Choose the live Linux USB drive.Ĭhoose the option Try Ubuntu without installing. Press ESC when prompted and you will see 3 drives: the USB drive, the live Linux USB drive (I am using Ubuntu) and the eMMC (the Chromebooks internal drive). Power on the Chromebook and press Ctrl + L to get to the BIOS screen. Plug in your live Linux USB into the other USB port. Plug in your USB drive into the USB port of your Chromebook. Now on startup, if you press Ctrl + L, you will get the BIOS screen instead of Chrome OS.Īt this stage most of the work is done and all that’s left is to install Linux:

Power off the Chromebook by typing in sudo poweroff Press Ctrl + Alt + F2 at the Chrome OS login screen.Īt the terminal prompt, type sudo crossystem dev_boot_usb=1 dev_boot_legacy=1 Press Ctrl + D at the initial startup screen to load Chrome OS. Let’s turn on the Ctrl + L functionality next: Pressing Ctrl + D at the screen with the red exclamation mark on startup will take you to your Chrome OS install but pressing Ctrl + L will take you to the BIOS screen to boot from your USB drive. Press Ctrl + Alt + T to bring up a terminal window tab.Ĭhoose the option to Modify my Chromebook’s RW_LEGACY slot and follow the on-screen instructions.

Your Chromebook is reset to factory settings so you will need to go through the Chrome OS setup again. Turn the Chromebook on and press Ctrl + D to bypass the screen with the red exclamation mark. Let’s now modify the BIOS to allow us to install Linux.

The Chromebook will reboot and you’ll see the screen with the red exclamation mark.ĭeveloper mode is now enabled, power off the Chromebook.īy enabling developer mode, your Chromebook will always display the screen with the red exclamation mark on startup. You will see a timer counting down in the top right hand corner of the screen. On the next screen press Ctrl + D to bypass this message. With your Chromebook turned off hold down the ESC and Refresh While keeping them held down, press the power button once. – Live Linux USB drive (I’m using Ubuntu 18.04)ĭeveloper mode will wipe your Chromebook back to factory settings so make sure you back up any data not on your Google drive. Instructions were taken from these locations:

How to install linux on chromebook 2021