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Don't forget there's Termux and other apps, which give you a Linux Shell on Android devices... ...and new Chromebooks can run Android apps... So if you want a

Don't forget there's Termux and other apps, which give you a Linux Shell on Android devices... ...and new Chromebooks can run Android apps... So if you want a CLI, your Chromebook or your Android can get you there.

rkeene2 9y ago
Termux on ChromeOS is a terrible experience though. Basic things like ^W to delete a word will cause the Termux window to disappear. Copying is HORRIBLE, requiring you to treat your very precise pointing instrument like a tiny finger -- you have to move the mouse somewhere, hold down the button for a few seconds, move both ends of the selection, then click "Copy". Ctrl-<number> does things in ChromeOS rather than going to the terminal, so no quick switching of application windows. You can't run two instances of Termux on Chrome OS, which is a major bummer if you have multiple monitors. Really, most Android apps are a terrible desktop experience. They handle the mouse poorly, they handle multiple monitors poorly, few of them at this point can deal with being resized to arbitrary sized (i.e., you get only phone-aspect-ratio sized or full screen), they handle co-existing with other running processes poorly (i.e., if you change the focus from one window to another on a different monitor on an application playing a video the video pauses).
- VikingCoder 9y ago
  ^W to delete a word works perfectly. I'm running Termux on a Samsung Chromebook 3. Can you explain what you're running, so we can try to see why it doesn't work for you? Also, don't forget, you can run Termux in the background, with an sshd, and then run any SSH client you want to talk to it --- which puts the copy and paste into your control. Also, Termux is open source... So, if you have ideas about Copy and Paste, you can try to implement them. To switch application windows in Termux, Control-Alt-C makes a new window, Control-Alt-N goes to next, Control-Alt-P goes to previous. It works great, and is super quick. You can run multiple Termux Application Windows, and then you can run multiple SSH clients, so multiple monitors will work. I know some of these are kind of hacks, but I'm just trying to be helpful. Android Apps do handle the mouse terribly, no argument.
  - rkeene2 9y ago
    I'm running on an Acer Chromebook 15 (x86, 4GB of RAM). For me Control-W closes the Termux window. For me Control-Alt-N switches between sessions, which all live in the same physical window, which I cannot figure out how to open multiple of. It seems like your suggestion is to use Termux just to run an SSH server locally and then use another, non-Android SSH client, to deal with the fact that Android apps on ChromeOS work terribly UI-wise. That's a good idea, it leads me to my next problem: It lives in a separate IP address space from ChromeOS... I have some weird IP address inside the ARC that is not the same IP as ChromeOS... I did not try to SSH to that address from ChromeOS though, does it work ?
    - VikingCoder 9y ago
      It is in a different space, yes, but you can ifconfig to find it's IP and go from there. I've run webservers from Termux and browsed them from Chrome. And I've read about people doing the SSH thing. To be honest, I still can't browse a Termux server from a different machine, and I've spent a while trying.
  - rkeene2 9y ago
    ^W and other keys are now working after the latest ChromeOS update, so maybe it was just an older version. The rest of the issues remain.

rkeene2 9y ago

Termux on ChromeOS is a terrible experience though. Basic things like ^W to delete a word will cause the Termux window to disappear. Copying is HORRIBLE, requiring you to treat your very precise pointing instrument like a tiny finger -- you have to move the mouse somewhere, hold down the button for a few seconds, move both ends of the selection, then click "Copy". Ctrl-<number> does things in ChromeOS rather than going to the terminal, so no quick switching of application windows. You can't run two instances of Termux on Chrome OS, which is a major bummer if you have multiple monitors. Really, most Android apps are a terrible desktop experience. They handle the mouse poorly, they handle multiple monitors poorly, few of them at this point can deal with being resized to arbitrary sized (i.e., you get only phone-aspect-ratio sized or full screen), they handle co-existing with other running processes poorly (i.e., if you change the focus from one window to another on a different monitor on an application playing a video the video pauses).

VikingCoder 9y ago
^W to delete a word works perfectly. I'm running Termux on a Samsung Chromebook 3. Can you explain what you're running, so we can try to see why it doesn't work for you? Also, don't forget, you can run Termux in the background, with an sshd, and then run any SSH client you want to talk to it --- which puts the copy and paste into your control. Also, Termux is open source... So, if you have ideas about Copy and Paste, you can try to implement them. To switch application windows in Termux, Control-Alt-C makes a new window, Control-Alt-N goes to next, Control-Alt-P goes to previous. It works great, and is super quick. You can run multiple Termux Application Windows, and then you can run multiple SSH clients, so multiple monitors will work. I know some of these are kind of hacks, but I'm just trying to be helpful. Android Apps do handle the mouse terribly, no argument.
- rkeene2 9y ago
  I'm running on an Acer Chromebook 15 (x86, 4GB of RAM). For me Control-W closes the Termux window. For me Control-Alt-N switches between sessions, which all live in the same physical window, which I cannot figure out how to open multiple of. It seems like your suggestion is to use Termux just to run an SSH server locally and then use another, non-Android SSH client, to deal with the fact that Android apps on ChromeOS work terribly UI-wise. That's a good idea, it leads me to my next problem: It lives in a separate IP address space from ChromeOS... I have some weird IP address inside the ARC that is not the same IP as ChromeOS... I did not try to SSH to that address from ChromeOS though, does it work ?
  - VikingCoder 9y ago
    It is in a different space, yes, but you can ifconfig to find it's IP and go from there. I've run webservers from Termux and browsed them from Chrome. And I've read about people doing the SSH thing. To be honest, I still can't browse a Termux server from a different machine, and I've spent a while trying.
- rkeene2 9y ago
  ^W and other keys are now working after the latest ChromeOS update, so maybe it was just an older version. The rest of the issues remain.