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The first thing you must do is create the bootable USB flash drive. My Acer c720 is a Haswell-powered device, so I will walk you through the steps of getting Gallium OS installed and running. If, however, you have either a Broadwell or Bay Trail chipset, you’ll need to follow these instructions in order to prepare your device for Gallium OS. If your device has a Haswell chipset, you’re good to go (the only thing you have to do for preparation is to enable a couple of boot flags). Check through the list to ensure your hardware is included (and note the chipset of your device). The developers of Gallium OS have released a compatibility matrix that lists out all devices known to work with the distribution, as well as their included chipset (an important bit of information you’ll need later on). Hardware considerationsīefore you jump into creating the bootable USB drive, there are a few considerations you must make. Without this recovery drive, you’ll have a hard time reverting back to Chrome OS.
#AUDACITY FOR CHROMEBOOK INSTALL#
NOTE: Before you install Gallium, I highly recommend you install the Chromebook Recovery Tool and create a recovery USB drive. After testing Gallium OS for a couple of weeks, I have decided to keep the Linux distro running on the little Chromebook. Under normal circumstances, I’ll install Linux on my Acer c720, use it for a few days, and then return the device back to Chrome OS. Zram is used for swap for higher performance. Kernel has been further optimized to gain as much performance as possible. Kernel watchdog timer has been disabled for improved power saving.
#AUDACITY FOR CHROMEBOOK DRIVER#
It offers an integrated ChromeOS touchpad driver for better performance/responsiveness.
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It offers a much faster boot time than other Chromebook-ready Linux distributions. It is based on Xubuntu, which is already an incredibly lightweight and performance-centric desktop environment.
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Gallium is an ideal Linux-to-Chromebook platform because:
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To others, the quirkiness of the distribution leaves a bit to be desired. To some Bodhi is a great platform for the Chromebook.
#AUDACITY FOR CHROMEBOOK HOW TO#
I’ve outlined the installation of Bodhi Linux on a Chromebook (see “ How to Install Linux on an Acer c720”). Of course, if you happen to have a standard piece of hardware lying around, and you want a Chrome OS experience, you can always install CloudReady (see my piece “ Neverware’s CloudReady Brings a Chromium-Fueled Chromebook OS to Standard Hardware”). And why not? This allows you to take advantage of low cost hardware by installing a full-blown, powerhouse platform that is ready to undertake any task you can throw at it.
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So, when I want those tools available to me, at full strength, what do I do? One option is to install Linux on a Chromebook. If I want to record, forget having the flexibility and performance of Audacity. Editing or creating images with Pixlr is like working with half of GIMP’s power. For example-working with an editor on Google docs is cumbersome. However, as much as I enjoy working with Chrome OS, there are some things that simply cannot be done with Google’s platform. I do all initial drafts of my novels on a Pixel (the screen/keyboard/trackpad are simply the best) and use an Acer C720 as a “grab and go” device. I must confess that I’m a big fan of the Chromebook.
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