Has anyone here tried a Chromebook?

[Michael Butash]

I haven't looked to see if the bootloader is unlockable on the 
chromebooks, but otherwise if so, it's really not typically "risky". 
I've been romming/unlocking phones since winmo3/pre/early androids and 
never bricked a device that wasn't recoverable via a factory recovery 
means.  Samsung is decent about providing unlock capability, so I would 
expect it is or will be unlockable by end-users as most of their modern 
devices are.

Finding a rom that works on it, maybe not so much.  Canonical ported an 
ubuntu to the nexus7, and later the gnex as ubuntu phone, but it's a 
matter of getting the system working with still somewhat irregular 
hardware quirks in each, including x with capable drivers for direct 
render hardware acceleration and multitouch.  Native ubuntu on arm 
phone-ish devices is still a WIP.

More easily you can usually get ubuntu to run externally atop the 
android kernel, and there's an app to guide you through setting it up in 
SD on play for ubuntu 10.04, 12.04, or backtrack5.  I had 12.04 on my 
gnex for a bit, and would vnc to the desktop for use.  A bit kludgy, but 
gave me some decent usability aside from unity itself being a pig and 
slowing the entire phone down.  LXDE is a much better route I'd heard, 
but never got to try.

I'm trying to find some time to set up ubuntu over android on my 
transformer prime infinity with the keyboard dock to see how my mileage 
is with it, but hit some quirks of cyanogenmod 10.1 on it.

-mb


On 01/14/2013 09:01 PM, Joseph Sinclair wrote:
> The samsung chromebook runs a dual-core Exynos 5 processor (smartphone/tablet ARM 15 chip).  It might be possible to get Linux running, but you need to get an ARM build.
> Also, there is a secure boot feature that may prevent running anything other than ChromeOS on the system (absent a risky unlock procedure).
> If you want to hack, then get the C7, which is far more amenable to being "repurposed"; the Samsung version really is intended as an "appliance" laptop.
>
> That said, I have the Samsung Chromebook, and it's a very nice tagalong device; not a primary device, but very good to take with me just about anywhere I might want to have a real keyboard and remote access, even when I'm not sure whether I'll use it or not.
>
> It's (almost) completely useless without WiFi, however (no wired port, and no cell option), so either have a mobile hotspot on hand or be sure there's WiFi available wherever it is you're going.
>
>
> On 01/14/2013 05:40 PM, joe at actionline.com wrote:
>> Stephen wrote:
>>> ... [chromebooks] are 100% purpose built to run just a browser.
>>> Within that there are a number of tools giving you a great deal
>>> of functionality inside the chrome browser as a plugin. One of my
>>> favorites of these is an SSH client. they also have RDP and VNC
>>> clients as well.
>>
>> What is RDP?
>>
>> Would it be possible to install Linux on the Samsung chromebook?
>> I've read that it is being done on the Acer C7 chromebook.
>>
>> Or could one boot Linux from a USB flash stick on the Samsung?
>>
>>
>>
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