Install Debian (Linux) on your Chromebook

Kanasuke on 23/01/2015 - 15:51

Was wondering if this might interest anyone.

There is a guide posted on the Software Freedom Law Center's blog (from Dec 2014) on how to install Debian onto a Chromebook. Any chromebook.

http://www.softwarefreedom.org/blog/2014/dec/01/de-chrome-ac…
This guide is particularly for the Acer C720 model but I believe it is possible on any model.

So the ozbargain strat is, buy cheap chromebook, de-chrome it and get a light-weight laptop with full power, full freedom and good battery life.

Comments

retiredfeline on 23/01/2015 - 16:09

+1

Thanks for that link.

This method actually replaces the ChromeOS, hence de-chroming. There is another approach which installs Linux on the side, search for chrome crouton.

So far I've satisfied all my needs with ChromeOS. The one thing I miss is being able to run openvpn to a non-standard port. So far I haven't needed that yet.
scotty on 23/01/2015 - 18:02

I went with crouton as well — ChromeOS does most things I need and I only use the Linux chroot in command line mode (didn't even bother to use X11). Having a full Linux environment is useful though to do some light development + network debugging work.
Davo1111 on 23/01/2015 - 18:30

i've also gone crouton. tbh i havent used it in quite a while.