ASUS Chromebox M004 (Ubuntu here I come!)

[Steve A.]

I had been planning to convert an old ASUS netbook (remember those?) to Ubuntu but it was really just a toy that became very obsolete with the proliferation of tablets. Scratch that idea...
And then I saw an ad (for members only!) at Fry's for an ASUS Chromebox for $119.99. It comes with Google's Chrome OS but I was reading how a lot of people were upgrading it to Ubuntu, usually after boosting the RAM to 4GB and replacing the 16GB SSD with a 64GB one. I have those upgrades coming from Amazon on Friday for about $66.

The Chromebox is a small frame factor CPU unit that can be mounted to the back of your monitor (be sure to get USB 3.0 extension cables for your peripherals.) Add your own keyboard and mouse and you are ready to roll.

1.4 GHz Intel Celeron 2955U Processor
2GB DDR3 RAM, 16 GB SSD HDD
Intel HD graphics
Google Chrome OS

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-CHROMEBOX.../dp/B00IT1WJZQ

Here is an article telling you how to upgrade the RAM and SSD, with a video below that.

How to upgrade Asus Chromebox memory and storage - Liliputing

Steve Ahola

[big_teee]

I've been converting these Toshiba Laptops, to Linux.
They are on sale for $250, and need nothing but the new software.
They make a fine web surfing machine, once reloaded with the linux of your choice.
Toshiba Satellite 15.6" Laptop Intel Celeron 4GB Memory 500GB Hard Drive C55-B5300 - Best Buy
It comes with 15.6" LED Display, Celeron 2.58 ghz processor, 4gb ram, 500gb hard drive, cd dvd writer, and a full size deluxe keyboard with number pad.
I'm typing on one now, loaded with Mint XFCE-64.
http://www.linuxmint.de/

T

[Steve A.]

Sounds great for portable computing! The Chromebox is a replacement for the typical mini-tower in a desktop PC and is small enough to mount on the back of a monitor (using the VESA standard mounting holes.) With an SSD (solid state drive) it will run the operating systems and some programs at the speed of light (almost) but with the lower capacity you would need to use an external drive through one of the four USB 4.0 ports for data for content creation.

I don't know how this Toshiba model compares to the BestBuy one but Fry's is selling it today for $218 ($130 off regular price) using a promo code.
EDIT I just compared the two units and it looks like the only difference is that the one at Fry's has bluetooth, which used to be a non-issue for me (for computers) but I now have a really cool bluetooth speaker for playing audio files.

FRYS.com*|*TOSHIBA
Steve A.

P.S. In the past BestBuy's prices on computers and peripherals were definitely not "best buys." Glad to see that they have adapted to the 21th Century marketplace. (For many years BB was a "showroom" where people would go to demo products which they would then order them on-line from Amazon, et al. Not exactly the best business plan for Best Buy.)

[big_teee]

I've had pretty good luck with Worse Buy!
IMO your Chrome Box is way over priced especially, if you have to do all that upgrading.
Only about half the stuff the laptop has.
I used to fool with towers and desktops.
I much prefer the portability of Laptops.
I wouldn't begin to know how to use a mouse again.
I have used a touchpad with Tapping for over 20 years.
I would beat a mouse to death.
But, to each his own!

[Steve A.]

Terry:

Tell me more about installing ubuntu on the Toshiba. I may get the one at Fry's but with Windows 8.1 I would need to convert it into a linux box. (Win 8 without a touch screen is a real drag.)
Big question: is it a problem getting the needed drivers? That was always a bear when changing OSs onblaptops.

Thanks!

Steve A.

[big_teee]

It's pretty tricky.
The biggest problems is the Windows 8.1.
Older computers had bios.
Now the 8.1 computers have Secure Boot, and UEFI, instead of bios. (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface)
For your first load, don't know if you would want to indulge that much or not.
Instead of partitioning with a dos Partition table with MBR.
You use a GPT partition table with a efi dos boot partition.
If you google Secure boot, and UEFI, there is tons of stuff on it.
Another issue, is if you power cycle an older windows computer, it will reboot and start at the beginning, and you hit a F2, or whatever to get into bios.
Win 8.1 has the fast boot, you can power cycle it, and when you turn it back on it remembers where it left off.
Lots of Aggravation with Win 8.1.
I couldn't get win 8.1 off of there fast enough.
If you bite the bullet, I'll help if I can!
T
BTW: I forgot, on the drivers?
You don't add drivers with linux.
The Drivers are built into the Kernel.
Each linux Distro will be built on a kernel.
My Toshiba will only work with a linux distro with a 3.12 or higher Kernel.
So You can't just load any linux, it has to be new enough to have the latest kernel.
I know that is a big switch from Windows and adding drivers.
Here is the Kernel Platform.
https://www.kernel.org/

[Steve A.]

So do you do a dual boot or just eliminate Win 8? I've been using Acronis to backup and clone boot drives- I need to check if they have a version which works with Win 8...

I may order the 250GB SSD from Amazon and install Linux on that. Will the Window 8 laptops boot into Linux with a bootable disk or thumb drive?

Thanks

Steve A.

[big_teee]

I do dual, triple or quad boot, but all linux, no Windows.
I used to do dual boot, early 2000s with XP, and Mandriva linux, but I had the Windows CDs.
Personally if I was going to dual boot windows and linux, I would go XP, or Win 7, no 8.1.
If you have an extra 2.5 inch drive laying around the easiest way, to test your laptop and software, is with a replacement drive.
Pull the win 8.1 disk, replace with other drive, test the Bios, uefi,, secure boot.
That way you have the 8.1 if you need it.
I usually just delete windows,
Down side of deleting 8.1, if you need to upgrade the bios firmware, you can only do that with a windows executeable files.
Even a small drive, like a 60-320gb would work great.
Load it with linux, and XP or whatever you have software for.
Win7 and Ubuntu or mint would be good.
You mentioned the SSDs earlier, linux is fast enough that I just use standard SATA Drives.
I like Seagate Laptop drives.
I have several of these.
They are thin, quiet, run cool and fast and a good price.
I don't remember having a Seagate fail.
Seagate Momentus Thin ST500LT012 500GB 5400 RPM RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive - Newegg.com
I use the modern SATA 5400 drives, 7200s are noisy and vibrate in a laptop.
The new 5400s are plenty fast.
I've not tried them, but heard the SSD drives run hot in laptops.
I have a couple of spare drives, and I keep one in a external 2.5" in a USB mounting.
Great for backups, and moving things around.
GL,
T
**Edit
If you pull the windows drive, and install a clean drive, then you can choose to let Ubuntu or mint use the whole drive.
It will automatically format and set up the partitions.
That will keep you from having to manually do anything with the partitions.

[Steve A.]

So could I install ubuntu/Win XP dual boot on the Toshiba? Considering the price difference and the heat issues you mention it would probably be better for me to buy a bigger HDD than a smaller SSD.

Any good tutorials on replacing the hard drive?

Steve

P.S. I went ahead and got the Toshiba laptop last night. It has bluetooth 4.0 but no optical drive, a tradeoff that I think I can live with. Most Windows programs these days are downloadable and what you buy is the product key. Optical disks will become dinosaurs before too long.

Wow! The Toshiba sure isn't like my old ones which were heavy and bulky!

[big_teee]

I prefer to buy laptops that have the CD/DVD Optical capibility.
It just gives more flexibility.
Most Linux Software is downloaded as an .iso image.
Take the iso and burn to disk or to a USB Memory Stick.
Some linux distros will only support DVD loading, not by usb.
I mainly do the USB memory stick loading if supported, but at times the DVD burner is handy.
Most all linux comes with some form of DVD burning software.
As long as you still have some computer with burning capability, it can be a windows box.
If I'm trying new software, I usually burn to usb, and boot to it live to test the distro.
You can also boot live with a dvd disk.
Then if All works well, I load it to the Hard drive.
There are lots of Youtube vids on Laptop hard drive swap outs.
It's primarily just a physical swap out.
unplug all cables, and remove the laptop battery, and swap them out.
https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...top+hard+drive
**edit
If secure boot can be turned off in bios, and will support USB legacy support, then you can load XP dual boot.
If No USB legacy support, and only UEFI support, then probably not.
It depends on the bios for the laptop.
Probably a better more secure choice, is to first load Linux, then load XP or Win 7, within Linux via Virtualbox.
I've not tried it, but supposed to work slick.
virtualbox is add-on virtual Machine software, available for most linux distros.
It is available for Ubuntu, Mint and all other Debian based Linux distros.
A simple command line install.
$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox
Or it can be loaded via the Software Manager GUI.

[big_teee]

Here's a guide of how to install Win XP/with Virtualbox on Linux.
Install Windows XP inside ubuntu using Virtualbox - Ubuntu Sharing
This should be the same for all debian based linux distros, such as ubuntu, mint, etc.
T

[Steve A.]

I decided to return the laptop w/o an optical drive to Fry's and buy the one you suggested for $249.99... but according to the BB website it has been discontinued. I checked the local store and they didn't have one but there are 2 at a different location 20 miles away. As they say all good things must come to an end...
However I was looking at their HP tablets and the 15-F003DX for $329.99 looks promising...

HP 15.6" Laptop AMD A6Series 4GB Memory 750GB Hard Drive Black 15-f003dx - Best Buy

Steve

[big_teee]

Right now I have in my house a Lenovo w/amd, a HP w/amd, and this toshiba w/celeron.
The issue with the HP, is the touchpad, don't know if we just got a bad one or if all that way.
It has a very jerky touchpad, and it can be difficult at times to navigate certain things with it.
If you buy one at a store, try the touchpad of each model.
This toshiba came from Staples.
Staples has some great deals at times.
Office Max, and Office Depot also have sales at times.
We may replace the HP with something else.
My granddaughter will take it.
She will beat it into submission. lol
I also had really good luck with the Lenovo Laptop, They are the old IBM thinkpads.
We used them some at work before I retired.
If you buy a Laptop, they come two different keyboard layouts.
The compact keyboard with no number pad, and the larger layout with number pad, I like the larger layout best.
Both layouts fit a 15.6 inch laptop fine.
GL,
T

[Steve A.]

Thanks for all of the information! I don't like any of the touchpads so for anything serious I would use a trackball.

I did like the brief introduction to Windows 8 having the Toshiba for a few days. Earlier this year I picked up a reconditioned Microsoft Surface RT for what I thought was a ridiculously low price and with Win 8 I did not have the foggiest idea what to do with those darned tiles. It was like booting up my first PC 18 years ago and wondering what the heck I was supposed to do with the C:\ prompt. Getting my feet wet with the Toshiba gave me the incentive to try again attacking the Surface RT which is an amazing device that has been orphaned (hence the low price.)

It has a 10.6" wide screen display (16x9) so its great for watching modern videos. It differs from the other Surface models because it has an ARM processor which is typically used in Android tablets. The problem with that is that it can only run apps written especially for it ( it can't run Android apps and it can't run regular Windows programs.) So what you see right now is all that you will ever get. There is an optional cover that snaps on with a backlighted keyboard which makes it a true convertible, probably the lightest one around. It comes with RT versions of Word and Excel so it can be used for serious computing.

Steve

[big_teee]

Good luck on your adventures!
Sounds like you're well on your way.
We could probably all learn win 8.1, and do fine with it.
My biggest complaint with MS, is the constant need to buy something.
Usually AV software, MS office, etc.
Linux is not for all, and if you need to run elaborate Win programs, windows is probably a better fit.
The way I use a computer, with resident programs, and lots of web surfing, Linux suits me great.
I also like the way Linux does daily updates, loads all the new security fixes, and stays current.
T