This is a modified version of Crouton which installs Fedora onto your Chromebook. This version isn't nearly as polished as the main version of Crouton with Debian/Ubuntu. Please don't use this if you aren't familiar with the Crouton project as it is much better than this version.
All the work here is based on the official Crouton version which can be found here:
https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton
and on this (now a bit old, but still fantastic source) fork for Fedora 20:
https://github.com/divx118/crouton/tree/fedora
I am eternally grateful for these versions, and all the credits should go to their authors. I merely played with them and modified them a bit.
My original blog post about crouton-fedora:
http://nmilosev.svbtle.com/crouton-with-fedora-chroot-chromebook
The version 2.0:
http://nmilosev.svbtle.com/crouton-with-fedora-chroot-2-0
The Crouton Fedora chrome app and VNC instructions:
http://nmilosev.svbtle.com/fedora-crouton-connector-chrome-app
Installing VirtualBox:
https://nmilosev.svbtle.com/virtualbox-and-crouton-fedora
Running Docker:
https://nmilosev.svbtle.com/docker-on-crouton-fedora-24
If you want maximum stability, please use official Crouton and install Debian or Ubuntu. This may break with an update or might not even work at all. CLI stuff is pretty reliable, while the X stuff isn't. Things may break at anytime. This needs a lot more work. You have been warned.
- Developer unlock your chromebook
- Open crosh shell
cd ~/Downloads
wget https://github.com/nmilosev/crouton-fedora/archive/master.tar.gz -O crouton-fedora.tar.gz
tar xvf crouton-fedora.tar.gz
sudo sh ./crouton-fedora-master/installer/main.sh -r fedora -t fedora
This installs the CLI version. To enter Fedora: sudo enter-chroot
A good practice is to also include a parameter -p to install this Crouton to the non-default path
since it breaks the official Crouton if you have it installed. For example:
sudo mkdir /usr/local/crouton-fedora
sudo sh ./crouton-fedora-master/installer/main.sh -r fedora -t fedora -p /usr/local/crouton-fedora
sudo sh /usr/local/crouton-fedora/bin/enter-chroot
Please consult the offical Crouton documentation for this.
With this paramter, you can also install Crouton Fedora onto your sd card or your USB drive. Just please remember, that performace will be greatly reduced if your SD card/USB drive is slow.
Tested only on mine Intel-based chromebook with Freon, please see the freon-x/install.sh
script for more details. It works very well for me but it might not work for you. If it doesn't work,
you can always run a local VNC server (check my blog in the useful links section) but it is much slower
than the real deal.
From the chroot (as fedora user):
sudo sh /home/fedora/Downloads/crouton-fedora-master/freon-x/install.sh
Check if the script outputed errors, and try to fix them.
Run freonx to start the installed DE/WM.
Top tip: run sudo enter-chroot freonx to go from crosh to Fedora desktop directly.
Available are: GNOME, KDE, Xfce, LXDE, MATE, Cinnamon and they all work. You can also install a WM (like i3 or others) only. To install other DE's modify the variables at the top of install.sh script.
Things that are working for me:
- video
- audio
- mouse and keyboard
- bluetooth/wifi
- suspend-resume
- switching back to chromeOS with a keyboard shortcut
- switching back to Fedora with a keyboard shortcut
- 3D hardware acceleration
Broken stuff:
- you have to run X as root (fixed now! Was X server security related issue, see below)
- you have to manually setup keybindings for going back to ChromeOS
/bin/croutoncycle croson CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+F1 - GNOME isn't very happy to run without systemd
- switching can sometimes be "wonky"
If you don't have Freon, you should be able to connect to the X server started by ChromeOS
with the included host-X11 command from Crouton.
Tip: Use Fedy to install stuff. It works great with Fedora.
How do I switch back?
Type croutoncycle cros to the terminal. Tip: create a keyboard shortcut (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+F1) for this
from GNOME settings. You can logout to exit Fedora and return to ChromeOS.
How do I switch to Fedora?
Type croutoncycle :0 to another terminal or press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+F2.
How to run X as non root?
- Needed changes:
cat > /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config <<- EOM
allowed_users=anybody
needs_root_rights=yes
EOM # this fixes the "Console users aren't allowed to run X"
sudo chown 1000:1000 /tmp/ -R # this fixes croutonfreon errors for display management
cp /usr/libexec/Xorg /usr/bin/ # don't ask, it just works like that, fixes can't find /dev/tty0 error, could be Fedora specific
#patching intel drivers:
inteldrv=/usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so
offset="`grep -F -m 1 -boa 'geteuid' "$inteldrv" 2>/dev/null || true`"
sudo chmod 777 $inteldrv
sudo echo -n 'getuid0' | dd seek="${offset%:*}" bs=1 of="$inteldrv" conv=notrunc,nocreat
This is now all done by default! If you need to run X as root, use sudo freonx.
How much space do I need?
- ~3GB for the GNOME + CLI installation.
- ~2GB for the XFCE + CLI installation.
- ~500MB for CLI only.
How to install other DE's?
Modify install.sh script.
My download is slow or not working...
Modify the defaults file in installater/fedora folder. You can find mirrors on the
fedora mirror list site.
What about Wine?
Wine works fine. I've sucessfully installed Photoshop CS6 through the PlayOnLinux Wine front-end.
Virtual Box/Docker?
Both work. Check the useful links section.
Architecture?
You can install an i686 chroot onto a x86_64 Chromebook. Specify -a i386 to the installer. This way it will take
much less space, and you really don't lose anything. You will also need to run dnf with [BROKEN AT THE MOMENT DNF DOESN'T RESPECT]
Extremely well. You can't tell it is running inside chroot as with the original Crouton.
crouton (including this eloquently-written README) is copyright © 2016 The crouton Authors. All rights reserved. Use of the source code included here is governed by a BSD-style license that can be found in the LICENSE file in the source tree.
Fedora is property of Red Hat Corporation.
I'm merely a mortal, if anybody is offended by this code, please inform me, and it will be taken down immediately.