Chromebook CTRL-L

[gunghang]

I just bought a Samsung XE500C13-K01US Chromebook on ebay and it has arrived in China.  

 

Long story short, the Great Firewall of China is highest in Tibet and Inner Mongolia.  I cannot do the initial setup of Chrome OS.

 

Plan B:  

Install Xubuntu on a flash drive.  That way, I do an end run around Chrome OS; but don't have to flash any BIOS, and don't have to find and remove a write protect screw on the motherboard.

 

I've gotten as far as setting both legacy and usb boot to 1, and having the developer screen come up.

 

When I depress "CTRL-L" I get two beeps.  I don't get a choice of booting from a USB drive.

 

I've seen a lot of explanations, including the necessary BIOS has been deleted or was never there. I feel like there's no hope, but  I thought I'd ask if anybody has a suggestion on how to get past the developer screen with a CTRL-L.

 

Worst case scenario is I'll just have to wait until I return to Thailand next year.

[jmd8800]

Do your instructions tell you to press the escape key after ctrl-l?  That brings up a menu of bootable devices. 

 

This link will take you to the instructions I used to install Bodhi Linux on my Acer c720:

jeffhoogland.blogspot.com/2014/01/howto-bodhi-linux-on-acer-c720.html

It may be of help but it is a few years old. I use BodhiLinux on my Acer because it is way different (and fun) from most Linux distributions and the keymapping in the default theme was geared to the Acer c720.

 

Another possibility is how the image written to the USB stick you are using is done. In some cases Unetbootin does not create a bootable image. If you used Unetbootin try using the dd command to write the image to the USB stick.

[gunghang]

Update:

 

The Great Firewall of China has a few gaps.  Both on wifi and on 4G I was able to briefly get through to google and register my Chromebook.  I was very very lucky that it happened it all and that I noticed it by accident.

 

Then I had to get a VPN working.

 

Then I had to get crouton running.

 

Now I'm running Xubuntu on my CB. (I've also used Bodhi and a bunch of other distros, but they weren't on the menu.)

 

So, it has been done:  Firing up a shiny new CB in IM. 

 

I'm not sure if it can be done again.  I don't know how often the GFWOC takes five, like it did with me.