Installing Linux on Chromebook

key reference: install-crouton-chromebook

This guide walks through installing Linux on a Chromebook using Crouton

Note: I did this on a Toshiba Chromebook 2. Your mileage may vary.

Enable Developer Mode

In order to install linux you have to enable developer mode. Note that this disables OS verficiation.

1. Enter recovery mode.
   • Power off chromebook
   • press and hold [ESC + Refresh + Power Button] at the same time
   • You’ll see a notice that says “Chrome OS is missing or damaged” (it’s okay, don’t worry)
2. Enable Developer Mode
   • On recovery screen above, press [CTRL +D]
   • Turn OS verification off by pressing [Enter]
   • When you see the warning about OS verification being off, press [CTRL + D] to skip it now and in the future

## Sign in to the Chromebook like normal You’ll now be given a fresh boot of Chrome OS. Just log in like normal.

Download Crouton

• Visit the Crouton Site and download the latest release
• Or click here

Bring up the terminal

1. Open the chrome browser
2. Press [CTRL + ALT + T]
3. Type shell at the command line:

   crosh> shell
   

install crouton

There are a lot of options for installing crouton. The docs are pretty good, so I’m not going to go into all of them. The following is what is what I typically do.

$ sudo sh ~/Downloads/crouton -r bionic -t xfce,extension

This installs crouton with:

• -r (release): Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
• -t (xfce): xfce desktop environment
• -t (extension): browser extension

start ubuntu

In the shell, type the following

$ sudo startxfce4

Additional configuration

Touchpad issues

key reference: Touchpad_Synaptics

1. pre-req: install synaptics drivers for xorg

   $ sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
   

2. get touchpad config file in the right place

   $ cd /etc/X11
   $ sudo mkdir xorg.conf.d
   $ cd xorg.conf.d
   $ cp /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/70-synaptics.conf .
   

3. Edit that file and add this just after the first section
   • details here: Touchpad_Synaptics#Configuration

    Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad catchall"
        Driver "synaptics"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
            # these three fix the tap-to-click
            Option "TapButton1" "1"
            Option "TapButton2" "3"
            Option "TapButton3" "2"
            Option "MaxTapTime" "125"
            # these two add 'natural scrolling'
            Option      "VertScrollDelta"          "-111" 
            Option      "HorizScrollDelta"         "-111"
    EndSection

Volume, brightness keys

In order to get the brightness and volume keys to work, do the following in the chrome OS shell (not from Ubuntu)

$ sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r bionic -t keyboard -u

You can now enable these keys by pressing the Search button and then the approprate key (ex: brighness)

Other Fun customizations

Installing oh-my-zsh

I like the oh-my-zsh terminal setup found here

$ sudo apt-get install git
$ sudo apt-get install zsh
$ <run wget install from site above>

Fix locale

$ sudo locale-gen en_US.UTF-8
$ sudo update-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8 LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

Alternate fix for locale

$ sudo locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

Now I like the agnoster theme for this.

1. install powerline fonts

   $ sudo apt-get install fonts-powerline ##requires reboot
   

2. install theme Set them to ‘agnoster’ in ~/.zshrc

3. install zsh-syntax-highlight https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting

Conclusion

Have fun in linux on your chromebook!

References

• https://www.codedonut.com/chromebook/install-crouton-chromebook/
• https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton
• https://medium.freecodecamp.org/jazz-up-your-zsh-terminal-in-seven-steps-a-visual-guide-e81a8fd59a38
• https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting
• https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics