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All ChromeOS devices to date have come with a "Developer Mode" hardware switch which turns off trusted boot and allows you to run your own OS / custom ChromeOS

by rryan 14y ago

All ChromeOS devices to date have come with a "Developer Mode" hardware switch which turns off trusted boot and allows you to run your own OS / custom ChromeOS builds. I would bet this Chromebook is not locked down.

armored_mammal 14y ago
I thought they only allowed you to replace user space, not the Kernel? I'm always so tempted by Chromebooks... All I want out of a laptop is no moving parts, < 12" screen, an 8+ hour battery, and 1080p video playback using my Linux distro of choice for under $300, but nobody delivers... Instead it's just endless parades of 'ultrabooks' that mysteriously cost $800+... I could care less if the hard drive is 100 gigs or 16. But if you can't use your own Kernel I won't use it. Too much like buying a car with the hood welded shut. But I guess for me a laptop is just the minor sibling of my desktop that's supposed to be good enough to watch movies while traveling and look up something on Wikipedia from the couch, and also be cheap enough that it doesn't have to last or not get stolen. In other words, not my main computer. But still have a keyboard.
- jahmed 14y ago
  Nope, flip the dev switch and it'll let you do whatever you want.
- niels_olson 14y ago
  I put a 40 GB SSD in my Cr-48, re-installed ChromeOS, then overwrote the BIOS, loaded Ubuntu, works fine. So long as they have an SD card slot, onboard memory shouldn't be a huge issue, but 16 GB is cramped.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
  - liquidsnake 14y ago
    You are confusing things and that is not true (at least not for past models). See more here: http://dev.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/samsung-sandy-bridge http://dev.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-fo...
    - Evbn 14y ago
      Very confusing now that parent is deleted but grandparent is not.
- pgeorgi 14y ago
  They allow you from replacing the firmware on the x86 devices (and it's similar on ARM: https://plus.google.com/109993695638569781190/posts/6MDhf9HuiPB https://plus.google.com/109993695638569781190/posts/6MDhf9Hu...). From there, you can do whatever you want. If you don't want to dive _that_ deep, the developer switch still disables signature checking on kernels, so you can replace that one as well, but with their specialized bootloader, it's somewhat more difficult to get a system onto there than on a regular system (expectations on SSD partitioning etc) (edit: clarified bootloader/firmware situation on ARM after finding appropriate link)

by rryan 14y ago

armored_mammal 14y ago

I thought they only allowed you to replace user space, not the Kernel? I'm always so tempted by Chromebooks... All I want out of a laptop is no moving parts, < 12" screen, an 8+ hour battery, and 1080p video playback using my Linux distro of choice for under $300, but nobody delivers... Instead it's just endless parades of 'ultrabooks' that mysteriously cost $800+... I could care less if the hard drive is 100 gigs or 16. But if you can't use your own Kernel I won't use it. Too much like buying a car with the hood welded shut. But I guess for me a laptop is just the minor sibling of my desktop that's supposed to be good enough to watch movies while traveling and look up something on Wikipedia from the couch, and also be cheap enough that it doesn't have to last or not get stolen. In other words, not my main computer. But still have a keyboard.

jahmed 14y ago
Nope, flip the dev switch and it'll let you do whatever you want.
niels_olson 14y ago
I put a 40 GB SSD in my Cr-48, re-installed ChromeOS, then overwrote the BIOS, loaded Ubuntu, works fine. So long as they have an SD card slot, onboard memory shouldn't be a huge issue, but 16 GB is cramped.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
- liquidsnake 14y ago
  You are confusing things and that is not true (at least not for past models). See more here: http://dev.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/samsung-sandy-bridge http://dev.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-fo...
  - Evbn 14y ago
    Very confusing now that parent is deleted but grandparent is not.
pgeorgi 14y ago
They allow you from replacing the firmware on the x86 devices (and it's similar on ARM: https://plus.google.com/109993695638569781190/posts/6MDhf9HuiPB https://plus.google.com/109993695638569781190/posts/6MDhf9Hu...). From there, you can do whatever you want. If you don't want to dive _that_ deep, the developer switch still disables signature checking on kernels, so you can replace that one as well, but with their specialized bootloader, it's somewhat more difficult to get a system onto there than on a regular system (expectations on SSD partitioning etc) (edit: clarified bootloader/firmware situation on ARM after finding appropriate link)