Kuro oni mac. Mar 13, 2014 The Asus Chromebox uses an M.2 SATA III SSD and you can find plenty of 32GB or larger models at Amazon. Most 42mm M.2 2242 drives should just slide into the space vacated by the original SanDisk SSD.
My review for ASUS Chromebox will be online in a few hours, but in the meantime I want to update you on what is the status of your support Linux. There are important new features: now you can install a linux on the SSD drive, set up a dual boot and do a real ASUS Mini PC desktop machine. Let’s see how. As always, there are two ways to work around the limitations of Chrome OS on Chromebook and Chromebox and both are based on Linux exploit Crouton or install ChrUbuntu.
Apr 05, 2014 Conclusion: At this point, one should have a Asus Chromebox that Boots to an Ubuntu install and, one has the option during boot to still load ChromeOS by hitting + For some additional resources & notes: There is currently a known-bug in the SEABIOS that prevents boot to USB. The Chromebox 3 even has a LAN port so you can take advantage of wired internet speeds, although the onboard 802.11ac WiFi is also super fast and reliable. Chrome OS is lightweight by design and demands little from its hardware compared to Windows and macOS, so you don’t need monster specs. Easy out-of-the-box setup, integrated virus and malware protection and feature-enhancing updates, ASUS Chromebox starts up in seconds to get you to your favorite websites and apps instantly. It houses a processor powerful enough for ultrafast multitasking performance and the connectivity options to choose your own screen size, connecting to multiple displays at once and even attach to any VESA.
Crouton (Chromium OS Universal Chroot Environment) is probably the easiest way, but remains tied to Chrome OS by entering a chroot-based Linux distro in its own kernel on the Google system. Chrubuntu, on the contrary, is a true version of Ubuntu Linux specific (but it may also have another distro), designed so as to allow even a boot in Dual Boot.
ChrUbuntu on ASUS Chromebox, is a viable option for only a few hours. As read in the reviews published international output of the Mini PC, a bug prevented the boot from USB and then, as a result, the installation of operating systems other than the one pre-installed.
Now the Bug seabios has been resolved, there is an online patch to be applied to overcome the constraint and proceed smoothly with the installation. If you wish, you can also change the boot order in the BIOS, assuming you know how to remove a jumper on the motherboard. For further information and all the links needed in this step by step procedure.
It may make sense to install ChruBuntu, completely delete Chrome OS (so then, at least, you can recover the iso from Google’s servers) and then make use of all 16 GB of SSD Chromebox, but I think that is sufficient in many contexts and scrap Croutun. Can you handle Chrome OS as usual and then move on with a combination of keys to the Linux environment for use, say, The Gimp or Skype, or to take advantage of a local printer without having to resort to Google Print uncomfortable or impossible to take advantage of a complete IDE to have on Chrome OS.
It’s all very simple and well integrated, for a mini PC that has yet to show his true weakness. Such a shame not to have it for sale in our area. We will be back in the full review.
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Developer Mode
- 3 Troubleshooting
Introduction
This page contains information about the Asus Chromebox that is interesting and/or useful to software developers. For general information about getting started with developing on Chromium OS (the open-source version of the software on the Chrome Notebook), see the Chromium OS Developer Guide.
Specifications
- CPU: Haswell Celeron 2995U. 1.4GHz, dual-core, 2MB Cache OR1.7 GHz Core i3-4010U, quad-core
- RAM: 2GB (celeron) or 4GB (i3)
- Display: None
- Disk: 16GB SSD (NGFF M.2 connector)
- I/O:
- HDMI port
- DisplayPort++
- 4 x USB 3.0
- SD slot (SDXC compatible)
- Headphone/mic combo jack
- Connectivity:
- WiFi: 802.11 a/b/g/n
- USB ports can handle some Ethernet dongles
- Ethernet
- Servo header: Standard 2x25 / AXK750347G
Developer Mode
Caution: Modifications you make to the system are not supported by Google, may cause hardware, software or security issues and may void warranty.
Introduction
Enabling Developer mode is the first step to tinkering with your Chromebox. With Developer mode enabled you can do things like poke around on a command shell (as root if you want), install Chromium OS, or try other OS's. Note that Developer mode turns off some security features like verified boot and disabling the shell access. If you want to browse in a safer, more secure way, leave Developer mode turned OFF. Note: Switching between Developer and Normal (non-developer) modes will remove user accounts and their associated information from your Chromebox. Saathiya serial ringtone.
Entering
To invoke Recovery mode, you insert a paper clip and press the RECOVERYBUTTON (just above the kensington lock) and press thePowerbutton. Release the RECOVERY BUTTON after a second.
To enter Dev-mode you first invoke Recovery, and at the Recovery screen press Ctrl-D (there's no prompt - you have to know to do it). It will ask you to confirm by pressing the RECOVERY BUTTON again.
Dev-mode works the same as always: It will show the scary boot screen and you need to press Ctrl-D or wait 30 seconds to continue booting.
USB Boot
By default, USB booting is disabled. Once you are in Dev-mode and have a root shell (Ctrl-Alt-F2), you can run:
and reboot once to boot from USB drives with Ctrl-U.
Legacy Boot
This device includes the SeaBIOS firmware which supports booting images directly like a legacy BIOS would. Note: the BIOS does not provide a fancy GUI for you, nor is it easy to use for beginners. You will need to manually boot/install your alternative system.
Like USB boot, support for this is disabled by default. You need to get into Dev-mode first and then run:
sudo crossystem dev_boot_legacy=1
and reboot once to boot legacy images with Ctrl-L.
Asus Chromebox Cn60 Install Windows
Leaving
To leave Dev-mode and go back to normal mode, just follow the instructions at the scary boot screen. It will prompt you to confirm.
If you want to leave Dev-mode programmatically, you can run
crossystem disable_dev_request=1; reboot
from a root shell. There's no way to enter Dev-mode programmatically, and just seeing the Recovery screen isn't enough - you have to use the three-finger salute which hard-resets the machine first. That's to prevent a remote attacker from tricking your machine into dev-mode without your knowledge.Troubleshooting
Legacy Boot Doesn't Work
Asus Chromebox Recovery
Sometimes it's possible to break the SeaBIOS install in the flash (sometimes doing innocuous things like tweaking the GBB flags). If you do get into such a situation:
- Check that dev_boot_legacy is set to 1 when you run crossystem
- If it isn't, then see the normal Legacy Boot section above
- if it is, then see below
You can safely reset the copy of SeaBIOS in your flash by running (as root):
# chromeos-firmwareupdate --sb_extract /tmp
# flashrom -w /tmp/bios.bin -i RW_LEGACY
Running Chromium OS
Before you start fiddling with your own builds it is strongly recommend to create a recovery USB stick or SD card. As long as you don't disable hardware write protect on the system & EC firmware, you can get your machine back into working order by entering Recovery Mode and plugging in your recovery image. You can create a recovery image from Chrome OS by browsing to chrome://imageburner or follow instructions for other OS on the Chrome OS help center site.
You can build and run Chromium OS on your Asus Chromebox (versions R32 and later). Follow the quick start guide to setup a build environment. The board name for the Asus Chromebox is 'panther'. Build an image and write it to a USB stick or SD card.
To boot your image you will first need to enable booting developer signed images from USB (or SD card). Switch your machine to Developer mode and get to a shell by either via VT2 (Ctrl+Alt+F2) and logging in as root or by logging in as a user (or guest mode), starting a 'crosh' shell with Ctrl+Alt+t, and typing 'shell'. Now run 'sudo crossystem dev_boot_usb=1' and reboot 'sudo reboot'.
Plug your USB stick or SD card in and on the scary 'OS Verification is OFF' screen hit Ctrl+u to boot from external media. If all goes well you should see a 'Chromium OS' logo screen. If you want to install your build to the SSD, open a shell and type 'sudo /usr/sbin/chromeos-install'. Note: This will replace EVERYTHING on your SSD. Use a recovery image if you want to get back to a stock Chrome OS build.
Have fun!
Firmware
This device uses coreboot to boot the system. You can find the source in the Chromium OS coreboot git tree in the
firmware-panther-4920.24.B
branches.