07-08-2023, 03:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 13-08-2023, 10:41 AM by Mzee.
Edit Reason: I have changed the OS to Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.2, all good.
)
I have just converted an Acer Chromebook 317 [CB317-1H] , Magpie JasperLake to Linux Mint XFce 21.2. The following may help someone:-
The original ChromeOS was pathetic! Nothing worked smoothly, mouse scrolling was erratic, as was the touchpad. It had Linux Debian 11 running in a VM. The idea was that you could use a Linux app, but you had to have a cup of coffee while the VM woke up and the app loaded. The Linux apps were crippled, you couldn't keep them on top. The average CPU temperature was 66c. There is no way that ChromeOS could do justice to a computer with 8GB RAM, 4 core CPU, & 128GB SSD.
I installed MrChrombox's RW_LEGACY Firmware. I used this one because I didn't need to disable the write protection, which was good because the guarantee was still valid, and I can restore it to chromeos at any time. I used Mint xfce as it is lighter on resources than Cinnamon. I won't go into the details of the installation which was quite straightforward.
Note: Whatever you do. NEVER touch the space bar during the process, as it
will restore ChromeOS!
Mint xfce works very well. The mouse & touchpad are excellent. The Volume control works, but no sound, Brightness control works, & the keyboard backlighting also, but there were some problems:-
The main problem is the lack of a sound driver. I have no doubt that someone will create one some day. Meanwhile I use a $37 USB sound card for the earphones.
There is no way to use Capital Lock (the Key is now Search), & also no Numlock for the Numeric key pad. Both have the same solution. Open the virtual keyboard "onboard' in Menu, place a shortcut on the panel. Go to start up in the settings menu & tick "onboard" in the start up menu. Right click on the panel icon & select "show onboard". Click on "numlock" the numbers will show. For Upper case select Capital Lock. This does not affect the Numeric keypad setting. Click on the X to hide the virtual keyboard.
If you wish to control the touchpad install "touchpad-indicator".
An interesting thing is that the average CPU temp over several hours was 38c with a maximum of 41c. So much for Google's bull about the efficiency of their OS! A big plus is that you can use MACRIUM REFLEX to make a full image of the drive in 4 minutes!
The original ChromeOS was pathetic! Nothing worked smoothly, mouse scrolling was erratic, as was the touchpad. It had Linux Debian 11 running in a VM. The idea was that you could use a Linux app, but you had to have a cup of coffee while the VM woke up and the app loaded. The Linux apps were crippled, you couldn't keep them on top. The average CPU temperature was 66c. There is no way that ChromeOS could do justice to a computer with 8GB RAM, 4 core CPU, & 128GB SSD.
I installed MrChrombox's RW_LEGACY Firmware. I used this one because I didn't need to disable the write protection, which was good because the guarantee was still valid, and I can restore it to chromeos at any time. I used Mint xfce as it is lighter on resources than Cinnamon. I won't go into the details of the installation which was quite straightforward.
Note: Whatever you do. NEVER touch the space bar during the process, as it
will restore ChromeOS!
Mint xfce works very well. The mouse & touchpad are excellent. The Volume control works, but no sound, Brightness control works, & the keyboard backlighting also, but there were some problems:-
The main problem is the lack of a sound driver. I have no doubt that someone will create one some day. Meanwhile I use a $37 USB sound card for the earphones.
There is no way to use Capital Lock (the Key is now Search), & also no Numlock for the Numeric key pad. Both have the same solution. Open the virtual keyboard "onboard' in Menu, place a shortcut on the panel. Go to start up in the settings menu & tick "onboard" in the start up menu. Right click on the panel icon & select "show onboard". Click on "numlock" the numbers will show. For Upper case select Capital Lock. This does not affect the Numeric keypad setting. Click on the X to hide the virtual keyboard.
If you wish to control the touchpad install "touchpad-indicator".
An interesting thing is that the average CPU temp over several hours was 38c with a maximum of 41c. So much for Google's bull about the efficiency of their OS! A big plus is that you can use MACRIUM REFLEX to make a full image of the drive in 4 minutes!
