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The chromebook I'm trying to install Ubuntu on is a Google Pixelbook, with the i5-8200Y and 8 GB of RAM.

The Chromebook model name is EVE.

One cannot install Ubuntu in a Chromebook in the regular method, because default settings of Chromebook do not allow booting from a USB drive.

The official tutorial for installing Ubuntu in chroot using the Crouton installer is for Ubuntu 16.04, and is outdated. I'm not too sure on the version of Ubuntu, I would assume 16.04 though as I'm using the crouton installer. So, I asked this question initially on Reddit, about running into trouble on one of the steps. The redditor was able to help me partially, guiding me to the updated crouton install guide.

My problem currently is that I left it to install after typing

sudo crouton -t xfce

and it did a bunch of retrieving and validating, but then after a while, when I returned, it had thrown this error at me.

Compiling CRAS (i386)...
gcc: error: unrecognized command line option '-Wundef-prefix=HAVE_,CRAS_'
Failed to complete chroot setup.
Unmounting /mnt/stateful_partition/crouton/chroots/xenial...

Basically, I've just started coding, so I don't understand any of it. Thank you.

Archisman Panigrahi
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Joonte Lee
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  • Once you tell us the model name, we can tell you steps. Also, do you want to replace ChromeOS with Ubuntu? – Archisman Panigrahi May 23 '23 at 00:33
  • @ArchismanPanigrahi EVE D6B-A6A-A4H-F8N-P8A-A4U. No, I don't want to replace ChromeOS with Ubuntu, just have them running side-by-side like the tutorial described. – Joonte Lee May 24 '23 at 00:36
  • Please let me know if my answer works for you – Archisman Panigrahi May 26 '23 at 03:44
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    @ArchismanPanigrahi Hey Archisman! Thanks so much for all the help! Just wanted to give you an update, I haven't tried it yet, because last month my chromebook charger stopped working, so I had to order another one from the States. Now, I just ordered a little tool kit to help me take the laptop apart, so I should have another update for you by the end of July. – Joonte Lee Jul 09 '23 at 05:46
  • I installed Kubuntu and Arch Linux on three chromebooks so far, and everything works – Archisman Panigrahi Jul 09 '23 at 18:20

1 Answers1

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This guide is for the full installation of the latest version of Ubuntu (dual boot/single boot). Installing Ubuntu will necessarily remove ChromeOS. If you don't want to do that, Set up Linux on Chromebook instead. It will create a Debian virtual container inside ChromeOS.

This answer is applicable to almost any chromebook with amd64 processor.

I have used these methods on three Chromebooks (Acer C731 RELM and HP x360 14b BLOOGUARD, and Lenovo 500e 2nd gen PHASER360), and they work perfectly. I have tried Ubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Kubuntu, and Arch Linux in them, and all the hardware (touchscreen/camera/audio) work.

You will have to use the MrChromebox.Tech ROM

These instructions are based on this webpage. First ensure that your Chromebook is supported. I checked that EVE is indeed supported.

  1. Fully update your Chromebook and enable developer mode. After enabling developer mode, the computer will show ChromeOS is missing, but you can press ctrl+d to boot into ChromeOS. If you do not press, it will automatically boot into ChromeOS after 30 seconds.

  2. In Google Pixelbook, you need to temporarily detach the battery from the motherboard to disable Firmware Write Protect. See this page for more details. In older Chromebooks, you had to remove a screw from the motherboard instead of detaching the battery.

  3. Open a ChromeOS terminal with Ctrl+Alt+T. Enter the command shell (you cannot do this without developer mode), and enter the following command.

    cd; curl -LO mrchromebox.tech/firmware-util.sh && sudo bash firmware-util.sh

image

Steps for Dual Boot

  1. If you want to dual boot, choose 1) Install/Update RW_Legacy firmware.

  2. (Only for Dual Boot) You will need two USB drives (or a USB drive and a microSD card), one with Ubuntu installation image flashed, and the other drive is where you will install Ubuntu.

  3. In case you opted for RW_Legacy firmware, reboot, and press Ctrl+L to choose external booting media (e.g. USB/microSD where you have flashed Ubuntu). Then, install Ubuntu on the other USB drive (or you can install ubuntu in the microSD card).

  4. Afterwards, press Ctrl+L to boot Ubuntu from the USB drive/microSD card where you installed Ubuntu, or press Ctrl+D to boot ChromeOS.

  5. In case sound does not work, setup sound with

git clone https://github.com/WeirdTreeThing/chromebook-linux-audio
cd chromebook-linux-audio
./setup-audio

And reboot.

Steps for replacing ChromeOS with Ubuntu

If you want to remove ChromeOS and turn it into a regular laptop, choose 2) Install/Update UEFI (Full ROM) firmware. For that, you have to disable Firmware Write Protect. Then follow the steps 5-8 as described above.

Tips and Tricks:

  1. Here is how to enable automatic screen rotation, if your Chromebook has the appropriate sensors for that.
  2. Here is the screen rotation tutorial for chromebooks without a rotation sensor.
  3. Here is how to set the Chromebook keyboard layout to enable the media keys.
Archisman Panigrahi
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    Hey Archisman! Thanks so much for all the help! Just wanted to give you an update, I haven't tried it yet, because last month my chromebook charger stopped working, so I had to order another one from the States. Now, I just ordered a little tool kit to help me take the laptop apart, so I should have another update for you by the end of July. – Joonte Lee Jul 08 '23 at 03:53
  • Hey Archisman, I'm on step 8 for MrChromeBox.TECH, but entering the 'git clone' command with my github username + personal access token returns 'fatal: repository 'https://github.com/eupnea-linux/audio-scripts/' not found' – Joonte Lee Aug 02 '23 at 05:11
  • @JoonteLee updated my answer. The repository owner changed – Archisman Panigrahi Aug 02 '23 at 12:03
  • @JoonteLee Did that work? If it did, please accept the answer. – Archisman Panigrahi Feb 18 '24 at 23:30