🚀 The Ultimate Reference Guide: Running Full Linux on HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook (Redrix) via Submarine

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The Ultimate Reference Guide: Running Full Linux on HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook (Redrix) via Submarine

“How I achieved a fully functional Linux setup with working Sleep, Fast Charging, and complete hardware support.”

Introduction: Why This Method?

Most Chromebook users gravitate towards Coreboot UEFI (MrChromebox firmware). While it is an excellent solution, I faced a persistent and frustrating issue on 11th Gen (Tiger Lake/Volteer) devices: Suspend/Sleep (S0ix) does not work correctly. The device would either freeze or crash immediately upon closing the lid.

The Radical Solution: Reverting to Stock Firmware to leverage the native, factory-tuned ACPI power tables, and using Submarine as the bootloader to chain-load Linux.

Test Device Specifications

  • Device Name: HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook (Enterprise)

  • Board Name: Redrix (Volteer Family)

  • CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-1145G7 (11th Gen Tiger Lake)

  • GPU: Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics

  • Storage: NVMe SSD 256GB

  • Target OS: Ultramarine Linux (GNOME 43)

Phase 1: Back to Basics (Preparation)

Before starting, it was essential to clean the device of any previous modifications (Coreboot) and return to the factory state.

1. Restore Stock Firmware:

  • From my previous Linux install, I ran the MrChromebox script:

    cd; curl -LO mrchromebox.tech/firmware-util.sh && sudo bash firmware-util.sh

  • I selected option: [2] Restore Stock Firmware.

  • After rebooting, I inserted the Chrome OS Recovery USB (created via the Chromebook Recovery Utility) to restore the OS.

2. Enable Developer Mode (Crucial Step):

  • Once Chrome OS was restored, I enabled Developer Mode (ESC + Refresh + Power, then Ctrl + D).

  • The Most Important Step (Linux will not boot without this):

    I accessed the Chrome OS terminal (Ctrl + Alt + F2), logged in as chronos, and executed the following command to enable USB booting:

    Bash

    sudo enable_dev_usb_boot

    (Without this command, the “Boot from external disk” option in the boot menu will effectively do nothing).

Phase 2: The “Surgical” Installation

Since Submarine does not currently have an automatic installer for this setup, I performed the installation manually using precise steps.

1. Booting Strategy:

I used two USB drives:

  • USB 1: Contained the Ultramarine Linux ISO.

  • USB 2: Contained the submarine-x86.bin file.

  • At the white boot screen, I pressed Ctrl + U to boot from USB 2, which then loaded the Submarine menu. I selected Ultramarine from there.

2. The OS Setup:

  • I started the installation via the Anaconda Installer.

  • I selected the internal drive (nvme0n1) and chose Erase Disk.

  • :stop_sign: WARNING: When the installation finished, I DID NOT REBOOT! I closed the installer window to stay in the Live Environment.

3. Partitioning (via GNOME Disks):

Goal: Create a small “room” for Submarine.

  1. Opened Disks.

  2. Selected the main system partition (Partition 3 - Btrfs).

  3. Selected Resize Filesystem and reduced the size by 50 MB.

  4. In the newly created Free Space, I created a new partition:

    • Size: 16 MB.

    • Name: Submarine.

    • Resulting Device: /dev/nvme0n1p4 (Partition 4).

4. Injecting the Bootloader (via Terminal):

I opened the terminal and executed the following commands to download and flash Submarine:

Bash

# 1. Download the Submarine kpart file
cd /tmp
wget https://nightly.link/FyraLabs/submarine/workflows/build/main/submarine-x86_64.zip
unzip submarine-x86_64.zip

# 2. Flash the file into the 4th partition we created
sudo dd if=submarine-x86.kpart of=/dev/nvme0n1p4 status=progress

# 3. Sign/Bless the partition so the Chromebook accepts it
sudo dnf install vboot-utils -y
sudo cgpt add -i 4 -t kernel -P 15 -T 1 -S 1 /dev/nvme0n1

(After this, I rebooted, removed USBs, pressed Ctrl + D, and the system booted successfully!)

Phase 3: Drivers & Fixes

The system booted up immediately, but Audio required a small intervention (standard for Chromebooks).

Audio Fix:

I used the well-known chromebook-linux-audio script:

Bash

git clone https://github.com/WeirdTreeThing/chromebook-linux-audio.git
cd chromebook-linux-audio
./setup-audio
  • After a reboot, the system correctly identified the sound card as sof-rt5682.

:white_check_mark: Final Report: Hardware Status Matrix

After extensive testing using diagnostic tools (sensors, upower, inxi) and real-world usage, here are the results:

Component Status Notes & Details
Boot Process :white_check_mark: 100% Fast and stable boot via Submarine (Ctrl+D).
Suspend / Sleep :white_check_mark: 100% (Major Achievement) System sleeps and wakes instantly (S0ix) without crashing.
Audio (Speakers) :white_check_mark: 100% Loud, clear stereo sound (L/R channels correct).
Headphone Jack :white_check_mark: 100% 3.5mm jack works perfectly (Audio Out + Mic In).
Bluetooth Audio :white_check_mark: 100% Tested with external earbuds; audio is stable with no stutter.
Internal Mic :white_check_mark: 100% Internal microphone captures clear audio.
Webcam :white_check_mark: 100% Works in web apps and Cheese.
Touchscreen :white_check_mark: 100% Accurate response, supports multi-touch.
Touchpad :white_check_mark: 100% Very smooth, supports GNOME gestures (Scrolling, Pinch).
Charging (USB-C) :white_check_mark: 100% Fast Charging (PD) Active. Verified 20V input and ~45W rate.
Battery Life :white_check_mark: 100% Accurate readings, logical discharge rate.
Keyboard :white_check_mark: 100% All keys functional.
Backlight (KBD) :white_check_mark: 100% Keyboard backlight works and brightness is adjustable.
Function Keys :white_check_mark: 100% Brightness and Volume keys on the F-row work out of the box.
Volume Buttons :white_check_mark: 100% Physical side volume buttons are functional.
GPU (Iris Xe) :white_check_mark: 100% Full Hardware Acceleration enabled. No software rendering.
Thermals :white_check_mark: 100% Perfect temps (40-50°C idle) and silent fans.

Verdict

Converting the HP Elite Dragonfly to Linux using Submarine is currently the superior choice for this hardware, outperforming Coreboot specifically regarding Power Management and Sleep reliability.

The device has effectively transformed into a productivity beast running open-source software, without sacrificing a single hardware feature.

Redrix (HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook) — Fedora 43 Issues, Findings & Requests for Guidance
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=== :rocket: HP Elite Dragonfly (Redrix) Hardware Report ===

System:
Kernel: 6.17.9-300.fc43.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.2.1
Desktop: GNOME v: 49.2 Distro: Ultramarine Linux 43 (GNOME Edition)
gas_meter base: Fedora 43
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Google product: Redrix v: rev3
serial:
Mobo: Google model: Redrix v: rev3 serial:
BIOS: coreboot v: Google_Redrix.14505.831.0 date: 11/05/2024
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 39.5 Wh (96.8%) condition: 40.9/51 Wh (80.2%) volts: 8.56
min: 7.7 model: 333-2C- DK04050 status: charging
Device-1: peripheral0 model: N/A charge: 0% status: N/A
CPU:
Info: 10-core (2-mt/8-st) model: 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1245U bits: 64
type: MST AMCP arch: Alder Lake rev: 4 cache: L1: 928 KiB L2: 6.5 MiB
L3: 12 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1041 min/max: 400/4400:3300 cores: 1: 1041 2: 1041
3: 1041 4: 1041 5: 1041 6: 1041 7: 1041 8: 1041 9: 1041 10: 1041 11: 1041
12: 1041 bogomips: 59904
Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-UP3 GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] driver: i915 v: kernel
arch: Xe bus-ID: 00:02.0
Display: wayland server: X.Org v: 24.1.9 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9
compositor: gnome-shell driver: dri: iris gpu: i915
resolution: 3384x2256~60Hz
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 vendor: intel mesa v: 25.3.0 glx-v: 1.4
direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel Iris Xe Graphics (ADL GT2)
API: EGL Message: EGL data requires eglinfo. Check --recommends.
Info: Tools: api: glxinfo de: kscreen-doctor x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo,
xprop, xrandr
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Alder Lake Imaging Signal Processor driver: intel-ipu6
bus-ID: 00:05.0
Device-2: Intel Alder Lake PCH-P High Definition Audio
driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl bus-ID: 00:1f.3
API: ALSA v: k6.17.9-300.fc43.x86_64 status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.9 status: active
Network:
Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-P PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
bus-ID: 00:14.3
IF: wlp0s20f3 state: up mac:
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel AX211 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
bus-ID: 3-10:2
Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down bt-service: enabled,running
rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes address: bt-v: 5.4 lmp-v: 13
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 8.11 GiB (3.4%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Intel model: SSDPEKKF256G8L size: 238.47 GiB
temp: 38.9 C
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 235.54 GiB used: 7.63 GiB (3.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
ID-2: /boot size: 1.9 GiB used: 491.3 MiB (25.2%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
ID-3: /home size: 235.54 GiB used: 7.63 GiB (3.2%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 50.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 0 fan-2: 0
Info:
Memory: total: 16 GiB note: est. available: 15.45 GiB used: 4.44 GiB (28.7%)
Processes: 421 Uptime: 25m Init: systemd
Packages: 19 note: see --rpm Compilers: gcc: 15.2.1 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9
inxi: 3.3.39

=== :battery: Battery & Power ===

state:               charging
capacity-level:      Normal
energy-rate:         6.7452 W
percentage:          97%
capacity:            80.1662%
technology:          lithium-ion

=== :speaker_high_volume: Audio Devices (SOF) ===

card 0: sofrt5682 [sof-rt5682], device 0: Speakers () []
card 0: sofrt5682 [sof-rt5682], device 1: Headset ()
card 0: sofrt5682 [sof-rt5682], device 2: HDMI1 () []
card 0: sofrt5682 [sof-rt5682], device 3: HDMI2 ()
card 0: sofrt5682 [sof-rt5682], device 4: HDMI3 () []
card 0: sofrt5682 [sof-rt5682], device 5: HDMI4 ()
card 0: sofrt5682 [sof-rt5682], device 7: Bluetooth (*)

omer@ultramarine ~ took 4s
❯

3

REDRIX is an Alderlake (Brya) board, not Tigerlake (volteer), which should be obvious from the contents of the 2nd post

1 Like
4

I made a mistake in writing it correctly, but I rewrote the information in the second post (comment).

5

you can edit posts you know :wink:

7

I prefer logs over LLM speculation, boot with drm.debug=0xe and log dmesg

8

Did you let AI agents loose on the forum and are instructing them using replies?

9

My native Arabic is not fluent, and I don’t know how to structure sentences in English. I used my intellect to write the article, but the method is correct. Would you like me to send you a screenshot so you can verify?

10

Update: GNOME Interface Stuttering & Freezing Fix

After installing and updating, you may experience UI stuttering, freezing, and screen flickering. Symptoms (Logs):

kernel: i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] ptyxis[19692] context reset due to GPU hang
ptyxis: vkWaitForFences(): The logical or physical device has been lost. (VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST) (-4)

The Solution: Run the following command:

sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args=“i915.enable_psr=0 i915.enable_fbc=1”

Comparison with KDE Plasma: I installed the Plasma (KDE) interface for testing and diagnostic purposes.

  • Results: Plasma does not suffer from the freezing or screen flickering issues found in GNOME.

  • Known Issue: However, Plasma has a problem with Sleep/Suspend mode. I did not attempt to fix the sleep issue as I am not interested in using this interface; I only used it to verify that the freezing was specific to how the system handles power states in the default setup.

Final Verdict: With the fix mentioned above applied, GNOME is now fully integrated and flawless. There are no errors, no stuttering, and the system is completely stable.

11

The nice thing of AI is that it always marks its current solution as the final, ultimate, perfectly working and almighty one and, if the proposed solution fails, it doesn’t feel ashamed as any of us would even if if it was an epic fail and goes on with the its next ultimate solution.

Well, that makes me wonder if being a true person makes me weaker to some extent because big failures sometimes make me feel silly and possibly hesitate in the follwing steps/decisions.

I sincerely wonder how it’ll be in the next five - ten years span.

Sorry for the slightly OT comment.

12

I am not a robot; I simply write using artificial intelligence because my native language is Arabic.

13

I was not referring to you, but to the way AI proposes its solution. I sometimes you AI myself, even for work, and I find it funny how it always looks sure that it’s keeping the truth in its hands.

I did not mind to be rude to you, anyhow,

1 Like
14

Video

15

i’ve got a redrix and i’m running on the MrChromebox firmware. i’m also having suspend issues. would running drm.debug=0xeand sharing dmesg logs help diagnose what’s going on?

i hadn’t heard of Submarine before. is the main advantage to this approach that the “ACPI power tables” go untouched? i’d like to learn about this low level stuff, the MrChromebox docs site is incredibly helpful. i’d like to understand if those power tables could be borrowed from the stock firmware to improve the MrChromebox firmware. Or maybe that’s already how things are done?

16

The submarine injects itself and performs the illusion of the original firmware, then hands over control to the firmware without changing anything.
You need to revert to the original firmware, then activate developer mode, and then boot from USB. After that, install Linux. Most problems will be solved, but one issue remains: the way the system handles the screen needs some adjustments. I’m referring to the GNOME interface.

17

the stock firmware is a snapshot in time of the coreboot code, with some fixes backported.

the MrChromebox firmware is built from the latest coreboot quarterly tag (+patches). The chances of the stock firmware having more-correct ACPI tables than mine is slim, but regressions do happen. More likely the newer firmware has more fixes / is more correct.

1 Like
18

Hi.
I’ve been trying to replicate this using an HP Elite Dragonfly i5- 1245U with intel vPro.
I tried several different alternatives:

  • 2 usb drives, one with submarine (with bin flashed either using balena etcher or dd), one with ultramarine (either from the iso image and flashed with balena etcher or dd, or using the img file and flashed with dd
  • 1 usb drive with ultramarine img file flashed with dd, then deleted the efi boot partition and replaced with a 16MB partition where I flashed the submarine-x86.kpart file and edited the flags with cgpt.

In both cases I can boot to submarine and I can see the menu with 12 options for a while.
Interestingly, immediately after the menu is printed, I get some errors related to partition issues.
Nevertheless, I am able to type my booting choice, and whenever I try option “01”, “02“ or I’m not quick enough, the screen goes off, the led in the power button remains on, but nothing else happens.
If I choose “05“ to boot from alternative USB, it cannot boot and prints the menu options again.

I tried the prebuilt image of submarine found in their website “Latest x86_64 build” or compiled it myself from submarine github.
I’m wondering if the issue is related to the new submarine version (that I get either from the prebuilt image or from github)?
Or can it be related to the vPro specs of this processor?

Thank you for your help.
Eduardo

19

Thanks for sharing this guide, I was able to set up Ultramarine GNOME on my Dragonfly and love it so much! I did notice that while the webcam works, it sends raw video feed and makes it look green-ish with fairly bad white balancing, but other than that love everything about it — I went into a rabbit hole with AI trying to fix this and spent way to many hours, so let me know if others have also this issue and and a workaround.

Also, I got some other tweaks with the help of AI which help me summarize my tweaks in “tutorial” form. I’ve been meaning to polish it but since I haven’t gotten around to it, I decided to post it as-is in the hope it is helpful to others.

—————–

This guide provides a modular approach to optimizing the HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook for Linux. Each section is self-contained with the necessary scripts, configurations, and activation steps.

Tested on: Ultramarine Linux / Fedora (GNOME).

1. Keyboard: Top-Row Function Keys

Fixes the Chromebook top row so keys like “Fullscreen” and “Overview” work as expected in Linux.

Step A: The Configuration

Create or edit:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/keyd  # not there out of the box
sudo nano /etc/keyd/default.conf

Add contents:

[ids]
*

[main]
# Maps Fullscreen key to F11
zoom = f11
# Maps Overview key to GNOME Activities
scale = leftmeta

Step B: Activation

sudo dnf install keyd
sudo systemctl enable --now keyd
sudo keyd reload

2. Battery: 80% Threshold & AC Bypass

Protects battery health by stopping the charge at 80% and running the laptop directly off the power adapter.

Step A: The Logic Script

Create

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/battery-limit.sh

Put these contents:

#!/bin/bash
CAPACITY=$(cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/capacity)
logger -t battery-fix "Battery script triggered. Capacity: $CAPACITY%"

# 80% Threshold: Switch to Idle (Bypass Battery)
if [ "$CAPACITY" -ge 80 ]; then
    /usr/sbin/ectool chargecontrol idle
else
    # Charge normally up to 80%
    /usr/sbin/ectool chargecontrol normal 75 80
fi

Set permissions:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/battery-limit.sh

Step B: The Automation (udev Rule)

Create rules file:

/etc/udev/rules.d/99-battery-limit.rules

Add this line:

SUBSYSTEM=="power_supply", ACTION=="change", RUN+="/usr/local/bin/battery-limit.sh"

Step C: Activation

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules

Step D: Verify

Should show NORMAL for charging/discharging or IDLE for direct power source.

sudo ectool chargecontrol

:magnifying_glass_tilted_left: Understanding Battery States

When using the threshold scripts, you will see different states in your tray:

State Meaning
NORMAL The battery is actively charging toward your upper limit (80%).
IDLE / DISCHARGE The battery has reached the limit and is now “resting.” The laptop is running entirely on AC power.
SUSTAINER ON The hardware is “watching” the battery. It will not charge again until the level drops below your lower limit (75%).

3. Tablet Mode: Display & Keyboard Automation

Ensures the screen stays on when folded and automatically disables the physical keyboard and backlight.

Step A: Prevent Screen Blanking

Edit:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/logind.conf

Add these:

[Login]
HandleLidSwitch=ignore
HandleLidSwitchExternalPower=ignore
HandleLidSwitchDocked=ignore

Activation:

sudo systemctl restart systemd-logind

Step B: The Tablet Handler Script

Check kbd path with:

find /sys/devices/platform/i8042/ -name "inhibited"

Create

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/tablet-mode-handler.sh

Add this:

#!/bin/bash
KBD_INHIBIT="/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input2/inhibited"
STATE_FILE="/tmp/kbd_backlight_state"

libinput debug-events | while read -r line; do
    if echo "$line" | grep -q "switch tablet-mode state 1"; then
        # Capture & Save Brightness
        VAL=$(/usr/sbin/ectool pwmgetkblight | awk '{print $NF}' | tr -d '%')
        echo "$VAL" > "$STATE_FILE"
        # Disable Hardware
        /usr/sbin/ectool pwmsetkblight 0
        echo 1 > "$KBD_INHIBIT"
        notify-send "Tablet Mode" "Keyboard Disabled" --icon=keyboard-off
    elif echo "$line" | grep -q "switch tablet-mode state 0"; then
        # Restore Hardware
        echo 0 > "$KBD_INHIBIT"
        SAVED=$(cat "$STATE_FILE")
        /usr/sbin/ectool pwmsetkblight "${SAVED:-80}"
        notify-send "Laptop Mode" "Keyboard Enabled" --icon=keyboard
    fi
done

Set permissions:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/tablet-mode-handler.sh

Step C: The Background Service

Create

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/tablet-mode-handler.service

Add this:

[Unit]
Description=HP Dragonfly Tablet Mode Handler
After=multi-user.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/bash /usr/local/bin/tablet-mode-handler.sh
Restart=always
Environment="PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Step D: Activation

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now tablet-mode-handler.service

4. Desktop Shortcuts: Battery Toggles

Manual controls for switching between “Desk Mode” and “Travel Mode.”

Step A: The Shortcuts

Travel Mode (100% Charge): Create:

nano ~/Desktop/FullCharge.desktop

Add this:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Travel Mode (100%)
Exec=sudo /usr/sbin/ectool chargecontrol normal 0 100
Icon=battery-full-charging
Type=Application

Desk Mode (80% Limit): Create:

nano ~/Desktop/ProtectBattery.desktop

Add this:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Desk Mode (80%)
Exec=sudo /usr/sbin/ectool chargecontrol idle
Icon=battery-protection-symbolic
Type=Application

Step B: Passwordless Access (Sudoers)

Run:

sudo visudo

and add this line at the end so the buttons work without a password prompt:

YOUR_USERNAME ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/ectool chargecontrol *

5. UI & Gestures

To optimize the GNOME desktop for touch interaction.

Recommended Extensions (I ignored the warning on some that said they were not compatible with the GNOME Shell version):

  • TouchUp: Adds fluid gestures for tablet mode.
  • Touch X: Not sure why but also helped, I think.
  • OSK Indicator: Adds a button to manually toggle the On-Screen Keyboard.
20

Just took the plunge on a Dragonfly at an unbelievable bargain to replace my aging Toshiba (2015) that has served me well thanks to Mr. Chromebox. Wondering if it is possible or if anyone has attempted to do the Submarine method with an Ubuntu based distro like Zorin? Thanks for any insight.

Still awaiting delivery…

22

You might try looking here: Introduction

In the left pane there are articles for installing Arch, Debian, Linux Mint Debian Edition, and NixOS. You might find something that works for you.

I tried installing Fedora 43 and Submarine wouldn’t boot it, even though Ultramarine is based on Fedora 43. Submarine booted Ultramarine with no issue. I didn’t put a lot of effort into finding an alternative but I would like to look into it at some point.

I will also mention that Submarine couldn’t even see Fedora when I used Ventoy to create the flash drive, just something to keep in mind.