What is this page about?

Some newer (2023+) Chromebooks aka Chromebook Plus laptops make very affordable Linux laptops, with a little help. After trying to make ChromeOS and Linux operable, I abandoned it and decided to go bare metal Linux. I knew that this would involve some small challenges:

• cracking Google’s security on the Chromebook requires a developer cable and some patience aka instructions following
• tools and familiarity to open a laptop up and remove/replace parts
• need to find and install a compatible nvme drive because the stock emmc drive is quite slow
• there will be driver and configuration challenges with Linux to overcome

Ultimately this was a rewarding project as I turned a $240 chromebook into a Ubuntu 24.x 16” dual display ultrabook.

What about Windows?

I didn’t try or see any reason to. You could get it working but this laptop has only 8GB of RAM which no longer meets the minimum spec for a modern Windows machine.

Does it work?

YES. It works great. Initially, I had problems with:

• Thunderbolt/USBC did not work, including external video
• the keyboard layout wasn’t quite perfect
• onboard audio didn’t work

I overcame all of these with simple configuration changes in Linux. That took skill and time. This page is here to save your need for both.

I tested with Ubuntu and Fedora. The purpose of this page is to consolidate everything I learned in one place and make it easy for others to find.

Disambiguation

There is a lot of vague information about this laptop online because of the clunky and vague name and the fact that a model string (16IAU7) used by Lenovo refers to multiple devices, including two Chromebooks and a Windows laptop. So I’m going to be very specific for you about which model I mean and use the specific SKUs. I’m also including a copy of all the documentation to make it clear what equipment you are dealing with.