Linux @lemmy.ml jrgn @lemmy.world 4 mo. ago

Help choosing distro for old EOL Chromebook

I have an Acer Chromebook R11 which has reached End of Life and won't receive updates (which is insane, I bought it new four years ago). I have checked, and my model is now fully supported by most Linux distros.

I need suggestions for a lightweight distro to use. I will use the machine for surfing, playing Pixel Dungeon, streaming some indie games over Moonlight/Steam Headless and manage my home server over ssh. So nothing major. I want something lightweight and really low maintenance.

Specs:

Processor: 1.6GHz quad-core Intel Celeron N3150 (quad-core, 3MB cache, up to 2.08GHz with Turbo Boost)
Graphics: Integrated Intel HD Graphics
Memory: 4GB DDR3L
Storage: 32GB (with SD card reader for more storage)

I have a lot of experience with Arch-based (EndeavourOS, Manjaro), Ubuntu-based (Mint, PopOS) and Debian-based (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Raspbian) distros, but I am open for other suggestions

36 comments

Thanks for all the great replies! I installed OpenSUSE Tumbleweed with XFCE for now, because I had it lying around on a USB stick. Mostly to see if I even could get it running. So far so good, but I will definitely use some time to check out my options and see what will work the best. All replies are greatly appreciated!
- I used to work for Chromebook Retail and I have a bunch of EOL devices around. Tumbleweed has been the most stable in my experience followed by Endeavor OS.
  
  Good to know! Have you tried any other distros?
BIOS & mobo

First you need to look if your Chromebook is even supported for running coreboot.

mrchromebox.tech/#devices

Storage

Your Storage is pretty low. Adding an SD card with up to 256GB is very possible. There are even 1TB SD cards!

But best to check if you can replace the emmc module inside.

Open it up and send us a pic of the internals. Also search online.

Increasing the emmc storage will give you the best speed. Using a USB stick/ flashdrive is not recommended as those are not meant for running an OS off of them.

RAM

pretty low but not extremely. 4GB is pretty fine.

You can work around it by using a Distro using ZRAM, like Fedora.

Ask here or on discussion.fedoraproject.org how to make ZRAM fill all your RAM.

ZRAM compresses your RAM contents with zstd (imagine it like .zip but worlds better), so you have 12GB or more space. But it consumes more CPU power, which should be a fine tradeoff.

Desktop

While preeetty outdated in default design on Fedora, it is the most lightweight Desktop that will soon (version 6.1) have Wayland support.

Lubuntu has a better theming and maybe better support, see if ZRAM works on Ubuntu base.

Distro

I would recommend Fedora Atomic Desktops a lot.

But as LXQt is likely the best desktop, and it doesnt have the best support on Fedora, I would recomment Lubuntu.

Even though I would give KDE a try, you can strip it down really well. Here, Fedora Kinoite is absolute king.
- Wow, thanks for this write-up! I will definitely look into ZRAM! I have been wanting to give Fedora Atomic a go
  
  First look if your Chromebook is supported.
  
  You can do this in ChromeOS. The model number needs to match exactly.
  
  Chromebooks run some version of Coreboot but that includes many proprietary drivers.
  
  Mrchromebox is an awesome developer, patching coreboot to include all the needed drivers.
Also did a search to see if RAM or storage is possible to upgrade, it is not. Everything is soldered right to the board.

I can however add some storage with SD card (planning on doing just that)
Try Puppy Linux on it. It runs with meager resources - ~100MB RAM, 250MB storage (only if you want to install it to disk). Everything runs in RAM and is blazing fast. It is a God send for older computers
- Not a bad idea! Not sure how well it is supported though
  
  Do read up about the philosophy of puppy Linux. They are based on different distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, etc. Puppy Linux aims to make these small and efficient with some minor utilities thrown in. So, for actual support, you can rely on those distributions as such. Any updates, software installation, etc can be had from the base distro itself.
Debian with XFCE/Mate/Mint/LXQt?

Your bottleneck will be browsing with 4GB, can't upgrade that?
- Will look into if upgrading is possible, but I doubt it
Not an actual answer, but I think a Chromebook reaching EoL doesn't mean it stops getting all updates. I think it's something along the lines of it stops getting firmware updates but it still gets browser updates, though worth checking exactly what's happening on your specific device. If you're feeling crazy you can even try installing ChromeOS Flex on it and it should miraculously be "supported" again.
- I thought so too, but then my Chrome stopped updating and all my extensions started breaking one by one. Never heard of ChromeOS Flex, will check out!
  
  ChromeOS Flex is an interesting one; it's definitely not as flexible as a proper Linux distro but if you need something simple and hard-to-break to run on an old machine (for instance for an elderly relative who's still using Windows XP) then it could be worth a shot. That said, I'm now investigating whether Linux Mint is a better choice for my own elderly relatives!
I had a good experience with GalliumOS on an x86 Chromebook years ago: https://galliumos.org/

I eventually switched it to run Arch but I will admit that it had WAY better support/stability with the touchscreen/touchpad on Gallium than with Arch.

Edit: I just looked at the news page and realized it does not look to be actively maintained now.
- Gallium is not maintained anymore though :(
  
  Yes, sorry, just realized.
  
  Hopefully most of the patches and tweaks that were put in to Gallium are all mainlined now so all regular distros can benefit.
If you are looking for something light and low maintenance, maybe Mint could be a good fit?

I've never daily driven it because I'm not a fan of Cinnamon, but everyone says its light and stable so seems like what you are looking for
- Mint is great and an excellent choice. I'd give it a shot. If it doesn't run well, you can always try something more lightweight.
Brunch Is a full ChromeOS "distro" (Flex has neither PlayStore nor android VM). Brunch is often used when eol is reached.
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- Will look into it if it is even possible. I don't think this computer was made with modifications in mind
I have Xubuntu on a Lenovo Yoga 11e Chromebook, and it runs like buttah
You could give FydeOS a shot. It's based on ChromiumOS so if you like the ChromeOS experience, you'll get to keep it. I believe it also has Linux app support and optional Android app support.
I have Arch running on an old Acer chromebook, different model but similar hardware. If you're alright with some manual configuration, then it's a good option. it fits the lightweight requirement, but not sure about low maintenance.
I replaced my Chromebook with Elementary OS. On it's face, it's a lightweight, web browsing OS with a limited "App Center" of approved apps (similar to ChromeOS), but underneath, it is a Debian-based distro that you can do anything you want with.
- Elementary really isn’t very lightweight. It’s usually sluggish on slower systems (in my experience).
  
  Interesting. I'm running it on a Celeron N4020 with 4GB RAM right now. This system was allegedly shitty in 2019.
NixOS will do the thing for all the days
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Help choosing distro for old EOL Chromebook

BIOS & mobo

Storage

RAM

Desktop

Distro