Chrome OS Linux

This repository contains notes about Linux setup on Chrome OS. These are written for setting up environment for developing bible apps.

We also wrote some note about WSL2 setup on Windows: https://github.com/eliranwong/wsl2

Tested Device & Versions

Notes in this repository are tested with the following device and os versions:

Device 1: Google Pixelbook Go

Chrome OS Version: 107.0.5304.110 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Device 2: Apple mac mini (2012)

Chrome OS Flex Version: 108.0.5359.111 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Linux version:

cat /etc/os-release

PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="11"
VERSION="11 (bullseye)"
VERSION_CODENAME=bullseye
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

CPU:

dpkg --print-architecture

amd64

System Info Viewer

Cog is a nice extension to view system information:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cog-system-info-viewer/difcjdggkffcfgcfconafogflmmaadco?hl=en

Check the zRam enabled by default

Press "ctrl + alt + t" key combination to open a crosh session and run:

free -ht

Can use "swap" command to allocate the size of virtual memory instead of the default one, but it is unnecessary in common cases.

To change virtual memory, e.g.:

swap enable 2048

To change to factory default:

(If the size is omitted, the factory default is chosen)

swap enable

Remarks: Restart device for change in virtual memory to take effect.

Read https://support.google.com/chromebook/thread/93286060/want-to-increase-virtual-ram-memory-in-chromebook?hl=en

Turn ON Linux

Make sure you have the latest version of Chrome OS first, because "sudo apt update" does not work in some old Chrome OS versions.

Open Settings > About Chrome OS > Check for updates
Restart after updates if any
Open Settings > Linux > Turn On
To check the Linux's version installed, open terminal and type:

cat /etc/os-release
If the version is not 10 (buster) or above, you'll need to run the update script:
sudo bash /opt/google/cros-containers/bin/upgrade_container

To update packages, run on terminal app:

sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

To enable ADB debugging: Settings > Linux > Develop Android apps > Enable ADB debugging
To use microphone with Linux app: Settings > Linux > Allow Linux to access your microphone. [Remarks: Microphone setting here cannot be changed if Linux container is running. Make sure to shut down Linux container first before changing this option.]

Reference: https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439?hl=en-GB

How to restart Linux virtual machine?

Right-click "Terminal" app icon on the "shelf".
Shut down Linux
Start the "Terminal" app again

Where to adjust disk size of Linux container?

Settings > Linux > Disk size > Change

To check disk storage, run:

df -h

Share Chrome OS Folder(s) with Linux

To access chrome os files from Linux side.

e.g. Open "Files" app, right-click "Downloads" and select "Share with Linux"

Package management

apt:

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/package_mx/apt.md

dpkg:

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/package_mx/dpkg.md

flatpak [avoid flatpak if possible if you want your downloaded apps to work with fcitx]:

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/package_mx/flatpak.md

synaptic:

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/package_mx/synaptic.md

Basic Tools & Libaries

To install some basic command line tools and libraries, run:

sudo apt -y install software-properties-common dirmngr apt-transport-https lsb-release ca-certificates apt-utils build-essential cmake tree wget curl git zip unzip xz-utils nano micro w3m lynx lib32stdc++6 sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev libasound2 libnss3 libncurses5 libncurses5-dev libgl1-mesa-dev mesa-utils libglu1-mesa lsb-release binutils ffmpeg gawk opencc plocate gnome-keyring libssl-dev libffi-dev libstdc++5 libpci3 libpci-dev python3 python3-setuptools python3-pip python3-dev python3-venv zlib1g-dev libgdbm-dev libnss3-dev libreadline-dev libbz2-dev gcc xorg-dev exo-utils dex xdg-utils libavcodec-extra libportaudio2 moreutils llvm libncursesw5-dev tk-dev liblzma-dev python3-openssl libxml2-dev libxmlsec1-dev libfuse2 protobuf-compiler

For Ubuntu 24.04LTS

sudo apt -y install software-properties-common dirmngr apt-transport-https lsb-release ca-certificates apt-utils build-essential cmake tree wget curl git zip unzip xz-utils nano micro w3m lynx lib32stdc++6 sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev libnss3 libgl1-mesa-dev mesa-utils libglu1-mesa lsb-release binutils ffmpeg gawk opencc plocate gnome-keyring libssl-dev libffi-dev libstdc++5 libpci3 libpci-dev python3 python3-setuptools python3-pip python3-dev python3-venv zlib1g-dev libgdbm-dev libnss3-dev libreadline-dev libbz2-dev gcc xorg-dev exo-utils dex xdg-utils libavcodec-extra libportaudio2 moreutils llvm tk-dev liblzma-dev python3-openssl libxml2-dev libxmlsec1-dev libncurses-dev libfuse2t64 libasound2t64 protobuf-compiler

Display

Note on wayland: https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/display/wayland.md

Input Method - fcitx

e.g. Chinese pinyin

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/input_method/fcitx.md

Add Fonts

To install additional fonts, e.g. ubuntu fonts:

Download the latest version of Ubuntu Fonts from http://font.ubuntu.com/ or run:

wget https://assets.ubuntu.com/v1/0cef8205-ubuntu-font-family-0.83.zip

Unzip font package:

unzip 0cef8205-ubuntu-font-family-0.83.zip

Create user fonts directory:

mkdir -p ~/.fonts

Copy ubuntu fonts to user fonts directory:

cp -r ubuntu-font-family-0.83/ ~/.fonts

Build fonts information cache files:

fc-cache -f -v

Remarks: font directory lists are placed in /etc/fonts/fonts.conf

Add Fonts with font-viewer

sudo apt install -y font-viewer font-manager-common

For example:

download Hebrew fonts from https://www.1001fonts.com/hebrew-fonts.html
unzip the downloaded zip files
double click a font file in pcmanfm to launch '/usr/libexec/font-manager/font-viewer'
press 'install font'

Text Editor

nano

sudo apt install nano -y

Move down a page: "ctrl + v"

Move up a page: "ctrl + y"

Quick jump to the end of the file: "alt + \"

Quick jump to the end of the file: "alt + /"

Terminal

The built-in "Terminal" app that comes with Chrome OS is generally nice. However, it is not good for typing non-English characters, like Chinese. Chinese characters are misplaced as one type. We want a terminal app that:

supports copy & paste operations
supports unicode
works with fcitx
allow customisation

We tested different terminal app on Chrome OS. The best options we found are 'konsole' and 'rxvt-unicode'.

To install 'konsole', run:

sudo apt install -y konsole breeze-icon-theme

To copy, press 'ctrl+shift+c'

To paste, press 'ctrl+shift+v'

To run 'konsole' as login shell by default:

Settings > Configure Konsole > Profiles > Profile 1 (Default) > Edit > General > Command > /bin/bash -l

To change 'konsole' font, e.g. to Noto Sans Mono:

Settings > Configure Konsole > Profiles > Profile 1 (Default) > Edit > Appearance > Font > Noto Sans Mono

To support fcitx when konsole is launched via desktop file:

sudo nano /usr/share/applications/org.kde.konsole.desktop

Change from:

Exec=konsole

to:

Exec=env QT_IM_MODULE=fcitx5 /usr/bin/konsole

For 'rxvt-unicode', read:

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/terminal/rxvt-unicode.md

Remarks: Gnome-terminal is a popular choice, however, it does not fully work with fcitx on chrome os.

Browser

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge work with Chrome OS built-in input methods, without the need of fcitx:

Microsoft Edge can be downloaded at (select the .deb package):

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/edge/download

Browsers that work with fcitx

Two examples: Firefox and Chrome. Both of these browsers work with fcitx on Chrome OS Linux.

Firefox

There are several ways to install firefox. Firefox website suggests Chrome OS users to use flatpak to install firefox. However, the firefox installed through flatpak does not work with input method fcitx.

To work with fcitx, install firefox via either of the following methods:

esr version:

sudo apt install -y firefox-esr

To launch the installed esr version:

firefox-esr

full version:

Download firefox package (*.tar.bz2) at:

https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/linux/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=support.mozilla.org

Run in terminal:

sudo apt install -y libstdc++5 libdbus-glib*

cd ~

tar xjf firefox-*.tar.bz2

rm firefox-*.tar.bz2

To launch the installed firefox:

~/firefox/firefox

Set a shortcut:

echo "alias firefox=$HOME/firefox/firefox" >> ~/.bashrc

Chrome

To download, install and set up:

sudo wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

sudo apt install --fix-broken -y

sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

To run:

google-chrome

To tweak (enter in url):

chrome://flags

chrome://components

Tor Browser

echo "deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian buster-backports main contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/backports.list

sudo apt update

sudo apt install torbrowser-launcher -t buster-backports -y

torbrowser-launcher

File Manager

We prefer 'pcmanfm'

To install, run:

sudo apt install -y pcmanfm pcmanfm-qt pcmanfm-qt-l10n libfm-qt-dev libfm-qt8

To run:

pcmanfm

pcmanfm-qt

To integrate terminal 'konsole' with 'pcmanfm':

Install 'konsole' by running 'sudo apt install konsole'
Go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Terminal emulator
Change from 'x-terminal-emulator %s' to '/usr/bin/konsole %s' or 'env QT_IM_MODULE=fcitx5 /usr/bin/konsole %s' to use fcitx5 on konsole windows, opened via 'pcmanfm'

To integrate archiver manager 'file-roller' with 'pcmanfm':

Install 'file-roller' by running 'sudo apt install file-roller'
Go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Archiver integration
Select file-roller

Remarks: use 'pcmanfm' instead of 'pcmanfm-qt' on wayland, as Wayland does not support QWindow::requestActivate().

We also tested several other file managers on Chome OS:

nautilus does not fully work with fcitx. If you want to install nautilus anyway, run:

sudo apt install -y nautilus nautilus-admin nautilus-extension-gnome-terminal nautilus-image-converter nautilus-font-manager

thunar and nemo does not work with clipboard

Image Orangiser

sudo apt install gthumb -y

gthumb

Access ALL Files from Linux

Chrome OS "Files" app can only read Linux home folder, but not other directories.

It is better to use 'pcmanfm' to access all Linux files as well as all chrome os + Android files.

Access ALL Chrome OS Files from Linux

Launch Chrome OS "Files" app
Right-click "My Files" > Share folder with Linux > OK
Launch Linux "pcmanfm" or "pcmanfm-qt", go to /mnt/chromeos/, right-click "MyFiles" to add a bookmark, so that "My Files" appears on pcmanfm side bar.
To add an alias for use with commands:

echo "alias myfiles='cd /mnt/chromeos/MyFiles'" >> ~/.bashrc

Access Android Folders from Linux

By default, chrome OS "Files" app shows only 4 Android folders Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures. To access the rest of the folders:

Launch Chrome OS "Files" app
Click the three-vertical-dot button, located at the righter upper corner.
Select "Show all Play folders"
Right-click Folder(s) under "Play Files" > Share folder with Linux > OK

Access USB Files

Access USB content at:

To share USB content with Linux:

Launch Chrome OS 'Files' app
Right-click USB device, appeared on side panel
Select 'Share with Linux'

To access via Linus, run on Linux terminal:

cd /mnt/chromeos/removable

Office Apps - wps

We prefer WPS office. It has better compatability with Microsoft documents than libreoffice. You may read our notes about wps at:

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/office/wps.md

ePub Reader & Editor

Reader:

sudo flatpak install --from https://flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.github.babluboy.bookworm.flatpakref

echo "alias bookworm='flatpak run com.github.babluboy.bookworm &>/dev/null & disown'" >> ~/.bashrc

Editor:

sudo apt install sigil

echo "alias sigil='env QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb sigil'" >> ~/.bashrc

Test Audio

Update to the latest Chrome OS to get audio support for Linux apps.

Test: run a espeak command:

sudo apt install espeak -y

espeak "testing audio"

[To install additional data for espeak: https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/multimedia/espeak.md]

Remarks: Audio is not supported in some old versions of Chrome OS.

Media Player

sudo apt install vlc -y

Youtube Downloader

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/multimedia/yt-dlp.md

Video Editor

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/multimedia/kdenlive.md

Audio Editor

sudo apt install audacity

Enable to use microphone for recording:

Shutdown Linux container first [right-click Terminal app icon on the shelf & select "Shut down Linux (Beta)"]
Enable to use microphone with Linux app: Settings > Linux > Allow Linux to access your microphone.
Launch Terminal app and audacity

audacity

Select "default: Mic:0" on microphone option

Scaling Individual Applications

If you find the installed audacity too small on screen, you may want to scale it up.

echo 'alias audacity="sommelier -X --scale=0.5 --dpi=120 audacity"' >> ~/.bashrc

Edit the desktop shortcut file:

sudo nano /usr/share/applications/audacity.desktop

Change from:

Exec=audacity %F

to:

Exec=sommelier -X --scale=0.5 --dpi=120 audacity

Development Tools

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/development/go.md

Android Studio + Flutter + Dart + connecting flutter to chromebook

We found the following way is the easiest one to setup Android Studio together with flutter and dart. Overall, it is easier to first install Android Studio then flutter and dart.

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/development/AndroidStudioFlutter.md

VS Code:

https://github.com/eliranwong/wsl2/blob/master/programming/vs_code.md

python3:

sudo apt install build-essential python3 python-setuptools python3-pip python3-dev python3-venv libssl-dev libffi-dev -y

pyenv:

sudo apt update; sudo apt install build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev curl libncursesw5-dev xz-utils tk-dev libxml2-dev libxmlsec1-dev libffi-dev liblzma-dev

curl https://pyenv.run | bash

git clone https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv-virtualenv.git $(pyenv root)/plugins/pyenv-virtualenv

micro .bashrc

copy the following lines at the end of the file:

export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"
command -v pyenv >/dev/null || export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(pyenv init -)"
eval "$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)"

Press "ctrl+s" & "ctrl+q" to save and close the file

More about pyenv at: https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv/wiki

More about pyenv-virtualenv at: https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv-virtualenv

More about pyenv plugins at: https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv/wiki/Plugins

nvm & node

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/development/nvm_node.md

git

https://github.com/eliranwong/wsl2/blob/master/programming/git.md

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/development/qt.md

sqlitebrowser

sudo apt install sqlitebrowser

Microsoft Teams

Download the .deb package of Microsoft Teams at: https://aka.ms/get-teams-linux

dpkg -i [package-name]

Signal Desktop

wget -O- https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | sudo apt-key add -

echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list

sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop

Bible Apps

Unique Bible App Desktop

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/bible/UniqueBibleApp.md

Unique Bible App Hybrid

https://github.com/eliranwong/UniqueBibleAppHybrid

Setup alias

Edit file ~/.bashrc

nano ~/.bashrc

At the end of the file, add, for examples:

alias update='sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade && updatedb && youtube-dl -U'
alias uba='/home/eliranwong/UniqueBible/uba.py'
alias audacity='sommelier -X --scale=0.5 --dpi=120 audacity &>/dev/null & disown'
alias chrome='google-chrome-stable &>/dev/null & disown'
alias firefox='/home/eliranwong/.Applications/firefox/firefox &>/dev/null & disown'
alias studio='urxvt -e /opt/android-studio/bin/studio.sh &>/dev/null & disown'
alias bookworm='flatpak run com.github.babluboy.bookworm &>/dev/null & disown'
alias pyside2examples='source ~/UniqueBible/venv/bin/activate && cd ~/UniqueBible/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/PySide2/examples'
alias myfiles='cd /mnt/chromeos/MyFiles'
alias playfiles='cd /mnt/chromeos/PlayFiles'

Useful Command Line Tools

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/cli/common.md

More Linux softwares

https://github.com/luong-komorebi/Awesome-Linux-Software

User Configurations

ls ~/.config

Assign Default Applications

Manually edit '/usr/share/applications/mimeapps.list' or '.config/mimeapps.list'

[Default Applications]
inode/directory=pcmanfm-qt.desktop
application/pdf=wps-office-pdf.desktop

Alternatively, use xdg-mime command, e.g.:

xdg-mime default pcmanfm-qt.desktop inode/directory

xdg-mime default wps-office-pdf.desktop application/pdf

cat .config/mimeapps.list

Desktop Shortcuts

ls /usr/share/applications

Desktop shortcuts created by Chrome are stored at

ls ~/.local/share/applications

apt-repository

/etc/apt/sources.list.d

setup docker

https://dvillalobos.github.io/2020/How-to-install-and-run-Docker-on-a-Chromebook/

setup webtops

https://tech.davidfield.co.uk/webtops-linux-desktop-in-a-web-browser/

To install Arch Linux webtop, where "/home/<user>/development/webtops/arch-xfce" specifies the local path to store webtop user home directory [change it according to your own needs]:

sudo docker run -d --name=webtop --security-opt seccomp=unconfined -e PUID=1000 -e PGID=1000 -e TZ=Europe/London -e SUBFOLDER=/ -e KEYBOARD=en-gb-qwerty -p 3000:3000 -v /home/<user>/development/webtops/arch-xfce:/config -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock --shm-size="1gb" --restart unless-stopped lscr.io/linuxserver/webtop:arch-xfce

To run webtop:

http://localhost:3000/

To setup firefox addon "video-downloadhelper" on Arch Linux webtop:

Note: Addon "video-downloadhelper" and its companion app are tested on Alpine, Ubuntu, Fedora and Arch webtop images. They work properly only on Arch without installing extra components.

Install addon at: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/
"Install Companion App" is prompted, the first time when a video, e.g. a vimeo video, is downloaded. Select "Linux - 64 bits - targz other linux distributions"
To install the companion app, open webtop terminal (not chromeOS Linux terminal) at download folder and run:

cd ~/Downloads

tar xf net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.6.3-1_amd64.tar.gz -C ~

~/net.downloadhelper.coapp-1.6.3/bin/net.downloadhelper.coapp-linux-64 install --user

Restart Network

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Install Ubuntu on Pixelbook Go

https://github.com/eliranwong/ChromeOSLinux/blob/main/development/ubuntu.md