Acer Chromebook R 11 C738T Linux distros can't find internal storage drive

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1

System Details

  • Device: [Acer Chromebook R 11 C738T]
  • OS: [Lubuntu 26.04, Linux Mint Cinnamon]
  • Firmware Type: [UEFI Full ROM]
  • Firmware Version: [Latest]
  • Internal storage type: [eMMC 16gb]

Summary of the Issue

When I try to install Linux distributions the installer can’t find the internal storage drive.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Remove wp screw

  2. Run until firmware bash script in vt2 terminal

  3. Select UEFI full rom at some point it said it was entirely wiping the internal drive

  4. Remove software wp

  5. Boot bios

  6. Make Lubuntu installation usb

  7. Live boot Lubuntu

  8. Connect to wifi

  9. It wont allow erase disk nor selection of internal drive

Expected Behavior

It should allow erase disk as an option at the partitions section of the installer and allow selection of the internal drive in the dropdown above. (It does neither.)

2

I’m having the same problem… Weird, since the UEFI rewrite worked fine.
I’ve tried both Lubuntu and Arch (current versions, as of Jul 2026)

** Device: Acer Chromebook R11 (CB5-132T, C738T)

** Board Name: CYAN

** Platform: Intel Braswell

** Fw Type: Full ROM / UEFI

** Fw Ver: MrChromebox-2603.2 (05/17/2026)

** Fw WP: Disabled

(Hmm. Interesting data point: Pop OS sees the storage. Claims it’s not big enough (only 16G) to do the install, but does see it in the expected place.)

3

So after a considerable amount of screwing around in live boots on different OS’s I managed to get it working. I properly got it working on Q4OS Trinity, not my personal choice but it was a decent choice for the bad specs of the laptop. I got it partially working besides a failure to boot on Lubuntu by modprobing the emmc detection blocks in the binary. It seems to be something to do with how different operating systems E.G Debian vs. Ubuntu detect the 16gb emmc drive. My suggestion for solutions is probably Q4OS as it detects the drive without issue it is also very resource efficient. I tried other operating systems like Antix which consistently failed to format the drive partitions no matter what setup I did and as previously mentioned reloading the emmc detection drivers in Lubuntu to be met with a grub error. My conclusion is probably, Debian based operating system 90% of the time works.

4

Older versions of both Arch and Lubuntu were able to see the eMCC storage, but I gave up on Arch because I couldn’t figure out where to point its net-based install stuff, and lubuntu actually installed, but had trouble with the “update” that it does automatically (presumably for similar reasons.)

I surmise that some “old” driver has been removed from the standard distributions. :frowning:

I’ll give Q4OS (which I’d never heard of) a try. Like you, I only need “decent” - Thanks for the update.

5

Good luck! I hope you find a way to get something working. The removal of obsolete drivers does seem like a possible scenario.