Installing Ubuntu linux Asus C302C or Acer spin 713 Chromebooks

Check here how to flash the rom

https://wiki.mrchromebox.tech/Firmware_Write_Protect

Check here to see if you should use Legacy or UEFI ROM

I used UEFI for both laptops

https://mrchromebox.tech/#devices

Asus C320C write protection removal

Removed screw and close your laptop to enable the bios be overwritten

https://www.asty.org/location-of-asus-c302c-write-protect-screw/

Acer spin 713 (cp713-3W) write protection removal

Disconnect the battery cable, be care full since the battery is lose, when you remove the screws and remove the cover. I use one of those plastic phone openers to go around the edge, if you open the screen a little bit, is easy to insert the plastic or your nails to start poping the metal bottom. since the battery is lose, put the laptop horizontal before finishing removing the bottom cover.

 

after that

Used mrchromebox to install a new bios on the asus chromebook

https://mrchromebox.tech/

I installed Ubuntu 25.04 with a 8Gb usb drive.

Enabled Secure Boot on the Bios after installing Ubuntu 25.04

Sound

Option 1:

Goto https://github.com/WeirdTreeThing/chromebook-linux-audio and follow instructions. 

This script puts the files in /tmp and then copies these to /usr/share/alsa/ucm2 folder by adding mores configs to it, The script does not support a uninstall feature, but it works, those files won't be managed by dpkg.

 

Reboot the laptop and sound should work fine now

 

Option 2:

 

To make sound work you need configure /usr/share/alsa folder with the correct config files, if you know what you are doing you would need copy these from https://github.com/WeirdTreeThing/chromebook-linux-audio generated files. You can edit setup-audio and functions.py if you know what you are doing to comment out mkdir, cpfile, rmfile, rmdir, cpdir, can copy the files you want from the tmp folder, this script does not need root, to generate the /tmp files. Then copy

 

   sudo cp -r ucm2/platforms/* /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/platforms/
   sudo cp -r ucm2/codecs/hda/* /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/codecs/hda/
   sudo cp -r ucm2/codecs/max98373 /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/codecs/
   sudo cp -r ucm2/conf.d/sof-rt5682 /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/conf.d/

 

Reboot the laptop and sound should work fine now

 

To see if configs are working you can run sudo alsactl init until it stops giving you failure. dmesg will also be usefull.

You can use the cmd below to restart the sounds service, in case it stops working.

 systemctl --user restart pipewire.service

Trackpad

To enabled right click on the trackpad with 2 fingers goto settings.

Gnome, Firefox and chromium touch support

Works out of the box

Status

To manage logitech devices install 

sudo apt install solaar

 

# Extra settings

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

Status

Laptop is fully functional, besides the problems listed below. Battery life time is awesome. trackpad, wifi, bluetooth, physical power volume buttons, sleep, hibernate, power modes, usbc hdmi video/sound work as designed.

Video Meetings work fine on chromium browser on Firefox video and sound is using a lot of CPU and freezes the browser.

Bios Update

 Use https://mrchromebox.tech/ instructions

cd; curl -LO mrchromebox.tech/firmware-util.sh && sudo bash firmware-util.sh

Make sure secure boot is disable on the bios otherwise the script won't be able to update the bios, you can re-enable after the update.

Problems I still have

For the Acer spin 713

Keyboard lights

Download  the ectool binary from here https://docs.chrultrabook.com/docs/installing/ectool.html and run

ectool pwmsetkblight 100

 

USB3 ports

• For charging they work fine
• The usbc ports on the laptop, only work for data as regular usb ports if you plug a usb device when you power on the device, if there is no device plug to the laptop during power on, the ports won't work for data on ubuntu.

 Other

After installing Ubuntu 25.04 only the sounds also config files are missing, and connecting a monitor using ubsc is not working, the hdmi works fine.

1- sdcard reader is not detected.

2 - USB C external monitor is not working, not idea why. 

For the Asus C302C

Fix keyboard special keys

cd ~/Downloads; sudo apt-get -y install curl; curl -LOk https://github.com/fascinatingcaptain/CBFixesAndTweaks/archive/master.tar.gz; tar -zxvf master.tar.gz; cd CBFixesAndTweaks-master

# make backup of original pc config filesudo

cp -n /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc.bck
 

# copy new pc config file

sudo cp pc /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/

reboot