[sf-lug] Big progress on launchpad's bug number one

[Kevin J. Smith]

>From the Chromium OS site (open-source project for ChromeOS), this page has
links to how to enable "Developer Mode" - which allows for booting into a
non-signed OS

http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices

Based on a cursory Googling, appears that they have guides for installing
Ubuntu and Debian on many of the devices.

On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 10:19 PM, Ehud Kaldor <ehud.kaldor at gmail.com> wrote:

>  Akkana wrote:
>
> At least, most of the
> x86 Chromebooks have firmware that can only boot specific signed
> kernels. You can install another distro, either instead of ChromeOS
> or in a separate partition as a dual-boot; but it has to be a distro
> that's capable of running with Google's signed ChromeOS kernels.
>
>  there is a hack available out there to disable this signing check. I
> vaugely remember there is a physical switch you can move if you take out
> the battery, and then it will warn you about dragons and will boot unsigned.
>
> Cheers,
> Ehud
>
>  On 01/07/2013 07:06 PM, Akkana Peck wrote:
>
> Rick Moen writes:
>
>  one reason I haven't looked closely is that, if someone gave me a
> somewhat hardware-anaemic Atom-based netbook preloaded with ChromeOS,
> probably the first thing I'd do is overwrite the preload with my
> preference in standalone (and genuinely open source) Linux distro.
>
>  Unfortunately, it's not as easy as that. At least, most of the
> x86 Chromebooks have firmware that can only boot specific signed
> kernels. You can install another distro, either instead of ChromeOS
> or in a separate partition as a dual-boot; but it has to be a distro
> that's capable of running with Google's signed ChromeOS kernels.
> So you can't run something like Debian Squeeze that uses an older
> version of udev, for example.
>
> My impression is that ARM models, like the model under discussion,
> are worse -- harder to bypass UEFI, harder to find a distro that
> works with any given kernel. But that's just rumor and may be wrong.
> I'd love to hear a firsthand account of someone installing a full
> Linux distro on one. Looks like nice hardware! Wish they'd sell
> it with a less restrictive BIOS.
>
> But consider this: however annoying the ChromeOS restrictions are,
> weaning people from proprietary office suites and into cloud apps
> also makes it more possible for them to use Linux -- a real one,
> not ChromeOS -- next time they buy a machine. It makes them more
> OS agnostic, and may also make them more open to the idea of using
> other cloud servers some day. So while I may chafe at the
> restrictions and privacy implications of ChromeOS, I still see
> Chromebook sales as a good sign for Linux. A small step, but it's
> in the right direction.
>
> 	...Akkana
>
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