be for both parties (the end user for cheapness and ease of use, and the corporation for not having to deal with the insanity and unworkablity of some users), it's not a good tradeoff in the long run for anybody, including the corporation that discovers too late that hiring the same sheep it raised is bad. But I don't think this is the right way to go about it. Shrieking the principles of Stallman from a hill just makes you look like an old crazy person. I personally didn't get to love Linux until I had a MacBook Pro, a UNIX fork that works pretty nicely on a laptop, and moved slowly into Linux until I prefer the CLI over GUIs for many things now. At every stage of my transition, everything worked, and worked best for me, and I understood why I needed to move further. Doing something like this and encountering issues solved by ChromeOS may create a negative impression of Linux in a young mind, which is the exact opposite of what you want to do. As an alternative way forward, I installed Ubuntu on my parent's laptop after Windows 10 kept freezing up on them. Yes, it has binary blobs and a corporation runs it and whatnot, but it works and it's still Linux. My dad got a virus from downloading a YouTube video somehow, and I could fix it because I could reinstall chrome using 'apt', and taught him how to use 'youtube-dl' instead (open terminal, paste, enter key). I don't think he cares that it's Linux, but I do think he is happy it works and I can fix it when it goes wrong. You never want to do the right thing by going against the laws of power, because that's how you end up as cannon fodder and a footnote in an moldy AP compsci textbook somewhere.
- StephenAmar 8y agoSays the guy sending the output of a curl into the laptop's firmware.
- pnut 8y agoI cannot stop laughing at this comment.
- craftinator 8y agoThat's where I stopped reading the article...
- glup 8y agoTo clarify, "How to liberate an Intel Chromebook in ten easy steps." Older ARM Chromebooks are doomed to a life of a corporate surveillance endpoint unless you are willing to put in a huge amount of effort.
- rixrax 8y agoI recently got a 2017 Google pixelbook to replace Razer stealth 2017 that I unsuccessfully tried to replace 2017 MBP with. Similar to OP (little less emotion maybe), I flashed coreboot[0][1] on it and installed Ubuntu[2] (display brightness, audio doesn’t work so I have usb-c audio adapter) - couldn’t be happier: keyboard is excellent, it’s light, it was relatively inexpensive (for low end i7, 512gb , 16gb ram), it’s silent (no fans), display is 3:2 aspect ratio (I think) and it’s not 4k, hardware feels nice and solid. Other than audio issue, Ubuntu runs solid on it after some tinkering. If you’re willing to tinker with it s bit - Google totally nailed it on this![3] [0] https://www.coreboot.org https://www.coreboot.org [1] https://mrchromebox.tech https://mrchromebox.tech [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/elementaryos/comments/9vu3hm/juno_on_my_pixelbook_looks_amazing/ https://www.reddit.com/r/elementaryos/comments/9vu3hm/juno_o... [3] https://www.google.com/chromebook/device/google-pixelbook/ https://www.google.com/chromebook/device/google-pixelbook/
- marktangotango 8y agoTry the galliumos kbd file for media keys support: https://github.com/optio50/ChromeBook-Keyboard-xkb/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/optio50/ChromeBook-Keyboard-xkb/blob/mast...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- raintrees 8y ago"Screwdrivers for Freedom" - A sentiment I can get behind...
- johnvaluk 8y agoI've updated the firmware on every ChromeOS device I've owned and installed Linux. It's fun!!! But I've also restored some of them to factory condition and given them away to friends or family who find it challenging to apply regular security updates. It sounds like the author gave someone a broken ChromeBook instead of giving her the freedom to decide how she wants to use it.
- saagarjha 8y agoYeah, I hope he asked her what she wanted before forcing her to use that…
- bubblethink 8y agoThe suggested coreboot distribution (johnlewis') is not maintained any more. You should use use mr. chromebox's builds or build from source. (https://doc.coreboot.org/distributions.html https://doc.coreboot.org/distributions.html)
- bdz 8y agoI'm curious what are the 2GB RAM and the Celeron 867 good for in 2019. Apart from text editing.
- Havoc 8y ago>Pry open the lid by sticking a small flat-head screwdriver in and gently moving it all around the edges. Instead of a screwdriver, which can easily damage the casing, breaking a washing line pin in half gives you a sturdy plastic object of right size for the job that won't scratch stuff.
- teilo 8y agoNot all Chromebooks have a write-protect jumper like this. The HP Chromebooks have a write-protect screw. Rather than jumping terminals, you remove the screw.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- clircle 8y agoI wonder if the person he gave the laptop to appreciated that he installed Gallium OS. I bet Annie can figure her way around Chrome OS, not sure about Gallium
- wfh 8y agoDoes GalliumOS auto-update, including security updates for all packages?
- bubblethink 8y agoIt's ubuntu based, but they use their own kernel. So you rely on their kernel builds, which is not ideal. If your device is one that works well with upstream kernel, you should just use a regular distro (or switch your galliumos kernel to track the regular ubuntu kernel).
- marktangotango 8y agoGalliumos is no longer under development see r/galliumos for more info. Ubuntu 18.04 works great, see my other link in this for how to enable media keys.
- bubblethink 8y agoIt seems like they are still active, although not quite as much. The stickied post on that sub says so at least. The main draw for galliumos is support for odd devices for which upstream support is lacking. That's kind of why it exists, and I don't think things have changed materially for a lot of these old devices. Going forward, things should be a bit better since chromeOS itself tracks LTS kernel releases now, and I think they also plan to do kernel upgrades over the life of a device.
- stevewillows 8y agoI'm on an older Toshiba Chromebook 2 and have been running Gallium for a while. I did some distro hopping recently and found that Manjaro, Ubuntu, and some others work almost perfectly out of the box. Bring in the Gallium keyboard layout and its great. The work the Gallium team did was necessary, and its definitely paid off. It's nice to see things open up over the past few months.
- ocdtrekkie 8y agoI have an i5 Chromebox I got at I/O a number of years ago, and I was considering doing something like this to make it useful. For the moment I haven't put in the effort to tackle it yet.
- saagarjha 8y agoIf you’re willing to go halfway and live with the verification screen (which doesn’t require opening up the computer), I wrote up a guide for dual booting: https://saagarjha.com/blog/2019/03/13/dual-booting-chrome-os-and-elementary-os/ https://saagarjha.com/blog/2019/03/13/dual-booting-chrome-os.... But back to the article, the author seems to fundamentally misunderstand the reasons for the warning screens. They are there to alert you if your system has been compromised; if you’re looking for the ability to verify what you’re booting it’s either that or iOS where you can’t install anything else at all. I think I vastly prefer the former option.
- int_19h 8y agoThose are not the only two options available. They could also allow you to provide your own signing keys, and then verify that whatever it is you're trying to boot is signed with those.
- saagarjha 8y agoThat’s a valid option but I haven’t seen any consumer hardware implement this properly. The issue seems to be that the ability to change signing keys makes it possible to change them without the end user noticing. Unless Google had a service that could deterministically burn your keys into the hardware at manufacture time instead of their own I can’t see this working: can you think of anything else?
- cypherg 8y agoutter bollox
- ykevinator 8y agoWho is Annie? I hate when people write like this. Despite this, it's a great technical piece.