Recovering my old Chromebook

Posted Sat 15 May, 2021.

I admit it was a silly idea and I regret buying a Chromebook (a Samsung's ARM Chromebook, for more details). Because it is a closed system, you can't easily install anything you want on it and get rid of all Goggle stuff, and when Google ended its support in July 2018, it became a full working laptop with no support or security updates. I guess I'm spoiled by open source!

Of course when I bought it, it felt like a good idea: nice hardware, ARM CPU (exotic!), and quite cheap. I bought it as a non-expensive laptop to bring to conferences, and being able to install Linux on a chroot meant that I could have a bit more than what Google was offering (web apps, this Chromebook never got Android app support).

To be fair, I knew it was a closed system, but as it was kind of "hackeable", I didn't mind too much. Turns out the main issue was the exotic part: the ARM CPU, because in x86 Chromebooks is easier to get rid of Google completely and just run Linux.

Because the base OS doesn't have support any more, the chroot solution isn't good either, so after barely using the machine for a couple of years (only as SSH client, occasionally) because the lack of updates, I decided to install Linux using this:

Installing Debian on an ARM Chromebook (XE303C12)

And it works great! Or, at least, as well as it can because you always depend on the "developer mode" and pressing CTRL + D on boot (and not space, that restores the Chrome OS!). Not all the hardware is supported, but it is more than enough for me and, at least, I have recovered perfectly usable hardware that otherwise I wouldn't use.

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