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| page | Upgrading my chromebook | The process of installing GalliumOS on an ACER R11 | 2020-12-3 09:00:00 | 2020-10-31 | project laptop hardware | Performing some upgrades to my old laptop. This post outlines the setup process for installing GalliumOS |
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My previous development laptop was an Acer R11 chromebook. I always ran it in developer mode with all the Linux packages I needed installed via chromebrew. This setup worked great except for GUI programs, as (at the time), the built-in Wayland server on the chromebook was not exposed to the user in a meaningful way. I relied on an internal tool from Google called sommelier to translate X11 calls to the internal Wayland server. None of this was ideal, but with a lot of scripts and aliases, I made it work.
Recently, I decided to remove the locked-down ChromeOS all together, and set the laptop up with GalliumOS so it can be used as a lightweight code-review machine with access to some useful tools like VSCode and GitKraken. This whole process is actually fairly easy, and a good way to breathe new life in to an old chromebook. This guide will be R11-specific, but the process doesn't vary too wildly between models.
Developer mode
A standard feature on chromebooks is "developer mode". This is a hidden boot mode that is designed to give ChromiumOS contributors and Google developers access to debug tools when testing new OS builds. Along with debug tools, this mode also exposes a Linux terminal with root access to the user via Ctrl + Alt + ->. On an extremely locked down system like a chromebook, this terminal access exposes a lot of new capability. For this use case, we will only use it to modify the system bootloader.
To enable developer mode, simply press Esc + Refresh + Power, and let the chromebook reboot. Once the recovery screen pops up, press Ctrl + D, and the device is now in developer mode.
Write protection
This step will void your device's warranty.