5 ms·

You can already sideload APKs on Chromebooks with developer mode enabled, so I don't see why they couldn't allow the same thing with Linux binaries.

sillywalk 3y ago
The whole idea of the Chromebook is that its sort of an internet appliance that you is supposed to be automatically updated and secure, and if in doubt, rebooting will return it to a known good state. If ChromeOS can run any random thing it's just a normal Linux laptop at that point. That's why Developer mode isn't for the average buyer of a ChromeOS device, you have to hold down keys and specifically enable it after a big warning screen saying it will delete all data. The official ChromeOS Linux support is a container that is inside of a VM.
- calgarymicro 3y ago
  I don't think the person you replied to was asking for it to be enabled out of the box. Them talking about using a Chromebook as a dev machine makes me think they'd be okay with having to enable developer mode to run Linux binaries.
  - sillywalk 3y ago
    My understanding is that is what developer mode allows you to do - treat a Chromebook as a regular laptop, install any Linux distro you wish to. ChromeOS isn't a general purpose Linux distro, so in order to actually run a lot of things you'd need to install all their dependencies anyways.
    - calgarymicro 3y ago
      > treat a Chromebook as a regular laptop, install any Linux distro you wish to Apparently this is via a VM, with limitations (no hardware acceleration, for example); presumably the original commenter wants to be able to run Linux binaries natively. > ChromeOS isn't a general purpose Linux distro But based on the article, it seems Google is taking steps towards making it one (switching to Wayland, using standard Chrome for Linux, etc.).
      - sillywalk 3y ago
        I should note I am no expert on anything of this, I have a Chromebook as a sort of backup/alternative. FlipC434 Developer mode basically unlocks the r/w firmware, so you can boot from USB and replace the firmware etc, but the Read-only Google Root of Trust stays there, however as far as I know the ChromeOS 'distro' exists only to support running the Chrome Web Browser, and also Android and Linux VMs, +audio/video/input/etc. So if you have root on a ChromeOS device in developer mode, and you are dropped into a shell and want to run firefox, how would you do that? There are no packages for running on 'ChromeOS'. You can't just apt-get. I don't know if ChromeOS is self-hosted, ie. it is compiled and generated on itself and not some other Linux distro. which I don't think adopting Wayland or using the 'Linux' Chrome makes it move towards being a 'general purpose' distro. This just lessens the amount of change between ChromeOS and Linux so no more Freon library. It also seems to greatly reduce the difference between the CHROME_BROWSER_FOR_CHROMEOS and THE_CHROME_BROWSER_FOR_LINUX builds.
        pjmlp 3y ago
        That is a VM, similar in concept to WSL on Windows, with the difference that the host is also Linux based. "Linux for Chromebooks: Secure Development" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRlh8LX4kQI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRlh8LX4kQI https://chromium.googlesource.com/crosvm/crosvm/ https://chromium.googlesource.com/crosvm/crosvm/ https://chromeos.dev/en/posts/making-android-more-secure-with-arcvm https://chromeos.dev/en/posts/making-android-more-secure-wit...
        sillywalk 3y ago
        I guess I wasn't clear about how I thought this stuff worked. WSL is like the Chromebook Official Linux Developer thing -(he last time I updated it), Debian, inside a container, inside a VM, running under ChromeOS. You can run what Debian can run. Inside the container. I thought ChromeOS as a distro is more like a runtime - it has the stuff to let it boot a Chrome Browser and VMs. etc +hardware support. There wouldn't be much point (other than fun) for Running random software on ChromeOS. It would be like OpenWRT, but without the package manager.
  - whyagaintango 3y ago
    I would avoid using dev mode for production. If you press <space> during boot all is lost. + no guarantee that update will not fail.
hollerith 3y ago
Because APKs run in a pretty secure sandbox?
whyagaintango 3y ago
But android is sandboxed The equivalent is linux/crostini
pjmlp 3y ago
Those APKs run on a virtual machine (ART), inside of a virtual machine (ARCVM). https://chromeos.dev/en/posts/making-android-more-secure-with-arcvm https://chromeos.dev/en/posts/making-android-more-secure-wit...
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

sillywalk 3y ago

The whole idea of the Chromebook is that its sort of an internet appliance that you is supposed to be automatically updated and secure, and if in doubt, rebooting will return it to a known good state. If ChromeOS can run any random thing it's just a normal Linux laptop at that point. That's why Developer mode isn't for the average buyer of a ChromeOS device, you have to hold down keys and specifically enable it after a big warning screen saying it will delete all data. The official ChromeOS Linux support is a container that is inside of a VM.

calgarymicro 3y ago
I don't think the person you replied to was asking for it to be enabled out of the box. Them talking about using a Chromebook as a dev machine makes me think they'd be okay with having to enable developer mode to run Linux binaries.
- sillywalk 3y ago
  My understanding is that is what developer mode allows you to do - treat a Chromebook as a regular laptop, install any Linux distro you wish to. ChromeOS isn't a general purpose Linux distro, so in order to actually run a lot of things you'd need to install all their dependencies anyways.
  - calgarymicro 3y ago
    > treat a Chromebook as a regular laptop, install any Linux distro you wish to Apparently this is via a VM, with limitations (no hardware acceleration, for example); presumably the original commenter wants to be able to run Linux binaries natively. > ChromeOS isn't a general purpose Linux distro But based on the article, it seems Google is taking steps towards making it one (switching to Wayland, using standard Chrome for Linux, etc.).
    - sillywalk 3y ago
      I should note I am no expert on anything of this, I have a Chromebook as a sort of backup/alternative. FlipC434 Developer mode basically unlocks the r/w firmware, so you can boot from USB and replace the firmware etc, but the Read-only Google Root of Trust stays there, however as far as I know the ChromeOS 'distro' exists only to support running the Chrome Web Browser, and also Android and Linux VMs, +audio/video/input/etc. So if you have root on a ChromeOS device in developer mode, and you are dropped into a shell and want to run firefox, how would you do that? There are no packages for running on 'ChromeOS'. You can't just apt-get. I don't know if ChromeOS is self-hosted, ie. it is compiled and generated on itself and not some other Linux distro. which I don't think adopting Wayland or using the 'Linux' Chrome makes it move towards being a 'general purpose' distro. This just lessens the amount of change between ChromeOS and Linux so no more Freon library. It also seems to greatly reduce the difference between the CHROME_BROWSER_FOR_CHROMEOS and THE_CHROME_BROWSER_FOR_LINUX builds.
      - pjmlp 3y ago
        That is a VM, similar in concept to WSL on Windows, with the difference that the host is also Linux based. "Linux for Chromebooks: Secure Development" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRlh8LX4kQI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRlh8LX4kQI https://chromium.googlesource.com/crosvm/crosvm/ https://chromium.googlesource.com/crosvm/crosvm/ https://chromeos.dev/en/posts/making-android-more-secure-with-arcvm https://chromeos.dev/en/posts/making-android-more-secure-wit...
        sillywalk 3y ago
        I guess I wasn't clear about how I thought this stuff worked. WSL is like the Chromebook Official Linux Developer thing -(he last time I updated it), Debian, inside a container, inside a VM, running under ChromeOS. You can run what Debian can run. Inside the container. I thought ChromeOS as a distro is more like a runtime - it has the stuff to let it boot a Chrome Browser and VMs. etc +hardware support. There wouldn't be much point (other than fun) for Running random software on ChromeOS. It would be like OpenWRT, but without the package manager.
- whyagaintango 3y ago
  I would avoid using dev mode for production. If you press <space> during boot all is lost. + no guarantee that update will not fail.

hollerith 3y ago

Because APKs run in a pretty secure sandbox?

whyagaintango 3y ago

But android is sandboxed The equivalent is linux/crostini

pjmlp 3y ago

Those APKs run on a virtual machine (ART), inside of a virtual machine (ARCVM). https://chromeos.dev/en/posts/making-android-more-secure-with-arcvm https://chromeos.dev/en/posts/making-android-more-secure-wit...

deleted 3y ago
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