A while back I wrote about an adventure I had installing BrunchOS on old Acer C720 Chromebooks to extend their life past the Auto Update policy expiration. Google's Auto Update policy is similar to Apple's iPadOS support policy that stops supporting older devices after a period of time. Thankfully, end of support doesn't mean the device is bricked and we can still use it, though it doesn't benefit from secutity and usability updates. We have a fleet of older Chromebooks that we use for loaners should a student forget their BYOD. Google has actually now promised at least 10 years of support which is amazing news and I've definitely enjoyed Apple's excellent efforts to support older iPads on new iPadOS releases.
I took a look at ChromeOS Flex today and got it up and running on two devices in minutes which is a significant time savings over BrunchOS. ChromeOS Flex follows Google's acquisition of Neveready Cloudready and is intended to revive older Macs and PCs. It's a great idea and reaffirms the simplicity that student BYOD can be. ChromeOS Flex requires modifying the bootloader and does not do a security chip check, and also does not support Google Play or Android apps.
The process for our Acer C720s was straightforward:
- Download ChromeOS Flex onto USB using the Chromebook Recovery Utility
- Remove the write-protect screw.
- Reboot in developer mode (I had to deprovision in the Admin console first).
- Open a CROSH shell (Ctrl + Alt + T)
- Run MrChromebox's firmware utility script:
cd; curl -LOk mrchromebox.tech/firmware-util.sh && sudo bash firmware-util.sh
- Reboot
- ???
- Profit! (I'm sure explicitly prohibited in the T&C)
