Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Install Ubuntu On Your Chromebook

greenido.wordpress.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 49 posts

Re: Install Ubuntu On Your Chromebook

#31

Post by avian »

jonknee wrote: post #30
tuananh wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He exaggerated to make a point but Ctrl D every single time you boot is kinda annoying.

One more finger annoying than the power button which is what you would do on any other laptop. There is not a desktop Linux user alive who has not put up with more annoying things than hitting two keys to boot.

Incidentally, I'm a desktop Linux user for more than 10 years. I don't mind having to do annoying things once or twice to set things up.

I do mind having to do them each and every time I pick up the computer, especially when I have bought it believing that I won't have to.

Re: Install Ubuntu On Your Chromebook

#33

Post by jlgreco »

rwmj wrote: post #10

Lots of other distros work on the Chromebook (and have for longer). Here's for example Fedora 19 and Arch Linux instructions: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM/F19/Remixes... http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7/samsung/samsung-chro... The next challenge is getting KVM working. The Chromebook has an A15 chip which has hardware assisted virtualization. Unfortunately the firmware disables HYP mode, bu…

Yeah, I'm running Debian Wheezy on a Pixel and, besides building my own more current kernels, there is nothing special going on here.

Re: Install Ubuntu On Your Chromebook

#34

Post by jlgreco »

bsimpson wrote: post #29
avian wrote: post #11

All of these "install ... on Chromebook" articles fail to mention that on recent Chromebooks without a physical developer mode switch (Samsung's ARM-based one, Pixel) you have to press a specific hidden keyboard combination and endure the big scary "developer mode" warning on each boot . In my view that makes it practically useless for day-to-day use as a general purpose laptop. You can flash the first stage bootload…

I am typing this on the Pixel that's been my main machine since I/O in May. Yeah, that screen is minorly annoying, but it goes away with one keystroke - not a dealbreaker.

Can't say I'm bothered either. It might concern me if I were recommending a Pixel with regular Linux on it to a non-power user... but I wouldn't do that anyway.

Re: Install Ubuntu On Your Chromebook

#35

Post by rbanffy »

rwmj wrote: post #28
rbanffy wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a pool of sarcasm under your post

Presumably MSFT will be having a firesale now they've realized that Windows RT was a bad idea. All we need is someone to work out how to root them, and then cheap A9-based quad-core laptops for running Linux.

The hardware seems quite good.

Re: Install Ubuntu On Your Chromebook

#36

Post by rwmj »

jlgreco wrote: post #33
rwmj wrote: post #10

Lots of other distros work on the Chromebook (and have for longer). Here's for example Fedora 19 and Arch Linux instructions: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM/F19/Remixes... http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7/samsung/samsung-chro... The next challenge is getting KVM working. The Chromebook has an A15 chip which has hardware assisted virtualization. Unfortunately the firmware disables HYP mode, bu…

Yeah, I'm running Debian Wheezy on a Pixel and, besides building my own more current kernels, there is nothing special going on here.

However the Pixel has an Intel chip doesn't it?

Re: Install Ubuntu On Your Chromebook

#37

Post by DHowett »

broodbucket wrote: post #19
avian wrote: post #11

All of these "install ... on Chromebook" articles fail to mention that on recent Chromebooks without a physical developer mode switch (Samsung's ARM-based one, Pixel) you have to press a specific hidden keyboard combination and endure the big scary "developer mode" warning on each boot . In my view that makes it practically useless for day-to-day use as a general purpose laptop. You can flash the first stage bootload…

On regular laptops, you open the lid and press the "On" button. On my Chromebook, it boots as soon as you open the lid, and so I press Ctrl-D instead of the "On" button. I thought it'd be a pain, but it doesn't bother me at all, and you say that makes it "practically useless"?

The problem is that it's not just ^D on every boot, it's "press space twice in a thirty-second window and it will unceremoniously wipe all your data without a timeout." This will happen the moment you hand your computer to somebody of the sort who clicks through dialogs they don't ubderdtand, as the computer shuts off when it's slept for long enough.

(The infuriating bit is how difficult it is to enter developer mode: two very secret keypresses and a thirty-second "please reconsider" grace period.)

Re: Install Ubuntu On Your Chromebook

#39

Post by jlgreco »

rwmj wrote: post #36
jlgreco wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm running Debian Wheezy on a Pixel and, besides building my own more current kernels, there is nothing special going on here.

However the Pixel has an Intel chip doesn't it?

It does, though most people seem to suggest the same crouton stuff for it. I tried that for a weekend and think that advice is misguided.

Re: Install Ubuntu On Your Chromebook

#40

Post by dkuntz2 »

rwmj wrote: post #10

Lots of other distros work on the Chromebook (and have for longer). Here's for example Fedora 19 and Arch Linux instructions: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM/F19/Remixes... http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7/samsung/samsung-chro... The next challenge is getting KVM working. The Chromebook has an A15 chip which has hardware assisted virtualization. Unfortunately the firmware disables HYP mode, bu…

I wouldn't say "for longer". The original CR-48 had instructions for dual booting Ubuntu, and not Fedora or Arch (or any other distro)...
Post reply on HN