For those who don't have anything better to do with their lives...

A couple years ago, when experimenting with Chromebooks, I found a cheap
Dell Latitude 5300 2-in-1 Chromebook at Shop Goodwill that may or not have
worked. So I took my chance. It was poorly cared for, had had soda spilled
on the keyboard and, at first, wouldn't boot. I cleaned it up, opened it up,
disconnected the battery and managed to get it to take a charge and boot up.

As far as Chromebooks are concerned it was one of the top of the line ones,
an 8th generation i5 CPU, 16 GBs of RAM and a 512 GB NVM SSD. I bought a new
keyboard for it (which I've never installed) and, after experimenting with
Linux on it, lost interest in Chromebooks. And it's mostly been sitting for
the last couple years. I liked the computer itself, though. 13", high
resolution touch screen (touch means nothing to me), reversible hinges so it
can be used as a tablet (also means nothing to me), ran cool and had a long
battery life. But ChromeOS got in the way. I explored options to make it
into a regular computer, but found things like "the sound doesn't
necessarily work right" and stuff like that. Might as well leave it a
Chromebook rather than make it half-functional.

And then a little over a week ago I saw someone selling a Latitude 5300 on
CraigsList. An i7, 8th generation CPU, 32 GBs of RAM in nearly new condition.
Turned out to be off-lease computers (they had more than one) from Idaho
Power, who have plenty of money for new computers. (Just from what they got
from me this summer.)

At any rate I exchanged $80 cash for the computer (which had a new
installed, authenticated copy of Windows 11) and that was that.

I don't think the computer had ever been used away from a dock as a desktop.
Good in one way. It looks new, no wear at all on the screen or keyboard. Not
so good in another way, the keyboard had never been used and I think it was
half corroded, as I had to loosen up the keys by pounding them for awhile.
Most are working well now, but the one ones you don't hit often still have
some "loosening" to do. These new laptops do not have the keyboards the old
ones had. Definitely a drawback to "new."

Of course I wasn't going to use the computer with Windows 11, so I shrank
the Windows partition and installed Linux Mint 22. It seemed to go alright,
but it wouldn't boot. No grub came up at all.

So I looked at the BIOS. Turned out that the issue was the type of RAID
install that they had used with Windows 11. I changed the setting, Windows
11 wouldn't boot, but that was okay. I reinstalled Linux Mint 22 and,
voila', it booted. So, if I wanted to use Windows 11 (why?) I could go into
the BIOS, reset it to RAID and it would load, and vice versa with Linux. No
big deal as I wasn't planning on using Windows 11 anyhow.

Linux Mint ran great, no issues with the special keys, ran cool, screen came
back when putting it to sleep, etc. Another great Dell Latitude experience
with Linux.

So I decided to change out the SSD with the Chromebook one, so I could have
twice the storage. I thought that would be easy (and it probably would have
been if I had a half a brain), but it turned out to be a four hour (or so)
hassle. I backed up my Linux files on the Chromebook, didn't worry about
backing anything up on the new Windows computer, as I was just going to
install Linux Mint 22 again.

Then I created a restore microSD for the Chromebook. According to them it
would be no trouble to restore the Chromebook after changing out the SSD. It
took longer to create that recovery microSD than it takes to install Linux
Mint from scratch. Oh well, no biggy. On to the SSD exchange.

A total of 9 screws on each Latitude 5300, fairly easy to snap the back off,
the SSD had a shield and heat tape, and required removing three screws on
each one (no problem if I was younger and had better eyesight and was still
as coordinated as I once was -- but a bit of a challenge for the old "me"
that now exists). At any rate the exchange was made and the backs were
screwed back on and... well crap.

The non-Chromebook Latitude didn't see the SSD at all. I guess the
partioning scheme on the Chromebook makes it impossible to use the hard
drive unless it's erased before-hand. I thought I would be able to use
Gparted to erase it in the computer using a Live USB "install" of Linux
Mint. Nope. So I had to remove the back, retrieve the SSD and install it in
a USB enclosure (fortunately I had one for when I upgraded my wife's SSD to
a bigger drive). Gparted worked fine then, cleared off the (seemingly)
14,000 Chromebook partitions, reinstalled the SSD in the non-Chromebook
Latitude 5300 (checked before closing it up) and installed Linux Mint 22 in
about ten minutes. Used the whole disk (no Windows for this computer).

The Chromebook "recovery" turned out to be a much bigger trial. First, there
was no way to use a microSD card for recovery -- why they allow you to use
it when creating a "recovery" microSD, I have no idea. I guess they just
like wasting your time. So, using a different Windows computer than before
(I wasn't about to load Chrome on my Linux computer) I tried making a
recovery USB device. The Chrome utility would download the recovery files,
verify them, unpack them and then "write them" to the USB drive. Except it
stayed at 0% for... forever. It didn't work. No error, no timing out, just
didn't write the damned image. I tried this three times, switching out the
USB at least once.

Finally I looked it up on the Internet. "If it doesn't write the image,"
someone said, "then open Chrome as Administrator." Well that was nice to
know after wasting about an hour and a half. It did work, though. I had a
Chromebook Latitude 5300 recovery USB. Except it wouldn't recover. I tried
it three times. It went through another drawn out "verification" process,
then threw an error. "There was a problem." That's all, "there was a
problem." So I looked up what that "problem" was and was told to try another
USB drive. So, I tried another USB drive... and still the same.

Finally it kicked in -- no thanks to Google's Chromebook page. This SSD also
needed to be erased. So remove the Chromebook's back, its SSD, installed it
in the USB enclosure and erased all its partitions. Reinstalled, etc. Again,
testing before screwing on the back, my "defective" USB recovery worked
fine. And, finally, I had a "working" (so to speak) Chromebook back up and
running.

Now what I would like to do is buy a PC motherboard (I already have a
keyboard) for that Chromebook Latitude and make it into a real computer
where I can install Linux. But I really need it. So I'll see.

Meanwhile I'm really enjoying the Linux Latitude 5300. I'm typing this
overly long "rambling" in WordStar for DOS 7.0d, using the full screen mode
in DOSBox-X -- as a 13" screen is small enough to do that. It's like going
back to 1993 all over again (when the world wasn't quite so insane).

As for Windows... I'm getting rid of it completely, wherever I have it
installed. I forgot to mention that, when I was trying to make my Chromebook
recovery disks it would do some crap where it wanted to format my USB drive,
and would go into unending loop, "do you want to format this disk?" ...
over and over again. When I tried to shut down Windows and restart it, using
the on/off key, it wouldn't let me do anything until it upgraded. And, even
when it did work, when I tried to shut it off it wanted to force another
upgrade. So back to pushing the off key until it shut down. I hate Windows.

Anyhow, I've got a "new" computer now. Originally shipped on March 30th,
2020. For what I need it works well. The main advantage (for me) over the
E7450 is battery life. I actually like the keyboards on the old computers
better, so I might take one and see if I can install DOS on it and use it
for WordStar. We'll see.

Sorry to ramble for so long. WordStar always seems to put me in a rambling
mood.

--
“Evil is not able to create anything new, it can only distort and destroy
what has been invented or made by the forces of good.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

RonB <ronb02NOSPAM@gmail.com> wrote:
> For those who don't have anything better to do with their lives...
>
> A couple years ago, when experimenting with Chromebooks, I found a cheap
> Dell Latitude 5300 2-in-1 Chromebook at Shop Goodwill that may or not have
> worked. So I took my chance. It was poorly cared for, had had soda spilled
> on the keyboard and, at first, wouldn't boot. I cleaned it up, opened it up,
> disconnected the battery and managed to get it to take a charge and boot up.
>
> As far as Chromebooks are concerned it was one of the top of the line ones,
> an 8th generation i5 CPU, 16 GBs of RAM and a 512 GB NVM SSD. I bought a new
> keyboard for it (which I've never installed) and, after experimenting with
> Linux on it, lost interest in Chromebooks. And it's mostly been sitting for
> the last couple years. I liked the computer itself, though. 13", high
> resolution touch screen (touch means nothing to me), reversible hinges so it
> can be used as a tablet (also means nothing to me), ran cool and had a long
> battery life. But ChromeOS got in the way. I explored options to make it
> into a regular computer, but found things like "the sound doesn't
> necessarily work right" and stuff like that. Might as well leave it a
> Chromebook rather than make it half-functional.
>
> And then a little over a week ago I saw someone selling a Latitude 5300 on
> CraigsList. An i7, 8th generation CPU, 32 GBs of RAM in nearly new condition.
> Turned out to be off-lease computers (they had more than one) from Idaho
> Power, who have plenty of money for new computers. (Just from what they got
> from me this summer.)
>
> At any rate I exchanged $80 cash for the computer (which had a new
> installed, authenticated copy of Windows 11) and that was that.
>
> I don't think the computer had ever been used away from a dock as a desktop.
> Good in one way. It looks new, no wear at all on the screen or keyboard. Not
> so good in another way, the keyboard had never been used and I think it was
> half corroded, as I had to loosen up the keys by pounding them for awhile.
> Most are working well now, but the one ones you don't hit often still have
> some "loosening" to do. These new laptops do not have the keyboards the old
> ones had. Definitely a drawback to "new."

Sounds like it was a corporate telework PC.

> Of course I wasn't going to use the computer with Windows 11, so I shrank
> the Windows partition and installed Linux Mint 22. It seemed to go alright,
> but it wouldn't boot. No grub came up at all.
>
> So I looked at the BIOS. Turned out that the issue was the type of RAID
> install that they had used with Windows 11. I changed the setting, Windows
> 11 wouldn't boot, but that was okay. I reinstalled Linux Mint 22 and,
> voila', it booted. So, if I wanted to use Windows 11 (why?) I could go into
> the BIOS, reset it to RAID and it would load, and vice versa with Linux. No
> big deal as I wasn't planning on using Windows 11 anyhow.
>
> Linux Mint ran great, no issues with the special keys, ran cool, screen came
> back when putting it to sleep, etc. Another great Dell Latitude experience
> with Linux.
>
> So I decided to change out the SSD with the Chromebook one, so I could have
> twice the storage. I thought that would be easy (and it probably would have
> been if I had a half a brain), but it turned out to be a four hour (or so)
> hassle. I backed up my Linux files on the Chromebook, didn't worry about
> backing anything up on the new Windows computer, as I was just going to
> install Linux Mint 22 again.

Four more hours of setup. Ouch.

> Then I created a restore microSD for the Chromebook. According to them it
> would be no trouble to restore the Chromebook after changing out the SSD. It
> took longer to create that recovery microSD than it takes to install Linux
> Mint from scratch. Oh well, no biggy. On to the SSD exchange.
>
> A total of 9 screws on each Latitude 5300, fairly easy to snap the back off,
> the SSD had a shield and heat tape, and required removing three screws on
> each one (no problem if I was younger and had better eyesight and was still
> as coordinated as I once was -- but a bit of a challenge for the old "me"
> that now exists). At any rate the exchange was made and the backs were
> screwed back on and... well crap.

If you think tiny screws are fun now, wait until after cataract surgery and
the Doc sets you up with 0/20 distance vision…better have strong bifocal
peepers on hand for stuff like this. I’ve been told that a 7 power Jewelers
headset’s not a bad solution.. I think even seen one with LED lights built
in.

> The non-Chromebook Latitude didn't see the SSD at all. I guess the
> partioning scheme on the Chromebook makes it impossible to use the hard
> drive unless it's erased before-hand. I thought I would be able to use
> Gparted to erase it in the computer using a Live USB "install" of Linux
> Mint. Nope. So I had to remove the back, retrieve the SSD and install it in
> a USB enclosure (fortunately I had one for when I upgraded my wife's SSD to
> a bigger drive). Gparted worked fine then, cleared off the (seemingly)
> 14,000 Chromebook partitions, reinstalled the SSD in the non-Chromebook
> Latitude 5300 (checked before closing it up) and installed Linux Mint 22 in
> about ten minutes. Used the whole disk (no Windows for this computer).

Ten minute install .. after all the other stuff. Sounds like another hour
or two.

> The Chromebook "recovery" turned out to be a much bigger trial. First, there
> was no way to use a microSD card for recovery -- why they allow you to use
> it when creating a "recovery" microSD, I have no idea. I guess they just
> like wasting your time.

Initially, I thought you were referring to the form factor of microSD;
there’s also been different architectures on how a PC has an attached SD
drive .. I only learned of this after our IT group shut down USB storage
(security), but I had an older Thinkpad whose SD was hooked up to the
motherboard by something other than USB, so it still worked.

> So, using a different Windows computer than before
> (I wasn't about to load Chrome on my Linux computer) I tried making a
> recovery USB device. The Chrome utility would download the recovery files,
> verify them, unpack them and then "write them" to the USB drive. Except it
> stayed at 0% for... forever. It didn't work. No error, no timing out, just
> didn't write the damned image. I tried this three times, switching out the
> USB at least once.
>
> Finally I looked it up on the Internet. "If it doesn't write the image,"
> someone said, "then open Chrome as Administrator." Well that was nice to
> know after wasting about an hour and a half. It did work, though. I had a
> Chromebook Latitude 5300 recovery USB. Except it wouldn't recover. I tried
> it three times. It went through another drawn out "verification" process,
> then threw an error. "There was a problem." That's all, "there was a
> problem." So I looked up what that "problem" was and was told to try another
> USB drive. So, I tried another USB drive... and still the same.
>
> Finally it kicked in -- no thanks to Google's Chromebook page. This SSD also
> needed to be erased. So remove the Chromebook's back, its SSD, installed it
> in the USB enclosure and erased all its partitions. Reinstalled, etc. Again,
> testing before screwing on the back, my "defective" USB recovery worked
> fine. And, finally, I had a "working" (so to speak) Chromebook back up and
> running.
>
> Now what I would like to do is buy a PC motherboard (I already have a
> keyboard) for that Chromebook Latitude and make it into a real computer
> where I can install Linux. But I really need it. So I'll see.
>
> Meanwhile I'm really enjoying the Linux Latitude 5300. I'm typing this
> overly long "rambling" in WordStar for DOS 7.0d, using the full screen mode
> in DOSBox-X -- as a 13" screen is small enough to do that. It's like going
> back to 1993 all over again (when the world wasn't quite so insane).
>
> As for Windows... I'm getting rid of it completely, wherever I have it
> installed.

I like keeping Windows around even if I don’t use it most of the time, as
it’s “one more tool in the toolbox”, as I’ve occasionally run into ‘Win
Only’ stuff.

> I forgot to mention that, when I was trying to make my Chromebook
> recovery disks it would do some crap where it wanted to format my USB drive,
> and would go into unending loop, "do you want to format this disk?" ...
> over and over again. When I tried to shut down Windows and restart it, using
> the on/off key, it wouldn't let me do anything until it upgraded. And, even
> when it did work, when I tried to shut it off it wanted to force another
> upgrade. So back to pushing the off key until it shut down. I hate Windows.
>
> Anyhow, I've got a "new" computer now. Originally shipped on March 30th,
> 2020. For what I need it works well. The main advantage (for me) over the
> E7450 is battery life. I actually like the keyboards on the old computers
> better, so I might take one and see if I can install DOS on it and use it
> for WordStar. We'll see.