On Thu, Mar 30, 2023 at 4:38 PM Thomas Uwe Grüttmüller <sloym...@gmx.net> wrote: > > I recently bought a Chromebook with the intent to delete Chrome and > install Debian. I’m not talking about running Debian in a virtual > machine or chroot environment under ChromeOS, but booting directly into > it. The laptop is a > Lenovo IdeaPad Flex3 CB 11M735, > and its processor is a > MediaTek MT8173C (4 core ARMv8). > > The problem is that instead of a normal BIOS or UEFI, thelaptop has the > nasty ChromeOS bootloader which refuses to boot the normal Debian ARM64 > Netinst installer. The only thing it wants to boot from USB is the > ChromeOS recovery. > > In theory, I could boot into ChromeOS from the eMMC, login as root and > copy Debian from the stick to the eMMC, but I don’t know how to > partition the eMMC. Where does the nasty bootloader expect to find > things? Can I make it boot into GRUB, or do I have to put the Linux > kernel from Debian onto a special partition? I’m completely clueless.
I think you have to do more than just boot to a thumb drive. You have to unlock the bootloader and boot to a special developer mode, if I recall correctly. I _think_ enabling developer mode unlocks the bootloader, if it is allowed. (It's been several years since I did it). And you need to verify you can actually unlock the bootloader. Some device manufacturers don't allow it. I had one Chromebook that did not allow it. I eventually donated the Chromebook to a church. (I don't recall if "it" was developer mode, or overwriting the image). Also see https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/HEAD/developer_mode.md . You might consider a PineBook Pro instead. It is open hardware and software. It only cost $219 USD. You won't have to dick around with the extra hoops. Jeff
