“Chrome”book

This doesn’t have anything to do with the presentation

Chromebook

• This is the Dell Chromebook 11 3180
• Intel Celery N3060 (Dual Core, 1.6 Ghz - 2.48 Ghz Boost)
• 4Gb Ram
• 16Gb eMMC
• 11.6-inch 1366x768 screen
• Released in 2017

Previous Exploits

• There was a sticker on it that said it had Red Star OS on it before
• Apparently, that was not true
• The attempt failed
• Instead, I just decided to install Ubuntu on it

Process

• There is a great resource here:
• https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/docs/getting-started.html
• I basically had to replace the firmware with a regular UEFI
• First, I had to put it into developer mode, which entailed pressing fun combinations of keys
• This turned off OS verification

Firmware Lock

• Most chromebooks have a physical firmware protection
• This one has a screw
• If you don’t unscrew it, you cannot write the firmware
• I lost the screw, but it doesn’t need to go back on so it's fine

Firmware Time!

• At the ChromeOS login screen, I dropped into the terminal
• From there, I used a script to flash a UEFI bootloader
• It worked, so now it’s basically just a regular laptop

OS Time!

• I decided to install Ubuntu Server, then install Cinnamon Desktop on top of that
• This has 16Gb of storage, so I can’t just install Mint
• Two things:
• The ubuntu install took like 20 minutes even with an ethernet connection
• These USB ports are located in such a terrible location (these are the only two)
• Matthew suggested that I name it Big Jimmy, so that’s what it’s called now

More OS Time!

• It worked!
• Obligatory Fastfetch
• The trackpad worked, which is not always a given with these chromebooks
• However, sound did not work
• The battery was also not charging
• In addition wifi and bluetooth were extremely weak and dropped connection so much
• Bluetooth wouldn’t even see a device usually

Fixing the Sound

• Basically, I just used this: https://github.com/WeirdTreeThing/chromebook-linux-audio
• It didn’t work at first, but after enough finagling with ALSA controls, I did finally get sound
• I’m not really sure what I did, but I basically just had to set some ALSA outputs to be on
• The speakers are of superb quality (kidding)

Fixing the Keyboard

• In case you aren't aware, chromebooks have a function row on top of the keyboard that has stuff like volume and brightness controls
• Linux just treats them as function keys
• So, I used another script to fix that: https://github.com/WeirdTreeThing/cros-keyboard-map
• It worked, so now the keys function normally
• To actually use the Fn keys, you press Right Alt + key
• Right Alt is now the Fn key

Fixing Other Problems

• The battery never charged, so I decided that it was completely shot
• Unplugging it turned it off immediately
• I tried fiddling around with some commands to get wifi and bluetooth to actually work
• It did not work
• I decided that this chromebook does not have good linux drivers for its wifi and bluetooth card, so it just performed terribly

Making this Presentation

• While making this presentation, I had to open up the back case to get a photo of the write-protect screw
• It was at that point that I discovered two things:
• The battery cable was just chilling in the corner of the case
• The wifi antennas were unplugged
• A facepalm moment then ensued
• These items were promptly plugged into their proper positions

Actually Fixing the Problems

• Wifi performance immediately improved drastically
• Ethernet is no longer required
• The battery actually holds charge now
• The battery says it has 81% capacity still, so it is quite decent
• It holds a charge for several hours
• Bluetooth works now after more fiddling and installing a package for bluetooth audio support

Finally

• Lastly, I changed the filesystem from ext4 to btrfs, allowing me to use filesystem compression
• Saved about a gigabyte in a half (I’m only at 4.34Gb now)
• Also I installed zram DOWNLOADED MORE RAM because 4Gb ram
• Also I installed minecraft
• It certainly runs
• It is kind of fine
• So, in conclusion, it computers now