4061CEM - Programming and Algorithms 1
As part of this course, you will need to become familiar with the Linux operating system and the various commands. However, you may not want to install Linux on your personal laptop as a dual-boot option. In this instance, this tutorial will guide you through the process of setting up the Linux operating system on your university issued Chromebook.
Before you proceed with this task, you need to ensure that the Chromebook is at its factory settings. If you have already set up your Chromebook then you need to activate a procedure known as powerwashing. This is the process of resetting the Chromebook back to its factory settings. To do this, you need to go to:
Settings > Advanced > Reset Settings
Once you have reached this menu option, you will be presented with an option to powerwash. To begin this process,
click on the Reset button, similar to the one shown in the screenshot below.
This will begin the process of resetting the Chromebook back to the factory settings. Note, that it may take some time for this to complete.
Once the Chromebook has finished resetting and has rebooted to the initial set up screen you need to press the following key combinations on the keyboard Esc+F3. Whilst holding these keys, push the power button and continue holding the Esc+F3 keys. This will reboot the Chromebook into recovery mode, where you will be presented with the following text:
Please insert a recovery USB stick or SD card.
Whilst you are on this screen, press the following key combination on the keyboard: Ctrl+D. This will take you into the Developer Mode screen, where it will ask the following:
To turn OS verification OFF, press ENTER
Your system will reboot and local data will be cleared.
To go back, press ESC
As you want to turn off OS verification, you can proceed with pushing the Enter key on the keyboard. Once you have done this, the system will once more reboot and begin the process of transitioning into developer mode. You will need to be patient, as this can take a while and there may be multiple points where the system will reboot.
Note, if at any point you are met with a screen that says: OS Verification is OFF; you can bypass this screen
quicker by pushing the keys Ctrl+D on the keyboard.
Once the machine has transitioned into developer mode, you will be met with the initial set up screen for ChromeOS.
However, there is now one key difference; the option to enable debugging features. Before you begin the set-up process
and click on the Get Started button, you need to click on the Enable debugging features text (colored in blue), as
shown in the screenshot below.
Upon enabling this feature, you will get the following options:
rootfs verfication so you can modify the ChromeOS system filesdev and system root login password to a value you wantClicking upon the blue text will guide you through the process. Ensure that you follow these instructions carefully as it will ask you to enter a password that you will require for use later. Make a note of this password. The system may once again reboot at points during this process, and this is normal. Once you have finished enabling the debugging features you can proceed with setting up the Chromebook as usual.
Once you have finalised the set-up procedure, and you have a working Chromebook, you can access the Developer Console
by pushing Ctrl+Alt+F2 on the keyboard. You will be transferred to a terminal screen, where you will set the
password for the ChromeOS developer shell.
On this screen, it will ask you for the localhost login. Here, you will need to enter the username root and then
push Enter on the keyboard. It will then ask you for a password, the password that you set up earlier in this guide;
enter this password and push Enter on the keyboard.
It may look like you are not entering a password at this stage, but you are. Type the password as you normally would and
push Enter on the keyboard, and you will be logged in. Upon logging in as the root user, you can enter the
following command:
$ chromeos-setdevpasswd
This command will set the default password for Chronos. It will ask you to enter a password twice, and like last time
it will look like you are not entering a password, but you are. Once you have completed this step, push Ctrl+Altf1++
on the keyboard. This will take you back to the ChromeOS desktop environment.
To install Linux on the Chromebook, you will use a tool called Crouton. To install this tool, you need to access the
developer shell, otherwise known as chronos. To do this, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal window in the
ChromeOS browser. In the terminal window, you need to enter the command shell to activate a Linux-based environment.
In the Linux environment, you are going to download Crouton in to the Downloads folder. First, you need to traverse to
this directory using the following command:
$ cd ~/Downloads
Once you are in this directory, you can download the Crouton installer using the following command:
$ curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dnschneid/crouton/master/installer/crouton --output crouton
curl is a command-line tool that assists in transferring data from a variety of network protocols. In this instance,
you are using curl to download the Crouton installer file. Once downloaded, you can install Crouton to
the /usr/local/bin folder using the following command:
$ sudo install -Dt /usr/local/bin -m 755 crouton
Upon pushing Enter you will be asked to enter your password. This is the password you entered when you were in the terminal screen earlier. Once this file has been installed, you can test the installation by running the tool:
$ sudo crouton
An output will be generated explaining the flags/options you can use with this command, otherwise known as the manual; similar to the screenshot below.
You can now proceed with installing Linux with a desktop environment on your machine. For this tutorial, you will be installing Kali and installation is relatively straight-forward, a single command:
$ sudo crouton -r kali-rolling -t x11,chrome,xorg,xiwi,keyboard,xfce -e
The following packages have been installed:
x11 and xorg: required to display the desktopchrome: to bypass web certificate issues with FireFox and GitHubxiwi: run the desktop in a tab on the Chrome browser in ChromeOSkeyboard: self-explanatoryxfce: the desktop environment for Kali, light-weight and not resource intensiveFinally, the flag/option -e will encrypt the installation; this is an optional flag, and you are not required to use
this. When you come to executing the command, it will ask for your chronos password, this is the password you set
earlier on the terminal screen.
The installation process may take a while; however, upon completion you will be asked to:
Specify a user
Here you can enter a username of your choice; push Enter after choosing your username, and you will be asked to supply a password for the account. This password can be anything you choose, or it can be the same password as you used previously in this guide.
Once you have specified a username and password, it is now time to log in to the terminal of the Kali installation. This can be achieved using the following command:
$ sudo enter-chroot -n kali-rolling
Once you have logged in, you will need to install the data bus for the X Window System (X11). To do this, you can use
the following command:
$ sudo apt install dbus-x11
Once the data bus has been installed, you will now have a fully functional desktop environment for the Kali operating system on the Chromebook. Ensure to log out of the Kali terminal environment by typing in the terminal:
$ exit
Starting the Kali desktop environment can be achieved through the chronos terminal window. You will need to enter the
following command:
$ sudo startxfce4
After executing this command you will be asked for your chronos password, which is the password you set in the
terminal screen earlier in this guide; followed by the encryption password (if you have used encryption, -e). Once you
have entered these passwords, you will be presented with the Kali Linux operating system with the XFCE desktop; as shown
in the screenshot below.
You have now reached the end of this tutorial. The outcome of this tutorial is the successful installation of the Kali Linux desktop environment on the university issued Chromebook. You can now follow the tutorial on how to set up the integrated development environment at the following link:
If you have spotted any errors or issues within this tutorial, you can e-mail Dr Ian Cornelius. Ensure to include in your message a description of the error/issue and a possible resolution.