[sf-lug] installing linux on a chromebook

[Michael Paoli]

The *buntus are Debian-/like/, but are *not* Debian.
I'd start with the distro's official upgrade documentation.
Also, /all/ the *buntus are kind'a same OS, at least last I checked,
same repos for all, differ only in what packages are installed,
and some minor configuration differences.
So, if your hardware meets even /minimal/ specs
for any of them, you may be able to
shoehorn 'em in there for install or upgrade.

Also, if one is short on RAM, having/adding
ample swap can help, e.g. up to 4x RAM or so.
That generally won't boost performance for the most part,
but may often mean the difference between crash or lockup,
and slow degraded performance, but still functioning.
Hint: e.g. the BALUG VM (also hosts SF-LUG.org, etc.)
has only 1GiB of RAM, but it has 2.5GiB of swap,
and peeking presently is using about 1.7GiB of swap.

One may also consult Debian's installation/upgrade documentation
(Install Guide & Release Notes) for hints, as the *buntus are both APT
based, and based upon Debian.  So, e.g. updating repos in APT
configuration and
# apt-get update
and
# apt-get upgrade
and
# apt-get full-upgrade
might be quite applicable.

On Thu, May 14, 2026 at 7:41 PM John Strazzarino <jstrazzarino at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I have a Dell 3180 chromebook with 4GB of RAM and a 16GB SSD.  It is currently running lubuntu 25.10, with mr chrome box software which InInstalled using the entire 16GB SSD.  I’m  trying to install 26.04 lubuntu but the installer says that I don’t have enough space to install it.  It says it needs 8 GB of RAM, which I don’t have.
>
> I booted the chromebook from a usb stick and use the try it option of lubuntu and tried to use info found on Google to delete the SSD, but was not successful.
>
> Not sure how to proceed to go from 25.10 to 26.04.  ran the commands sudo apt upgrade and sudo apt install.  It did some work, but im still running 25.10 according to the linux command to show which version js running.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> John
>
>
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
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