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How I Installed Ubuntu on the Dell Chromebook 3100

Chromebooks have always been an interesting product category for me. Similar to cars, I'm interested in things that compromise features to make themselves more accessible to the masses. I love economy cars, and I love economy computers. 

Being the owner of a 2023 MacBook Pro, maybe I'm a little warmer to these basic computers than I would be if I had to use one. But I do own a $300 Asus Chromebook tablet PC which I do a lot of writing on. I'm actually writing this post on it.

So, when a lot of Dell Chromebook 3100s came up on eBay, I splurged. What I got was 4 C-grade Chromebooks that were totally functional. I immediately got to work.

Many say that you cannot use alternative OSs on Chromebooks, at least not natively. And they're kind of right. Depending on your model and chip architecture, alternative firmware may not be available. Further, many operating systems do not have all the necessary drivers available for Chromebooks. Take Windows 10 for example. It does not support the Dialog audio chip on the Dell 3100. Support is very hit-or-miss.

Upon installing Windows, I was dismayed that I couldn't get sound to work. No, generic drivers did not fix the issue. I knew Windows wasn't a viable option. But imagine my surprise when Ubuntu Linux just worked! The latest LTS release had every single driver. I didn't have to install anything. I guess this makes sense, considering Chrome OS is Linux-based, but I was super surprised regardless.

How does it perform? Pretty well! I could probably go for a lighter distro, but I tend to like a more polished (albeit slower) experience. Ubuntu is good for this. It's nice and simple, too. The 4 gigabytes of RAM is a big bottleneck, and it's not upgradable. Worse, the paltry 32 gigabytes of eMMC storage is pretty rough. The non-touch Chromebook 3100s do not have SD card readers, sadly. Thankfully, Ubuntu doesn't take up too much space. I still had over 20 gigabytes free on all four of the machines I installed it on. It also felt pretty snappy. I got lucky.

These Chromebooks make great cheap netbooks. They're also great for tinkering with Linux. It's incredible to me that such cheap computers can offer as much as they do. For a kid or someone who wants a second computer, I could see these cheap Chromebooks working really well for them.

Seeing Ubuntu running natively on these is super weird and cool.

Installation Instructions:

If you are interested in doing this process yourself, here is a quick guide. Bear in mind that you'll probably need to do some of your own research.

  • First, go to mrchromebox.tech. Yes, it's a lot of reading at first glance. It's actually not that bad.
  • Next, you'll want to decide if you want to dual-boot Chrome OS and your alternative OS of choice. Unless you have >=64 GB of storage, I recommend just removing Chrome entirely. This post will not cover dual booting.
  • Great! Now, you need to check hardware compatibility. Assuming your device is supported, you may proceed.
  • Next, you'll want to enter recovery mode mode. Hold Esc+Refresh and press the power button. 
  • Once you're in, you should be prompted to insert a flash drive or SD card. Press Ctrl+D to bypass this screen and enter developer mode.
  • Now, you should see a screen that says OS verification is enabled. Disable OS verification by pressing Enter. Now, every time you boot, you'll get a message warning you that OS verification is off.  To bypass this, once again press Ctrl+D. Your Chromebook will boot in developer mode.
  • Now, you need to disable write protection. How you do this varies on your model of Chromebook and will likely require you to take it apart. On the 3100s, all you have to do is disconnect the battery from the motherboard and run the laptop off of AC power until you've installed the custom firmware. Check this page again to see which method you have to use for your model.
  • Next, boot into the OS. Once you connect to the internet, press Ctrl+Alt+(F2/right arrow key). You will now be in the developer terminal.
  • Log in as user chronos. No password will be required.
  • Now, it's time to download and run the custom firmware script. You'll be replacing the stock firmware with a custom one that supports booting other OSs.
  • Type this command exactly: cd; curl -LO mrchromebox.tech/firmware-util.sh && sudo bash firmware-util.sh
  • Assuming your date and time are right, you'll soon be asked to pick an option for flashing the firmware. Make sure it tells you that write protection is disabled. Insert a flash drive (that's formatted correctly) and enter 2. This will replace the stock firmware entirely.
  • Follow the prompts and use the flash drive to create a backup of the stock firmware in case you want to revert.
  • Now, wait for the process to complete. You can go ahead and burn an ISO of your OS of choice to another flash drive.
  • Once the process is complete, go ahead and shut down your computer. When you turn it back on, you'll be greeted by the custom firmware.
  • Enter the boot menu when prompted and select your boot drive.
  • Go ahead and install your OS of choice! In Ubuntu, make sure you select "erase everything." Chrome OS will still be on your drive, so this will wipe it and give you more storage.
  • Assuming your device is supported and drivers are available for it, you're good to go.
It seems like a daunting process, but it's pretty quick and easy once you get the hang of it.

Anyway, I hope you found this post useful, and thanks for reading! Happy hacking.

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