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They are generally unlocked, you can easily get into developer mode and flash a new coreboot bios on most of them: https://mrchromebox.tech/#fwscript https://mr

They are generally unlocked, you can easily get into developer mode and flash a new coreboot bios on most of them: https://mrchromebox.tech/#fwscript https://mrchromebox.tech/#fwscript Once flashed they can boot right into Linux natively and are a regular old EFI booting laptop. You will never be able to run ChromeOS on it again though (and could perhaps permanently brick or destroy the device) so it's not something Google is going to tell people to do.

nimbius 3y ago
yup. this "arent built to last" quip feels like a reinforcement effort from on high to ensure planned obsolescence doesnt encounter any defeat along the way. total malarkey. I run arch on a couple of chromebooks with wayland. the install path was pretty easy because under the hood these things are just computers. They last as long as you want them to because you decide what they do, not Google.
- qbasic_forever 3y ago
  Yep and Linux usually runs perfectly well on Chromebooks since chrome OS is based on it so you rarely get weird bleeding edge opaque binary driver peripherals. My Acer Chromebook runs Arch too and everything works out of the box--wifi, sound, media buttons, etc. It's way better than getting Linux on a super cheap Windows laptop IMHO.
  - jeffbee 3y ago
    Wait. The whole reason that ChromeOS works correctly is because they are not doctrinaire about binary drivers. ChromeOS has working touchpads and working wifi and working webcams due to their acceptance of the need for vendor blobs.
    - qbasic_forever 3y ago
      Yeah but the peripheral has to have a Linux driver or support, and for a cheap laptop a manufacturer is definitely not going to hire someone to custom port a Windows driver to Linux. They're going to pull something off the shelf that already works with Linux.
      - jeffbee 3y ago
        But things like MIPI cameras don't work in any Linux other than ChromeOS. The open source partisans are still faffing around with their obsolete APIs, while ChromeOS discards the political aspect and just ships Intel's blob. That's why machines like the Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 10 are not on the ChromeOS Flex certified models list, and their webcams don't work in any other distro either, but there are tons of Chromebooks with MIPI cameras.
        qbasic_forever 3y ago
        It sounds like Intel is dragging its feet releasing an open source driver for those cameras. But as usual if you use a bleeding edge distro like Arch it's just mashing in a few AURs and you'll have support: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=280559 https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=280559

nimbius 3y ago

yup. this "arent built to last" quip feels like a reinforcement effort from on high to ensure planned obsolescence doesnt encounter any defeat along the way. total malarkey. I run arch on a couple of chromebooks with wayland. the install path was pretty easy because under the hood these things are just computers. They last as long as you want them to because you decide what they do, not Google.

qbasic_forever 3y ago
Yep and Linux usually runs perfectly well on Chromebooks since chrome OS is based on it so you rarely get weird bleeding edge opaque binary driver peripherals. My Acer Chromebook runs Arch too and everything works out of the box--wifi, sound, media buttons, etc. It's way better than getting Linux on a super cheap Windows laptop IMHO.
- jeffbee 3y ago
  Wait. The whole reason that ChromeOS works correctly is because they are not doctrinaire about binary drivers. ChromeOS has working touchpads and working wifi and working webcams due to their acceptance of the need for vendor blobs.
  - qbasic_forever 3y ago
    Yeah but the peripheral has to have a Linux driver or support, and for a cheap laptop a manufacturer is definitely not going to hire someone to custom port a Windows driver to Linux. They're going to pull something off the shelf that already works with Linux.
    - jeffbee 3y ago
      But things like MIPI cameras don't work in any Linux other than ChromeOS. The open source partisans are still faffing around with their obsolete APIs, while ChromeOS discards the political aspect and just ships Intel's blob. That's why machines like the Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 10 are not on the ChromeOS Flex certified models list, and their webcams don't work in any other distro either, but there are tons of Chromebooks with MIPI cameras.
      - qbasic_forever 3y ago
        It sounds like Intel is dragging its feet releasing an open source driver for those cameras. But as usual if you use a bleeding edge distro like Arch it's just mashing in a few AURs and you'll have support: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=280559 https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=280559