GalliumOS on an old chromebook
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Last edited: $Date: 2022/04/30 17:30:16 $
Old chrombook
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I have an old Asus chromebook which the auto-update expiration (AUE)
date is many years in the past. This weekend I finally took the time
to reveive this machine.
Machine specs
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- CPU: Intel Celeron N2830 @ 2.4 GHz
- RAM: 2 Gb
- Display: 11.6 inch 1366x768
- SSD: 16 Gb eMMC
- Touchpad: 4.1 x 2.4 inch
- Wifi: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0
- Battery: 48WHrs, 3S1P, 3-cell Li-ion
- Weight: 1.15 kg
The keyboard is a typical chromebook keyboard, according to a review
it offers a nice deep 2mm of vertical travel and requires 65 grams of
force to depress. In other words: it is not a Thinkpad keyboard, but
it is not bad.
Other than a power port, it offers an HDMI port, a 3.5 mm headphone
jack, anSD card slot, a USB 3.0 port and a USB 2.0 Type-A port.
Dual boot
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Expired chromebooks can be revived in two different ways:
- Replace ChromeOS completely
- Keep ChromeOS on a small partition and add a second operating system
The first option is rather destructive and requires to open the
chromebook to remove the write protect screw. Because I didn't know
what to expect from a Linux install on this chromebook, I decided to
go for the second option. This second option requires a firmware
update that can be performed with the write protect screw in place and
doesn't require opening the case.
Installing via chrxn
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The wonderful command-line installer chrxn makes everything easy. I
had expected some challenges during the conversion, but everything
went super smooth.
Globally, the conversion consists of the following steps:
- Set the chromebook into developer mode (hit Esc + Refresh + Power)
- Boot into ChromeOS and open a terminal
- Run a command to fetch chrxn and updates the firmware
- Run a command to fetch chrxn and resize disk space
- Run a command to fetch chrxn and install GalliumOS
See:
https://chrx.org/
GalliumOS
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GalliumOS is a small desktop installation based on Ubuntu 18.04 with a
4.16 Linux kernel. It comes with the XFCE4 window manager. So, it is a
rather old distribution. I installed Emacs and Firefox from the
standard repository, which gives you Emacs 25 and Firefox 99.0.
Emacs upgrade
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I followed the instructions from ubuntuhandbook.org and now on the
chromebook Emacs 27 is running.
See:
https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2020/09/install-emacs-27-1-ppa-ubuntu-20-04/
Performance
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The machine is absolutely workable. I haven't tried Libreoffice or
some other more 'heavy' application, but Firefox runs fine. Emacs
works fine too, of course. So for some basic writing, note taking and
light surfing this is a valid option. The machine is light weight, the
battery time is still somewhere around five or six hours, which is
good enough for me.
Experience
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The machine works fine. I have to get used to a traditional window
manager, after about two decades of tiling window manager. So, perhaps
I will replace XFCE4 with ratpoison or dwm.
Most of the time I am writing and have some SSH sessions open. Which
is of course easy to do on a machine like this. The 2 Gb RAM makes
Firefox useable enough. Most of my browsing I do in eww or lynx
anyway.
The only complaint I have so far is the trackpad. It is very easy to
misplace your mice while typing on the keyboard. So the
palm-recognition isn't great. I haven't looked into that yet.
Maybe in the future I will do the full conversion, opening the case
and removing the write protect screw. This opens the way to a more up
to date operating system.
But for now, with this conversion I have a 1.15 kg small 11.6 inch
laptop, that is running Emacs 27, Firefox and some ssh sessions in a
terminal window. It is probably capable to do more, but this is all I
need for a second side laptop.
* EOF *
