HydroponicTrashMar 17, 2023

After some time I’ve found a way to upcycle Chromebooks to run the latest version of Ubuntu and boot to an external USB drive while maintaining the ChromeOS. The WiFi chips in these models also can create their own wifi networks so they can be short range routers.
What does this actually mean? Instead of requiring new hardware like a raspberry pi, we can take old Chromebooks that schools get rid of in the thousands and actually reuse them to create portable micro servers. Pack them full of offline books, maps, wikis, etc.
There is a major upside compared to using an old Chromebook over a raspberry pi, mainly that it's actually cheaper and can be free depending on how you source your chromebooks. I got 10 at $30 each which is cheaper than a pi or a pi alternative.

The battery life is also insane. I used it for close to 12 hours and it didn't even hit 50% battery loss. They also take very little time to charge so I'm interested to see how much power they might take up while attached to the off grid solar array.

So the plan is to make the docs and work some more on making these into portable offgrid information stations and packing them with info. https://anarchosolarpunk.substack.com/p/offgridserveruses
#solarpunk #permacomputing

Off Grid Internet Use Cases

Expanding the uses of an autonomous network, and offering some ideas on the ways that autonomous and community controlled networking can lead to change.

Anarcho Solarpunk
Show threadEthan WhiteMar 18, 2023
@hydroponictrash this is great and would be really useful for some work I’m involved in supporting teaching computing skills in internet-limited environments. We’d love a ping when you get the docs up and running https://github.com/carpentriesoffline/
The Carpentries Offline

Running Carpentries Training on Raspberry Pis. The Carpentries Offline has 3 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.

GitHub
Show threadHydroponicTrash
@ethanwhite Docs are up! https://kolektiva.social/@hydroponictrash/110079511792323402
HydroponicTrash (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image Reviving Chromebooks with Ubuntu: Autonomous Servers, Planned Obsolescence, and Permacomputing: Half tutorial, half manifesto. Step-by-step instructions with additional commands and things to look out for. Along with steps toward a better future. https://anarchosolarpunk.substack.com/p/chromebook-revive Chromebooks reach end of life and stop getting updates. They tend to either be trashed or scrapped. Let's make them boot to an up-to-date and secure OS and give them out to anyone who needs them. Make them into portable webservers, make your own off-grid networks. I talk about the issues, but also steps we can take to reframe our relationship with technology by changing our social relations. This connects with the revolutionary vision of the early internet & computing and the cross-over of the counterculture. https://anarchosolarpunk.substack.com/p/opensourcesocieties In the face of climate collapse we can move away from profit driven and destructive practices in tech - and towards decommodified, interoperable, modular, and appropriate technology that is shaped by the people, and made to last with as little impact on the ecosystem as possible. #permacomputing #solarpunk

kolektiva.social
Mar 24, 2023 at 5:49pmWeb
Show threadEthan WhiteMar 25, 2023
@hydroponictrash Thanks!