4 ms·

This is great news! Chromebooks are dirt cheap and for the most part have amazing build quality and keyboards for the price point. I just can't stand the flim

This is great news! Chromebooks are dirt cheap and for the most part have amazing build quality and keyboards for the price point. I just can't stand the flimsy plastics and hinges of most "normal" laptops at that price. I used Arch Linux on a Toshiba Chromebook 2 as a primary laptop for about two years, but eventually moved away from it because my bootloader got un-blessed due to the battery zero'ing out, and I didn't want to deal with it. I guess Chromebooks are back on my radar!

toast0 7y ago
If you're not planning to run Chrome OS, I'd definitely recommend making the effort to flash a 3rd party bootrom from https://mrchromebox.tech/ https://mrchromebox.tech/ or the no longer updating https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download/ https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download... I had better luck with booting FreeBSD on an Acer C720; but I think Mr. Chromebox's bioses keep getting better and better.
- xiii1408 7y ago
  Thanks for the rec! I unfortunately decided to install RW_LEGACY years ago when I set it up. It's now in a weird state where it has SeaBIOS installed but legacy boot is disabled. From what I've read, I need to boot into a Chrome OS recovery to enable legacy boot, which should allow everything to work. But I haven't been able to find a simple Chrome OS recovery shell image for me to boot into, so I'm kind of stuck rn.
  - toast0 7y ago
    From this state, I would try a full Chrome OS recovery [1], which I believe will put the firmware back to stock (especially if write protect is disabled), and then start again with the 3rd party scripts. Alternatively, I think I've seen instructions [2] for reflashing the bios using a different device, but I haven't screwed things up that much yet :D [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chromebook-recovery-utili/jndclpdbaamdhonoechobihbbiimdgai https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chromebook-recover... instructions here: https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/1080595?hl=en https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/1080595?hl=en [2] https://wiki.mrchromebox.tech/Unbricking https://wiki.mrchromebox.tech/Unbricking

toast0 7y ago

If you're not planning to run Chrome OS, I'd definitely recommend making the effort to flash a 3rd party bootrom from https://mrchromebox.tech/ https://mrchromebox.tech/ or the no longer updating https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download/ https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download... I had better luck with booting FreeBSD on an Acer C720; but I think Mr. Chromebox's bioses keep getting better and better.

xiii1408 7y ago
Thanks for the rec! I unfortunately decided to install RW_LEGACY years ago when I set it up. It's now in a weird state where it has SeaBIOS installed but legacy boot is disabled. From what I've read, I need to boot into a Chrome OS recovery to enable legacy boot, which should allow everything to work. But I haven't been able to find a simple Chrome OS recovery shell image for me to boot into, so I'm kind of stuck rn.
- toast0 7y ago
  From this state, I would try a full Chrome OS recovery [1], which I believe will put the firmware back to stock (especially if write protect is disabled), and then start again with the 3rd party scripts. Alternatively, I think I've seen instructions [2] for reflashing the bios using a different device, but I haven't screwed things up that much yet :D [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chromebook-recovery-utili/jndclpdbaamdhonoechobihbbiimdgai https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chromebook-recover... instructions here: https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/1080595?hl=en https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/1080595?hl=en [2] https://wiki.mrchromebox.tech/Unbricking https://wiki.mrchromebox.tech/Unbricking