1. Enabling Developer Mode

By default, Chromebooks don’t allow us to use chroots out-of-the-box. We will need to put our machine into Developer Mode to grant us this power.

Before Getting Started
Placing your device into Developer Mode will wipe all data and user information from it. Since ChromeOS is an online-centric operating system, the vast majority of your data will be stored remotely, but make sure you’ve backed up everything important that’s local to your machine before you begin. This could include important data like any files you’ve downloaded, or locally cached passwords.
The use of Developer Mode may void your Chromebook’s warranty.

To get to Developer Mode, we need to first reboot into Recovery Mode. On most Chromebooks, you do so by turning the device off, then holding down the ESC and Refresh keys while you press the Power button.

Once in this mode, press Ctrl-D. You will be prompted with an opportunity to “turn OS verification OFF”. Press Enter to do so.

When you boot up your Chromebook, it will begin with a warning screen noting that “OS verification is OFF”. You will need to press Ctrl-D to continue. Your device will now transition to Developer Mode.

Every boot thereafter will also begin with that warning screen, and a need to press Ctrl-D to continue. Do not follow the onscreen instructions to turn OS verification on, or you risk wiping your machine’s data and turning Developer Mode off.

2. Installing Ubuntu with crouton

Empowered with Developer Mode, we will download the crouton script at this link.

Then we will open up a shell by pressing Ctrl-Alt-T, and then typing shell. Now we have a full bash shell at our fingertips.

For a simple setup, we’re going to type sudo sh ~/Downloads/crouton -t unity. This will download the Ubuntu 16.04 packages with the default Unity desktop environment.

You’ll see your terminal processing these packages one by one. This will take some time, so feel free to browse the web on ChromeOS, have a snack, or browse the web while having a snack.

3. Switching between OSes

With the installation complete, you will be prompted to enter a username and a password. You will then be brought into a bare-bones Ubuntu setup.

Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Back and Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Forward will rotate you between ChromeOS and Ubuntu. Logging out of Ubuntu will drop you back into the ChromeOS terminal tab that ran the system.

You can get back to Ubuntu in future sessions by typing sudo startunity into your bash shell.

4. Practical and fun uses for your system

Like playing games? sudo apt install steam in a terminal gets you Valve’s Steam gaming client for Linux-based desktop gaming on your Chromebook. If you’re not a previous Steam user, you’ll need to register an account.

Enjoy irony? sudo apt install firefox. Have fun running Firefox on ChromeOS!

Want to browse for other ideas? sudo apt install gnome-software ubuntu-software gets you the Software tool for access to a wide variety of useful applications. Install LibreOffice for full office productivity, GIMP for desktop image editing, Audacity for audio editng, or Kodi for your multimedia enjoyment. If you’re a developer, install your IDE of choice and hack away!

Really, practically anything you could run on a “real Ubuntu laptop” could be run here.