Fedora 39 Linux on the Lenovo C13 Yoga Chromebook

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Greetings!

Previously, I tried a project called depthboot- which has since become defunct- to get my Chromebook I grabbed for work back in 2021 running Linux. Depthboot was interesting as it enabled you to custom-build images of various Linux distros to run on a Chromebook without any real tinkering with the coreboot BIOS needed.

There seemed to have been a falling-out amongst various developers in that project, and my focus went elsewhere. Fast forward to the end of this year, and I found the amazing group of individuals behind the Chrultrabook project!

My first step was to head over to their incredibly-well-documented guide here on how to free your Chromebook from Google’s clutches.

I unscrewed the back panel of my C13 Yoga to carefully disconnect the battery and repaste the now-two-year-old CPU to give it a cool new lease on life. I ended up becoming so engrossed in getting this to work that I didn’t end up taking many pictures- sorry for that!

The full story of my adventure is here on this Chrultrabook forum post as I figured out how to get the battery unplugged properly, run through the steps to enable developer mode, and then use the supplied script from MrChromebox to flash the “UEFI Full ROM” replacement Coreboot firmware to my C13 Yoga. It was running Google’s stock coreboot fork that only allowed for ChromeOS/ChromiumOS signed images at the time, and this would be quite more freeing.

Per the recording above, I’m now on Fedora 39 with the Cinnamon DE. I used the easy Fedora Media Writer from my desktop on Nobara to create a bog-standard F39 Cinnamon installer. After creating that installer, I waited for the system to start up, and then hit Esc at the coreboot boot screen to boot from the USB and continue the installation like you would on any other machine. Soon, I’ll try testing out Ubuntu on there too, and possibly use it to get an older Pixel phone of mine running GrapheneOS.

Giving ChromeOS an Honest Try

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Hello there again! Long time no see!

Recently, I’ve been getting to using ChromeOS a bit more, with the Thinkpad C13 Yoga that was on sale recently in the USA.

My little ChromeOS desktop

My little ChromeOS desktop

So far, I’ve used this for a few use cases:

  • Blogging, as you see here

  • My job, customer support- mainly firefox and chrome with some VSCode in between

  • GeForce Now gaming

  • Casting videos to our various “smart” sticks in my family’s TVs

Some of the “workspace” functionality I usually see in my various Linux flavors is even here too! Well, I guess that should make sense, considering ChromeOS is technically based on Gentoo with some Google flair and design language thrown in.

The Linux container experience with Debian is definitely adequate for most developers’ needs it appears. A friend of mine who worked at Google for a short stint once mentioned “A Chromebook should be as simple as possible, while having the tools a web developer may need” and I can definitely see that here. Tons of partitions for updating on reboot, kind of like the frzr idea, and keeping the Debian instance in its own container…while also allowing you to see your Linux apps as icons in the launcher alongside everything else.

Now, onto the use cases in more depth!

Having edited this blog post, turned Medium article, on the Chromebook, everything is smooth as butter. When I receive a new machine, or have a machine that I’ve refurbished, I usually end up going through the quick process that is installing Fedora or Pop!_OS on it. However, running my bash script to set things up the way I like usually takes a while afterwards.

Not the case on ChromeOS. You sign in to your separate work and personal emails, and just get stuff done. Here I show myself doing some web browsing, editing this blog post and checking out the new Framework laptop, with fully modular components. This Thinkpad C13 Yoga breezes past it all.

For my work, now at System76, I’m mainly on my work-provided Gazelle getting things done. I would say I probably use this Chromebook two days a week for work, due to various time-sensitive things needing a full Linux experience. When I am on the Chromebook though, I’m answering calls through our dedicated call app, typing up notes in VSCodium and testing various packages in the Debian VM.

Outside of having a few web browser tabs open, a terminal and a text editor, I don’t need much else for my job. Having access to the Android app for our calling system is nice, for sure. That way I can have a dedicated device for it. I need the computing power to compile Linux kernels from time to time, but other than that I mostly live in the browser. Need I mention the keyboard? I’ve been spoiled by Thinkpads for most of my young adult, and now maturing adult life. I can type up to 100wpm on this bad boy.

Consuming media. We all do it, on various devices we own. I like that this is a 2-in-1 style laptop, so I can just fold it when I want to use it as a “director” of sorts for Youtube video playlists on the TV in our living room.
Want to have a music session? Easily cast various Soundcloud songs/Youtube videos to the television and sound system my family owns.

Not much more to say here, everything just works!

Something else I’ve been using this Chromebook for, is for testing various cloud gaming and streaming services.

I own a lot of games on Steam, but mainly play games on Linux- more info about that in a prior post. I’ve been testing GeForce Now game streaming for a month or two. When all I have is this Chromebook, I just plug my wired Xbox 360 controller into it, and jump into a Rocket League or No Man’s Sky session.

Games such as Destiny 2 or others that have had issues running on Linux either due to developers who do not support Linux or some sort of anti-cheat software incompatibility, I’ll play via this method…and in my testing, they run fine! Our home internet is fairly quick at around 100mb/s down and 40mb/up, and my work-from-home friends that I visit occasionally also have fairly quick internet, so game streaming wasn’t an issue there either. One thing to be careful with is if you’re streaming something like Rocket League from your phone, though, as that latency could potentially result in a lost match.

I have tried a Bluetooth 8bitdo Pro controller, but had issues using it with Moonlight or GeForce Now on my C13 Yoga. It appears that GeForce Now is very picky about what bluetooth controllers they’ll accept, so I mainly have been sticking to my USB Xbox 360 controller.

Those are my short thoughts on the use cases I’ve been testing out ChromeOS for recently, feel free to let me know your thoughts!