I installed crouton using the smaller 'cli-extra' target because I didn't want to have to upgrade a desktop environment through two versions of Ubuntu.
sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -t cli-extra
Then entered the crouton change root environment using 'sudo enter-chroot' and run:
sudo apt-get install update-manager do-release-upgrade -d
to get from 12.04 LTS to 12.10
do-release-upgrade -d
to get from 12.10 to 13.04
Then installed cinnamon desktop, gnome-themes-* xserver-xorg xinit gnome-terminal
sudo apt-get install cinnamon gnome-themes-* xserver-xorg xinit gnome-terminal
Change allow_users=console to allowed_users=anybody in /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config
Added 'exec gnome-session-cinnamon' to ~/.xinitrc
Started X using 'startx'
startx
But found after about 10 minutes the HP Chromebook would dim the screen even though I was active in the Cinnamon Desktop Session
I posted a question here => https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton/issues/161 and the crouton author responded so fast it was amazing.
The fix after the fact was to upgrade crouton to the x11 target:
sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r raring -n precise -u -t x11
You just have to be careful to specify the Ubuntu release you are currently running using the -r option and the name of the chroot folder using the -n folder.
After that the screen dimming worked very well.
I'm really grateful the author developed crouton because the #hpChromeBook is totally a network bound consumption device without it. But with crouton I can run LibreOffice, GIMP, Eclipse etc.
thanks so much for your write-up. I am pretty new to this stuff and I was wondering if you could clarify a couple things:
1) where is the .xinitrc file to add 'exec gnome-session-cinnamon'. I am on a hp 11 chromebook and can't find it in my home directory so was thinking of just making one. But wasn't sure of the consequences.
2) if I can get an answer to (1), then this answer may be unnecessary. But when I run 'startx' now, the screen goes black and returns to chrome os. Did you run into this?
and lastly
3) Running: 'sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r raring -n precise -u -t x11' I suspect a couple problems await me. One, is should I run this in chroot env.? And what if I encounter the error saying '/usr/local/chroots/precise' does not exist?
Thanks so much!
1) where is the .xinitrc file to add 'exec gnome-session-cinnamon'. I am on a hp 11 chromebook and can't find it in my home directory so was thinking of just making one. But wasn't sure of the consequences.
David yes inside your crouton environment just run
cd(gets you into your home dir) and thentouch .xinitrcso it's in your home directory and use vi or echo'exec gnome-session-cinnamon' > ~/.xinitrcto add the exec statement. From there you can just run startx (inside your change root) to launch the custom environment. (I've gone back to xfce for it's lightness)2) if I can get an answer to (1), then this answer may be unnecessary. But when I run 'startx' now, the screen goes black and returns to chrome os. Did you run into this?
and lastly
3) Running:
'sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r raring -n precise -u -t x11'I suspect a couple problems await me. One, is should I run this in chroot env.? And what if I encounter the error saying '/usr/local/chroots/precise' does not exist?No. When using the crouton script the command needs to run from the Chromebook shell.
If you encounter the "'/usr/local/chroots/precise' does not exist?" error then
ls /usr/local/chrootsand modify the command to match the original release you installed. This gaurantees you update the correct chroot environment.Hope this helps.
PS. I haven't done this in a while so the above is from memory.