Just wanted to quickly clarify the whole ctrl + D vs ctrl + U thing. I did initially use ctrl+u to set up booting off a USB. Once I did that, it didn’t want to boot off the USB because I didn’t correctly set up the boot media. Which is really hard to make for specific ARM based Chromebooks, like I explained at the end of the video. It was only then that one of the guides to me to use ctrl + D, which confused me and all the shouting started. 😅 Oh, also remember bots are bad, mkay.
@Aleksi 2 That’s what I tried doing, but because it uses a ARM chip, you need to do a whole bunch of extra stuff to prepare the linux install so that the ARM chip recognizes it.
Erhm - There are a bunch of versions of Linux m8 - get one which have "general" support ARM processors. Also - sometimes you can install an older version of Linux and update it if the newer version wont install. It's a bit of a weird device you got your hands on there - so it might take a bit of working around it... It really shouldn't be that hard though when you have another device to download and make bootable USBs on.
I did use Ctrl U initially to set up usb boot. After that it wouldn’t boot off the usb because I didn’t have the correct boot media on the usb drive. Only after that process did I get frustrated and got stuck on ctrl D because of a different guide. 😅
I've walked someone who wasn't particularly tech savvy through installing linux on a chromebook, it required disassembly to remove a physical BIOS write protection circuit, and also a coreboot flash. I think I cried when I saw the Linux Mint login screen.
I don't understand that these days (a year ago) that are unable to install Linux on a computer. 😐 They REALLY should stick with Windows preinstalled...
Was bitching at the time about a chromebook that refused to output audio from the speakers ever again if headphones were plugged in once. This happened across literally a dozen distros. But thanks for the insult, it's fairly representative of the linux nerd community @@ibizenco
7:14 Not sure if you noticed this, but it specifies that its key combination is Ctrl + U and not Ctrl + D like most articles say. Would love to see a Part 2 to this however if you can get it working!
I did initially use ctrl+u to set up booting off a USB, and then the one guide confused me. 😅 But the reason it didn’t work was because didn’t have correctly set up boot media. Which is really hard to make, like I was explaining at the end.
I installed Gallium OS on a Chromebook once. Every step of the process, I thought I completely broke everything. It ended up being successful, but boy was it a challenge
@@adityadivine2138 It was worth it. I got more performance out of it, but in my case it was kind of the only option for what I was trying to do. My device was also really well supported by Mr. Chromebox and Gallium OS. In Dawid's case, I'd probably give up too
@@iainmurphy9101 was yours arm based? I never quite understood why people buy chromebooks. I'll either buy an iPad or a cheap laptop with dos os and install Linux on it.
As someone who understands the linux file system on a deep level, watching you using a command line was like watching a confused puppy looking at TV for the first time.
What do you mean? This is peak content. You should listen to us more! :p Sure your mental well being may not like it, but that's a sacrifice we're willing to make to see your channel thrive.
I used a dual boot Linux/Chromebook Acer C710 in 2013. That was actually a pretty decent system... The slow Celeron 847 even let me play some basic games like Hotline Miami. Honestly, for 199 USD it was a hell of a system!
I would not suggest a Chromebook as your first attempt at installing Linux, lol... last time I did it, I actually had to open the system up & remove a screw from the motherboard to enable developer mode (curse you, Asus, but at the time it was far and away the most powerful Chromebook available, a Haswell i3 with 4GB of RAM). Chromebooks are notoriously locked down.... if you do fancy another attempt to install it, try it in a virtual machine first. Walk before you can run and all that jazz.
@CJ White the OP said “if you do fancy another attempt to install it, try it in a virtual machine first”, I was asking how can I simulate the hardware of a chromebook in a VM?
@@STORMFIRE07 You don't. That's not the sticking point here - it's a complication but the real problem appears to be Dawid's base level of knowledge with Linux. If he isn't comfortable with the install process & using it in an easier situation then he shouldn't even attempt to install it in a locked down situation like a Chromebook. I also said "walk before you can run" - IE, learn enough about Linux that you aren't typing things like "sudoapt" in terminal because you "heard linux has something to do with 'sudo apt'", and once you've got that baseline knowledge you can give it a go on a Chromebook - by which point the tutorials he was following will probably make a lot more sense.
I installed Linux on my mom's Chromebook (x86-based tho) and it's working well. She only uses Chrome, but unlike with Chrome OS, she still gets security updates and new browser versions on this old hardware this way.
@@aquaponieee truth ^^... I've got working 100% h264 and vp8 decoding under Linux over Chrome OS. Despite of battery efficiency, both of them are par since Chrome OS can still drain quickly due to lacking GPU accelereration in my chromebook(s) as well as the unofficial onces like brunch.
and this is why I love watching Dawid videos. the pain and emotions he feels are almost exactly the same as my feelings when doing these things. thank you Dawid for summarizing every Linux installation I have done over the last 22 years.
It says, after you enable USB boot, that you need to press Ctrl U, not Ctrl D. I had to go back in the video to confirm that it was correct and sure enough it's Ctrl U. Give it another go Dawid 😃
Dawid says it's all your fault it's entirely your fault cause you had to make him try linux on an arm based laptop instead of x86 which would have been easier for him to start out on🤣🤣
After removing screws, flashing BIOS and replacing Chromeos with a variety of Linux distros on three old Chromebooks, I thought I was a pro. Then I got a Samsung Peach Pi ARM Chromebook. I followed every tutorial To The Letter, including the Arch one for this *specific* Chromebook--Nothing, nothing, NOTHING works!! 'Crouton' destroyedmy partitions and I've had to do a full reinstall of chromeos twice All because I want to run to run CMUS and a couple of Linux AppImages. I literally grasped at every straw. Even Libreboot claims it can create a new BIOS for this specific Chromebook but there are no step by step Chromebook Arm BIOS Flashing For Dummies instructions. WTF is a 'blob'.?? I will never buy another Chromebook with ARM, ever.
@@SolarLantern424 Flashing a bios with Legacy or SeaBios is the standard way to replace chromeos with Linux on defunct out of date chromebooks. ARM seems to do something completely different where it is broken up into pieces or 'blobs'??? I'm fully ignorant of how that works *shrugs*
@@pinkbagels1 I'm not sure about the blobs but because the cpu is arm and not intel it can't run the same machine code. So an IBM style bios isn't going to be much help as it will be intel code.
Been watching your content for a while now, and the script writing and jokes and improved massively along with your general on-screen presence and camera confidence. Love to see it!
Dawid can't do linux as easily as dell makes it sound so dell sucks with their instructions because it should make it super easy with all the instructions so easily that it should just work
At some point I really want to try Linux again, but honestly I still have way too much PTSD from the last time I failed at it. The funny thing is Linux most of the time is quick and easy boom it just works. But if you draw the bad card, or it decides it doesn't like something about your system, then it's the worst of kind of STD.
The absolutely easiest Linux version is Linux Mint Cinnamon. If my neighbor can use it, and he is definitely not computer literate, anybody should be able to use it. Of course he just uses it to surf the web and do emails. It won't run most Windows programs and so you have to learn Linux versions and in the past I have had problems getting it to recognize my network printers (sometimes the Linux version sees them and loads drivers and sometimes it sees them and decides it can't find drivers for them). I have one computer for Linux and another for Windows but could probably go all Linux if I wanted to.
@@Hackerisitic no. i am a linux (chad) user so this is a little biased but whatever. linux isnt trying to be windows, yes its different, the command line is scary for new users. but thats the whole point, linux isnt meant to be windows. whenever i use windows i am astonished how weird some things are .e.g control panel and settings are both needed (why). as Pi Man said, distros like linux mint cinnamon are designed to feel simmalar to windows, but they arent trying to be the same.
@@Panzergruppe22 which is weird, because he doesn’t have a South African accent (the usual Afrikaans, anyway). I’ve never heard an accent like his before, and I’ve heard a lot.
We used to have this rule in construction, called the 10% rule. You have to be 10% smarter than the device you're working with to make it work for you.
This is so hillarious. I love the begging the chromebook to work as its supposed to. Definitely been there and done that with the myriads of software and os's I run into in my day to day life. Welcome to the real world of tech support.
I dunno if this is relevant to this chromebook but most of these have a write protect screw on the motherboard that you need to take out before flashing a new OS to the emmc (btw I'd love ot see pt.2)
It's absolutely doable, but for some models you do absolutely need Linux knowledge beforehand, and even then when things go wrong it can be a complete mess trying to figure it all out. You gave it a fair shot IMO!
Installing Linux on those crappy fuckbook is a literal pain in the ass, I tried installing Linux to an Acer Switch 7. And it was so stupidly difficult. The best is when you can boot the installation media, it writes the files to the eMMC Memory and then proceeds to not boot at all because there was no boot media found. All in all, never install Linux on ARM based machines, your precious lifetime isn't worth it XD
it's.. arm based.. steam does not have an arm version, steams games can't run on arm cpus, the only way I could ever see that happening is steam running in qemu user mode and maybe just maybe it'll run. you probally didn't get the arm iso for linux either.
The draw for Linux is that it turns E-Waste into useful computers after their time being able to be upgraded is done. That ARM is harder to do just reflects how few of them there are in the computing market. I run one, and its fine, but its just that, fine.
I remember installing Ubuntu, Windows 10, and back to ChromeOS on my Chromebook just because I can. Did not even atteempt gaming as the Windows ran at a cinematic 24FPS. Also, on ChromeOS Linux Beta I managed to run Minecraft Java Edition lowest settings with Sodium mod and run at 20-30FPS on my Celeron Acer Spin R11, and 30-35 playable FPS on my cousins cheaper Asus something Chromebook. PS that suffering only occured because of ARM, if it was an x86 Chromebook, you'd be able to do ChromeOS Linux, proper Linux, and Windows all within like an hour not including install time.
Getting Linux to install on a Chromebook is incredibly tedious if one is not well versed in Linux Commands , i might take it for a spin one day 😅👌 for now i've done the easy part of just dual booting Linux alongside Windows on one drive.
Linux on ARM is frankly a nightmare outside of a few select devices. The people who wanted you to do this frankly had no idea what they're talking about. Yes, it's doable, but the only people I know who've done so were all professional linux developers!
it's the "this has been linuxing for ages" for me, if you spend a few days on Linux it's not that bad tbh especially when you setting up a home server, eventually you get use to the commands and it makes you feel powerful lmaoo
For whatever it's worth, I think the particular random crap you picked for your first adventure with Linux might have been leaping past the tutorial and the standard difficulty settings right into hard mode+. My experience with Linux Mint on old business-class hardware that doesn't run newer Windows very well has been "Boot to USB, follow the GUI, wait for a bit, reboot, click the boxes to add proprietary drivers, reboot, done". Biggest issue is bad wifi driver support and having to swap out whatever is in the system for something with an Intel chipset. Next issue would be hybrid graphics in laptops, but performance and battery life have both been "good enough" on my most recent machine to do documents/email/watch videos/Discord without digging into it.
Dawid, the suggestion was a troll, arm hardware and linux is a not very well supported unless you are looking for a very specific use case, as a desktop it would be pretty limited although there is no sponsor to back this idea i recommend you try Zorin OS, it's is like a fusion of windows and macos, absolutely stunning linux operating system that is likely to end ones windows enslavement, steam windows games work extremely well with steams inbuild proton feature which runs windows games... these days tho linux versions on games are pretty common
Holy shit i feel your pain. Some months ago i did the same operation with a programming buddy of mine to my ARM chromebook. After bricking it and resoldering new memory four times the final product is a LXDE running ARM chromebook with a healthy part of the Kali nethunter software running. Except for the 3 startup errors i recieve and the loud warning every time i startup the chromebook (as well as having to manually switch keyboard layout every time in the console) it runs "perfectly".
Forgot to mention, but a tip to anyone trying this: - Just because your ARM processor has never been run on a certain OS doesn't mean it's impossible. But going that way will lead to you having to create/manipulate a Kernel to work. That's the path me and my friend took but it lead to us decreasing our life expectancy significantly. - The solution often requires taking steps from multiple "guides", for example you might get started with one guide, then switch to another part-ways through because it stopped working. Keep doing this until you are fully bald and your neighbors hate you. (Extra; Switch which OS you are trying to install, sometimes a Ubuntu guide works on Mint instead etc, keep experimenting.) - Running Linux as a virtual machine within chromium is a bit easier, you can get the aforementioned LXDE running with fever steps. Then all you do is "CTRL+R", type "Chrosh" and type "StartLXDE" to enter the VM. Practical for people that want to try Linux and use it but still want to keep the functionality of Chrome OS. - Don't be attached to the Chromebook. In the best case scenario (of a bricked system), you will still be able to use it for normal use, but stuff like saving files or playing mobile games will probably be broken. Worst case you have to butcher another Chromebook to solder new memory on the PCB, I've been there and can't say it's much fun. Good luck
@@vipvip-tf9rw Yeah it's the smartest alternative. Even better would be going for those school chomebooks at the end of school-semesters and buying them in bulk for almost nothing.
I am just astonished that a device made to run a literal linux-ish environment makes it so hard to install a "real" linux OS on it. Had no idea it was this difficult! On my pc, it's a matter of "make bootable flash drive", "boot off flash drive", "click the install button", and that's more or less it. This looks like it's worse than one of those masochistic Gentoo or LFS installs. I daresay that a random Raspberry PI board or similar arm-based SOC would have an easier time. Bad Chromebook!
They don't really want you installing weird things on the google chromebook. I have no idea what it could be about but it seems like they just want to keep you in google chrome os. Someone somewhere at google probably knows but they haven't told anyone, so I think it is going to remain a mystery why these things have happened.
ChromeOS is Linux (Gentoo), but its proprietary. but this man could have said "install the Debian Virtual Machine on it", and there was his video. but this dude went all the way to try to install an actual open source distro on ARM device (which I think OpenSuse has a file for). Props to him also because (this was funny) every linux user has been there at once as a beginner.
I converted an old i7 ASUS Chromebox I got for free because Google didn't support it anymore to Windows and it works perfectly, I use it as a 4K media player for my TV.
Or, or...hear me out, you could have just bought a ThinkPad on ebay for $108 (yes I just checked) Core i5, 8gb RAM and 240gb SSD and installed any Linux distro you liked with zero issues.
Small info, you could also try to compile and install box86 and box64 and run Steam, but it won't be easy anyway as it's emulation. ARM CPU makes things complicated, but I get it working on mainline Linux on my Poco F1.
Libre Office also exists for windows and I keep recommending it to people who, and I can't imagine why, want to pay microsoft $70 a year for a word processor or spreadsheets. On the face of it it just seems to be fully competent office software. Also if you in the comments want a cheap linux computer please don't put yourself through this, there are perfectly cromulent 10 year old professional laptops out there just waiting for a second chance. If you want a lil baby one maybe try a 12" thinkpad like the x240.
I have the office suite free of charge because the company I work for gives it to me. And I still use libreoffice because it is easy to use and I love open source software. It can be tricky for older users, but it is so similar that you learn it quick.
Part of the problem is: Your trying to install Linux Yes it works for those who spend the time deep-diving in learning the commands and the like, but god-damn, can someone develop one that is GUI-based interaction already!?
I’m surprised that you tried to install Linux on that chrome book when you could’ve just bought a raspberry pi 400 which probably has the same CPU as that chrome book but has Linux installed out of the box and then ran like half life 2 on it that would’ve made it to where you wouldn’t have raged at it but great video as always
Lol. This reminds me of the first time I tried to install Linux on my old laptop without researching anything. I just went by a friend's recommendation, assuring me it would be easy. Predictably, I lost one friend that day.
I do these crazy things very frequently. Usually some hardware manufacturer give us a new board and its base system. I usually have a bootable kernel or media, let's call it bootstrap system(The host system, in your video, which became host of the 'virus,' which is not really true. It's called target system.) Then the host system give you environment and toolchain(mostly compiler and linker) to build the working new kernel, which you can refer to current booting kernel, and its boot loader. When things are done properly enough, you can boot it with new booloader and new kernel. That's not something rocket science. It's just very outlandish for most of the users who grow up in the windows/mac culture background.
It's not like this in this instance as there is no boot media available for it so you have to create your own. It would be amazing to just have a disk with a working toolchain! That sounds incredible but even a disk with a kernel and ininrd is not something you can have and the partitions on the disk have to be just so for a chromebook to recognise it as a bootable disk and the bootloader you have on the arm chromebook is not one that is easily replaced even if you had another bootloader. It kind of *is* rocket science or by now someone would have created a bootable disk image that you can just dd.
"Someone who sees Linux as a disease you may catch if you hang around boring people too much," might possibly be the single best sentence ever uttered in the English language.
My brother once had an old chromebook. It was intel-based but he wanted to play a game on it. This was many years ago, but I found a guide to not only remove Chromium OS, but to completely remove the old boot-loader and get something called "SeaBIOS" or something like that. Wound up just installing Linux Mint on it and other than the touchpad being non-functional, it wasn't too shabby, and yes. it was able to run some games via WINE. It went pretty well. This video is another reason why I don't like the idea of ARM taking over one day. Can't easily swap the OS and BIOS.
The video should be more accurately titled, "Dawid tries to install Linux while he knows nothing about Linux and even has trouble following the instructions".
The Ctrl+D and Ctrl+U commands aren't supposed to be done on the recovery screen, they are supposed to be performed on the initial boot screen you get when your in developer mode (The one that you got the angry beep, the "OS verification is off" screen)
this is pretty much my entire linux experience in nutshell - countless hours of research all over the place, only to find out I'm very unlucky... its singlehandedly why I'm never ready to completely migrate to linux
the way I understand x86 and arm is that x86 is old, chunky, and universal. arm is a trimmed down lighter, more specialized version of x86. The part trimmed out to make arm was the universal part.
Installing the in-built Linux on a Chromebook IS super easy... if you're already used to "Terminal is good enough for everything" Linux! ... but then you're left with just a terminal to manage everything within that Linux! And that's hardly ideal for people who don't live in Linux! And I say that as someone who will probably only buy Chromebooks and/or purpose-built Linux laptops for any future laptop purchase! While I'm glad that Google won't just lessen their security to make the flexibility of ChromeOS more easily accessed, it DEFINITELY causes some pain that doesn't have to be there!
dont expect these things from linux in general. 1. have all your apps, it is great for learning to develop apps tbh or learn some small coding and good for writing cuz there are tons of mark down editors. 2. especially arm linux to support even all the linux apps. it is best to stick with good arm distros with big names like fedora or ubuntu, they can pretty much work like a daily driver. 3. play games. linux is getting great with proton but it is still not the recommended way. it does unlock a lot of feature in case of chromebook like getting away from google based services and getting more apps for more things to do.
LOL I have sorta the same Chromebook and gave up installing Linux on it and just reinstalled ChromeOS. Turns out, you can install the recovery image on any external USB-powered harddrive and just reinstall Chrome. Worked far far better than trying to get the pengiun on it! Also the latest ChromeOS version is quite nice actually.
it was clearly the false distro: with LFS as dristro this wouldn't happen :) Be sure to use BLFS as many features aren't in LFS. And when a technician (you pay) want to know what distro you want to be repaired just say BLFS and he will be extremely happy;) (if he is only used to arch and gentoo or darwin OS).
I managed to get Xubuntu on an old used Dell ChromeBook. It was a 3 day job. I had to find out and unscrew a screw in it somewhere to unlock it and allow an other OS on it. Setting it up was hard but I did it. Once it was installed and configured to my liking, I used CloneZilla to clone it and put it on 9 other Dell used ChromeBooks. I gave those to my son's school and they were happy. You have to be ready to retry stuff until it works. Gallium was garbage on it (tried other distros also). This type of thing is not for everyone.
It's unfortunate so much effort was put into trying to get steam running on an architecture it doesn't work on, when prior knowledge could have saved the trouble.
sudo is for using 'super user do', which is kind of like you don't need it unless you're doing something with root, or universal settings. apt is a package manager, mostly for Debian and Ubuntu distros, and only if you're installing packages by the terminal instead of a GUI installer Also, you have to make sure you use an ARM version of a Linux distro, not x86-64 Whether Win, Mac, or Chrome, you have to make a bootable USB, unless you can burn a bootable CD.
Just wanted to quickly clarify the whole ctrl + D vs ctrl + U thing. I did initially use ctrl+u to set up booting off a USB. Once I did that, it didn’t want to boot off the USB because I didn’t correctly set up the boot media. Which is really hard to make for specific ARM based Chromebooks, like I explained at the end of the video. It was only then that one of the guides to me to use ctrl + D, which confused me and all the shouting started. 😅 Oh, also remember bots are bad, mkay.
@Aleksi 2 That’s what I tried doing, but because it uses a ARM chip, you need to do a whole bunch of extra stuff to prepare the linux install so that the ARM chip recognizes it.
Erhm - There are a bunch of versions of Linux m8 - get one which have "general" support ARM processors. Also - sometimes you can install an older version of Linux and update it if the newer version wont install. It's a bit of a weird device you got your hands on there - so it might take a bit of working around it... It really shouldn't be that hard though when you have another device to download and make bootable USBs on.
@@Craider79 guys leave dawid, its a miracle he got this far
Your getting spammed here mate.. @DawidDoesTechStuff
Pffft. The problem is that you used the wrong distribution. Should have tried Gentoo. :)
Setup: says press CTRL - U to boot usb
DAWID: press CTRL - D - nothing happens
insert enraged DAWID face
Dawid moment
Like pressing the power button when it asks you to press any button
I did use Ctrl U initially to set up usb boot. After that it wouldn’t boot off the usb because I didn’t have the correct boot media on the usb drive. Only after that process did I get frustrated and got stuck on ctrl D because of a different guide. 😅
@@DawidDoesTechStuff you should have tried Ctrl+"press every key on the Kb", that would be my rage solution for sure
“There’s some line-ex happening. cool.” 😂
Dawid tries to install Linux on random crap should be a recurring series
'linux on a pregnancy test' make it happen!
(and maybe a doom demo) 😆
Dawid tries to install Linux on 1980 Texas Instruments scientific calculator.
Please no. 😂
@@DawidDoesTechStuff please yes
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssss!!!!!!!
I've walked someone who wasn't particularly tech savvy through installing linux on a chromebook, it required disassembly to remove a physical BIOS write protection circuit, and also a coreboot flash. I think I cried when I saw the Linux Mint login screen.
Good choice of distros, bad choice in laptops. haha
@@peeonthe3rdrail414 I had problems with Linux with a desktop...back in the late 1990s. I'm sure it's easier now but I swore off Linux.
that doesn't apply on an ARM chromebook no?
wthell?! lol
That sounds like a good challenge.
Most of my linux experience is staring at a webpage trying to understand why what I did was wrong.
And getting badgered to rtfm which is terribly voluminous.
I don't understand that these days (a year ago) that are unable to install Linux on a computer. 😐
They REALLY should stick with Windows preinstalled...
Was bitching at the time about a chromebook that refused to output audio from the speakers ever again if headphones were plugged in once. This happened across literally a dozen distros.
But thanks for the insult, it's fairly representative of the linux nerd community @@ibizenco
I feel this
7:14 Not sure if you noticed this, but it specifies that its key combination is Ctrl + U and not Ctrl + D like most articles say. Would love to see a Part 2 to this however if you can get it working!
I did initially use ctrl+u to set up booting off a USB, and then the one guide confused me. 😅 But the reason it didn’t work was because didn’t have correctly set up boot media. Which is really hard to make, like I was explaining at the end.
Yes now do it and try again
@@DawidDoesTechStuff For a simple program which sets up the bootable USB by itself, try Balena Etcher 😀
@@hahalolha gave up hope getting Ubuntu on my old iMac 2007 but this saved the day
@@hahalolha yeah, how complex can it be?
I installed Gallium OS on a Chromebook once. Every step of the process, I thought I completely broke everything. It ended up being successful, but boy was it a challenge
Was that worth it?
@@adityadivine2138 It was worth it. I got more performance out of it, but in my case it was kind of the only option for what I was trying to do. My device was also really well supported by Mr. Chromebox and Gallium OS. In Dawid's case, I'd probably give up too
@@iainmurphy9101 was yours arm based? I never quite understood why people buy chromebooks. I'll either buy an iPad or a cheap laptop with dos os and install Linux on it.
@@adityadivine2138 Mine was Intel based. As for why buy one in the first place, price is probably the main reason. In my case, the price was free
@@iainmurphy9101 oh now that makes sense
As someone who understands the linux file system on a deep level, watching you using a command line was like watching a confused puppy looking at TV for the first time.
😂😂🙂
Good for you kyle.
@@jajajajajajajajaja867 You probably get this a lot, but you seem fun at parties.
What do you mean? This is peak content. You should listen to us more! :p
Sure your mental well being may not like it, but that's a sacrifice we're willing to make to see your channel thrive.
That’s what happened to Etika :(
you give up mental wellbeing when you become youtuber :P
LOL!!!! "...that's a sacrifice WE're willing to make..." , ROTFLMAO!
Yes please more linux on random crap. Than do Solaris or BSD on random crap. THIS would be great and we will all learn ;-)
I used a dual boot Linux/Chromebook Acer C710 in 2013. That was actually a pretty decent system... The slow Celeron 847 even let me play some basic games like Hotline Miami.
Honestly, for 199 USD it was a hell of a system!
I would not suggest a Chromebook as your first attempt at installing Linux, lol... last time I did it, I actually had to open the system up & remove a screw from the motherboard to enable developer mode (curse you, Asus, but at the time it was far and away the most powerful Chromebook available, a Haswell i3 with 4GB of RAM). Chromebooks are notoriously locked down.... if you do fancy another attempt to install it, try it in a virtual machine first. Walk before you can run and all that jazz.
screw is much better than asking company for unlock code, or trying to use some weird hacks
Oh I forgot all about removing the "security screw" in the Asus Chromebox I installed Gallium on...
How do i make a chromebook virtual machine? To simulate the locked up nature of a chromebook?
@CJ White the OP said “if you do fancy another attempt to install it, try it in a virtual machine first”, I was asking how can I simulate the hardware of a chromebook in a VM?
@@STORMFIRE07 You don't. That's not the sticking point here - it's a complication but the real problem appears to be Dawid's base level of knowledge with Linux. If he isn't comfortable with the install process & using it in an easier situation then he shouldn't even attempt to install it in a locked down situation like a Chromebook. I also said "walk before you can run" - IE, learn enough about Linux that you aren't typing things like "sudoapt" in terminal because you "heard linux has something to do with 'sudo apt'", and once you've got that baseline knowledge you can give it a go on a Chromebook - by which point the tutorials he was following will probably make a lot more sense.
I installed Linux on my mom's Chromebook (x86-based tho) and it's working well. She only uses Chrome, but unlike with Chrome OS, she still gets security updates and new browser versions on this old hardware this way.
the fact linux is a better option for running chrome than chromeos haha
@@aquaponieee truth ^^... I've got working 100% h264 and vp8 decoding under Linux over Chrome OS. Despite of battery efficiency, both of them are par since Chrome OS can still drain quickly due to lacking GPU accelereration in my chromebook(s) as well as the unofficial onces like brunch.
what distro did you install ?
@@lhommedelapampa9730 Ubuntu Desktop LTS.
@@lhommedelapampa9730 Ubuntu Desktop :)
Dawid is the worst nightmare of any IT support specialist 😄
and this is why I love watching Dawid videos. the pain and emotions he feels are almost exactly the same as my feelings when doing these things.
thank you Dawid for summarizing every Linux installation I have done over the last 22 years.
You have become hands down my favorite tech tuber over the past few months! Absolutely love your sense of humor and sarcastic adds.
there nothing like a good cup of linux based lenode 👍👍
That’s the best Linode sponsor message I’ve seen. Thanks for making these more fun than they should be.
Man tries to wash his stairs with a washing machine. Breaks washing machine.
It says, after you enable USB boot, that you need to press Ctrl U, not Ctrl D. I had to go back in the video to confirm that it was correct and sure enough it's Ctrl U.
Give it another go Dawid 😃
Dawid says it's all your fault it's entirely your fault cause you had to make him try linux on an arm based laptop instead of x86 which would have been easier for him to start out on🤣🤣
@@raven4k998 lmao
He said that he initially tried Ctrl U but it didn't work, so then he followed the guide that said to use Ctrl D and it didn't work either.
@@raven4k998 it was his fault for buying an arm based chromebook 🤣🤣
After removing screws, flashing BIOS and replacing Chromeos with a variety of Linux distros on three old Chromebooks, I thought I was a pro.
Then I got a Samsung Peach Pi ARM Chromebook.
I followed every tutorial To The Letter, including the Arch one for this *specific* Chromebook--Nothing, nothing, NOTHING works!!
'Crouton' destroyedmy partitions and I've had to do a full reinstall of chromeos twice
All because I want to run to run CMUS and a couple of Linux AppImages.
I literally grasped at every straw. Even Libreboot claims it can create a new BIOS for this specific Chromebook but there are no step by step Chromebook Arm BIOS Flashing For Dummies instructions. WTF is a 'blob'.??
I will never buy another Chromebook with ARM, ever.
I'm sorry that you also had to go through that. Its such frustrating experience. :(
Even if there was a bios for arm, how would it help you?
@@SolarLantern424 Flashing a bios with Legacy or SeaBios is the standard way to replace chromeos with Linux on defunct out of date chromebooks. ARM seems to do something completely different where it is broken up into pieces or 'blobs'??? I'm fully ignorant of how that works *shrugs*
@@pinkbagels1 I'm not sure about the blobs but because the cpu is arm and not intel it can't run the same machine code. So an IBM style bios isn't going to be much help as it will be intel code.
This is the closest I've seen Dawid ready to teach aerodynamics and the principles of flying to a Chrome Book.
Been watching your content for a while now, and the script writing and jokes and improved massively along with your general on-screen presence and camera confidence. Love to see it!
Dawid can't do linux as easily as dell makes it sound so dell sucks with their instructions because it should make it super easy with all the instructions so easily that it should just work
your rage soothes my soul, your tears kindle the warmth of my heart. seriously though, congrats for trying at least.
“I use arch btw”
At some point I really want to try Linux again, but honestly I still have way too much PTSD from the last time I failed at it. The funny thing is Linux most of the time is quick and easy boom it just works. But if you draw the bad card, or it decides it doesn't like something about your system, then it's the worst of kind of STD.
I feel you bro, linux like systems which are nither too new nor too old and are based mainstream platforms.
My girlfriend has been enjoying Pop_Os and now is trying other distros like Garuda.
The absolutely easiest Linux version is Linux Mint Cinnamon. If my neighbor can use it, and he is definitely not computer literate, anybody should be able to use it. Of course he just uses it to surf the web and do emails. It won't run most Windows programs and so you have to learn Linux versions and in the past I have had problems getting it to recognize my network printers (sometimes the Linux version sees them and loads drivers and sometimes it sees them and decides it can't find drivers for them). I have one computer for Linux and another for Windows but could probably go all Linux if I wanted to.
I say the same about Windows 10. When it works it works, the moment you encouter the slightest issue it goes the seppuku way.
@@Hackerisitic no. i am a linux (chad) user so this is a little biased but whatever. linux isnt trying to be windows, yes its different, the command line is scary for new users. but thats the whole point, linux isnt meant to be windows. whenever i use windows i am astonished how weird some things are .e.g control panel and settings are both needed (why). as Pi Man said, distros like linux mint cinnamon are designed to feel simmalar to windows, but they arent trying to be the same.
That's some linuxing going on there...
This was brilliant and horrifying at the same time! Outstanding video!
thought it was pronounced ‘linn-ux’ instead of ‘line-ux’. line-ux sounds like a walmart AI version of Linus Sebastian
Dawid makes that very joke less than two minutes into this video...
It is probably the way most people in RSA pronounce it, so he probably grew up saying it that way.
@@cup_and_cone RSA? I searched for it but came up with nothing?
@@miserj maybe what he meant was Republic of South Africa, Dawid was originally from that region. Born in Namibia, entered college in South Africa.
@@Panzergruppe22 which is weird, because he doesn’t have a South African accent (the usual Afrikaans, anyway). I’ve never heard an accent like his before, and I’ve heard a lot.
We used to have this rule in construction, called the 10% rule. You have to be 10% smarter than the device you're working with to make it work for you.
This is so hillarious. I love the begging the chromebook to work as its supposed to. Definitely been there and done that with the myriads of software and os's I run into in my day to day life. Welcome to the real world of tech support.
I dunno if this is relevant to this chromebook but most of these have a write protect screw on the motherboard that you need to take out before flashing a new OS to the emmc (btw I'd love ot see pt.2)
It's absolutely doable, but for some models you do absolutely need Linux knowledge beforehand, and even then when things go wrong it can be a complete mess trying to figure it all out. You gave it a fair shot IMO!
6:13 "proper neckbeard linux" lol 🤣🤣🤣
Installing Linux on those crappy fuckbook is a literal pain in the ass, I tried installing Linux to an Acer Switch 7. And it was so stupidly difficult. The best is when you can boot the installation media, it writes the files to the eMMC Memory and then proceeds to not boot at all because there was no boot media found. All in all, never install Linux on ARM based machines, your precious lifetime isn't worth it XD
Your Linode adds are legendary and a staple of the channel
it's.. arm based.. steam does not have an arm version, steams games can't run on arm cpus, the only way I could ever see that happening is steam running in qemu user mode and maybe just maybe it'll run. you probally didn't get the arm iso for linux either.
The draw for Linux is that it turns E-Waste into useful computers after their time being able to be upgraded is done. That ARM is harder to do just reflects how few of them there are in the computing market. I run one, and its fine, but its just that, fine.
Yeah it's great stuff, if you got time to learn it. It's got it's good points
Linux on ARM is definitely a thing though, that's what Raspberry Pis use. Android is basically a very customized version of ARM Linux.
just not for chromebooks
thing is your computer is not a rasberry pi lol
I remember installing Ubuntu, Windows 10, and back to ChromeOS on my Chromebook just because I can. Did not even atteempt gaming as the Windows ran at a cinematic 24FPS. Also, on ChromeOS Linux Beta I managed to run Minecraft Java Edition lowest settings with Sodium mod and run at 20-30FPS on my Celeron Acer Spin R11, and 30-35 playable FPS on my cousins cheaper Asus something Chromebook. PS that suffering only occured because of ARM, if it was an x86 Chromebook, you'd be able to do ChromeOS Linux, proper Linux, and Windows all within like an hour not including install time.
Getting Linux to install on a Chromebook is incredibly tedious if one is not well versed in Linux Commands , i might take it for a spin one day 😅👌 for now i've done the easy part of just dual booting Linux alongside Windows on one drive.
Linux on ARM is frankly a nightmare outside of a few select devices. The people who wanted you to do this frankly had no idea what they're talking about. Yes, it's doable, but the only people I know who've done so were all professional linux developers!
it's the "this has been linuxing for ages" for me, if you spend a few days on Linux it's not that bad tbh especially when you setting up a home server, eventually you get use to the commands and it makes you feel powerful lmaoo
Windows has a thing called "DOS" which I already learned before you were born, and it makes me feel more powerful than Linux because I can play games.
For whatever it's worth, I think the particular random crap you picked for your first adventure with Linux might have been leaping past the tutorial and the standard difficulty settings right into hard mode+.
My experience with Linux Mint on old business-class hardware that doesn't run newer Windows very well has been "Boot to USB, follow the GUI, wait for a bit, reboot, click the boxes to add proprietary drivers, reboot, done". Biggest issue is bad wifi driver support and having to swap out whatever is in the system for something with an Intel chipset. Next issue would be hybrid graphics in laptops, but performance and battery life have both been "good enough" on my most recent machine to do documents/email/watch videos/Discord without digging into it.
Dawid, the suggestion was a troll, arm hardware and linux is a not very well supported unless you are looking for a very specific use case, as a desktop it would be pretty limited
although there is no sponsor to back this idea i recommend you try Zorin OS, it's is like a fusion of windows and macos, absolutely stunning linux operating system that is likely to end ones windows enslavement, steam windows games work extremely well with steams inbuild proton feature which runs windows games... these days tho linux versions on games are pretty common
Holy shit i feel your pain. Some months ago i did the same operation with a programming buddy of mine to my ARM chromebook. After bricking it and resoldering new memory four times the final product is a LXDE running ARM chromebook with a healthy part of the Kali nethunter software running.
Except for the 3 startup errors i recieve and the loud warning every time i startup the chromebook (as well as having to manually switch keyboard layout every time in the console) it runs "perfectly".
Forgot to mention, but a tip to anyone trying this:
- Just because your ARM processor has never been run on a certain OS doesn't mean it's impossible. But going that way will lead to you having to create/manipulate a Kernel to work. That's the path me and my friend took but it lead to us decreasing our life expectancy significantly.
- The solution often requires taking steps from multiple "guides", for example you might get started with one guide, then switch to another part-ways through because it stopped working. Keep doing this until you are fully bald and your neighbors hate you.
(Extra; Switch which OS you are trying to install, sometimes a Ubuntu guide works on Mint instead etc, keep experimenting.)
- Running Linux as a virtual machine within chromium is a bit easier, you can get the aforementioned LXDE running with fever steps. Then all you do is "CTRL+R", type "Chrosh" and type "StartLXDE" to enter the VM. Practical for people that want to try Linux and use it but still want to keep the functionality of Chrome OS.
- Don't be attached to the Chromebook. In the best case scenario (of a bricked system), you will still be able to use it for normal use, but stuff like saving files or playing mobile games will probably be broken. Worst case you have to butcher another Chromebook to solder new memory on the PCB, I've been there and can't say it's much fun.
Good luck
@@llamacannon1714 or just buy used x86 laptop
@@vipvip-tf9rw Yeah it's the smartest alternative. Even better would be going for those school chomebooks at the end of school-semesters and buying them in bulk for almost nothing.
Wait why would you have to resolder new memory? AFAIK at worst you would have to hook up an external programmer to reflash corrupted firmware
The problem with ChromeOS is the propritary BIOS. The vast majority of standard PCs will boot into Linux fine.
yeah chrome os being technically a fork of gentoo linux does not make it any any easier to install it on chromebook lol
I wonder if you could have installed VirtualBox from within the terminal in ChromeOS and then a proper Linux distro?
As far i know virtual box don't support arm...
arm is pain
@@vipvip-tf9rw me when someone shoots me in the arm
So now that Windows has been updated to better support Arm-based CPUs will you do another video like this?
I am just astonished that a device made to run a literal linux-ish environment makes it so hard to install a "real" linux OS on it. Had no idea it was this difficult!
On my pc, it's a matter of "make bootable flash drive", "boot off flash drive", "click the install button", and that's more or less it.
This looks like it's worse than one of those masochistic Gentoo or LFS installs.
I daresay that a random Raspberry PI board or similar arm-based SOC would have an easier time. Bad Chromebook!
They don't really want you installing weird things on the google chromebook. I have no idea what it could be about but it seems like they just want to keep you in google chrome os. Someone somewhere at google probably knows but they haven't told anyone, so I think it is going to remain a mystery why these things have happened.
Yeah, the fact that you say line-uhx tells me everything 😂
ChromeOS is Linux (Gentoo), but its proprietary. but this man could have said "install the Debian Virtual Machine on it", and there was his video. but this dude went all the way to try to install an actual open source distro on ARM device (which I think OpenSuse has a file for). Props to him also because (this was funny) every linux user has been there at once as a beginner.
Oh man your ads are genuinely hilarious, literally the only ads I've ever enjoyed watching and that's saying something.
I converted an old i7 ASUS Chromebox I got for free because Google didn't support it anymore to Windows and it works perfectly, I use it as a 4K media player for my TV.
Wow, i don't remember seeing Dawid this frustrated before. Great job linux commentators
Or, or...hear me out, you could have just bought a ThinkPad on ebay for $108 (yes I just checked) Core i5, 8gb RAM and 240gb SSD and installed any Linux distro you liked with zero issues.
Small info, you could also try to compile and install box86 and box64 and run Steam, but it won't be easy anyway as it's emulation. ARM CPU makes things complicated, but I get it working on mainline Linux on my Poco F1.
"Immediately scared and confused" is me most of the time.
Libre Office also exists for windows and I keep recommending it to people who, and I can't imagine why, want to pay microsoft $70 a year for a word processor or spreadsheets. On the face of it it just seems to be fully competent office software.
Also if you in the comments want a cheap linux computer please don't put yourself through this, there are perfectly cromulent 10 year old professional laptops out there just waiting for a second chance. If you want a lil baby one maybe try a 12" thinkpad like the x240.
"My boas says I should use MS program. Anything else is illegal." -Office drone.
I have the office suite free of charge because the company I work for gives it to me. And I still use libreoffice because it is easy to use and I love open source software. It can be tricky for older users, but it is so similar that you learn it quick.
LibreOffice is the shit. Especially when Microsoft wants to make the entire Office suite into a yearly subscription based model.
@j0sh I hope "more modern interface" doesn't mean that fucking ribbon. D=
@j0sh libreoffice has a modern interface and you can change it to look like microsoft office without plugins
Step 1. NEVER, EVER EVER Buy a f*cking Chromebook. Why would anyone do that?
I mean, Linux on a regular CPUs is pretty pretty good for a low end stuff
Part of the problem is: Your trying to install Linux
Yes it works for those who spend the time deep-diving in learning the commands and the like, but god-damn, can someone develop one that is GUI-based interaction already!?
I’m surprised that you tried to install Linux on that chrome book when you could’ve just bought a raspberry pi 400 which probably has the same CPU as that chrome book but has Linux installed out of the box and then ran like half life 2 on it that would’ve made it to where you wouldn’t have raged at it but great video as always
That would really drive him crazy. Trying to run Steam on a Raspberry Pi is an absolute nightmare.
@@shade20x64 I did it just fine with Box64...
0:47 That has got to be the best ad segue I've ever seen. I'm still chuckling
Lol. This reminds me of the first time I tried to install Linux on my old laptop without researching anything. I just went by a friend's recommendation, assuring me it would be easy. Predictably, I lost one friend that day.
tbf it's far easier than on a chromebook
I do these crazy things very frequently. Usually some hardware manufacturer give us a new board and its base system. I usually have a bootable kernel or media, let's call it bootstrap system(The host system, in your video, which became host of the 'virus,' which is not really true. It's called target system.)
Then the host system give you environment and toolchain(mostly compiler and linker) to build the working new kernel, which you can refer to current booting kernel, and its boot loader. When things are done properly enough, you can boot it with new booloader and new kernel. That's not something rocket science.
It's just very outlandish for most of the users who grow up in the windows/mac culture background.
It's not like this in this instance as there is no boot media available for it so you have to create your own. It would be amazing to just have a disk with a working toolchain! That sounds incredible but even a disk with a kernel and ininrd is not something you can have and the partitions on the disk have to be just so for a chromebook to recognise it as a bootable disk and the bootloader you have on the arm chromebook is not one that is easily replaced even if you had another bootloader. It kind of *is* rocket science or by now someone would have created a bootable disk image that you can just dd.
This is a fantastic video. It mirrors every encounter I have ever had with Linux. Thank you Dawid for your service.
You should try installing 4 wheels on a boat and see how well it drives for the next video!
Dawid, thank you for doing exactly what I would have done. So I didn't do it myself. :)
He fumbles it so you don't have to!
2:58 extremely insulting and accurate at the same time. i love it.
"Someone who sees Linux as a disease you may catch if you hang around boring people too much," might possibly be the single best sentence ever uttered in the English language.
My brother once had an old chromebook. It was intel-based but he wanted to play a game on it. This was many years ago, but I found a guide to not only remove Chromium OS, but to completely remove the old boot-loader and get something called "SeaBIOS" or something like that. Wound up just installing Linux Mint on it and other than the touchpad being non-functional, it wasn't too shabby, and yes. it was able to run some games via WINE. It went pretty well. This video is another reason why I don't like the idea of ARM taking over one day. Can't easily swap the OS and BIOS.
skill issue
The video should be more accurately titled, "Dawid tries to install Linux while he knows nothing about Linux and even has trouble following the instructions".
Use the trojan 3060 with Linux 😆
Dawid please do this and film it. I wanna see your reactions when trying to get those drivers working.
The Ctrl+D and Ctrl+U commands aren't supposed to be done on the recovery screen, they are supposed to be performed on the initial boot screen you get when your in developer mode (The one that you got the angry beep, the "OS verification is off" screen)
this is pretty much my entire linux experience in nutshell - countless hours of research all over the place, only to find out I'm very unlucky... its singlehandedly why I'm never ready to completely migrate to linux
the way I understand x86 and arm is that x86 is old, chunky, and universal. arm is a trimmed down lighter, more specialized version of x86. The part trimmed out to make arm was the universal part.
REDO THIS VIDEO!!!
Lol he shouda tried this on an x86 chromebook.
@@handlemoniumBut that's the easy way out, gotta take the hardest route Everytime 🗣️
Installing the in-built Linux on a Chromebook IS super easy... if you're already used to "Terminal is good enough for everything" Linux! ... but then you're left with just a terminal to manage everything within that Linux! And that's hardly ideal for people who don't live in Linux! And I say that as someone who will probably only buy Chromebooks and/or purpose-built Linux laptops for any future laptop purchase! While I'm glad that Google won't just lessen their security to make the flexibility of ChromeOS more easily accessed, it DEFINITELY causes some pain that doesn't have to be there!
You tried, you raged, you failed, and then you blamed for audience. A truer UA-camr timeline couldn't be had!!
You can’t punish us with a linode ad. Everytime your deep voice bellows out LINODE I smile
Me skipping the ad 😂
Edit: I was trying to find a new tech channel and I found this it’s really good! I will watch this channel often now
dont expect these things from linux in general.
1. have all your apps, it is great for learning to develop apps tbh or learn some small coding and good for writing cuz there are tons of mark down editors.
2. especially arm linux to support even all the linux apps. it is best to stick with good arm distros with big names like fedora or ubuntu, they can pretty much work like a daily driver.
3. play games. linux is getting great with proton but it is still not the recommended way.
it does unlock a lot of feature in case of chromebook like getting away from google based services and getting more apps for more things to do.
Proud of you trying, even with what most of us expected to be the end result.
Whenever I see "terrible linux idea" I hear "skill issue" and I feel compelled to watch
At this point Dawid is Linode's whole marketing team
LOL I have sorta the same Chromebook and gave up installing Linux on it and just reinstalled ChromeOS. Turns out, you can install the recovery image on any external USB-powered harddrive and just reinstall Chrome. Worked far far better than trying to get the pengiun on it! Also the latest ChromeOS version is quite nice actually.
Gotta love that developer mode boot warning and beeping.
It's not like your being punished or anything, right?
it was clearly the false distro: with LFS as dristro this wouldn't happen :)
Be sure to use BLFS as many features aren't in LFS. And when a technician (you pay) want to know what distro you want to be repaired just say BLFS and he will be extremely happy;) (if he is only used to arch and gentoo or darwin OS).
Loved the effects you did on this one David! Felt real epic! :D
it's your fault all of it is your fault so Dawid's gonna make you watch an ad now🤣🤣🤣
Damn, usually I'd find videos like this with people who know Linux, but you... you're an enigma.
I managed to get Xubuntu on an old used Dell ChromeBook. It was a 3 day job. I had to find out and unscrew a screw in it somewhere to unlock it and allow an other OS on it. Setting it up was hard but I did it. Once it was installed and configured to my liking, I used CloneZilla to clone it and put it on 9 other Dell used ChromeBooks. I gave those to my son's school and they were happy. You have to be ready to retry stuff until it works. Gallium was garbage on it (tried other distros also). This type of thing is not for everyone.
It's unfortunate so much effort was put into trying to get steam running on an architecture it doesn't work on, when prior knowledge could have saved the trouble.
The way he kept saying Linux...
that's the highest quality linode ad yet good job
sudo is for using 'super user do', which is kind of like you don't need it unless you're doing something with root, or universal settings.
apt is a package manager, mostly for Debian and Ubuntu distros, and only if you're installing packages by the terminal instead of a GUI installer
Also, you have to make sure you use an ARM version of a Linux distro, not x86-64
Whether Win, Mac, or Chrome, you have to make a bootable USB, unless you can burn a bootable CD.
The fact that I look forward to the Lenode ad every video
6:45 how did you get here? i'm trying to install another os on my chromebook but idk how i get to this part
I'm surprised you were able to put an ad with the word "linux" in it, after that inquisition level session. 😈
theme of video starts at
9:15 "it's not in my wheelhouse to do this kind of thing"
Maybe you had to "sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386" , "sudo apt update" before "sudo apt install steam"?
Stuff like this is why my eyelid starts twitching uncontrollably when someone says the word "ARM".
There is something poetic about a video of a man struggling with Linux having an ad about a Linux based service lmao