I was pretty happy with Kali on the chromebook, so I wanted to try with a larger SSD. First, I made sure development mode was enabled. This is done by hitting <esc><refresh(F3)><power> at the same time. I hit <ctrl><d> to enable developer mode. The system removed cleared all data. I shut it down and started to take it apart.
I replaced the 16GB SSD with a 64GB SSD following directions here. The SSD is an M.2 format, previously known as NGFF (Next Generation Form Factor). It is not the same as an MSATA. I used this drive. To replace it, basically, remove 13 screws from the bottom, carefully pry the bottom off, remove screw on SSD, replace. I put the screw back on for the ssd, put the cover back on, and booted up.
Of course, Chrome OS wasn't installed so the system asked for restore media. I had created that earlier, so I put in the SD card with the restore image and let Chrome OS install again. Once that was done, I knew the SSD was working fine, so I modified the bios so that it would always boot SeaBIOS. That means I won't have to hit <ctrl><l> to boot into linux at the splash screen.
Before you can modify the bios, you have to remove a write-protect screw from the motherboard. This page has a great picture showing the location of the write-protect screw. It was on pretty tight on my board.
Once the screw is out, I put the case back on (it won't boot because of a switch and a battery-enable screw) and booted to Chrome OS. There, I got a terminal (<ctrl><alt><t>), got a shell (typed 'shell'), and elevated privileges (sudo su). I used a built-in script to modify some flags following the directions here.
I created a Kali usb install drive using unetbootin and the Kali 1.07 x64 iso that I had downloaded. Then I put the usb stick in the chromebook and booted. It went to a UNetbootin start screen. This is where I had to add the boot parameters. Within 30 seconds, hit <tab> to get the boot parameters, and then add 'mem=1536m' to the end of the kernel parameters. I had problems getting the first option, install, to work. Instead, I booted to the live instance and choose "Install Kali Linux" from the "Systems Tools" menu. I had a problem with my WPA2 router, so I set up a 2nd router with open wireless for the install.
From there, it is pretty standard. Once Kali was installed, there are several tweaks to make. Update the system, fix the trackpad, fix suspend, fix sound, maybe others. I'll address these in a future post.
