Chromebooks are fantastic devices. Yet, their capabilities are very limited outside the browser and Google apps.
Chances are that you might want to run Linux on your Chromebook for extra functionality. You can do this by turning on the developer mode on your Chromebook.
How to Put Your Chromebook Into Developer Mode
There are pros and cons of putting a Chromebook in developer mode. Once you get a grasp of them, the process of doing it is fairly easy.
To put your Chromebook into developer mode, you need to power it on while holding two additional keys. Hold Esc + Refresh, and then hit the Power button.
Let go of the Escape and Refresh keys once it powers on.
As soon as the "ChromeOS is missing or damaged" screen shows up, press Ctrl + D.
The next screen will ask you if you want to turn OS verification off. Here, hit Enter.
As soon as you do that, Chromebook will restart and present a screen that says OS verification is OFF.
ChromeOS will then display a message for 30 seconds about transitioning the system to developer mode.
Your Chromebook will automatically proceed to enable the developer mode. This step will take a few minutes.
Once done, the Chromebook will restart into developer mode. Now, you can add your Google account.
Disable Developer Mode on a Chromebook
Disabling developer mode on a Chromebook is easy. Every time the Chromebook boots, it shows a message: OS verification is OFF, Press SPACE to re-enable.
Once you hit Space, it will display the following message asking you to confirm: Please ENTER to confirm your wish to turn OS verification on.
Press Enter. The Chromebook will disable developer mode and turn on its OS-verified status. It will also wipe your existing data.
Safeguard Your Data When in Developer Mode
Although ChromeOS is based on Linux, it expects data to be synced to the cloud. Disabling developer mode is easy on a Chromebook, and it only takes a couple of keys.
If data is not synced to the cloud, it is a big risk. Anyone with access to your Chromebook can press the Space key followed by Enter to disable developer mode and wipe all your data.
One way to make it harder to turn off developer mode is to set the language of the boot screen to a different language. You can do this using the left/right arrow keys. This avoids the possibility of someone misreading the instructions when in a hurry.
Even then, it is advisable not to keep any local-only data on the Chromebook. There are risks due to the soldered storage of the Chromebook.
In the event of a hardware failure, extracting data out of the chip is very difficult. Considering this, you should sync all your data to an external storage device. A USB hard disk or an SD card, for instance.
The good thing is that Chromebooks do not wipe the data on these devices when you set it to developer mode or switch back to regular mode. The data present on these external devices is neither encrypted nor password protected by ChromeOS. So safeguarding them from theft is just as important.
Enabling ChromeOS Developer Mode Comes With Its Risks
Developer mode is good for experimentation, but there are no data guarantees. ChromeOS does not sync Linux data to the cloud, and that puts the data at risk.
Even without developer mode, it is too easy to wipe data on Chromebooks. If someone accidentally switches back to normal mode, it will wipe all the accounts on the device. You need plenty of time to add all the accounts again and sync the data.
Even with all the risks associated with enabling developer mode, installing Linux on a Chromebook is a rewarding journey.