Looking for an adequate ChromeOS replacement for an outdated Chromebook. Some interesting experiments
Support for Chromebooks is declared, so at first I thought that I would install this OS and solve all the problems in one fell swoop. The reality turned out to be more severe.
The installation process is not too complicated, Bliss OS has a fairly simple and intuitive installer. Anyone who has ever installed Debian in TUI mode will install it easily. After a long first boot, I was greeted by the initial setup dialog, familiar to any Android user. At this stage, I note that the touchscreen works. Immediately after selecting the language, the system gave a list of available Wi-Fi networks. It turns out that we already have 2 points out of 8. Sounds good. I continue the setup – and finally get to the main menu.
There is no sound. None. The volume buttons show that they increase and decrease the volume, but there is silence from the speakers. Okay, I use wireless headphones most of the time anyway. I checked Bluetooth – it turns on, easily pairs with the headphones found, even displays the battery level correctly. And that's it. It does not respond to increasing or decreasing the volume from the headphones.
Well, maybe I have grenade of the wrong system unsuitable headphones? Replaced Marshall Major IV with wireless Redmi Buds 3 Pro earbuds. No sound. And most importantly, this is not traditional Linux, where the issue is easier to solve.
Video acceleration, to my surprise, works. But the screen auto-rotation does not. So the system did not please me here either. I checked the webcam and the card reader. The first one works, but the card reader does not react to the inserted MicroSD card.
What's the bottom line?
Rating: 4/8. The system is unusable, and the speed of the built-in eMMC is simply not enough. And it was not possible to install it on a high-speed MicroSD card due to the lack of support by the built-in installer. Let's continue.
FydeOS
Judging by the description, the creators position this operating system as a full-fledged replacement for Chrome OS. For an additional fee in the form of an annual subscription, there are Enterprise options, such as centralized management of packs of such devices, similar to what Google offers. I recall that in the US, Chromebooks are especially popular in educational institutions, so such options have a right to exist. But I don’t need them, so we’ll use the basic system without support.
The image is supplied as a packed archive *.tar.gz, so I download it Balena Etcher. It can write flash drives directly from the archive, bypassing the need to unpack it first. It is clear that the files are still unpacked, but by the program itself. But something went wrong during the check, and I received a message that the image was not written correctly.
No big deal. I unpacked the archive myself and wrote down the *.img image stored inside. I uploaded it to a flash drive, launched it… and silence. Just a black screen and that’s it. Once, using a CD emulator, I managed to get to the logo, but it didn’t go any further. By the way, none of the versions from the site launched adequately on my Chromebook. This is a fiasco, bro! It didn't even get to the rating: 0/8.
Pop!_OS
Surely you have heard of the company System76: it offers its clients computers and servers tailored for the use of Linux. They rely on an adequate price tag and maintainability. In general, this distances them from most modern vendors. As UEFI, they use LinuxBIOS aka corebootwhich came to replace the native firmware on my Chromebook. So, Pop!_OS — this is also their development, it is based on Ubuntu 22.04 and Gnome.
Instead of the heavily promoted snap in Ubuntu, there is the quite familiar Flatpak. The distribution itself has good support for various hardware, in particular graphic adapters. And here is the first thing that awaited me on the screen:
This meant exactly two things. First, the screen orientation sensor worked, and now it will automatically rotate itself. But the data from the sensor is interpreted incorrectly, so instead of a normal image, I see an inverted picture.
I continue to install. In extreme cases, there is a magic button to block auto-rotation, which will return everything to its place. Well, the fact that the graphics started up adequately “out of the box” is good news.
While I was distracted from the screen and decided to make myself a cup of coffee, the system went to sleep, cutting off the USB power. This was enough for the portable pocket with the CD/DVD drive emulator to also go to sleep, and the installation stalled right at the final stage without any errors.
Having scolded myself for my carelessness, I decided to run the installation again, not forgetting to periodically swipe my finger across the touchpad. So I sit there, thinking about the eternal, looking at the upside-down screen. And after about 10 minutes, the installation was completed successfully: “Oh yes, oh yes… beaver, breathe out” (quotes from great people).
After booting into the OS and locking the screen orientation, I started looking at what worked and what didn't. At that point, I was pretty busy looking for a solution to the problem of no sound, so I came across someone's fixIt turned out that the sound here is implemented on a microcircuit da7219. There is support in the kernel, but it works inadequately. Possible cause – missing or incorrect topology of sound devices.
I found the topology I was looking for in the repository. sof-apl-da7219.tplg and the corresponding scripts for replacement. The fix is easy to install:
$ git clone https://github.com/EMLommers/Apollolake_Audio
$ cd Apollolake_Audio
$ sudo chmod +x apollolake_audio2.sh
$ sudo ./apollolake_audio2.shChromebook automatically rebooted after startup. Logged into the system – it seemed that nothing had changed. Dummy Output was still in the sound devices. But it turned out that this is not a bug, but a feature. To enable sound, you need to install the PulseAudio Volume Control package:
$ sudo apt -y install pavucontrolWe open it, go to the Configuration tab and instead of the Off profile, select Pro Audio. Voila — the sound appeared. Moreover, the volume control works adequately. Let's check the wired headphones, replacing the profile with Stereo Output — the sound from the speakers remains the same. There is silence in the headphones. But again, it is enough for listening to music and watching YouTube.
But the Bluetooth headphones “started up” without any complaints. The sound works perfectly with the SBC and SBC-XG codecs. Victory! The webcam works, the card reader also mounts MicroSD cards without problems. Well, the integrated video card uses all the required acceleration functions.
What's the bottom line?
Rating: 8/8, but with two caveats. You need to find where to change the screen auto-rotation settings and rotate it 180 degrees from the default position. Also try to figure out why the sound doesn't work when you connect wired headphones.
Otherwise, I liked Pop!_OS. It has a nice interface, a sufficient number of functions, high compatibility with hardware and modern applications. And on the disk it took up about 10 GB, which left enough space for installing applications. In extreme cases, you can mount an additional large MicroSD card in the home directory and not have any special problems in the future.
Kubuntu 22.04
Here we are at the end, where I decided to see how the fresh Ubuntu 22.04 with KDE would behave. I like modern “sneakers”, I can't help myself. The installation went without any complications. Having booted into the system, I discovered the following: there is no sound, the screen auto-rotation does not work, but the video card is detected correctly. The system mounts the inserted MicroSD card and displays the contents, Wi-Fi works, Bluetooth too.
For the sake of interest, I connected wireless headphones – there is sound, although it is poor. Most likely, by default, the system activated the profile for the headset, which is designed for voice transmission, and not a fiery mix of banjo and metal groups Goober Beatz.
You'll have to tinker with the sound, but the fact that auto-rotation doesn't work turned out to be quite logical. By default, Kubuntu opens an X11 session. To make auto-rotation work, you need a Wayland session. No problem, update the packages and install:
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt -y install plasma-workspace-waylandWe reboot and select Wayland in the login window. It automatically understood what we wanted from it and turned on Tablet mode. Autorotation started, and the same thing happened as with Pop!_OS: by default, the screen is rotated 180 degrees. Let's say it works.
The sound fix worked here too, and that was expected. But the strange glitches with the impossibility of selecting the Pro Audio profile (it doesn't exist at all) were a bit annoying. Although if you select the profile of unconnected headphones, the sound starts playing in the speakers.
What's the bottom line?
Rating 8/8 with two caveats: sound and auto-rotate screen, which did not work initially. Overall, the system is pleasant to use. It feels faster than Pop!_OS. So it has a right to exist.
Let's sum it up
I also tried Arch Linux, but it was a bit more complicated. For example, having to manually connect Wi-Fi. So my absolute favorite is Pop!_OS. If you own an old Chromebook, this is the distribution I would recommend trying first.
That's all, but my experiments don't end there. I'll soon show you how exactly I managed to remove the UEFI chip rewrite protection and how far I had to go to get to this point.
Well, I also plan to build a custom Gentoo kernel, which should be lighter and at the same time support all possible options of this Chromebook. It's not a quick process, but the result is worth it. I'm very interested to hear about your experience of replacing the operating system on Chromebooks, so welcome to the comments.
