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by citizensixteen 3744 days ago
Do most people setting up a Chromebook to run on Linux wipe ChromeOS or use crouton?

If anyone has had luck with a fully functioning non/ChromeOS let me know what distribution you prefer. Currently I am also considering GalliumOS / NayuOS.

I've read some mixed reviews about using crouton and was curious if it's better to use crouton or to install/flash Linux?

It seems as though crouton could break with ChromeOS updates.
5 comments
Tiksi 3744 days ago
I have mine dual booted with arch and it works pretty well. If I'm just passively browsing I usually go to chromeos, anything else I reboot into arch (I figured that'd be annoying at first, but with how quickly both OSes boot its not at all an issue.) They have a pretty extensive guide on the arch wiki as well as device specific guides which could be helpful with other distros too:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chrome_OS_devices

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Acer_C720_Chromebook

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tyingq 3744 days ago
I used this: https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download...

To get Linux Mint's Debian Edition running on a chromebox. I went that direction because I'm used to Debian on servers, but Mint does a fair amount of work to get a functional/nice desktop.

I did upgrade the Chromebox to 8GB memory and a 128GB SSD. I also had to upgrade the kernel to get a video driver that was stable on the built-in Intel HD graphics.

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alexfrolov 3744 days ago
I've used crouton as my main OS before. It was a while ago but I was running Ubuntu 12.10.

Crouton works just fine with ChromeOS updates it doesn't break anything. Personally I ran into some performance issues as well as native hardware compatibility issues (eg you can only adjust volume in ChromeOS.)you also might not enjoy having to boot ChromeOS before you can get to your Linux environment.

For making a fully functioning desktop, Gallium looks the most promising for your needs.

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jws 3744 days ago
I wiped and installed Linux directly. Booting was annoying because it always wanted to recover. Then one day it failed to sleep, ran the battery dos, and lost the "legacy boot" setting leaving me with only the option to recover, wiping my system.

I recovered ChromeOS and gave the machine away.

If I had to use Chromebook hardware, I'd use crouton.

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AdmiralAsshat 3744 days ago
ChromeOS updates will occasionally break something in crouton, but it's usually pretty minor and gets fixed quickly.
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