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Hello there,
I tried to setup Arch Linux on my Chromebook because Chrome OS hasn't worked that well for some months.
I removed the hardware protection screw and successfully installed the latest SeaBIOS.
At this point the real problems began...
As I read on a website it cannot boot Chrome OS anymore.
No problem,I've done that because I don't want Chrome OS anymore.
But Arch Linux doesn't boot as well.
First I tried it with the Arch Linux SD Card which I used for Arch on my old computer.
The system there is working,it worked on my computer.
My Chromebook leaves the screen off and doesn't show the BIOS whenever the SD Card is plugged in.
Then I tried with an external DVD Rom drive and the screen stays off there as well.
I don't know what to do now.
Can someone help me please?
Sorry for my bad English,I'm German.
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So if you just power on, no external devices plugged in, what does it do?
Also, can you make a bootable USB instead of just the sd? I know my old chromebook wasn't very friendly with trying to boot from sd-card (although I've never had an Acer).
Last edited by tlmiller (2017-03-11 02:46:35)
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If I just power on,it shows the SeaBIOS but it can't find anything to start as Chrome OS doesn't work with the custom firmware.
I can try it with USB but I'm wondering why my external CD drive with USB doesn't work as well.
Thank you for your help,I will create a bootable USB stick now.
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First I tried it with an USB SD card reader but this didn't work on the chromebook and worked on my normal laptop.
Then I tried it with an USB stick and it worked again on my laptop but not on my chromebook.
The chromebook doesn't show anything.
And even if nothing is plugged in there isn't anything on the screen most times.
What's wrong with this thing and how can I fix that?
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Wow, sounds like somethings wrong with seabios that it's not booting ANYTHING other than the internal drive. Unfortunately, there's not much I can think of, hopefully someone else has more experience and can help.
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Hi, Nipos. I just registered because I'm working on something similar and thought I could help.
I have the acer chromebook 11 as well, I've successfully gotten Arch to boot using Coreboot instead of Seabios. See here to install it:
https://mrchromebox.tech/#bootmodes
I'm still working out some problems but once I finish I'm planning on putting the steps on the wiki. Let me know if you have any questions.
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Thank you very much,but I can't try it.
I must boot into a terminal to install it but because of SeaBIOS I get only a black screen and can't do anything with it.
Do you know any way to get into a terminal?
I know there is a device called BusPirate which can flash the firmware with an normal linux computer but that's very expensive.
I would be happy if there was another way.
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Hmmm.... I'm sure this is fixable. Can you tell me what steps you went through to install SeaBIOS? What screen shows if you *don't* plug in the arch sd card? Also, have you tried booting from a USB instead of an sd card? I read somewhere that some of the chromebooks don't support booting from an SD card.
Since I don't know how you installed SeaBIOS, I can't say for sure, but I think you should still be able to boot into chrome OS if you haven't wiped it off the internal SSD.
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I installed SeaBIOS using this tutorial: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ac … Chromebook
If I don't plug something in it sometimes tries to boot the SSD and fails but most times it shows a black screen too.
I tried an usb stick as well but it has the same problem.
Chrome OS can't be started with SeaBIOS installed in BOOT_STUB.
I should have installed it to RW_LEGACY then it would work.
I tried that before but I thought it wouldn't work because the Chrome OS screen was still there.
When I read that this was correct I already installed it to BOOT_STUB.
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{Q. I’ve flashed one of your BOOT_STUB’s and I have a blank screen. Help!
You possibly had a hang, and the only way you thought you could reboot was by pressing the ESC – F3 (Refresh) – Power button combination. Unfortunately, this key combination is still active with a modified BOOT_STUB and as with the stock ROM, it tries to activate recovery mode. Obviously recovery mode is no longer available, and it therefore doesn’t do anything (even initialise the screen). Pulling the battery power resets the activated CMOS flag and returns things to normal (except for a wild date and time which will need to be rectified, possibly before you are able to connect to wireless/ethernet).}
from https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/faq/
Does the archiso sd card show up in SeaBIOS as a boot option? If so, try a different live usb (anything, ubuntu, it doesn't matter). You just need to get to a terminal to undo the BOOT_STUB.
If it tries to boot the ssd and fails, that's good! It means your device isn't bricked. Could you tell me the exact model # of your chromebook, too? So we're on the same page? We both have an Acer Chromebook 11, but I just bought mine so it could be newer than yours, idk. it's the "cbc-131 series" model c735
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I have the CB3-111.
It's a bit older than 2 years.
There is no SeaBIOS when an external storage device is plugged in.
Then it only shows a black screen everytime.
Only without this it sometimes shows SeaBIOS but then I can only boot the SSD what doesn't work.
I unplugged the battery a few times because I also read that.
I didn't hit the key combination but hoped it works anyway.
That doesn't work too.
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So, with any bootable USB or SD card, you simply get a black screen, but SeaBIOS shows up when there's no USB or SD plugged in? That's weird.
I have never used SeaBIOS, but this truly makes no sense with my limited knowledge of the boot process. SeaBIOS shouldn't load differently whether there's external media plugged in or not, unless it's just so broken that any boot options besides your SSD cause it to crash before it can display them.
Also, there should be no "sometimes" when you boot without external media plugged in. SeaBIOS (or any BIOS really) should either always work in this case or never work. Unless you're changing something else about the boot process, the exact same BIOS should be loaded every time, so it doesn't make sense for it to "sometimes" show.
I'm afraid I'm mostly out of ideas, but here are some things you can try:
Try multiple operating systems on both the SD card and both USB readers
Try a different SD card or USB drive?
Read SeaBIOS documentation and make sure the OS you have on then USB is bootable by SeaBIOS (UEFI or not, etc) and your hardware, see if there are any SeaBIOS options you can customize
Try another forum or contact the devs for SeaBIOS
If the write-protect screw is in, try taking it out or vice versa (unlikely to change anything but worth a try)
idk
Keep me updated!
-stumped petty
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Thanks for your help but it doesn't want to boot up.
I put the write-protect screw back in and nothing changed.
Then I tried a Windows XP Pro SP3 installation DVD.
For a short time I really thought it would boot.
The drive worked as it does when I boot a live DVD on a working computer.
Then it stopped.
The screen never showed anything while this process.
The same thing happened with the "ComputerBILD Notfall DVD",a recovery DVD from a German computer magazine.
Even without any external storage it never displays anything today.
Maybe I didn't try it often enough but something is really wrong here...
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