pre-reqs blank ext4 formatted flash drive for original ChromeOS firmware backup flash drive with UEFI compatible Linux distro installed Steps powerwash and shutdown open back cover and disconnect battery. Plug in power cable and blank ext4 flash drive Enter Recovery Mode: press/hold ESC and Refresh, then press Power for ~1s; release all 3 keys Press CTRL+D to switch to Developer Mode; confirm when prompted Press CTRL+D on Developer Mode splash screen to boot in Developer Mode (On first boot, system will securely wipe all userdata, this takes a few minutes) open a VT2 terminal (from login screen: CTRL+ALT+F2, login ‘chronos’) run the mrchromebox firmware utility script using instructions from https://mrchromebox.
hardware very portable, 13" or smaller older and reliable like a Thinkpad or Dell / HP business class ultraportable, although a 12" MacBook would be cool too as they’re small and light USB-C charging large battery SSD, likely a larger one for local storage and services comfortable keyboard for writing built like a tank but at the same time cheap enough that you don’t care too much about it’s appearance stickers at least a couple cores and 4GB RAM integrated graphics only, low res screen is fine good well supported wifi card and Ethernet jack (Intel) software OS LTS distro, likely Debian minimal with packages installed on top suspend properly supported userspace very lightweight WM instead of full DE i3 or Sway powertop and similar power savings modes and daemons Docker for running local services, but disabled and stopped by default for battery savings disable all visual effects quick screen off and sleep times software offline Wikipedia download with web UI office tools torrent client the usual vim and terminal tools mapping tools VPN clients VLC media player + ffmpeg