Is there a Puppy 'Chromebook' with Chrome?

[sanjayjain]

Hi all,

I've used Puppy on and off for a while but new to the forums.

I know a Chromebook is more than the Chrome Browser, but a puppy distribution with Chromium could be cut-down Chromebook. I know Chromium can be installed but I'm thinking of a distribution with it preinstalled and easy to update. And with almost nothing else to confuse people.

The need: In the current Covid19 pandemic, many kids are studying at home, and low-income communities are often sharing a computer between multiple children. Laptops that are thrown away could be repurposed to meet this need and introduce FOSS to people who would otherwise not be exposed to it.

Is there a derivative already out there? If not is anyone interested in working on this?

I'm currently collecting 50 laptops to give away in Philladelphia, see

[dancytron]

There is another thread about more or less this same thing.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=766&p=4975#p4975

There are a couple of different approaches to making Chrome based browsers work with puppy and puppy like systems (run as root or run as another user etc) and be upgradable (or not).

FWIW, Fred's Buster Build Script will whip out a ready to go Chrome only Debian Buster Dog in about 20 minutes.

[Clarity]

I offer 2 answers to the OP's request:

• There is a PUP distribution of bygone years that is specifically "ChromePUP" in the old forum
• There is a youtube video that has been around for 2 years and updated this year showing how to repurpose a PC with ChromeOS.

ChromeOS may be the best way to go as it is constantly updated and the skills students gain in use of their school handouts is useful with laptops repurposed as such.

As one who works with students from time to time over the years, ChromeOS is the BEST solution from my current standpoint for their ability to gain a meaningful skillset that is transferable to college and beyond. Further ChromeOS provides Android and the ability to run Linus apps directly on its desktop. This is in conjunction with the ability to run a Linux (aka Puppy Linux) distribution within the desktop as well as to install a Linux (again Puppy) to boot either side-by-side or in a dual boot use.

Choose which you feel is best for you to support your students that you help.

[mikewalsh]

Clarity's answer is a good one as far as it goes. However:-

'Chromebook Pup' (v.1) - as mentioned on the old forum - was based around Puppy Precise 5.7.1, with the Openbox window manager. This was only ever offered as a 32-bit build.....and Google ceased supporting the 32-bit Linux Chrome build around 4½ years ago. I used this myself for a couple of years.

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You can achieve the same effect by using any modern 64-bit Puppy, running my Google_Chrome-portable package, and setting it to start in the background at boot by use of the "--silent-launch" switch. DO make sure that you point the script at the actual 'chrome-pup' wrapper script inside the chrome folder; if you point it at the initial 'LAUNCH' script, it starts up as normal, on top of everything else at boot-time.

The advantage of starting it this way is the speed with which it fires up when you go to open it.....because it is, in fact, already running.

Create a wee script, and put inside it the following:-

Code: Select all

/path/to/your/Google_Chrome-portable/chrome/chrome-pup --silent-launch

Then put this script in /root/Startup. Anything in this directory will be executed after startup of "X". Google_Chrome-portable.tar.gz - and MD5 checksum - can be found here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Download; untar; place it anywhere you like.....but preferably outside of 'Puppyspace' (your save-file/folder). /mnt/home is a good location. Click to enter; click "LAUNCH" to fire it up. (As long as you always start the portable by means of the 'LAUNCH' script, it will create, then always use, its own internal profile.You can drag the "LAUNCH" script to the desktop, re-name it, and tart it up with an icon. The one I use is attached below.)

[Rt-clk on the script->File 'LAUNCH'->Set icon. Drag'n'drop your icon into the small box that will appear. Sorted. (Don't worry about the apparent size of the icon, since ROX-filer auto-resizes icons to 48x48 px.)]

*** If so desired, Google_Chrome-portable will run quite happily from a flash drive, making it truly 'portable'. ***

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However, the part about "easy-to-update" may be rather harder to achieve. The auto-update feature - as available in the Windows builds of Chrome - has never been implemented under Linux. Many distro maintainers have cobbled together their own updater scripts to achieve the same thing, with varying degrees of success. Some work better than others.

If you want a self-maintaining setup for 50+ students, then the suggestion of the 're-purposed' ChromeOS may be the way to go. You might also want to consider the ChromiumOS builds by Arnold the Bat; I've successfully run this from a flashdrive, though it's very much more 'manual' & 'hands-on' than ChromeOS. It's for this reason that ChromeOS is the better of the two to use, given that Google have automated much of the background/updater stuff.

There's always 'options' in the Linux/open-source world. I hope some of the above helps.

Credits - as always - to Fredx181, both for the original portable concept, and for assistance with odd bits in Chrome-portable.


Mike.

[Clarity]

Hi @sanjayjain

I see you have also posted requests on the Chrome developers forum. Nice.

[sanjayjain]

Hi @Clarity,

> I see you have also posted requests on the Chrome developers forum. Nice.

That wasn't me, could you send a link to that?

Thanks