In this post i will focus on replacing the ChromeOS with Linux. Before i was running Eupnea on my chromebook, it was working alright, but the boot splashscreen was quite annoying (and recently i encourage a ‘softbrick’ after kernel update).

If you want to dualboot linux+chromeos i would sugest to stick with Eupnea on external storage, like fast SD card or USB stick.

What do i need?

• Some patience
• Two USB drives - one with UEFI compatible linux of your choice - I will install EndeavourOS via Ventoy because i’m too lazy to configure a decent looking arch desktop on my own, and a second one to backup stock firmware. Technically you can do that on the same drive, but just to be safe, I recommend two separate ones.
• Enabled Developer mode, and disabled WP

Step zero - validate coreboot support for your device

Visit https://mrchromebox.tech/#devices website and check if your device have support for ‘UEFI Firmware’. You probably can also do the same thing using WP_LEGACY, but i decided to just replace firmware in my chromebook.

UPDATE 2023-08-07: Eupnea Project has been discontinued, new install of Depthboot are not recommended, if you can, just use UEFI + audio fixes. Also their Discord and Github was compromised. If you are currenty using Depthboot it is recommended to remove their repository from package manager list.

Let me start with that - second-hand chromebooks are awesome value for cheap, long-lasting battery, portable Netflix and SSH machine.

I’ve got my Chromebook about a year ago for 55 USD, it is a HP Chromebook 11a G6. I love how lightweight it is and that i can charge it from literally everything using USB-C ports (for real - it can even take charge from normal 5V USB charger). And the battery is awesome, it lasts a whole working day of moderate use. I bought a chromebook mostly as an experiment, on how the ChromeOS works for “poweruser” - and to be honest, it isn’t that bad, mostly because of the Linux Debian container, but it is still very limiting.