Installing Linux on Chromebook using Crouton

key reference: install-crouton-chromebook

This guide walks through installing Linux on a Chromebook using Crouton

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:

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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.

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$ 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

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$ sudo startxfce4

Additional configuration

Touchpad issues

key reference: Touchpad_Synaptics

1. pre-req: install synaptics drivers for xorg

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

2. get touchpad config file in the right place

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$ 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

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   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)

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$ 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

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

Fix locale

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$ 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

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$ 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

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$ 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