To enter Developer Mode: Press the Escape + Refresh + Power buttons at the same time and then hit Ctrl + D when you reach the white screen (you'll have to hit Ctrl + D at this same white screen every time you reboot now). Regardless of your approach you need to enter Chrome OS Developer Mode, which will warn you about wiping your local files, but everything else is synced to Google and will reappear when you log back into your account.

It's also worth mentioning that if you're not experienced with Linux, this process might require some trial and error but experimenting is low risk.Īlso read: A Beginner's Guide to the Linux Command Line Your mileage will vary depending on the device, distro, and installation method. It should also be said that Chrome OS has its perks (great battery life, speed, ease of access) which may be useful if you don't need Linux 24/7.

The main reason for this being that few Chromebooks have more than 32GB of storage and you'd have to play it pretty conservatively to give Linux enough storage space, particularly so on the basic 16GB Asus C202SA we've been using for testing Chrome OS. However, these routes are less practical than simply running Linux in the background of Chrome OS on a separate USB drive/SD card, which is what we'll be focusing on here. And of course, you can also overwrite Google's OS in favor of Linux. Options range from running a Live USB drive outside of Chrome OS to installing a firmware mod for a traditional dual-boot configuration. Fortunately, if you're on Google's operating system and wish it was a little more flexible, it's possible to install a fully functional copy of Linux on many Chrome devices. Although Chrome OS is competent at handling web-based workloads, by design it's light on features compared to a full desktop operating system, which is presumably where many of its users are coming from.

How to install linux apps on chromebook