Tutorial: Install Ubuntu on a Chromebook

David Callé

on 30 January 2018

This article was last updated 5 years ago.


Chromebooks have gained popularity as relatively inexpensive web-centric laptops. They give access to web-based and native applications through the Chrome store, but what if you want to do more with them?

Installing Ubuntu on a Chromebook gives you more choice and lets you turn a web-centric machine into any other laptop: you can install an IDE to write code, you can install Steam to play games, and of course, it gives you the freedom of the command-line and the wealth of the Ubuntu archive at your finger tips.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use crouton (Chromium OS Universal Chroot Envrionment) to create Ubuntu shells on your Chromebook, launch graphical sessions and install apps from the Ubuntu archive.

What you’ll learn

  • How to put your Chromebook into developer mode
  • How to install Ubuntu in a chroot on it
  • Practical and entertaining uses for Ubuntu on Chromebooks

Take The Tutorial

Ubuntu desktop

Learn how the Ubuntu desktop operating system powers millions of PCs and laptops around the world.

Newsletter signup

Get the latest Ubuntu news and updates in your inbox.

By submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to Canonical's Privacy Policy.

Related posts

Using LXD on your Chromebook

Introduction On supported Chromebook, starting with Chrome OS 69, a new feature called Linux Apps was introduced. This allows Chrome OS users, on supported to...

DIY chiselled Ubuntu: crafting your own chiselled Ubuntu base image

In a previous post, I explained how we made our Ubuntu image 15 times smaller by chiselling a specific slice of Ubuntu for .NET developers. In this blog, I...

Open source cloud platform: meet OpenStack

Are you looking for an open source cloud platform and you don’t know where to start? Are you getting lost in all the independent rankings and cloud platform...