Running Ubuntu on the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet
3 days ago
- The author attempted to run Ubuntu on a Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook after postmarketOS broke.
- Replace postmarketOS rootfs with Ubuntu base; booted but Wi-Fi and kernel issues remained.
- Discovered ChromeOS boot flow uses Depthcharge to load FIT images, not EFI; needed UEFI firmware.
- Used AI agents (Claude, GLM-5.3-Flash) to develop a framebuffer stub, U-Boot port, display driver, and more.
- After many iterations, U-Boot successfully booted Ubuntu kernel; memory map issues caused hangs.
- Fixed memory map by parsing Coreboot tables, resolving the hangs.
- Created a bootable Ubuntu image for the Duet, available on GitHub.
- Highlights limitations of AI-generated code: requires human review and upstreaming effort.
- Reflects on AI as a tool for hardware bring-up, lowering barriers but not replacing engineering judgment.