So I was able to successfully install Fedora w/ KDE plasma using RW_Legacy on my Acer 514 Chromebook. I didn’t touch WP, so my understanding is that the Chromebook firmware is still in place? (very new to working at this level and to Linux, so appologies if I get anything wrong). The laptop runs great the only kink is that when when it powers on it shows the developer mode screen first and I have to hit ctrl+L to boot Fedora, which I don’t mind.
The problem is that I also want to be able to boot from a USB - to use tails, and things like that. But when I plug in my USB and hit “boot from external drive” from the dev mode screen, it says “boot from external drive disabled” or something along those lines. That also worries me in case I ever wanna switch my Linux OS, I won’t be able to do so.
“Boot from External Drive” on the developer mode screen means “Boot ChromeOS from External Drive” and is completely separate from booting Linux from USB, which needs to be done via the RW_LEGACY / Alternative bootloader menu.
You didn’t use it to install Linux the first time, not sure why you’d think it would be necessary to reinstall it. But I agree it could be labeled better
Ahhh ok that makes sense. Thank you! Honestly I just forgot the distinction since the initial install. But so, I should access the bootloader by hitting esc on the coreboot screen right?
Hey sorry to bug you again, but I tried using the boot menu for edk2 and was able to get to the tails boot menu, but then the screen gets stuck on “booting” even if I leave it for 15+ minutes. To troubleshoot I flashed a new drive with Rufus from my Windows machine, but same outcome.
I found this post detailing how to boot tails on a stock Chromebook but I don’t know if that’s applicable here. As far as I can tell, I can no longer access the ChromeOS dev terminal.
could just be a bug with the stock firmware that’s preventing tails from booting, hard to say.
Those instructions are what you are doing, no? booting via legacy boot mode/alternative bootloader. If you’re able to boot to the edk2 screen and select the USB device for booting, then you’ve done everything correctly on the Chromebook.
You can always try booting a standard Ubuntu live USB and verify that works