6 ms·

where do chrome books fall on this spectrum?

seph-reed 6y ago
By default, similar field as screens, keyboards, and mouses. A rather advanced peripheral to some other computer.
zozbot234 6y ago
Depends on whether you have bothered to open them up and remove the hardware-based firmware write protect. The process is highly device-dependent, and seems to be entirely undocumented for many Chromebooks and other ChromeOS devices. YMMV.
- Dylan16807 6y ago
  That's a pretty high standard. You don't need to open it up for developer mode, which lets you mess around as root, chroot into a Linux distro, give the chroot control of the screen...
  - zozbot234 6y ago
    "Developer mode" is incredibly brittle. If you don't press the right key combination at boot, your user partitions get formatted without warning and you lose all data. That makes it essentially a toy, not a real "developer" device.
    - Dylan16807 6y ago
      I see your point, but it's not as bad as that. Pressing the right key combination is optional, and all it does is skip an annoying beep. Factory reset isn't triggered by inactivity, it's triggered by pressing space and then confirming.
      - MereInterest 6y ago
        It may have changed in the past two years, but there was a 30 second splash screen saying "Press space to continue". If you press space during that time, it will "continue" to safe mode, wiping your entire crouton environment. There was no indication at all as to the key combination needed to skip the 30 second wait time.
        Dylan16807 6y ago
        You have to also confirm clearing data with enter after pressing space.
    - HeWhoLurksLate 6y ago
      Has anyone stuck a Teensy or arduino or something inside of a Chromebook to automatically send the right key combo? Seems fairly simple to me to do, but I don't have a Chrome device to test that on.
      - Dylan16807 6y ago
        If you're opening up and messing with the hardware, why not remove the write protect and flash the firmware instead?
        Koshkin 6y ago
        ...Or completely replace the innards with a Raspberry Pi Zero W. (Not sure if it’s actually possible.)
        blackfawn 6y ago
        Various pi boards have been retrofitted into laptops but a Pi Zero in particular is a downgrade in performance from just about any relatively recent laptop/Chromebook. As some of the sibling comments mention, there is more involved with resetting than an accidental non-action during boot. Even better you can switch to coreboot and load Linux, there's even a Chromebook-specific distro, https://galliumos.org/ https://galliumos.org/
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    You can even just boot Linux, or dual boot.
- wffurr 6y ago
  It's pretty well documented on the Chromium OS site: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/developer_mode.md https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/d... If there's devices missing, send a PR to that repo: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/README.md#making-changes-without-repo https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/R...
- wffurr 6y ago
  Note also that you can install Linux on your Chromebook in a container without having to put the device in developer mode: https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439 https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439
- Arainach 6y ago
  With Crostini, you can write and run full Linux apps in a full Linux environment. No bootloader or dev mode shenanigans required.
  - zozbot234 6y ago
    Does this "full Linux environment" support e.g. audio? I've seen reports that early versions of Crostini didn't even support that.
    - tedunangst 6y ago
      Yes. You can use youtube-dl to get videos and ffplay to watch them.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
rkeene2 6y ago
Chromebooks can run Termux, so at least as good as Android devices :-D
analog31 6y ago
My son got a school issued chromebook. My first reaction was: Oh, goody. We can install Python. Nope. The school chromebooks are locked down tighter than a crab's ass. What a waste.
- giancarlostoro 6y ago
  Best you can do is wait for GitHubs cloud development environments to open up for more users.

By default, similar field as screens, keyboards, and mouses. A rather advanced peripheral to some other computer.

Depends on whether you have bothered to open them up and remove the hardware-based firmware write protect. The process is highly device-dependent, and seems to be entirely undocumented for many Chromebooks and other ChromeOS devices. YMMV.

Dylan16807 6y ago
That's a pretty high standard. You don't need to open it up for developer mode, which lets you mess around as root, chroot into a Linux distro, give the chroot control of the screen...
- zozbot234 6y ago
  "Developer mode" is incredibly brittle. If you don't press the right key combination at boot, your user partitions get formatted without warning and you lose all data. That makes it essentially a toy, not a real "developer" device.
  - Dylan16807 6y ago
    I see your point, but it's not as bad as that. Pressing the right key combination is optional, and all it does is skip an annoying beep. Factory reset isn't triggered by inactivity, it's triggered by pressing space and then confirming.
    - MereInterest 6y ago
      It may have changed in the past two years, but there was a 30 second splash screen saying "Press space to continue". If you press space during that time, it will "continue" to safe mode, wiping your entire crouton environment. There was no indication at all as to the key combination needed to skip the 30 second wait time.
      - Dylan16807 6y ago
        You have to also confirm clearing data with enter after pressing space.
  - HeWhoLurksLate 6y ago
    Has anyone stuck a Teensy or arduino or something inside of a Chromebook to automatically send the right key combo? Seems fairly simple to me to do, but I don't have a Chrome device to test that on.
    - Dylan16807 6y ago
      If you're opening up and messing with the hardware, why not remove the write protect and flash the firmware instead?
      - Koshkin 6y ago
        ...Or completely replace the innards with a Raspberry Pi Zero W. (Not sure if it’s actually possible.)
        blackfawn 6y ago
        Various pi boards have been retrofitted into laptops but a Pi Zero in particular is a downgrade in performance from just about any relatively recent laptop/Chromebook. As some of the sibling comments mention, there is more involved with resetting than an accidental non-action during boot. Even better you can switch to coreboot and load Linux, there's even a Chromebook-specific distro, https://galliumos.org/ https://galliumos.org/
- saagarjha 6y ago
  You can even just boot Linux, or dual boot.
wffurr 6y ago
It's pretty well documented on the Chromium OS site: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/developer_mode.md https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/d... If there's devices missing, send a PR to that repo: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/README.md#making-changes-without-repo https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/R...
wffurr 6y ago
Note also that you can install Linux on your Chromebook in a container without having to put the device in developer mode: https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439 https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439
Arainach 6y ago
With Crostini, you can write and run full Linux apps in a full Linux environment. No bootloader or dev mode shenanigans required.
- zozbot234 6y ago
  Does this "full Linux environment" support e.g. audio? I've seen reports that early versions of Crostini didn't even support that.
  - tedunangst 6y ago
    Yes. You can use youtube-dl to get videos and ffplay to watch them.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

rkeene2 6y ago

Chromebooks can run Termux, so at least as good as Android devices :-D

analog31 6y ago

My son got a school issued chromebook. My first reaction was: Oh, goody. We can install Python. Nope. The school chromebooks are locked down tighter than a crab's ass. What a waste.

giancarlostoro 6y ago
Best you can do is wait for GitHubs cloud development environments to open up for more users.