From KDE Neon to Manjaro KDE on my Acer Chromebook 14

So, I only had KDE Neon on my Acer Chromebook 14 CB3-431 for a short time but there was no way round the performance issues with YouTube at 1080p. You can't really install another DE on Neon because the way it's built it would break it trying to install Lubuntu or other desktops. I decided to install Manjaro KDE, since it is running so well on my old Dell Vostro. Also, on Manjaro (and Arch) it has the most supported desktops, either unofficially or through the community, so if I need to choose a different desktop, that's lighter on resources, it's easy enough to switch between them...or so I thought... 

As with KDE Neon, I used my Dell Vostro laptop to put the Manjaro KDE ISO onto a USB stick using OpenSuse Image Writer.  Installing was a Breeze, just a USB boot and install from the live desktop as with Neon, since the tricky bit of replacing the bootloader on my Chromebook was already done as per my previous post. And, also as before, the first thing I did after install was set shortcuts for the Display brightness in KDE Settings, and set it to Breeze Dark theme so I wasn't half blinding myself on every boot! I also set all the other shortcuts again while I was there. And yet again re-adding the Leave option to the right-click desktop menu. I am not going to install too much, as it only has a 32GB onboard eMMC, and there's currently only about 8GB left. As with KDE Neon, all the hardware works fine, including sound, trackpad, suspend and resume, webcam, etc. Also one quick fix that needs doing on Manjaro is getting ssh enabled, since for some reason when you install the service it isn't enabled by default, and I found a fix here.

Then I installed Google Chrome using this tutorial (I used the second option of installing it using the AUR Helper, yay, which can be installed from the package manager if required) and made sure that YouTube played 1080p without stuttering or stopping completely, which it did just fine. Hurrah! I also installed any updates available through Manjaro's package manager. After a reboot for the kernel update, I then installed my favourite apps again, such as Audacious, GIMP, Filezilla, etc, though I didn't have to install VLC this time since it was already there. I have found that if I want to watch YouTube videos with as little jitter as possible, it's best to only have YouTube open, and absolutely no Facebook tabs! Facebook uses way too much memory and CPU. 

I also tried to install Lxqt desktop, just to see if I could save some resources, using these instructions, with no success, it does not load the whole desktop, just openbox itself, and caused a very slow boot too for some reason. I then tried Fluxbox desktop but the extra packages listed on that tutorial were unavailable to install and I couldn't get any apps to run. And on the reboot, it failed to boot. So very frustrating. So it turns out switching desktops on Manjaro is not as easy as I thought! I then had to reinstall and setup everything again.... It's a good job installing is so quick! So if you do want to try other desktops with Manjaro, it's best to just download the specific ISO for that desktop. 

So Manjaro is now running fine again. I could have used Google's ChromeOS Flex to extend the life of this Chromebook but I don't really want to go back to ChromeOS after the flexibility and freedom of running Linux on it.  It has a nicer screen for photo editing than my Thinkpad so that's what it will get used for, when not using my main desktop. The only slight downside is the lack of storage space, have to be careful not to use too much of the 15GB or so left on the drive. I have put a little USB stick in the side just in case I need it. I'll keep Manjaro KDE on it for as long as it continues to work well on it. Feel free to suggest any other distros that might suit it better. 

Installing a full Linux distro on my Acer Chromebook 14 CB-431

 So I was having trouble with my Chromebook. When editing photos with Google Photos it would slow down then freeze. After testing in another user account with no extensions or add-ons, it still had the same issue. I then went last resort and powerwashed it. This is simple and quick way of wiping back to factory settings....and then I decided to install a full Linux distro on it.... 

My Acer Chromebook 14 has been End of life for awhile now, (it was released in 2016) which means no more fixes for issues, and no new features. I'd already removed the hardware write protection screw inside the base in preparation for possibly putting Linux on it awhile ago, I had just put off doing it until now. Luckily there's very useful guides on the Arch Linux Wiki on how to put Linux on a Chromebook. I used the guide for my specific model, here.  It is a CB3-431, 4GB RAM, 1080P screen version (Acer also did a 2GB, 720p screen version). 

There's a couple of different options on the Arch Wiki, and I chose the Coreboot route. Linux only, no dual boot. After installing the custom bootloader, I went ahead with installing Linux as normal, wiping all the internal 32GB storage. I used my favourite distro, KDE Neon, which is basically Kubuntu LTS but with the latest version of KDE. I wrote the ISO to a USB stick using OpenSuse Image Writer, which worked perfectly, it's the first time I've ever used it. 

After a normal uneventful install, KDE Neon used just under half of the Acer's 32GB internal storage. It still boots pretty quickly. The main thing I noticed after logging in for the first time, was the display was on full brightness and of course in ChromeOS the Brightness keys are on what would be the normal F keys in Linux. You can use change shortcuts in KDE settings, and create custom ones. For Brightness Up and Down I used Ctrl + F6 and F7. For for the Volume keys I used Ctrl + Shift + F8 and F9  (which were the Volume keys in ChromeOS). The Fullscreen key is F4 so I added Ctrl and Shift for that too. There's a smaller number of F keys to standard so I had to choose another shortcut key for my favourite drop-down terminal emulator, Yakuake. As expected, the Google/Search key becomes the Super Key aka The "Windows key".  

Some of the fixes on the Arch wiki were not needed, such as those for the sound and touchpad. The trackpad seems to work fine, though right clicking only works with the default setting, clicking on the bottom right corner of the trackpad, instead of the two finger clicks that I am used to. Just a case of getting used to that, along with the new keyboard shortcuts. 

The sound works out the box and one advantage of running Linux on this Chromebook is you can increase the Volume beyond 100%, which you cannot do on ChromeOS, as the audio was far too quiet, in headphones or from the speakers on this machine. I used to have to use a Chrome extension called Volume Master to boost the volume on ChromeOS, but its downside was that YouTube couldn't run fullscreen while it was in use. Although having said that, sometimes after boosting the audio for some time, it sometimes goes to just playing a tone.  Another option I can now use is a USB audio interface, like my M-Audio M-Track Solo, which is something else I couldn't use with ChromeOS. 

After all the main tinkering, it was just a case of installing all my usual favourite apps, such as VLC, Audacious, Cantata, FIlezilla etc. And finally, bringing back the Leave option in the Desktop right click menu and removing the silly offline updates feature.  Performance is fairly snappy on first impression, considering it only has 4GB RAM. Lm-sensors reports the normal temperatures as 45 Deg C at idle, rising to just under 50 under heavier loads. Suspend and Resume work fine and battery life doesn't seem to be impacted. It does struggle with 1080P YouTube in Chrome, but it plays a little bit smoother in Firefox. I'm not using Latte Dock as I would usually, because that uses more resources than it should. KDE isn't as heavy as it used to be but I might have to install a distro with a lighter or minimal desktop environment.

 I've been impressed with the full 1080P screen on the Acer ever since I first got it, and KDE looks fantastic on it. I have always preferred to edit photos in Google Photos on the Chromebook instead of on the dull screen on my Thinkpad T430s, the colours are more accurate.  

So far, I am pleased with full Linux on my Acer 14, and I am not missing running ChromeOS yet. It can't run Android apps the same way as ChromeOS did, but that's something I rarely did. They often felt a bit awkward on the desktop. It boots pretty fast, getting to the logon screen not much slower than ChromeOS did. I only wish it had a backlit keyboard, but then at the price it was originally that was to be expected. Installing Linux has basically extended the life of this Chromebook and I'll keep using Linux on it until the device dies, which will probably be whenever the 32GB eMMC onboard storage is dies. It is soldered to the main board so it's not really upgradeable/replaceable. Until then, this Acer will get plenty of use, probably mostly YouTube and Google Photos when I am away from my main desktop. I just have to decide whether to stick with KDE Neon or switch to a lighter weight distro.  

YouTube To MP3 To Android... Using A ChromeBook

Chrome OS might seem a limited browser based OS, but it is capable of far much more. It can now handle USB drives and that also stretches to Android mobile phones. This brief article shows how to download YouTube videos as MP3 files and then copy them to your Android phone - all done on a Chromebook.

First off, visit YouTube and find the video you want to convert to a music/audio file and copy the address from the address bar.

There are numerous websites for downloading and converting YouTube videos, for this article I used convert2mp3.net/en   as it was simple to use and included ID3 Tags editing.

Paste the YouTube video link in to the box on convert2mp3.net/en and click the convert button. Now wait for it to process which should only take a few seconds. It will then ask if the ID3 Tags are ok, if so click continue.

Now you are ready to click download. On todays modern broadband, this should only take a few seconds. This will place the file in your local storage on your Chromebook.

Close your browser and load the app launcher. Click all apps and find files.

Now you are ready to connect your phone. Plug in your Android handset and on the screen it should pop up with USB options - and you need to select transfer files.

This will mount both your phone and your SD card. Close one of them. I wanted the music file on my SD card, so I closed the window for my phones internal storage.

Now simply drag the MP3 from your local drive to your Android phone window. This is a simple process to get YouTube videos, as MP3, onto your Android phone using just a Chromebook. 

The copying options also allow you to manage any phone or USB device - you can copy to and from these devices and your Chromebook - just as you would on Windows, macOS or Linux.

Written by Simon Royal. Follow me at twitter.com/simonroyal

From first gen HP Chromebook 14 to Acer Chromebook 14 (Full HD)

Not long ago, the screen cable on my 2 year old HP Chromebook 14 went flakey, so I decided to get a new Chromebook before attempting to repair the old one. My requirements were 4GB RAM, HD screen and 32GB SSD, and the Acer 14 (CB3-431-C5CQ) fitted the bill. I managed to get one recently when it was on offer. I was immediately impressed by the build quality of the metal body and beautiful Full HD screen. There's no obvious flexing of the body, it feels fairly durable for the price, only time and usage will tell.  And even though the Acer has a metal body it is actually a bit lighter at 1.54kg instead of 1.69kg on the HP 14. The lid actually folds back right flat, I noticed sometimes I accidentally flicked it into that position when picking it up with the lid open, but it does it no harm. One slight feature lacking is there's no SD card slot which is a shame as I used it a lot on my old HP. It has 2 USB 3.0 ports on the left-hand side and the power socket on the right-hand side.        

Setting up Chromebooks is pretty simple and painless. The Acer checked and installed an update as soon as put in my wireless details, though later on, after I had finished setup, it also downloaded yet another update in the background and is now running the latest Chrome OS version. Anyway, I put in my account details and it installed all my add-ons and synced bookmarks, passwords etc

The 14 inch 1080P semi-reflective display is amazing for such a cheap device, and big step up from the 1366x768 display on my old Chromebook. I was a little surprised that it was set to 1536x864 and not already set to 1080P but that was quickly rectified in settings. These days there are far too many 14/15 inch laptops with 1366x768 resolution screens, 1080P should be the minimum. I know some reviews have criticised  it for a lack of brightness but I found it's bright enough for me, and I've kept it at about 50% brightness most of the time.

I then claimed another 100GB free Google Drive storage (for 2 years) on the rewards page.

The Acer 14 feels noticeably quicker than my old HP, not surprisingly with a newer generation quad core 1.6 GHz (up to 2.24 GHz with Turbo Boost) N3160 Celeron CPU compared to the 1.4Ghz 2955U dual core CPU in the old HP 14. It really does feel very snappy, taking on much more than I could ever do with the HP. Battery life from the 3-cell Li-Po 3920 mAh battery is a claimed 12 hours compared to 8 hours on the old HP, despite being thinner. It is hard to measure battery life when I tend to just close the lid and put it down and pick it up all day, but I have been charging it less than the HP. 

And one last thing, the Acer CB3 will officially get Android apps at some point, (the HP is too old to get them) it is possible to get them with some dev mode noodling, but I would rather wait until they arrive for it in the Stable Chrome OS channel, I look forward to trying that out.

Overall this is a great spec Chromebook for the price and a decent upgrade from my old HP Chromebook 14. It's amazing how Chromebooks have improved in a short space of time. The only slight downside is this does not have user-replaceable SSD, and no SD slot, but at least this came with a 32GB in the first place. It is very quick and the screen is so much brighter and more vivid. It feels a bit more solid so hopefully will last me a good while.