ChromeOS

Opinion : The Biggest Thing Holding Chromebooks Back – Storage

There was a time where Chromebooks were looked at as simplistic devices that are only good for visiting websites and to the credit to those old Chromebooks, they did their job well. These early Chromebooks lacked a large amount of local storage, often having between 16 and 32 GB of local storage, and between 2-4 GB of RAM. Chromebooks have since evolved to the point that they have the potential to be some of the most powerful laptops on the market but the only thing that has not evolved with the rest of the hardware is that Chromebooks still routinely ship with 32 GB of storage in 2019.

Read moreOpinion : The Biggest Thing Holding Chromebooks Back – Storage

Advertisements

ChromeOS 75.0.3761.0 Rolling out to the Dev Channel – Enables Crostini USB by default and Minor refinements

Heads up all ChromeOS users on the Dev channel, Google is currently rolling out ChromeOS 75.0.3761.0 to your devices. After performing a quick backup of Crostini, I took some time to install the update and find out what changed – it seems that it is not much. It is important to backup your “Downloads” folder as many items were deleted after the installation.

Read moreChromeOS 75.0.3761.0 Rolling out to the Dev Channel – Enables Crostini USB by default and Minor refinements

ChromeOS 75.0.3759.4 Rolling out to the Dev Channel – Backup your Crostini Instance Before Rebooting if you Enable the GPU

ChromeOS 75.0.3759.4 is currently being rolled out to users in the dev channel. Unfortunately if you have chosen to enable the GPU, your Crostini instance may no longer function. You may get the following error message when launching Termina via crosh

Error: routine at frontends/vmc.rs:118 `vm_start(vm_name,user_id_hash,matches.opt_present("enable-gpu"))`

Fortunately this can be fixed by disabling Crostini and re-creating the container. You can then restore a backup if you happen to have one from before the update. Here are the steps to backup your container, install the update and restore the container

Read moreChromeOS 75.0.3759.4 Rolling out to the Dev Channel – Backup your Crostini Instance Before Rebooting if you Enable the GPU

A Guide On Building Your Own ChromiumOS Distribution (with OTA Updates and Crostini)

There are a few pre-made distributions to allow you to run a version of ChromiumOS on existing hardware such as CloudReady and FideOS however there are several benefits to building your own distribution from scratch. ChromiumOS is the open source of the popular ChromeOS operating system. By following this guide, you will get a version of ChromiumOS that should boot on most hardware (with a 64 bit Intel or AMD Processor). This version will also give you access to Linux Apps via Crostini and even enable the same OTA upgrade service that users on ChromeOS enjoy.

Read moreA Guide On Building Your Own ChromiumOS Distribution (with OTA Updates and Crostini)

ChromeOS 74.0.L337.0 Rolling out to the Dev Channel – Enables MS-DOS Mode with Full CGI Graphic Stack

Google is currently rolling our ChromeOS 74.0.L337.0 to users on the Dev Channel that brings several major changes to your Chromebook. Users who upgrade to this build will immediately notice a few visual improvements as ChromeOS begins embracing the new “squircle” icons that is being used on Android. Even more interesting is that Google has actually brought support for MS-DOS with full CGI color emulation to supported Chromebooks (specifically the Pixelbook, Pixel Slate and HP Chromebook X2). Here are the steps to activate it

Read moreChromeOS 74.0.L337.0 Rolling out to the Dev Channel – Enables MS-DOS Mode with Full CGI Graphic Stack

Work-In-Progress : ChromiumOS on the GPD-Pocket Mini Laptop

Is that a Chromebook in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? I am a huge fan of Chromebooks and absolutely love ChromeOS, this should really come as no surprise to anyone who reads my blog. I have been the owner of a first generation GPD-Pocket Laptop for  a while now and was wondering if it would be possible to get ChromiumOS to run on the GPD-Pocket. Sadly it is not as simple as downloading one of the pre-made forks of ChromiumOS and booting as essentially nothing works out of the box (but it does boot). I rolled up my sleeves this morning and started building my own custom fork of ChromiumOS.

Read moreWork-In-Progress : ChromiumOS on the GPD-Pocket Mini Laptop

ChromeOS 73.0.3680.0 Rolling out to the Dev Channel – Backup your Downloads Folder before Rebooting

Just a FYI, ChromeOS 73.0.3680.0 is currently rolling out to the Dev Channel and carries a nasty surprise. It appears to delete anything stored in your Downloads Folder without warning after installing it. Please backup your Downloads folder to Google Drive or an external flash drive prior to rebooting. This file deletion bug does not seem to impact anything outside of the Downloads folder including Crostini or Android files. It also does not impact any other files stored in folders outside of your Downloads directory.

Update : Method to recover your Downloads Files

Read moreChromeOS 73.0.3680.0 Rolling out to the Dev Channel – Backup your Downloads Folder before Rebooting

ChromeOS 73.0.3669.0 Brings “Instant Tethering” to Non-Pixel Phones

One of the most understated features of ChromeOS is its ability to automatically connect to a compatible phone and share its internet connection in a feature called Instant Tethering. This feature currently only supports the Google Pixel line of phones but I was greeted to a pleasant surprise when I opened my Pixelbook at a train station and was greeted with a setup window for Instant Tethering on my Samsung Galaxy Note 9.

Read moreChromeOS 73.0.3669.0 Brings “Instant Tethering” to Non-Pixel Phones