jeorg-cloud-test-drives

Study project for all things cloud. Spin-offs will happen when detailing

This project is maintained by jesperancinha

Ubuntu Chrome (Tested on ACER C302C)

The whole concept of installing System in chrome is to disable OS system verification. This can be done permanently by removing the check via hardware or just skipping the reminding everytime you log in. Ctr-D is then your most common combination using Chrome Book in Dev mode.

  1. Turn Laptop off
  2. Press Esc, Refresh and then Power Button. The latter is located either on the keyboard or on the left side. Check the right side if it is not found on the left.
  3. Press Ctrl-D
  4. Accept turn OS verification OFF. Press Enter 5 Press Ctr-D
  5. Wait for installation to complete
  6. Wait for restart to complete
  7. Press Ctr-D again
  8. Finish installation steps
  9. Use Ctr-Alt-T to summon crosh (Chrome Shell)
  10. shell
  11. Download script crouton and save it in the downloads folder
  12. We need to copy crouton to a place where we can execute it.

    sudo mount /var -o remount,exec
    sudo cp ~/Downloads/crouton /var
    sudo sh /var/crouton -t unity
    
  13. Start Ubuntu

    sudo startunity
    
  14. Use Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Back and Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Forward to exchange systems

Remove warning Dev screen

– BE VERY CAREFUL HERE –

The danger here, is that depending on your notebook mode, is of course that it can end up getting bricked. In other words, if this doesn’t work, you could potentially reach a point of no return where the computer gets bricked. Please read the original documentation about this for more info, so that you can make a conscious and informed decision.

sudo -s
cd ~/Downloads
flashrom -r bios.bin
gbb_utility --set --flags=0x01 bios.bin bios.new
flashrom -w bios.new

If you see that something is wrong, but you still have access to the shell, you can try to revert your changes by writing the original dump:

flashrom -w bios.bin
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/chroots/xenial

Note that reverting this change isn’t done in a trivial way. You really need to revert everything. So you need to go back to normal mode, let Chrome OS make all the updates, before you can go back to the developer mode with the OS verification turned off.

Others

sudo sh /var/crouton -r list
enter-chroot
sudo mount /var -o remount,exec
sudo sh /var/crouton -t unity -u

Performing updates

We have these options to choose from operating systems among others: xfce and unity. They can be started with commands startxfce4 and startunity respectively.

However, we sometimes may need to do workarounds. Luckily we don’t have to load the full system. If we issue this command we can get into our OS and perform the necessary workarounds:

sudo enter-chroot [-n chrootname]

Issues

Ubuntu Unity - No Desktop

In the browser shell:

sudo enter-chroot
sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop

Write protected mode off

To turn the C302C Google Notebook write protection off, we need to open it up. There is a hidden screw under a tape that holds the chassis against touching the circuit board. I advise against using this. I couldn’t do anything with it, and the risk bricking the computer is quite high. Nothing ever happened to me, but fair warning that the risk is there. In any case I write this just for general knowledge.

alt text

Medium article

If you would like to see a better example on how this extra system installation please check my article on medium:

alt text Chrome OS Guide to go from Zero to DevOps Hero in a nutshell

alt text

References