[conspire] Installing Linux on Elise Scher's Chromebook

[Rick Moen]

Elise Scher will be arriving in the latter half of Saturday's CABAL
meeting, and would appreciate help installing some Linux distribution
(she's presently undecided) on an Acer Chromebook 11 with Celeron N3060
CPU, that she says she picked up Dec. 4, 2018.

That appears (maybe?) to be one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Chromebook-Celeron-Storage-CB3-132-C4VV/dp/B0795W86N4

  Acer Chromebook 11, Celeron N3060, 11.6" HD, 4GB DDR3L, 16GB Storage, CB3-132-C4VV

But see "recurring problem", below:

Predictably, it's the 4GB RAM that's going to be the real limiting
factor for desktop Linux.  Also, the Celeron N3060, a low-end dual-core
SoC for notebooks, clocked at 1.6 to 2.48 GHz and part of the Intel
Braswell platform, would be pretty iff-y for modern GNOME or KDE.  

The graphics portion of that chip is the Intel HD Graphics 400 chipset.

I'm a huge fan of the Arch Linux wiki on matters of Linux hardware
support, and I'm pretty sure this is the same unit:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Acer_Chromebook_11_(C732)
I notice it says there is no Linux support for the touchscreen
(which is fine) and none for the audio circuitry (which if still true is
unfortunate, but oh well).


There's a recurring problems, which applies here:  "Acer Chromebook 11" 
is a marketing name referring to multiple _actual_ models, detailed
here:  https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Chrome_OS_devices/Chromebook

2014's "C730 Chromebook 11":  2GB DDR3 or 4GB DDR3, 16GB eMMC or 32GB eMMC,
  not upgradeable.  Requires writing SeaBIOS.

2015's "C740 (EDU) Chromebook 11":  Celeron 3205U or Core i3-5005U, 
  2GB DDR3 or 4GB DDR3, 16GB SSD or 32GB SSD, upgradeable via 42mm M.2
  NGFF socket.  Requires writing SeaBIOS.

2016's "CB3-131-C8GZ (Chromebook 11)":  Intel BayTrail-M N2840 CPU, 
  4GB DDR3, 16GB eMMC, not upgradeable.  Requires writing SeaBIOS.

2018's "Chromebook 11 (C732) Astronaut" -- which is obviously too
  recent.

Elise sent me a photograph of the case bottom, but the Acer label with
the exact model designation is blurry and I cannot read it.


Important!  On any Chromebook, in order to blow away the preloaded
ChromiumOS environment, you must enter Developer Mode.  That and other
matters are covered on this page about installing Debian on an Acer
Chromebook 11 of approximately that vintage.
https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Acer/C740_Chromebook
Elise, you might want to print that out and bring it with you.
However, _disclaimer_:  I cannot tell if that covers your Chromebook
exactly, because I don't know which of several models called "Acer
Chromebook 11" yours is.

I would also recommend reading this page carefully, and perhaps printing
out and bringing along a printout of it, too:
https://chromebook.wiki/chromeosdevices/acergnawty