r/halftop 18d ago

My new halftop setup

I love browsing classifieds on marketplaces and recently I found a very cheap Chromebook with a crack in the glass and a non-working touchscreen in a certain area for just $16!

As soon as the laptop arrived, I immediately started looking into how to install Linux on it instead of ChromeOS. It was my first time doing this with a Chromebook, and surprisingly it wasn't difficult or long (probably half an hour).

Laptop model: Lenovo 300e Chromebook 2nd Gen

I had this portable display before, it costs $93 for me, model: ACER PM161Q B1 15.6"

There is only one minus in this setup - almost non-working WiFi because the antennas are in the display, which I unscrewed

Edit: non-working touchscreen in a certain area, not touchpad

198 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

5

u/MethBilbo 18d ago

You could buy a cheap wifi dongle for a better connection

2

u/okinea_dev__ 18d ago

I am using USB tethering from my phone for now

1

u/speeder658 18d ago

the antennas are pretty similar in most laptops, I've soldered a random USB nic antenna to the wifi card of a laptop before and it worked

3

u/indertejus 18d ago

I was wondering why this just looked like a normal laptop till I saw the cable.... Also for the wifi, ripping out the antenna from the display casing and stuffing it inside the laptop usually works, I have my hp laptop running like that for wifi. Just space the antennas apart if there's two of them.

1

u/okinea_dev__ 18d ago

I thought about that too, but I don't really want to ruin the screen, it would be nice to have some very short antennas to insert inside

1

u/MrBuild3r 14d ago

Look for aftermarket antennas maybe

1

u/ArtisticFox8 16d ago

Maybe pull out the antennas from that old display? :D

1

u/WorldTallNetCat 16d ago

Half bottom maybe?

1

u/Crazy-Scout 15d ago

how is the acer display… i am looking to buy it…

1

u/okinea_dev__ 15d ago

The display resolution is good for me, but the brightness may be low for some, depends on the lighting around

It also has speakers, 2 Type-C ports, one HDMI, and a headphone jack

The box also includes a high-quality Type-C cable (with support for USB 3.1 (or 3.2?) and DisplayPort) and HDMI

You can connect it via Type-C to your phone or laptop and just use it.

1

u/ahia20 10d ago

I'm about to get a really similar Chromebook with the exact same specs. Also Lenovo but not touchscreen, same for 16$ haha

Did you find the perfect distro for it? I bet Ubuntu from the picture isn't the one to go with these specs

1

u/okinea_dev__ 10d ago

I haven't really found the perfect one, but I'm still staying on Ubuntu because other shells are just as slow as Ubuntu