Chromebook BARLA exceptionally slow for browsing

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1

System Details

  • Device: BARLA
  • OS: Lubuntu 26.04
  • Firmware Type: UEFI Full ROM
  • Firmware Version: MrChromebox-2603.1 Release
  • Internal storage type:eMMC

Summary of the Issue

I installed Lubuntu 26.04, which has kernel 7.0. While audio works out of the box, the Chromebook feels exceptionally slow while playing Youtube video

Am I missing some drivers (e.g. integrated GPU drivers)?

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Play YouTube in Firefox (APT version, not Snap)

  2. Exceptionally slow and choppy

Expected Behavior

Youtube videos should not be choppy if GPU is working.

2

Have you noticed something like this on the stock OS? The stock OS is probably the best benchmark for stuff like this….

My first guess would be missing codecs. I would search the documentation of my distribution for codec installation.

Another avenue: Try the snap version or another browser and troubleshoot from there :slight_smile:

3

Stock OS behaves normally. Codecs are already installed. I would try the snap version. However, I also tried Freetube, which is also very slow.

4

I see… Could this be an issue? a weird cpu observation... · Issue #538 · MrChromebox/firmware · GitHub

5

This could be the issue. I switched back to chromeOS so that it is somewhat usable, but now I cannot test the CPU usage on Linux anymore (without reinstalling)

6

You could enable legacy booting and just boot a live iso, no need to install linux right away!

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