Previously I wrote about using Crouton with your Chromebook to run Linux. This tutorial will walk you through the original process Build a Rockin $100 laptop.
My needs changed though, I needed far more hard disk space than the original 16 GB that came with the Acer Chromebook. The process below is basically a $40 upgrade and about three hours of work.
Linux Mint on a Chromebook (acer C720)
this blog covers several topics:
1. Making a recovery boot disk
2. Installing a new SSD in an ACER C720
3. Installing Linux Mint and getting the machine back to a “zero state” for use
4. finally installing any extra tools
1) There are plenty of sites that detail making a recovery disk in Chrome. This is the first step before doing anything!! You must have made a recovery disk so you can restore Chrome to the new hard disk. And if all goes bad so you have a place to return to.
2) Installing the new SSD
I purchased a 128 GB SSD for my Chromebook. The key is to ensure it is 42mm and the format is NGFF. Approximate cost in January 2016 $52 from Amazon. I used the instructions found here to change out the SSD. In short follow these steps (http://www.androidcentral.com/how-upgrade-ssd-your-acer-c720-chromebook?pg=5#content)
1. Sync drop box and anything else that may be on your Linux Chroot
2. Make sure you left nothing!
3. Make a recovery disk
4. Shut down the computer
5. Remove the 13 screws and back
6. Swap out the drive
7. Reassemble the computer
I turned on my computer and came back to the developer (red explamation mark) screen. I returned the laptop to normal recovery mode (yellow explanation mark). However I hit my first SNAFU when the SanDisk 8gb recovery disk would not read. I have a 16gb USB I am going to use instead. I am on a separate Linux Mint machine following the google instructions in a Linux console terminal.
Just in case you need a USB Drive from terminal:
1. Find what the drive is called. You’ll need to know what the drive is called to mount it. To do that fire off:
1. sudo fdisk -l (L not one)
2. You’re looking for a partition that should look something like: /dev/sdb1. Remember what it’s called.
2. Create a mount point
1. Create a new directory in /media so you can mount the drive onto the filesystem:
2. sudo mkdir /media/usb
3. Mount!
1. sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/usb
2. When you’re done, just fire off:
3. sudo umount /media/usb
Finally! It took several tries to make a working recovery disk. Once I had it installed and Chrome recovered I was able to log into my chromebook with a 128GB SSD! It works…
Now it is time to customize and turn it into a Linux Mint box.
3) Installing Linux Mint.
1. Setup the system for developer mode using google’s documentation
1. Boot into Developer mode#
1. Make sure the Chromebook is turned off
2. Hold Escape and Refresh and tap the Power button
3. When the device reaches the recover screen, press Ctrl+d and then (after releasing Ctrl+d) press Enter
4. The system will reboot (this will take some time)
5. Press Ctrl+d again.
6. Once you reach the Google login screen, do NOT log in
7. Press Ctrl+alt+ → (not the right cursor key, but the key where the standard F2 key would be)
2. Setup SeaBios
1. Get to a shell by pressing CTRL-ALT-RightArrow (basically the former F2 key)
2. Login with root (use root as the password)
3. Type in crossystem dev_boot_usb=1 dev_boot_legacy=1
4. Type in reboot (system will reboot)
3. Create a Linux Mint bootable USB (see other details)
4. Once it comes to life, you’ll see the regular “Yellow Exclamation” screen, during which you can press CTRL-L
5. You’ll get a prompt asking you to press ESC to change boot sequence, go ahead
1. At this point you should see the Linux Mint boot screen, press TAB
2. replace — with mem=1G
6. Now you are in!! Click on the installlation disk to install Linux Mint.
Setting up the machine for use….I copied and pasted some of this from a prior blog. It is exciting to have a new, clean machine. This is how I configured for my requirements.
1. First things first the machine rebooted and I connected to wifi. Remember hit ctrl+L at the main screen to get started.
2. I checked my file system and noted I have 107 GB of free space.
3. Turn the firewall on
1. You can either go looking for “gufw” in the Software Manager, or alternatively, paste this into your terminal:
1. sudo apt-get install gufw
2. To turn your firewall on, search in your Whisker Menu for “firewall” or “gufw”. Firewall Configuration will come up. Click on that, turn it on, and you’re away.
4. Basic updates
1. Next, I clicked the update manager and pulled all Mint related updates and installed. This was nearly 500MB of updates.
2. http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_qiana_cinnamon_whatsnew.php
1. Change the software sources
1. This should be done next. Simply go to the Menu, run your mouse up to Administration and select ‘Software Sources’
2. Update Manager – update all files
1. sudo apt-get update
3. Driver Manager – update all files
4. Ubuntu Restricted
1. go to software manager
2. type ubuntu restricted and install
3. Turn on the firewall
1. sudo apt-get install gufw
2. Open firewall and set information
4. VLC Media Player – from software center
5. Keyboard shortcuts
1. System Settings from start menu
2. Keyboard
3. https://sites.google.com/site/installationubuntu/chromebook-acer-720p/acer-c720-keyboard-mapping
6. Get Some Wallpaper
1. Setup the desktop changer to work
7. Get Flashplayer
8. sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer
9. My personal list
1. Install the printer driver and test
2. Install Google Chrome and log
3. Install Dropbox
4. Install Everpad or Nixnote
5. Install skype
6. install unetbootin
1. if you get the extlinux error then run this command:
1. sudo apt-get install extlinux
7. Install Okular for reading PDF Files
8. Power Management for Laptop
1. sudo apt-add-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
2. sudo apt-get update
3. sudo apt-get install tlp
9. Libre Office came installed….configure
1. Spelling and Grammar
1. http://extensions.libreoffice.org/extension-center/languagetool
2. Configure Fonts
1. Go to your Software manager and search for ttf-mscore
2. Reboot your PC or restart Libreoffice (including the Quickstarter if you are using that)
3. Then you can set the Times font and any point size you need.
10. Install Wine
11. Install Calibre
10. Programming
1. Install MariaDB
1. Start the database the first time
1. mysql -u root -p
2. Install ProgresSQL (ugh)
3. Install MySQLWorkbench
1. Download and install from the web site to get the latest version
4. Install monodevelopment
1. Download and install from the software manager
1. monodevelopment complete
2. monodevelopment developer
3. monodevelopment xsp4
5. Install php
1. http://www.it-iss.com/mysql/phpcrud-for-mysql/
2. Install the phpCrud script
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