/cros-crostini

README

Note: Currently (Apr 6 '18) only works on Pixelbooks.

I just wanna try it out!

Enable the feature

  1. Switch to the dev channel (this is different to developer mode!). Ref https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/1086915?hl=en. The latest builds now "just work" (>= 67.0.3383.0)

Use it

  1. Launch crosh (ctrl-alt-t)
  2. Create crostini VM vmc start dev. This'll download the termina component, and open a shell.
  3. Launch a container run_container.sh --container_name=stretch --user=<username> --shell

You're now inside a stretch environment, that is wired up properly for network/gui apps. Install stuff, run it, windows should just come up on the desktop

What is happening

This is build out of a few things

  • crosvm/termina - a hypervisor for chromeos, and an OS image that's based on chromeos with lxd installed.
  • crostini - seems like branding for running dev-ish apps inside a container inside the above VM.

Wayland is mapped across a virtio rig, which makes for decent performance. The stretch image has this + somellier in it, so normal X apps just work

Some notable things to look at: