You can also attempt to enable developer mode (ctrl+d, enter on the reco screen) and jumpstart a normal Linux USB using something like Submarine and run the firmware utility script from there
This does rely on the assumption that the device stops bootlooping when the battery is disconnected once dev mode is activated, however
how is the OP (or anyone else) going to enable USB booting in order to boot Submarine?
SH1mmer or Recomod
Unfortunately it keeps bootlooping on the “OS verification is OFF” screen without the battery being connected.
I tried Recomod. Loading the recovery gives me a warning like “The owner of this device disabled dev. mode”.
Ah, since your system can’t load ChromeOS, it can’t properly set VPD flags in the transition to dev mode
SH1mmer’s unblock dev mode payload should do the trick
Sh1mmer also didn’t work since ASUS never provided a signed shim for this board. I also tried Bad Recovery with no success. 
My pogo pin adapter still didn’t arrive. I am a bit afraid of that process as I still couldn’t figure out how to set the whole thing up, but I guess I will have to now as it seems to be the only available option left.
I really need to do research before I recommend stuff, apologies 
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No worries! I didn’t even know these tools existed, it was a learning experience for sure and it was worth a try. 
Hi all,
I have a great update to share!
My pogo pin adapter arrived today and here we are: https://imgur.com/a/AvHhJhS
Thank you all for the help, especially @MrChromebox for this amazing solution. Documentation was also spot on.
When I opened this topic I had no clue about any of these, including how to use a Linux distro. I learned a lot from this thanks to all of you (and ASUS!!).
My next step is figuring out the audio driver on this but that looks like a much smaller challenge compared to this.
Thank you all once again.
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