Install Kali 1.05 x64 on Acer Chromebook c720p

I picked up a refurbished Acer c720 Chromebook for $150.  My goal was to install Kali on it.  I heard that it was a fast (relatively) machine and the price was right.  I've always run Kali in virtual machines, and I thought that it would be nice to have it on actual hardware for a change.  This machine is so cheap that I don't mind if it gets trashed.

My first decision was to decide if I was going to use chrouton (runs Ubuntu and some others using a chroot environment) or install it directly.  This (and recent) models of chromebook support a legacy bios that allows you to boot from the usb.  That makes it a lot easier.

I decided to wipe out the 16Gb ssd, but first I made a backup image of chrome.  To do this, use chrome://imageburner in the browser with a 4Gb usb/SD card.

Then I followed the directions here to enable developer mode and boot the usb.  I used kali 1.05 because 1.06 is still downloading, and I didn't feel like waiting.  To create a bootable usb, I used the kali 1.05 iso file with unetbootin. 

I set up developer mode per the directions and booted.  I hit <ctrl-l> at the splash screen (legacy?) and it booted off the usb.  The trick here was to edit the boot options and add the parameter 'mem=1536m' at the end!  Without that, it would fail to boot kali.

I booted the live image and then installed from there.  I had a problem connecting to my wireless network until I unhid the SSID.  After installing, I rebooted.  I didn't hit <ctrl-l> at the developer splash screen, which takes you to a different splash screen saying that the chrome installation is corrupt.

Just reboot and hit <ctrl-l> at the developer mode screen!

There are a couple of issues that I need to sort out.

1. The touchpad doesn't work.  This is a known issue, and it should be possible to compile the correct drivers.
2. The screen resolution seems to be a few pixels bigger than the screen, so it pans a little when I get to the edge.  I'll have to look into the display drivers and/or screen resolution.

It's running an apt-get upgrade now and seems to be working fine!