Hey everybody,
I'm a developer sponsoring a local high school computer club. We've got chromebooks from the school system, and we are using crouton to install ubuntu side by side, thereby having a pretty robust little platform for light Python programming.
HOWever, due to some school bureaucracy, many of the laptops are restricted from entering developer mode. This apparently is configured by the administrators who are several campuses removed, and attempts to have them relax the dependency on the club's laptops have not been successful. So far the security seems pretty robust -- we replaced SSDs and pulled the write-protect screw, then reinstalled chromeos, but after a clean install and enabling developer mode, the 'developer mode has been restricted' screen comes up and we reboot into normal chromeos.
So ... I am looking for options. Based on my reading on the coreboot site, I believe it is technically possible to use an external programmer such as a Bus Pirate to reprogram the BIOS and overwrite the restriction area. I'd like to learn more about what's involved -- sounds plenty interesting.
Thanks!