[nmglug] any experience with installing gnu/linux on chromebooks?

[Akkana Peck]

Mark Galassi writes:
> So, does anyone here have resources to point me to to answer this
> question: "what's the best way to run a full GNU/Linux distro on a
> chromebook?"

I don't have any experience with chromebooks, but my husband has
fiddled with several. Here's his take, in case it adds anything
to Sam's responses.

Dave North writes:
> > This was on the Santa Fe LUG list. Do you know if there's a fairly
> > short simple answer to this? I"m under the impression that modern
> > chromebooks are much easier to install Linux on, or maybe you don't
> > even need to because they have it already ...?
> 
> ...and then...
> 
> > 1. There is a way to unlock the boot so that you can boot from your
> > debian or ubuntu or fedora USB drive.
> 
> This was possible at one time, so depending on how old the machine is, it
> might work. I'm not up to date for, oh, a few months, but I doubt anything
> has changed in newer machines.
> 
> > 2. I've seen someone set up some kind of apt installation on top of
> > chromeOS and get emacs and gnuplot going.  It seemed insufficient to get
> > the benefits of all the great utilities.
> 
> Depends on the power of the chromebook. You are basically running linux in a
> virtual machine, and for security purposes, the variant runnin on chrome is
> somewhat inefficient. On the other hand, even on my old piece o crud
> chromebook, all the command-line stuff works fine once the machine
> (eventually) fires up.
> 
> > 3. I've heard that more recent chromebook models make the #2 type of
> > integration work better.
> 
> Yup.
> 
> > would there be a resource available that lets you look up which makes
> > and models (HP, Dell, Lenovo, ...) ones are good for that?
> 
> Yes. Unfortunately I don't have a url at hand, but it's not that hard to
> suss out with google.
> 
> > So, does anyone here have resources to point me to to answer this
> > question: "what's the best way to run a full GNU/Linux distro on a
> > chromebook?"
> 
> Either (a) find an old one that has the ability to change the bootloader or
> (b) just use the virtual machine they supply and see if it's functional
> enough.