I have an Acer Chromebook R11 which has reached End of Life and won’t receive updates (which is insane, I bought it new four years ago). I have checked, and my model is now fully supported by most Linux distros.

I need suggestions for a lightweight distro to use. I will use the machine for surfing, playing Pixel Dungeon, streaming some indie games over Moonlight/Steam Headless and manage my home server over ssh. So nothing major. I want something lightweight and really low maintenance.

Specs:

  • Processor: 1.6GHz quad-core Intel Celeron N3150 (quad-core, 3MB cache, up to 2.08GHz with Turbo Boost)

  • Graphics: Integrated Intel HD Graphics

  • Memory: 4GB DDR3L

  • Storage: 32GB (with SD card reader for more storage)

I have a lot of experience with Arch-based (EndeavourOS, Manjaro), Ubuntu-based (Mint, PopOS) and Debian-based (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Raspbian) distros, but I am open for other suggestions

    • velox_vulnus@lemmy.ml
      0·
      10 months ago

      No, Nix and Guix uses too much space for symlink. That 32GB space can’t handle it. I had a 128GB storage, and it was running out of space after a week. 512GB and 1TB? Just fine.

  • shaked_coffee@feddit.itEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    If you are looking for something light and low maintenance, maybe Mint could be a good fit?

    I’ve never daily driven it because I’m not a fan of Cinnamon, but everyone says its light and stable so seems like what you are looking for

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
      0·
      10 months ago

      Mint is great and an excellent choice. I’d give it a shot. If it doesn’t run well, you can always try something more lightweight.

  • boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net
    0·
    10 months ago

    BIOS & mobo

    First you need to look if your Chromebook is even supported for running coreboot.

    mrchromebox.tech/#devices

    Storage

    Your Storage is pretty low. Adding an SD card with up to 256GB is very possible. There are even 1TB SD cards!

    But best to check if you can replace the emmc module inside.

    Open it up and send us a pic of the internals. Also search online.

    Increasing the emmc storage will give you the best speed. Using a USB stick/ flashdrive is not recommended as those are not meant for running an OS off of them.

    RAM

    pretty low but not extremely. 4GB is pretty fine.

    You can work around it by using a Distro using ZRAM, like Fedora.

    Ask here or on discussion.fedoraproject.org how to make ZRAM fill all your RAM.

    ZRAM compresses your RAM contents with zstd (imagine it like .zip but worlds better), so you have 12GB or more space. But it consumes more CPU power, which should be a fine tradeoff.

    Desktop

    While preeetty outdated in default design on Fedora, it is the most lightweight Desktop that will soon (version 6.1) have Wayland support.

    Lubuntu has a better theming and maybe better support, see if ZRAM works on Ubuntu base.

    Distro

    I would recommend Fedora Atomic Desktops a lot.

    But as LXQt is likely the best desktop, and it doesnt have the best support on Fedora, I would recomment Lubuntu.

    Even though I would give KDE a try, you can strip it down really well. Here, Fedora Kinoite is absolute king.

    • jrgn@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      10 months ago

      Wow, thanks for this write-up! I will definitely look into ZRAM! I have been wanting to give Fedora Atomic a go

  • jrgn@lemmy.worldOP
    0·
    10 months ago

    Also did a search to see if RAM or storage is possible to upgrade, it is not. Everything is soldered right to the board.

    I can however add some storage with SD card (planning on doing just that)

  • jrgn@lemmy.worldOP
    0·
    10 months ago

    Thanks for all the great replies! I installed OpenSUSE Tumbleweed with XFCE for now, because I had it lying around on a USB stick. Mostly to see if I even could get it running. So far so good, but I will definitely use some time to check out my options and see what will work the best. All replies are greatly appreciated!

    • rizoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      10 months ago

      I used to work for Chromebook Retail and I have a bunch of EOL devices around. Tumbleweed has been the most stable in my experience followed by Endeavor OS.

  • smeg@feddit.ukEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    Not an actual answer, but I think a Chromebook reaching EoL doesn’t mean it stops getting all updates. I think it’s something along the lines of it stops getting firmware updates but it still gets browser updates, though worth checking exactly what’s happening on your specific device. If you’re feeling crazy you can even try installing ChromeOS Flex on it and it should miraculously be “supported” again.

    • jrgn@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      10 months ago

      I thought so too, but then my Chrome stopped updating and all my extensions started breaking one by one. Never heard of ChromeOS Flex, will check out!

  • vinayv@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 months ago

    Try Puppy Linux on it. It runs with meager resources - ~100MB RAM, 250MB storage (only if you want to install it to disk). Everything runs in RAM and is blazing fast. It is a God send for older computers

  • MonkderDritte@feddit.de
    0·
    10 months ago

    Debian with XFCE/Mate/Mint/LXQt?

    Your bottleneck will be browsing with 4GB, can’t upgrade that?

  • spacemanspiffy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    I had a good experience with GalliumOS on an x86 Chromebook years ago: https://galliumos.org/

    I eventually switched it to run Arch but I will admit that it had WAY better support/stability with the touchscreen/touchpad on Gallium than with Arch.