Lubuntu or Ubuntu for Spin 311 R721T-62ZQ ?

TambourineMan

Can a Spin 311 R721T-62ZQ (4Gb RAM / 32 emmc) handle a full Ubuntu - Crouton / chroot add on to ChromeOS or is it better to go with Lubuntu?

How much storage should I allocate? (I want to put most LInux data (and hopefully some apps) on a Sandisk Extreme 1TB 190 MB/s sd card with a Linux partition.

billsey

Acer doesn't ship any of the R721T models with Linux, so they don't support it, but there shouldn't be any reason why it wouldn't work but there's no provision for a drive. The drive that comes with is an eMMC chip soldered to the motherboard and there is no SATA or M.2 slot for a different drive. I don't believe the design supports booting from a SD card.

TambourineMan

Thanks. This is my frist chromebook (which I wanted just in order to try one out) and other than a Linux box setup as an SFTP server with a GUI for me by someone else, this is my first try at Linux on my own.

I was aware the eMMC could not easily or cost effectively upgraded, nor a drive added.

I also know the R721T models do not come with Linux, but since the last few years they do allow Linux to be added which is what I am seeking to re-do. I had installed Linux before but it got wiped when I later went to ChromeOS Developer mode. To do this I did not, nor do I now need to boot from an SD card to mount from an ISO. Crouton allows Linux to be installed OTA. Once installed, I simply need Linux to mount a drive that will be on either the internal SD card slot or in an SD reader attached to a USB port with a Linux file format

My understanding is that Lubunu is intended for older, even more challenged chromebook devices than my R721T (only 2Gb RAM & 16GB eMMC) and takes less space and is less resource tasking. I would prefer the fuller Ubuntu version if it will not overload my R721T and I still want to be able to use ChromeOS (and Android).

Previously I just selected the 10Gb storage space recommended during the more or less automatic Linux installation that just left me with a Linux terminal without any GUI. Somehow (Crouton?) I was able to install Debian apps using command lines from scripts I copied and pasted from the cloud. I want to add a Desktop Environment (GUI) for the new Linux installation. I would like to reduce the on board storage space to just 5GB or less and use an SD card for Linux file storage and hopefully some apps I think, but do not know that Linux can use SD cards much more easily than does ChromeOS which is even worse than Android but do not know if apps can be run from them.