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#1 2016-07-05 03:35:25

monkeypants
Member
Registered: 2014-08-18
Posts: 64

[SOLVED] Locked out of my Acer C720

SOLVED The problem was that dev_boot_legacy and dev_boot_usb had been disabled. Without getting into ChromeOS there seemed to be no way to set them until I found this. It worked like a charm and I've just booted into Linux Mint off USB.

I've been running Linux on my Acer C720 since day one and I love it, but a recent series of events has left me locked out of it.  I'd love to get it running again but I cannot figure out a way back in.  I'll break down a short history and recent events.

  • Acquired C720 and unlocked developer mode

  • Installed several flavors of Debian, completely removing ChromeOS from the SSD, eventually settling with Arch Linux.

  • After enjoying Arch for a year decide to try out Qubes.

  • Something fails during Qubes installation.

  • Boot into a Debian live environment from USB.  Debian cannot see my SSD.

  • Try a few different distros from USB, but fdisk et al. cannot see my SSD.

Now I highly doubt that Qubes broke my SSD.  It was probably already faulty but my Arch install was chugging along and not using the bad sectors.  This is where I think I locked myself out, I don't remember the exact order of things but I re-enabled OS verification at the boot screen, and attempted to run the ChromeOS recovery from a USB.  The ChromeOS recovery also failed.  I put the SSD in my desktop and confirm that it was indeed dead.

So now I have a Chromebook with OS Verification enabled and no SSD to restore ChromeOS on.  Bummer.  But I figured I could try some things, so I booted into recovery mode with Esc-Refresh(f3)-Power and hit Ctrl+D at the Recovery Screen, success!  I was able to disable OS Verification.  But this has not solved my issue...

When I boot I can press Ctrl+D to be taken to a screen that tells me Chrome OS is missing or damaged and to insert a recovery USB.  Pressing Ctrl+L at any point just makes the Chromebook beep at me.  If I insert a USB loaded with Linux I am told "The device you inserted does not contain Chrome OS."  I have no m.2 SSD to put into the chrome book to recover it and start the process from a virgin state.

What I'd like to do at this point is use the Chromebook running my OS from a USB stick, at least until I can afford a new SSD which will not be for some time.  Is there any way for me to do this?

Last edited by monkeypants (2016-07-05 04:22:04)

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