Some years back, I bought this Dell Chromebook 11 (Candy) on eBay for no more than $80 in 2017, I think, to test out using a smart card on ChromeOS with sites that require such things. After that, I experimented using Crouton on it to run Ubuntu in a CHROOT sort of wrapper but it performed very slowly, lacked space and ultimately, I factory reset the thing and stopped using it when Google no longer provided updates for this plucky little machine. I looked at putting Linux on it, but after reading through some options, I shelved the idea along with the machine and completely forgot about it.
Fast forward years later, my oldest son, starting to develop an interest in technology, found the machine, in its neoprene case on a shelf and asked if he could put Linux on it. I laughed and said, “go for it.” I explained that that I started the process but abandoned it. I gave him my resources and thought nothing more of it. He then asked me, “If I break it, will you get mad?” To which I helped him understand that it was already dead machine to me.
Bottom line up front: I am a very proud father, witnessing how my son took this once dead machine and turn it into what is now a very usable device. I like using this thing so much, I have to make an effort to not want to take it back for my use.
Unlock Bootloader
The main resource used in freeing a Chromebook from it’s ChromeOS shackles is but one site. This is where you get custom coreboot firmware and firmware utilities for the Chromebooks. Here you must determine what it is going to take to put the machine in Developer Mode to remove the first line of restrictions.
The first step is to be sure that your particular ChomeBook is supported with this process:
https://mrchromebox.tech/#devices
Since my particular Chromebook is a 3120, or “Candy” machine, I am able to scan down the list of machines to see if it is possible. Fortunately for me, this machine is so old that it is well past End of Life and the full ROM / Firmware is supported. I can also see here that the Write Protect method is a screw. More on that later.
The next step is to put the machine in Developer Mode to relax the systems restrictions and give you more control over the system.
https://mrchromebox.tech/#devmode
To enable Developer Mode on my Chromebook, hold ESC+Refresh+Power until the recovery screen shows up. Then press CTRL+D to enable Developer Mode. This will “powerwash” or “factory reset” your device so if there is anything saved locally on the machine, it would be a good idea to backup that data ahead of time.
Flash Firmware
The chart did say that the Write Protect method is the screw but that was not necessary in this case. I do have a bit of a grey area here as since I didn’t actually participate in this portion of the process, I don’t actually know how my son unlocked the write protect. My guess it was the flashing firmware process that made it possible.
Flashing the firmware is as simple as running a script. The trouble here is, you will have to hand-jam it into the terminal yourself so no copying and pasting with this part. Follow the directions to install the firmware and let it reboot.
openSUSE Tumbleweed
The operating system of choice for this, of course, was openSUSE Tumbleweed but with a few challenges. The fact of the matter is, this machine doesn’t have a lot when it comes to CPU, RAM and Storage but it truly is good enough.
Processor: Intel Celeron N2840 @ 2.16 GHz
Memory: 4.0 GiB of RAM 3.7 GiB available
Storage: 14.68 GiB
Based on this, there wasn’t much to work with. So, what it boils down to is one partition with BTRFS and no snapshots. So, this machine has none of the safety nets that I am used to having with openSUSE.
Ultimately, the installation was successful and it boots without any issues.
Keyboard
The most irritating anti-feature of Chromebooks, at least in this era as I’ve not messed with a more modern one, is the terrible keyboard layout. The meta key is where the capslock key should be. This keyboard is missing two function keys, F11 and F12. On the function row, have some predefined, baked in, media cues in place of function keys. Thankfully, Linux does provide a solution, Input Remapper.
sudo opi input-remapperInput Remapper is a great tool for making your keyboard behave just as you would like. For the case of this computer, instead of using the Chromebook keyboard mapping, I used the generic keyboard so that the function keys would be primary and I added the specific special keys for screen brightness and volume control. Also, since the Chromebook lacks a delete key, I added Alt R + BackSpace for that particular function.
Battery
Since I had long since left that Chromebook for dead on a shelf, the battery was completely dead. Doing a little digging on eBay, I found replacement for about $8. Thankfully, Dell had the right sense to make it easy to work on this machine so installing the battery was a trivial process. Seven screws on the bottom to remove the panel and two more screws that hold the battery in place. The battery is held in place with two screws and connected to the motherboard and a 9-pin connector from the battery to the mainboard.
How I’m Using It
This machine is not very powerful at all so there isn’t a wide range of tasks you can actually do with it but if you keep it’s use to something approximate a Chromebook made in 2015, basic web browsing, video streaming, simple office tasks and rudimentary gaming. It also works great for a machine where you have to live in the terminal… if only that keyboard was a bit better tho… Mostly, I like to use it for doing some late night research where I don’t have any guilt about [gently] tossing it under the bed when I’m done.
This is also a great machine for sitting outside on a bench, in the shade, under a tree or wherever and something you don’t have to worry about breaking. The machine is not at all fragile with a mass that is just low enough to not be destroyed by it’s own momentum in a fall. The lack of “premium” feel to it is perfect for using it wherever.
What I like
This Chromebook turned openSUSE laptop is not powerful at all, but I really like how it feels, the size and weight along with its overall travel convenience. This is by no means powerful or capable of doing a great number of tasks, but running Tumbleweed with Firefox as the browser makes for a much better experience than Chrome OS on this particular device.
Although the synthetic benchmarks on this, this laptop is quite lackluster, it performs quite well and is not irritatingly slow to use. When it comes to more processor intensive tasks, this is not going to cut it but if I want to fall down the internet rabbit hole, researching some obscure topic, this is great for any location. I especially prefer this on the couch or any other, less than safe locations for laptops.
The one, stand-out feature of this machine is that it has a rather ruggedized structure about it. Not that I tend on dropping it off of a table or any such nonsense. But if this thing slips off of a couch and hits the hardwood floors, it’s not going to damage it due to its rubber bumper construction around the edges. Nicely done.
What I don’t like
Irritatingly, Chromebooks have a real poor keyboard layout. There are a lot of extra, more legacy function keys that are missing from this layout. Additionally, there is no F11 or F12 keys which I commonly use. For the way I have chosen to use this machine, it’s not a big deal but it is rather annoying.
I can’t do a whole lot with this machine at once. It just doesn’t have the memory or processing power to do a lot smoothly. It can a task or two quite well but you do have to limit it quite a bit.
The power connector on this machine is the 5.5mm Dell barrel jack which was great for me 4 years ago but today, when I have largely transitioned to using USB-C for everything, it is kind of an unfortunate reality to this era of machine.
Final thoughts
One can argue. This would be great for distraction-free writing or researching. Combine that with it’s semi-ruggedized construction and low power draw, this makes for a great, distraction-free device to use when the time arises.
Now that openSUSE Tumbleweed is happily running on this Chromebook 11, I’ve decided I’d rather like this low-powered device quite a bit. What at once left for dead, has been brought back to life and is far more useful now than it ever has been. I in fact, like this little machine so much, I think I like to get another one, just because. Comparing this machine to another low-powered device I own, a Lenovo 110s, I much prefer this computer to that one. It performs far better than that one.
I also started to think, it might be beneficial to move my home directory onto an external, small form factor USB 3 flash drive. Small enough that it would not put the port at risk. I don’t need much more space but I do need more space to make this thing more useful.
There’s something incredibly fun and satisfying with repurposing old and forgotten hardware. Sure, there are new and shinier, far more powerful, devices that I could be using, but there’s something fun about. About this rather old machine a little bit harder than it was perhaps meant to be used. Linux really makes computers fun again.
References
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000130295/chromebook-11-3120-visual-guide-for-your-computer
https://dl.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_chromebook/chromebook-11-3120_reference%20guide_en-us.pdf
https://chromebook.wiki/chromeosdevices/dellcandy
https://mrchromebox.tech/
https://get.opensuse.org
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