Someone gave me a Hisense C11 Chromebook and I’m wondering if there’s absolutely anything I can do with it. It seems like a piece of junk and the Linux stuff I’ve seen for Chromebooks specify that they don’t work with the ARM processor. Is there any distro that would work on it? Any other ideas about how to repurpose it?
Note: I don’t have direct access to an Ethernet cable/router for setup. Also don’t have the most technical knowhow.
The biggest roadblock will be whether the bootloader will allow another OS. You should be able to search xda forums for your device as a start.
Linux can be installed on ARM, no problem.
There’s nothing you can do with that one I think, for two reasons:
- MrChromeBox’s firmware doesn’t support this model. That’s the guy’s site that tells you how to unlock the bootloader and install the new firmware on it, that allows you to then install another OS.
- It only has 2 GB of RAM. For a better online experience with any modern Linux, you need a minimum of 4 GB. You could install though something like Kodi, or librelec, or some game emulation distro instead of a desktop OS. But without #1, you can’t do that either. That’s a landfill laptop AFAIC.
I am using a couple of old chromebooks for LibreELEC and am pretty happy with that result
What is that?
It’s ‘just enough OS to run Kodi.’
I’ve done away with all rokus and apple TVs.
I use an emby server addon to play my local media. It has addons for streaming services, visualizers for music, RSS feeds on the Ui, screensavers that use my local pictures, integrates with home assistant, and libreelec has docker addons for more cool stuff!
No tracking, one easy to use UI for everything I’m trying to enjoy, and less attack platform for ads.
It’s cool!
Off the top of my head, GalliumOS or nix
GalliumOS is x86/64 only, and has been deprecated for years. Mainline distros have good support for the Chromebook quirks now.
Cadmium, on the other hand.
Lol shows how much I pay attention