How to Reinstall Ubuntu on Acer C7 Chromebook

I had the same problem as you yesterday, where after upgrading to Saucy, launcher bar was wonky, etc.

Since I don't use ChromeOS at all and have already voided my warranty with a RAM upgrade, I chose to short the firmware write-protect jumper and overwrote that with coreboot / seabios. Now it runs Saucy perfectly and can boot any bootable USB live CD, installer, etc. Full instructions found here: http://johnlewis.ie/pre-built-coreboot-firmware-for-chromebooks/

What I did:

• Backup files to external drive
• Download Ubuntu 13.10 64-bit .iso
• Create bootable USB stick in Chrbuntu by using gparted to make a 1 GB fat32 partition, and usb-creator-gtk to write the .iso image and boot sector
• Run sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 0 -S 0 /dev/sda in a terminal to make it reboot to ChromeOS
• Shut down
• Remove back cover and fold a small piece of aluminium foil to close write-protect jumper "under black plastic" in this picture, although on my particular machine, there was no plastic shield and the jumper was exposed
• Start up and login
• Ctrl+Alt+t to get a crosh tab
• type shell
• type sudo flashrom -r <removable media path>/stock-firmware.rom (Important if you want to revert to ChromeOS, as apparently each Chromebook has a unique serial written in its firmware.)
• type wget http://johnlewis.ie/coreboot-c7-04092013.rom (Download John Lewis' firmware image)
• type sudo flashrom -w coreboot-c7-04092013.rom
• Shut down
• Remove aluminium foil to re-enable firmware write-protect (or coreboot won't start)
• Plug in bootable USB stick, USB mouse and start up (trackpad is not available yet)
• Hit F10 at boot selection screen and 2 to boot from USB
• Install Ubuntu normally
• Edit /etc/modules and add lines:

  i2c-i801
  i2c-dev
  chromeos-laptop
  cyapa

• Reboot and trackpad should start working