Chromebook C720 - issue suspending and booting

Question

I recently bought an Acer C720 Chromebook (Celeron, 2GB RAM, 16GB SSD) with the intention of loading Linux and using it as a cheap development laptop while on my holiday. The installation sort of went ok but initially the trackpad didn't work so I ran a script that mostly fixed that. My current issues are:

• Booting: it still goes to the chrome "unknown os" white screen - I have to press ctrl L - then escape then 1 then wait for 30 secs while it seems to be searching for something. Then Ubuntu loads up fine. Any idea how to fix this?

  Suspend: if I close the lid of the laptop then it doesn't seem to suspend properly. At least when I open the lid the screen appears to be on but the screen is blank with a cursor. Nothing responds on the keyboard and I have to hold the power down to restart it. The suspend from the top menu has the same issue.

  Moving windows: I don't have a mouse click button so how do I move windows around the screen?

  Launcher bar: I've set mine to auto hide (which it does) but what exactly do you have to do to get it back? I just repeatedly jab the mouse at the side of the screen and eventually it pops up.

I don't mind starting all over again but obviously a quick fix is preferred ;) Mike

Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS Kernel 3.13.0-32-generic

PS Sorry for so many questions.

Answer 1

I've bought C720 as a present and was also messing with Ubuntu for a month, but eventually went back to Chrome OS (I decided to give choice of the OS to the person for whom this Chromebook was intended). So what I found out in the process is this, but haven't actually got to implement it.

Booting: According to Arch Linux Wiki , there is a way to make SeaBIOS default (which is what actually loads Ubuntu). In other words, making SeaBIOS default should make it go directly into booting ubuntu. That requires removing write-protect screw inside the Chromebook itself (which is pretty easy to open actually). More information here and here

Mouse: There's a shortcut for moving windows in ubuntu : hold alt+left click and drag; speaking of mouses, you probably have heard there is script for rebuilding the kernel, right? Alternative to that is wireless mouse (I've found pretty cheap one , 15$, at Walmart) - that was my solution because I was to lazy to mess with those scripts.

Suspend: found this forum post just now; according to Pascal148 you have to open /etc/default/grub, replace the line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

with

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash add_efi_memmap boot=local noresume noswap i915.modeset=1 tpm_tis.force=1 tpm_tis.interrupts=0 nmi_watchdog=panic,lapic"

and then make sudo update-grub.

Hope this helps. Chromebooks are pretty awesome tech considering the cheapness. I hope to save up and buy one for myself next time, and get ubuntu onto it, but up to this point my learning stops here, so good luck to you, friend!

Answer 2

1. Yes the Chrome "OS Verification is off" screen is NOT removable and is part of the permanent chips inside the laptop. You must press Ctrl+L to boot into Ubuntu or any other OS you installed if you want to stop the Ctrl+L process and skip Directly to the BIOS screen (where you select the boot device, i.e. your hard drive you installed on). Read this question.

2. This has been a debated issue for the chromebook for a LONG time there really is no cure for that issue or at least I haven't found one that works. You can try this solution that works for some people, but not me.

3. If the mouse you are using is the touchpad built onto the Chromebook (below the keyboard) then you can easily just move the mouse onto the window and use the physical click (pushing down on the touchpad to hear a (CLICK)) and moving the windows around if the issue you are having is with a mouse without a click at all I don't have a solution I can give one I'm sorry...

4. The launcher bar when set to auto hide will not popup when you just move your mouse to it. You must move your mouse to the middle of the screen and move the mouse onto the launcher then repeat the process which should open the launcher oh plus you can change the launcher hide sensitivity in the same place you enabled auto hide the lower the sensitivity it gets the harder it will be to open the launcher.

Again, my apologies for the things I couldn't solve and any typos.