Ubuntu on Acer C7 Chromebook: Crouton Script

I was closely following the Jay Lee routines of installing Ubuntu 12.04 on my Acer C7 Chromebook and decided to try an SD card type of install. It happened that it doesn't work for whatever reason. I've found this alternative script by Craig Errington that might work from SD card. After couple hours of tinkering, I was sorta succesful in booting that Ubuntu on my C7:

Some observations:

1. First of all, when on SD card and in my C7, it won't do switching by the proposed (for ARM Chromebook) combo of Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Back (mind you, I also tried Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Backspace and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+LeftArrow, to no result) both in Dev mode and in "regular" mode. So expected "speedy" switching is not working, at least when that Ubuntu is installed on an SD card. It should take explicit stanza though, even if I didn't try it yet:

With SD card inserted, open a crosh window -> ctrl+alt+t Enter the shell by typing “shell” Then type: “cd /media/removable/External\ Drive/bin” Then type: sudo bash startxfce4 -c /media/removable/External\Drive/chroots/

 It reboots into Chrome OS. Whatever. Will be exploring the issue with C7 more.

2. It's a bareboned XFCE Ubuntu, so you'd supposed to get whatever updates and Synaptic to install Flash plugin, Firefox, and whatever else you've got used to in your "normal" Ubuntu 12.04.

3. I've got 8 GB of RAM in my C7, so whatever the speed of my Class 10 Nameless SD card, it doesn't matter. Ubuntu Chromium is palpably faster than Chrome in Chrome OS.

4. Chrome OS doesn't see anything on my SD card which sucks: to correct that desktop switching stanza, I would need to go long way booting from the dev mode again.

5. Touchpad works, sorta. My Logitech MX518 mouse started overagitated though. Which is completely opposite to a lazy mouse in Chrome OS. But in Ubuntu, I can do some remapping and setting adjustments myself.

Updates will follow, so sit tight. Or try to put that "crouton precise" on your C7 yourself. For an SD card option, your card is /dev/mmcblk0, not /dev/mmcblk1 which is ARM Chromebook's SD card designation. Otherwise, the routine is quite correct, except for one time you might need open another terminal (shell session).

UPDATE: Desktop switching mantra for Acer C7 Chromebook is different from what is prescribed for ARM Chromebook. So, it's Ctrl+Alt+Forward, similar (but not the same) to what was prescribed in OUTDATED chroot post by Craig Errington. It's not a toggle, so to come back to Chrome OS desktop (Dev mode), you'd need to use this accord: Ctrl+Alt+Back.

In my C7, it works, but instead of bringing me into Ubuntu desktop, it shows dev console. That is, the whole crouton precise distro happened to end up unbootable and unvisible.

I'm alone here, and busy with lots of other stuff. Please comment here if you have find a correct way to start that "precise". I redid that card in my Linux machine with same results: startxfce4 inaccessible, and cd non-existent in that "dev console". Installing that "precise" Ubuntu on the C7's HDD is not an option right now, as I don't want it be wiped when I decide to switch to "normal" Chrome OS. Even if I decide to put it on HDD, "it" will be standard Ubuntu 12.04 then, as per Jay Lee.

There are also suspicions that "better" aligned (8192) repartitioning is not really supported by CrOS make2fs for ext4 to be generated on SD card, and what you see here as my screenshots of once working Ubuntu is actually what Russians and Germans call "Glück" that never happened again.

In general, serious hack is needed, to jailbreak that UEFI and stop this madness.

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• How to install Ubuntu on Acer's $199 C7 Chromebook