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Tom W Wolf
Everything is always more complicated than we would like it to be

Crouton Cookbook
A select set of simple recipes for crouton.

Mapping Chroot to SD Card

1. format the SD card in ext2 and name it ‘chrome-32’ in our example.

2. insert the SD card in the chromebook
3. open a terminal
4. enter “cd /usr/local”
5. enter “sudo mkdir /media/removable/chrome-32/chroots”
6. enter “sudo ln -s /media/removable/chrome-32/chroots/ chroots”

Run the normal crouton install process and the chroot installs will happen on the SD card and the
defaults will function without tweaking.

Ubuntu Versions Fully Supported [sudo sh -e crouton -r list]

precise – 12.04 LTS

quantal – 12.10
raring – 13.04
saucy – 13.10
Targets Supported [sudo sh -e crouton -t list]

audio : Support audio playback via Chromium OS’s audio system. Requires: core
chrome : Google Chrome browser, stable channel. Requires: x11
chrome-beta : Google Chrome browser, beta channel. Requires: x11
chrome-dev : Google Chrome browser, dev channel. Requires: x11
chromium : Chromium browser. Uses the distro’s version, which may be old. Requires: x11
cinnamon : Installs the Cinnamon desktop environment. (Approx. 300MB) Requires: gtk-extra
cli-extra : Basic CLI tools such as wget and ssh. Requires: core
core : Performs core system configuration. Most users would want this.
e17 : Installs the enlightenment desktop environment. (Approx. 50MB) Requires: gtk-extra
gnome : Installs the GNOME desktop environment. (Approx. 400MB) Requires: gtk-extra
gtk-extra : GTK-based tools including gdebi, gksu, and a simple browser.Requires: x11
kde : Installs the KDE desktop environment. (Approx. 800MB) Requires: x11
keyboard : Adds support for Chromebook keyboard special keys. Requires: x11
lxde : Installs the LXDE desktop environment. (Approx. 200MB) Requires: gtk-extra
touch : Touchscreen and limited generic gesture support. Requires: x11
unity : Installs the Unity desktop environment. (Approx. 700MB) Requires: gtk-extra
x11 : Basic X11 install. Does not install any desktop environment. Requires: core audio
xbmc : Installs the XBMC media player. (Approx. 140MB) Requires: x11
xephyr : Nested X11 install. Replaces X11 if specified first. Requires: core audio
xfce : Installs the Xfce desktop environment. (Approx. 250MB) Requires: gtk-extra

Installing Chroot Ubuntu [13.04 (raring) Unity desktop]

1. Download crouton to Downloads

2. Open a chrosh terminal via “ctl-alt-t”
3. Enter ‘shell’.
1. Target OS List: ‘sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r list’
2. Window Mgr List: ‘sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -t list’
4. (optional) Map the chroot location to the SDCard (directions above)
5. Create / Install : ‘ sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r raring -t unity’ / with Raring release and
Unity window manager – pick your favorites
6. To Run Chroot: ‘sudo startunity’
7. To Switch Screens: use “ctl-alt-shift->” and ctl-alt-shift-<” to switch between Chrome desktop and
Ubuntu Unity Desktop. Note: <ctl-alt->> and <ctl-alt-<> switches between Chrome desktop and
VT2 (Chrome terminal 2)
8. Ubuntu Package Load: Open a terminal from inside the chroot and enter:
1. ‘sudo apt-get install ubuntu-standard’
2. ‘sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop’
3. ‘sudo apt-get install synaptic’

Installing Chroot Ubuntu [12.04 (precise) CLI]

Follow steps 1-4 from above, and then follow these steps:

1. Create / Install : ‘ sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r precise -t cli-extra’ / with Precise LTS

release and no window manager – pick your favorites
2. To Run Chroot: ‘sudo startcli’
3. To Switch Screens: From the main screen, jump to VT2 with “ctl-alt->” and then jump to VT3 with
<ctl-alt-refresh>” . VT1 (the main screen) is accessed with “ctl-alt-<“, VT2 is accessed with “ctl-
alt->” from VT2 or Vt3.
4. Ubuntu Package Load: Open a terminal from inside the chroot and enter:
1. ‘sudo apt-get install ubuntu-standard’

Chroot Backup / Recovery / Delete

Chroot Backup: ‘sudu edit-chroot -b <chrootname>’ / the image is stored in Downloads and is
date stamped.
Chroot Restore: ‘sudo edit-chroot -r <chrootname>’ / recovers the most recent backup in
Downloads with that name.
System Restore: ‘sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -f <chrootbackup.tar.gz> / extracts scripts
and rebuilds chroot from a named backup.
Chroot Delete: ‘sudo edit-chroot -d <chrootname>’ / deletes the chroot of that name
Chroot Rename: ‘sudo edit-chroot -m <new chrootname> <chrootname>

Other Scripts [/usr/local/bin]

 delete-chroot <chrootname> : a wrapper around ‘edit-chroot -d <chrootname>’
edit-chroot : a multi-function administration script that includes backup, recovery and deletion of
chroots.
enter-chroot : a chroot launching script
Starting by Name: ‘sudo enter-chroot -n precise-unity startunity’
mount-chroot : mounting chroot directories
unmount-chroot : unmounting chroot directories

Chroot Internal Scripts

brightness :
croutonpowerd :
croutoncycle :
croutonversion :
croutonwheel :
croutonwm :

Reference

crouton homepage

Leave a comment

diranda on March 27, 2014 at 3:09 pm

Thanks! This is a lifesaver for my HP 14 Chromebook! I’m very glad you have the mapping to
the SD card instructions available. Thanks again!

 Reply

ObservativeTiger on May 14, 2014 at 2:40 pm

 @diranda: Thanks for leaving a comment, it helped me find Tom’s HowTo.
@tom: Thank you for the instructions. I too have Falco (HP Chromebook 14) and your
steps work great with Trusty Unity 14.04. One thing you might want to add at the top is,
make a restore USB before doing anything else; It can be a lifesaver for noobs.

I am adding Crouton in an attempt to replace my old desktop tower along with all of my
developer applications (CS4, LTSpice, Visual Studio, Eclipse, etc.). Thus I ventured to
add some steps to yours. The result was; Don’t just add repositories and application
packages you think will work…remember KISS (keep it simple st.p.d). The more you
add the slower things will run, especially if you use a SD card chroot to run Crouton.
Which I installed Crouton on a 32GB USB…and with everything I installed beyond your
steps, I experience delays in the initial session loading of Ubuntu to include a 10
second dark screen while the SD card is accessed.

Cheers, and thanks again for the compendium!

Stephen

 Reply

Henry Adams on May 14, 2014 at 12:16 pm

is your mapping scheme equivalent to running crouton with -p option?

 Reply

observativetiger on May 14, 2014 at 2:41 pm

@diranda: Thanks for leaving a comment, it helped me find Tom’s HowTo.

@tom: Thank you for the instructions. I too have Falco (HP Chromebook 14) and your steps
work great with Trusty Unity 14.04. One thing you might want to add at the top is, make a
restore USB before doing anything else; It can be a lifesaver for noobs.

I am adding Crouton in an attempt to replace my old desktop tower along with all of my
developer applications (CS4, LTSpice, Visual Studio, Eclipse, etc.). Thus I ventured to add
some steps to yours. The result was; Don’t just add repositories and application packages
you think will work…remember KISS (keep it simple st.p.d). The more you add the slower
things will run, especially if you use a SD card chroot to run Crouton. Which I installed
 Crouton on a 32GB USB…and with everything I installed beyond your steps, I experience
delays in the initial session loading of Ubuntu to include a 10 second dark screen while the
SD card is accessed.

Cheers, and thanks again for the compendium!

Stephen

 Reply

Henry Yates II on June 14, 2014 at 12:13 pm

Tom,

I have an Intel “Haswell” based Chromebook (Dell Chromebook 11), and I’d like to try to get
WebEX up and running on it.

I have the following questions for you (assuming that you’ve tried, at some point, to use
WebEX from a Chromebook):

What linux version / desktop target would you recommend when running the crouton script?

What version of Java (i.e. Oracle or OpenJDK, 6 or 7, 32 or 64 bit) do I need to install?? I have
no plans to be a Java developer. . .I’m looking for the minimum install of Java that will allow
me to use WebEX. . .i.e. will the runtime environment provide all that I need for WebEX?

Do I need to install 32-bit libraries?

What web-browser plugin?? IcedTea, other??

What browser works best for getting WebEX to run – FireFox, Chromium or Chrome?

Please provide specific instructions for installing Java, getting the symbolic links in place for
the browser-plugin to work, installing any missing libraries, etc. . .

I’m hoping that someone who’s actually gotten WebEX to work on an Intel-based
Chromebook can respond with detailed instructions. . .I’ve reviewed many “tutorials” on the
web thus far on this topic, and they all leave out some elements. . .I’ve not had any success
in getting WebEX to work by following them. . .

Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide. . .

  Reply

Eli on August 19, 2014 at 6:07 pm

Miraculous, thank you. I’ve had Precise Unity installed on my Dell Chromebook’s SDD for a
few months, and it’s been great, but for the lack of storage and inability to fall back to
ChromeOS stable.
Following this link (https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton/issues/8), I added the prefix
/media/removable/[card name] to the crouton installation command, which let me skip step
4 of the “Mapping chroot to SD option” and install Debian LXDE on a high-speed SD card
without losing my local Ubuntu install. A pleasure to have the space to learn a new distro. I
can’t speak to the speed yet, but with a quality microSD and lightweight environment, I’m
looking forward to it.

 Reply

John on March 16, 2015 at 10:49 am

Have you had any joy getting the special keys on the keyboard working in KDE for
brightness/volume adjustment etc? Really struggling to get them working on my Dell
chromebook 11!

 Reply

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ububtunoob on January 18, 2015 at 10:28 am

In the past I have successfully installed precise with the xiwi,xfce extensions.

I want to run xbmc but other versions such as trusty and saucy do not seem to work well, so
I am stuck with precise.

Although I can successfully install precise, recently I cannot install the xiwi extension which
is necessary for crouton integration.
 sudo sh ~/Downloads/crouton -t xiwi -u

I receive the following message after an install, but only with a precise install

The following packages have unmet dependencies:

xserver-xorg-video-dummy : Depends: xorg-video-abi-11
Depends: xserver-xorg-core (>= 2:1.10.99.901)
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

 Reply

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Hiram on January 22, 2016 at 3:59 am

Thanks, Tom. I was wondering if there is any way I can use the crouton integration extension
now that I’ve set up crouton in the way outlined above.

-h.

 Reply

tom w wolf on January 30, 2016 at 1:35 pm

Apologies to all. It has been over a year since i “lost” my chromebook, and i have not been
able to update this post.

 Reply

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