Ubuntu on Acer C720 Chromebooks 16

Posted by JD 03/12/2014 at 02:00

Update: Jump to the “Better Article” header below. My stuff here isn’t as helpful as his.

Picked up an Acer C720 (2G RAM version-bummer) yesterday. I had ZERO intention of running ChromeOS … ever. The machine has a fairly powerful CPU – an Intel Celeron 2955U. That CPU is like an Intel E6600 Core2Duo desktop – inside a NETBOOK with 8+ hrs of battery! With the SSD – it should be FAST, very FAST!

That Phoronix article says this C720 is faster than an old MacBook Pro with a Core i5 520m CPU! I have a Dell laptop with that same CPU and I don’t think this netbook is faster. Then again, the full laptop has 6G of RAM, 500G HDD, GigE wired networking, and discrete ATI Radeon GPU w/ 1080p local and both HDMI and VGA out (driving 2×24″ 1200p monitors) – 6lbs. Different machine for a different purpose.

So I needed to learn a few things to get Ubuntu on the machine. Below are my notes.

I will point out that I never connected any gmail account to use the C720 and barely used ChromeOS in guest mode.

Making ChromeOS Recovery Media

While it is possible to use ChromeOS to create the recovery media (either a 4G SDHC or USB flash drive is needed), it isn’t necessary. Google has posted instructions for doing this on the 4 major OSes; Windows, OSX, Linux, and ChromeOS. I was unable to get the ChromeOS methods to work, but the Linux version worked flawlessly. All of them pull the latest image from the internet – I was asked which model chromebook it was. Tested it immediately on the C720 – worked. I think they specify 2G as the recommended size for the recovery media, but it appears that less than 1G is needed on a fresh install. I wouldn’t expect any of my personal data on the device to be included in this backup.

We need to backup anything we want, since the next step will completely wipe the HDD/SSD.

Getting Into Developer Mode

Reading a few places online, I found the instructions slightly lacking.

  • Shutdown the C720 by holding the power btn for 3+ seconds.
  • Hold the ESC and “Refresh”, then press the power btn. The “refresh” key is where F3 would be normally.
  • When the ERROR screen is displayed, press Ctrl+D to load the Developer BIOS. Sometimes this didn’t work for me. I think it is a timing thing. Entering Developer mode does something to the ChromeOS and takes 2+ minutes. We only need to do this once.

That last step wiped the HDD.

Installing an Ubuntu Image Specific for the C720

  • Reboot the machine.
  • Connect to a wifi network at the chromeOS boot screen – this is necessary so file downloads using a script are possible.
  • After connecting to the network, switch to a different console – ALT+ —> (really ALT+F2).
  • Login using the “chronos” account – no password
  • For the Acer C720, run this exact command:
    curl -L -O http://goo.gl/9sgchs; sudo bash 9sgchs
    to install Ubuntu 13.10. On my system, this took about 10 minutes before getting into the installer questions. There are other installers for different chromebook models. Google should find them.
  • MAKE A NOTE how to boot either ChromeOS or ChrUbuntu – at the boot error screen, press
    • Ubuntu/Linux = CTRL + L
    • ChromeOS = CTRL + D
  • Enter to reboot – there is a prompt for this.
  • Login using the default credentials. user/user

At this point, we need to do a few manual things inside the OS before pointing Ansible at the machine.

  1. Manually change the userid – or add our normal one with sudo
  2. install the ssh-server
  3. determine the DHCP IP address on the LAN – I decided to setup a DHCP reservation.

Summary

Chromebooks aren’t necessarily the underpowered crap computers they used to be. With the new generation of processors, a $211 (after tax) Acer C720 is a nice little machine for travel and remote access that provides 8+ hrs of battery.
The 768 px screen is a step up from my Asus 1024×600 screen, but not nearly as nice as the 1080p screen on my Dell Core i5 laptop.
I wish the 4G RAM model was still made – guess Google/Acer figured out what we were all doing and discontinued it. RAM is soldered directly on the MB, so I don’t see simple RAM upgrades being possible. In a year, I may get out a soldering iron, however.
Upgrading the SSD from 16G to 128G ($99 on Amazon) is my next tweak. 16G is just a little too small. The only maker of the correct form-factor SSD that I could find was MyDigitalSSD. The exact name is MyDigitalSSD SC2 Super Cache 2 42mm SATA m.2 128G. I don’t expect any issues – but it definitely will void any warranty by removing the 1 important screw from the case. ;)

Once the SSD update is complete, I’ll have a new Ruby on Rails and Perl development workstation!

Better Article for 100% Ubuntu (not Chrubuntu)

This link consolidates most of the other guides nicely. I haven’t done it, yet. Just need the time. I never want/need to run ChromeOS – NEVER. Would much prefer to have 4 partitions on the SSD, not the 17 that ChromeOS has forced on the machine.

References

Notes for how to do these things were originally found at 2 places.

Neither was close enough for me to succeed, which is why I wrote this article.

  1. JD 03/12/2014 at 16:36

    Just noticed that the C720 has a few bad pixels.
    Need to get a replacement.

    Glad I noticed this before swapping in a 128GB SSD and voiding the warranty!

  2. INTPJavaGirl 03/13/2014 at 01:44

    Bummer that you have pixel problems. At least you have the install process worked out & documented.
    Does this mean your machine is dual boot, or is the developer mode boot something completely different?

  3. JD 03/21/2014 at 13:00

    So, I almost returned the Chromebook today after powering it off unconsciously about 15 times in 90 minutes.

    I’d like to know who was the genius who decided to put the POWER button where the DELETE key belongs?

    If I had a gun and you were nearby – RUN!

    I know that in ChromeOS – there isn’t any way to remap that button. If I can’t find a way to remap it under Ubuntu – the device will be going to return city

  4. JD 03/21/2014 at 22:34

    Spent the day configuring the C720.
    Did NOT find a fix to stop the power button from shutting down EVERY TIME, but this link did provide a good set of keyboard maps to gain access to highly missed functions.

    Oh – and there is an error in the text of that link for the keyboard mappings. An action-close happens before a keybind-close.

    I am NOT running #! linux, but LXDE does use openbox, so only the config filename is different.

    This is my first laptop that supports multi-finger inputs – took me awhile to figure out that 1/2/3 taps emulate btn1, btn2 and btn3 of the mouse. Select/paste should work now – I just need more practice.

    This machine is FAST.

    Now I just need to get used to alt-backspace being delete and stop hitting the POWER button.

  5. JD 03/22/2014 at 16:15

    Another great link for C720 configuration Good for openbox WM keymappings, touchpad settings, etc.

  6. JD 03/31/2014 at 18:43

    To force a USB boot, when in a chronos terminal, type:


    
sudo -s 
    
crossystem dev_boot_usb=1 dev_boot_legacy=1

    The chromebook needs to be in developer mode and booted into chromeOS – but does not need to be connected to any network OR logged in.

    Use cntl-l (el) to boot into legacy mode, press ESC to see the boot menu, then look for the USB drive and select it for booting.

    A relatively new Patriot 32G USB3 flash drive was NOT recognized, but a no-name USB2 drive was seen and booted stock Ubuntu x64 Server running 14.04 beta. I’ll add a GUI later.

  7. JD 04/07/2014 at 18:08

    So resizing a partition appears to change the UUID value. That makes booting … er …. impossible.

    To correct that, had to revisit grub-install after booting off a USB drive (use the same OS platform and 32/64-bitness).

    Finally have a nice, clean HDD with just the partitions I want and nothing from chromeOS left over. 

    $ sudo parted -l
    
Model: ATA SC2 M2 SSD (scsi)
    
Disk /dev/sda: 128GB
    
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
    
Partition Table: gpt
    

    Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name    Flags
    
 1      1049kB  17.8MB  16.8MB                          bios_grub
    
 7      17.8MB  91.0GB  91.0GB  ext4            ROOT-C
    
15      107GB   126GB   18.8GB  ext4
    
 2      126GB   128GB   2202MB  linux-swap(v1)

    Pretty sweet!
    Used gparted to

    • delete about 10 ChromeOS partitions
    • created the sda1 “bios_grub” partition
    • changed the flag to bios_grub (very important)
    • mounted sda7 to /mnt
    • did a grub-install —boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sda
      That was it.

    Now if I could figure this out:

    $ more /etc/fstab
    
\# UNCONFIGURED FSTAB FOR BASE SYSTEM

  8. AS 04/15/2014 at 02:05

    Found your blog from the VB article on ubuntu but I found many other posts to be helpful and interesting.

    Pretty tempted to try this myself. With bestbuys discount ($100 back towards a PC for trading in a windows XP laptop) it would only cost $100. However I would probably go for the 32GB version.

    Even if the 4GB model was still made it doesnt seem worth it. Its $270 for 4GB & 16 GB SSD. So your getting charged $70 just for +2GB of ram. Even the 32GB model seems like its not worth it coming in at $240. $40 for +16GB of extra storage. Not a great deal either but the extra space would be helpful especially if I wanted to jam windows 8 on it and with windows 8 WIM install I would be able to get almost 20GB of free space. Lets hope its not limited to OEMs only.

  9. JD 04/15/2014 at 08:51

    If you want more of a laptop, check out the Dell 11" netbook for $380. In December, it was $280, but that is over. It has a touch screen and Dell CSRs don’t seem to know about it.

    For me, it is about the Haswell CPU and 8+ hrs of battery. I would NEVER load Windows on this. Not enough RAM, storage, CPU.

  10. JD 04/18/2014 at 20:51

    This post describes how to grab a script that builds the necessary kernel modules to make the C720 work with debian-based Linux systems. Should work for x64 and x32.

    Grab a copy of that script and keep it handy on your Chromebook inside the Ubuntu ~/bin/ – to make it easy to run after a kernel update breaks it.

    Steps:

    • run the script
    • check that /etc/modules contains the modules to be loaded
    • reboot
  11. jaden 06/07/2014 at 20:01

    thank you

  12. Valery 06/11/2014 at 21:51

    Thanks to you, I was able to delete all the ChromeOS partitions, create a swap partition and get grub to work properly.
    Many many thanks to you!

  13. Valery 07/03/2014 at 19:53

    oh oh oh, my mother who uses the “chrubuntu only” C720 accidentaly hit the space bar during the boot procedure, so that it has now exited the developer mode.
    As a consequence, booting chrubuntu has become impossible.
    What will happen if one turn the developer mode back on (ESC+refresh+power key) ?
    It says all local data will be deleted.
    But since I’ve deleted every chrome partitions just like JD has mentioned, there is no longer a recovery partition.
    Will the C720 boot linux again or will it just not boot ?
    Danm space key… I should have opened that thing, removed the write-lock screw and made seabios the default.
    Any suggestion what could be the least effort procedure to get everything in order ?
    Thank you !

  14. JD 07/03/2014 at 22:30

    http://johnlewis.ie/how-to-make-seabios-the-default-on-your-acer-c720/ seems to be the best resource on this that I found.

    I’ve been using the CNTL-l for months – always a little worried that I’d miss and wipe the OS.

    Be certain to read the other post here with the touchpad driver rebuild script. I’ve had to run it after every new kernel install on my C720. Also – it requires a network connection, so be certain you can get networking going without any touchpad support.

  15. Anony 08/18/2014 at 09:51

    Hey JD,

    Nice article. However, I’d like to install Ubuntu 14.04 without any remains of ChromeOS. How would I proceed on doing so? Under your title “Better Article for 100% Ubuntu (not Chrubuntu)” the link directs to instructions on ChromeOS/ElementaryOS, so not a clean Ubuntu install there.

    I am in developer mode and have switched off OS verification, and can indeed install Linux OS’s. I just want to install Ubuntu 14.04 and not have the white “OS verification is off” screen at startup. I know I need to make seabios as default, but how do I remove everything else?

    If possible, I need instructions in captain-dummy-talk, since I’m no expert.

  16. Anony 08/27/2014 at 09:32

    Nevermind, figured it out.

    Everything working fine and dandy. It’s indeed a mean little machine.