Ubuntu 13.04 raring to go on Acer C7 Chromebook
With Ubuntu’s new release out this week, i wanted to share with you how to get this working in a chroot environment alongside ChromeOS on the Acer C7. I have covered how to put the C7 into Developer mode in a previous post so won’t outline it here. Head over to http://blog.projectz.me/2013/03/26/2143841985/ for instructions on how to get that part done.
Once you have completed Step 3 head back over here
CROUTON Command Line
Most of the guides you will see using this utility mine included cover how to get Ubuntu 12.04 the LTS version working, however there is also scope within the command line to get the latest and greatest up and running. specifically the -r switch. Issuing the following command will provide you with a bare bones Ubuntu 13.04 install
sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -t unity -r raring
this will start the install process wihc on an 8meg link will take about 15 to 20 minutes
Starting Unity
The installer suggests a whole load of stuff about starting a chroot shell, ignore it..
type:
sudo startunity
obliviously if you chose kde you would type
sudo startkde
The Ubuntu GUI will start
Swapping between ChromeOS and Ubuntu
Pressing ALT CTRL and F1 (back) while in ubuntu will take you back to ChromeOS
Pressing ALT CTRL and F3 (reload) while in ChromeOS will take you to Ubuntu
Post Install
As mentioned this is the bare minimum Ubuntu 13.04 install, and it does the job however it is possible to get it a bit closer to what you might find on the CD install on a normal PC to do this you will need to drop to XTerm as gnome Terminal isn’t installed.
Type in:
sudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install gnome-terminal
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop ubuntu-restricted-extras nmap ssh
the last two are not essential, i just make use of them
sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-toolsudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-toolsudo apt-get install synapticsudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-plugins-extrasudo apt-get install p7zip-rar p7zip-full unace unrar zip unzip sharutils rar uudeview mpack arj cabextract file-rollersudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg libxine1-ffmpeg gxine mencoder libdvdread4 totem-mozilla icedax tagtool easytag id3tool lame nautilus-script-audio-convert libmad0 mpg321
Some additional tweaks
Show username on panel:
UserName is disabled by default in Ubuntu, So here is tweak you can enable it very easily.
Enter following command in terminal:
- gsettings set com.canonical.indicator.session show-real-name-on-panel true
- gsettings set com.canonical.indicator.session show-real-name-on-panel false
Disable overlay Scrollbars:
You can disable overlay scrollbars, if you don’t like that.
Enter following command in terminal to disable overlay scrollbar:
- gsettings set com.canonical.desktop.interface scrollbar-mode normal
If you want to get back overlay bar, enter following command:
- gsettings reset com.canonical.desktop.interface scrollbar-mode
projectz 
Pingback: Running ChromeOS and Ubuntu at the Same time using Crouton on the Acer C7 Chromebook | projectz
Great, as soon as my extra memory arrives i’m going to do this asap. Great post!
Are you upgrading the ram? Or changing the hard drive to ssd? If either one can you tell us how the device works after? How muh of an improvement, stuff like that. Thanks.
I did update the ram to 16gbon chrome os it does make a difference if you use LOTS of tabs as I do, Ubuntu using whatever means is much snappier too..
Pingback: OTR Links 04/30/2013 | doug --- off the record
Pingback: Getting a bit more out of crouton on a Chromebook | projectz
I’m a bit new to the whole Chromebook and Linux scenes, but I was curious if this would work on a Samsung Series 3 Chromebook as well?
I got the original idea from a Samsung chrome book site, I believe this will indeed work.
Pingback: Ubuntu 13.04 sul Chromebook Acer C7 | HwJournal.net
I’m having a problem logging back into linux after rebooting for the first time. After turning it back on, waiting for it to log in with the developer mode, then open crosh and type in “sudo startxfce4” is says it replies with “unknown command: ‘sudo'”. Any ideas why it won’t let me use the sudo command? I am using a samsung chromebook, but I would imagine the process is the same.
Type shell
Then type
sudo startxfce4
How do I boot directly to ubuntu after log in on chrome os ?
I’m not 100% sure
But a blog post I found at https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/m/?fromgroups#!topic/chromium-os-discuss/r2UIuVL8RL8
States how the boot works on Chrome OS
“The key code responsible for sequencing this phase is a collection
of upstart jobs and scripts in the chromeos-init package. In the
final image, the upstart jobs live in /etc/init.”
So I’d start looking in /etc/init and work from there..
Hope this helps
Thank you for this great tips. I found lots of useful information in your blog.
One thing that I wanted to ask you relates to the error I’m currently seeing with Unity running in Crouton. It seems that I cannot install any of the apps from Ubuntu Software Center. Every time I try it just shows an error “Authentication service is not available”. Did you have such error on your side? How can it be fixed?
Thanks in advance!
I never use the software centre, even on normal installs, however if you know the command line for launching it (which is probably ubuntu-software-centre ) then open a command line and type in
sudo ubuntu-software-centre
(If its not ubuntu-software-centre then google might help)
I personally use either apt-get to install software or synaptic
The reason it’s failing for you seems to be anything which would normal require raised privileges and invokes gksudo doesn’t work. Maybe try from the command line
sudo apt-get install gksudo
Then try software centre
There are differences between sudo and gksudo, I have seen when bash scripting in the past..
Thanks again. I managed to fix that by running next command:
/usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1
It launched the authentication service that was not running and now Software Center allows me to install apps.
I also tried to add that command to a Startup Apps in order not to run it after each boot, but unfortunately it didn’t work. Probably I’m doing something wrong (as I mentioned I’m new to linux).
Anyway I hope this might be helpful to anyone.
Cheers for the update..
That did not work for me:
(polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:9862): polkit-gnome-1-WARNING **: Unable to determine the session we are in: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager.GeneralError: Unable to lookup session information for process ‘9862’
Any suggestion ?
Also is it safe to try saucy salamander yet ?
Hello, I have a question: I tried to instal ChrUbuntu first, and in the process I managed to ruin my hard disk partitions. Now I have the 250Gb I left for ChrUbuntu unused, and just 70Gb usable on ChromeOS.
If I install crouton, can I use gparted to restore the hard disk to a factory state? If not, can I remove the hard disk and format externally on another pc?
If that’s imposible, is there a way to reformat the disk to a factory state in developer mode?
Thanks in advance!
My suggestion would be, start again, perform a chrome OS recovery and start from a clean slate. Using gparted will cause headaches
Have a look here
http://support.google.com/chromeos/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=1080595
A couple things, I followed everything above, but I can’t get my time to show up in the top bar. It just displays “Time.” When i try to change the date and time settings, I can’t adjust anything except am/pm or 24hour clock. Also, I cant find the Unity Tweak Tool. I search for it, and it doesnt come up in the launcher, but if i search for it in the software center it shows it’s already installed.
Wow.. Your going to maybe have to google that..
The install is very basic, check you have all the repositories ?
Sorry that’s going to take some thought..
Hi there, Great instructions thanks, it’s got me a long way in already.
Am having the same issue as dface603 in Unity. Unity initialises fine but all the settings are read-only. Accessing the User Settings I can see my Admin account is also locked – the unlock button gives tool tip saying ‘System Policy Prevents Changes’. Bit of a grey area for me!
I don’t get that problem.. I wonder if anyone else can help..
I wonder if its because its trying to use gksu to unlock the admin settings
Run “sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata” to fix the time display.
That worked for me
Worked here also – thank you!
GTK themes seem to not work, driving me crazy. Anyone have a solution for this?
Can you be more specific? Did you read the comments ref fixing sudo?
Any tips on changing wireless networks on the fly? nm-app isn’t in top panel and get error message when opening gnome control center -> Network = ‘The system network services are not compatible with this version’
Found the answer on Crouon dev: Chromium OS has full control of networking, so it’s not a good idea to try to control it from the chroot.
Thanks for letting us know.. I’m going to go through the comments on this blog post and update a tips/questions section soon.
I installed the Raring and after rebooting, I started crosh and typed in shell (like I did with Unity on my Acer C7-Im upgrading from the 12.04 that I had) then typed in sudo startunity and it comes up with I must sign in with enter-chroot. After doing that it says the file is currupt and wont mount raring. I tried to update it but that did nothing. It wont start up under shell sudo startunty. How do I delete it? or What can i do? Can you give me some info so I can boot back into Unity?
I’d suggest deleting the chroot environment, and starting again.. I believe the blog post covers that near the end.
can you send the link? Thanks for the quick reply too!
Hi, have a look at http://blog.projectz.me/2013/05/05/getting-a-bit-more-out-of-crouton-on-a-chromebook/ it’s got details on how to delete the chroot about half way down the page
Can i install java and play minecraft on this ubuntu?
Yes, and a tool called Google will tell you how
Thanks, i got Minecraft up and running finally and having a great time playing it
Is there anyway i can stop the hard drive from erasing itself when i boot back into normal mode??? My dad accidently booted into normal and it erased everything i had. my minecraft saves too sadly. thanks
Fraid not, its a cload based PC essentially.. being able to put Ubuntu on there is just a perk.
I just picked a c710 off ebay. According to crucial.com it will only go up to 4gb of ram. Can you confirm you can add (2) 8GB sticks to get 16gb?
I’m going to be a bit careful here, because PC vendors have a habit of changing spec’s I have 16Gb (2×8) in my Acer C7, the OS doesn’t technically support more than 4Gb being a 32bit OS HOWEVER its a PAE kernel which essentially means every tab you open does so in its own memory space so you can utilise over 4Gb.
chrome://system and then Expand memory_spd_info you can get some more information on what speeds your Acer supports
Then have a read of
http://normcf.net/~john/chromebook/Acer/acerChromebookUpgrade.html
Hope that helps?