Load Ubuntu onto wiped chromebook?

[ashbekah]

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Hello everybody. I have a hp pavilion chromebook 14. I am wondering if there is someway to wipe chrome os off of it and put a clean install of ubuntu or linux onto it. I have read that it is nearly impossible to remove chrome but I really want to. I am currently running chrome os with ubuntu via crouton and it is not just cutting it for me. Chrome os is not very good and I am tired of using it. I was thinking maybe I could put a disc image onto a usb drive and load it on that way. I do not have a cd drive on this chromebook so I would not be able to run a standard live cd. I have 3 usb ports and an hdmi port. Just to reiterate: I do not want to run both chrome os and linux. I want to wipe chrome and ONLY run linux on this machine. Any suggestions would be helpful.

[TNFrank]

Seems like you could just boot to a Live USB and format the SSD to remove Chrome from the laptop then install as per normal but there might be something in the BIOS that looks for Chrome to be installed and if it doesn't find it then it'll brick the system, at least IIRC I did hear something about that but can't really remember what it was. You may do a YouTube search for installing other Op Systems onto a Chrome Book and see what you come up with.

[rokytnji]

Seems like you could just boot to a Live USB and format the SSD to remove Chrome from the laptop then install as per normal but there might be something in the BIOS that looks for Chrome to be installed and if it doesn't find it then it'll brick the system, at least IIRC I did hear something about that but can't really remember what it was. You may do a YouTube search for installing other Op Systems onto a Chrome Book and see what you come up with.

Owning a Chromebook myself TNFrank. Forget what you know about Laptops. No bios to enter on Boot till developer mode has been
engaged. There is no usb boot or cd boot or menu till one jumps through hoops first. I oughta know

Chromebook Acer C710-2457 - LinuxQuestions.org

I am busy with AntiX 14 development so my test on my Acer C710 is on the back burner for now.


ashbekah is welcome to investigate the links I have gathered so far but if he/she bricks that HP.
Not my problem.

HP has different hardware as far as the touchpad, video, and wifi chips are concerned.
A lot of what I found was even for the Acer C720 so I don't even know if Bohdi will even work
till I try it out for myself.

Nothing ventured. Nothing Gained.

[sgosnell]

You can do it. There are numerous guides available across the interwebtubez. The only sticking point is the UEFI, but it's not really that difficult. I did it once with a chromebook, but I found that I missed ChromeOS. Now I dual-boot, and also run crouton. I find that I use ChromeOS most of the time, and crouton when I need Debian, and rarely boot Debian from my USB flash drive. The small SSD may deter some people, but it's big enough for me. FWIW, I have both and Acer C720 and an Asus Chromebox which I use as my desktop machine, and use them both about the same - mostly ChromeOS, and Debian for accessing IMAP email accounts outside Google. IMO the biggest drawback of ChromeOS is that no proper email client exists, and web interface is the only way to access your email. That's all well and good for GMail, but I don't use that for much other than using Google Hangouts and stuff. My real email stays private. But otherwise, ChromeOS does what I need. It's really Linux anyway, since it uses a Linux kernel, and you can use the terminal exactly like any other Linux distro. It's a somewhat tweaked Gentoo. You can't really brick a chromebook, since you can always download a recovery disk and restore ChromeOS rather easily. It's best to make a backup before you start, but if you don't, you can still get the recovery disk from any computer with an internet connection.

[TNFrank]

I knew I remembered something about a Chrome Book not being an easy install like a "normal" laptop. Thanks for knowing what I was trying to think of rokytnji.

[User141772]

I wiped out XP when I got ahead of myself and installed Linux Mint before I had save XP to another hard drive. Now, I would like to reinstall XP and make a dualboot system. Any help will be appreciated. will this wipe out my Linux system, or can I install the XP to the D side of my hard drive and not have to disturb it. My computer is a Compaq with a 200G hard drive.
User141772