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hey guys Gabriel with Grohmann box and
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today we're talking Linux apps I've got
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my Linux hat on it's the same as my
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Chrome OS hat it's just turned around
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backwards but we've been diving on into
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Linux on Chrome OS a lot lately and when
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we do stuff like that we get a lot of
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questions so we started a new series
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called the command line you can check it
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the first post went out earlier this
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week and all we're gonna do is explore
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stuff that you can do on your Chromebook
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with Linux in case you aren't aware
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Linux is now supported on Chrome West
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for a lot of devices you can install it
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directly from the settings menu and it
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lets you install Linux apps and use them
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alongside Chrome OS it's a really
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awesome feature and it's really helpful
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for a lot of people who have been
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looking to bridge the gap between
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Windows Mac and Chrome OS so today we're
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gonna go kind of off into the weeds
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because we've been getting a lot of
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comments about having a desktop now if
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you've ever used a Chromebook with the
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old crouton environment you can actually
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install a desktop on Chrome OS because
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your sideloading a different Linux
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distribution alongside from West with
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the gnu/linux that's built into Chrome
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OS you don't get a desktop environment
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you have to install your apps and then
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your apps have their own interface but
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somebody said that crouton was actually
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better than crostini because of the
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desktop while I don't necessarily agree
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with that I had to find out if you could
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do it so today we're gonna take a look
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at how to install a full Linux desktop
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with icons widgets clocks everything you
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can think of on a Chromebook in stable
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not in dev mode and see if it works
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but before we do this video is brought
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to you by Nord VPN it's the VPN of
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choice for users around the world and it
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works across platforms desktop mobile
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over to Chrome on box.com forward slash
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Nord VPN today as we mentioned Chrome OS
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now supports Linux apps you can access
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in the settings menu turn on Linux and
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then you still have to kind of know your
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way around the terminal to install
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applications if you want to learn more
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about that our command line article that
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we launched last week gives you the
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basic how-to of installing Linux on your
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and where to start for installing
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applications if you're interested in the
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desktop and you just want to have a
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desktop environment because honestly
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that's something a lot of Chrome OS
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users have wanted please understand this
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is not a Chrome OS desktop Linux is
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going to run as a window on top of
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Chrome OS just like Chrome does just
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like any other application does but if
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you want it it's there and you can have
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it and honestly it looks pretty cool
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because you've never seen a Chromebook
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with desktop icons and all these things
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on it and that's exactly what we've done
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it can be a little bit buggy because
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you're running an environment on top of
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an environment in a container and all
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that stuff but we just wanted to try it
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out to see if it worked and it did so
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there are a few little housekeeping
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things that have to do before you get
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started again the command line article
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has those things in it but to install
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KDE desktop which is a desktop
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environment you literally just have to
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drop a couple commands into the terminal
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and wait it takes about 45 minutes to
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install but once it's installed you can
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launch it and you will have a full
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customizable desktop that you can use
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however you want there's even an app
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store where you can download apps as
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opposed to using the command line and
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for some users that might be really
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appealing will include all the links in
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the video description of how to do this
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what commands to use and they'll be in
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the article as well again it's not
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difficult it just takes a little bit of
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time but before we go in don't get
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intimidated Linux runs in a container on
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Chrome OS it's enabled through the
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settings menu if you feel like
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something's broken or if your
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Chromebooks a little buggy or sluggish
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after you do this all you have to do is
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turtle and it's off and it will
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literally delete everything that you
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installed via Linux and you can start
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alright so in case you haven't got a
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setup already head to chromevox check
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out the command line and see how to get
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Linux installed and ready on your device
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once you've done that there's one other
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thing you're going to want to do before
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you install KDE now KDE is not a Linux
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distribution it is a interface it used
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to stand for cool desktop environment
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and essentially it's just a skin for
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Linux so it works with a couple
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different distributions so just think
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about your mobile phone most mobile
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manufacturers have their own look for
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Android you've got Samsung oneplus as
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oxygen OS it's just a skin to give you a
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graphic user interface or GUI for your
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operating system before you do this you
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will want to change your Linux password
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because if you don't there might be a
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point in time where KTU will prompt you
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for that password and I'ma be honest I
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don't know what the default Linux
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password is for Linux on Chrome OS I've
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tried to figure it out but it's easy to
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change so you're just going to open your
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terminal up it'll be in your launcher
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and then from there you're going to type
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sudo space PA SS WD space root it's
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going to prompt you to change your UNIX
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password you're going to type it in and
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hit enter you're going to type it in and
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hit enter again you're not going to see
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it so if you type it in incorrectly the
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second time it'll just prompt you to
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type it in again that reset your
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password so now anytime from here on out
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if KDE asks you for a password or if the
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screen times out and it goes to the lock
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screen just type in that password and
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you should be good to go now that's done
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you're going to install the KDE desktop
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I've done this four or five different
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ways because there are different
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methods and different dependencies and
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there's different things that you can
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install along with it add-ons this is
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the cleanest smoothest way I've done it
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so far so this is the way we're gonna go
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you're gonna go back to your terminal
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and you're gonna type sudo apt-get
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- KDE - desktop hit enter and then sit
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back order pizza go get some coffee do
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whatever this will take about 45 minutes
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or so depending on your device I've done
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it on my chrome box I've done it on the
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pixel book go I five and it took a good
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45 minutes to install once it is
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installed I ran into an issue one time
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where it wasn't recognizing the display
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now that's not the display on my
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computer that's the display that Lennox
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uses to display everything it has
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something to do with X servers and all
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that anyway you are gonna drop another
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command in there and it's just gonna add
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a line of code to Linux and then it
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should work from there on out it's in
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the description as well and in the
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article if you don't get that error
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don't worry about it you're good to go
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once the installation is complete you'll
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go back to your prompt on the terminal
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and you're going to type start KDE it's
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that simple no spaces no anything and
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what you do it's going to launch a clean
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empty KDE desktop now remember this
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functions just like a window on Chrome
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OS you can three finger swipe and you're
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gonna see your Linux desktop your
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windows everything else that's running
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your terminal don't close your terminal
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because of KDE running and you close the
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terminal it's going to shut KDE down but
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once you've started KDE you'll see that
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it is just pretty much a blank slate
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just desktop there's a menu at the top
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left but if you right-click on the
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desktop you'll get all of the features
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you would on a Linux machine or a
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Windows machine for that matter you can
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add widgets you can customize your
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desktop with different applications you
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can drag app icons and shortcuts on
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there you can put a trash can I've got a
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and it's fully functional and it works
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really well there is a small package
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store where you can download some
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different applications but the cool part
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about KDE on Chrome OS is if you install
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any applications from the command line
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just installing them via the terminal
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they will show up in KDE when you launch
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KDE one other cool thing since this
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desktop environment is technically
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running in a window you can add it to
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one of your Chrome OS virtual desktops
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so you just swipe up create a new desk
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and then drop it into that new desk so
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now your Linux environment is separated
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by itself and if you enable the new
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gestures flag you can swipe back and
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forth between those desktops using a
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four finger swipe left and right so you
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can keep your Linux environment isolated
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by itself so it'll have even more real
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Linux desktop feel to it so yeah that's
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pretty cool right so there you go we've
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installed a full Linux desktop
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environment on the Chromebook again I
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wouldn't use this on the regular but I
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know there are a lot of people that one
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like having a full Linux desktop and two
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people have clamored for widgets and
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desktop icons on Chrome OS for how long
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now ten years eight years how old are
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from West has been around so if you
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really want to do it you can we'll
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continue to test different as it
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interfaces xfce was my go-to when I used
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crouton on my old Chromebooks I've tried
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installing it it didn't work great it
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was really buggy in it crashed a lot but
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I'd say as crostini involves they'll be
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more and more desktop environments that
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we can use and we'll keep trying them
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out so that's the whole purpose of this
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series and we'd love to hear from you
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guys I already got an email this morning
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from someone in India who's trying to
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install a Linux app and they're having
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some issues it's throwing some airs for
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them and we want to figure out along the
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way with you guys what works and what
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doesn't so if there's something you'd
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like to try on a Chromebook but you're
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kind of scared or you don't know your
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way around the terminal or you just
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rather see me do it than you drop me a
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line shoot me an email drop a comment
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hit us up on Twitter because we'd love
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to hear from you and I'd love
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to try it out this is exciting to me
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it's really cool stuff and I love doing
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it so that's it until next time guys I
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hope you liked this one don't forget to
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hit that subscribe button and a
10:08
notification bell so you'll get an alert
10:09
every time we put one of these new
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videos out because there's going to be
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more and more and don't forget to check
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out the command line it's going to be a
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weekly maybe twice a week article and/or
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video just about Linux on Chrome OS so
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there you go until next time we'll see
