Once you're back in Chrome OS, download Crouton by clicking the link at the top of
this page. Then, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open Chrome OS' terminal, type
shell
, and press Enter to open a shell.
Next, run the following command, which copies the Crouton installer to the /usr/local/bin folder, where it can be executed:
sudo install -Dt /usr/local/bin -m 755 ~/Downloads/crouton
Then run this command to install Crouton with the XFCE desktop environment (if you have another environment you prefer, you can replace it here):
sudo crouton -t xfce
This process will take a while, so be patient. Finally, when that's done, you can enter your Linux desktop by running:
sudo enter-chroot startxfce4
You can cycle between the Chrome OS and Linux desktops with Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Back and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Forward on your keyboard—no rebooting required. From the Linux desktop you can install apps, customize your workspace, and basically live your life within that Linux environment.
The
Crouton GitHub readme has some information on other things you can do to improve this setup, such as sharing your clipboard between environments, updating your version of Ubuntu, backing up your data, and enabling encryption for your Linux setup (which is highly recommended, since this process is inherently less secure than an untainted Chrome OS). This is where command line chops come in handy!
If you ever want to go back to a pure Chrome OS setup, turn off your Chromebook and start it back up by holding down Esc and Refresh while tapping the Power button. Insert the recovery drive you made (you didmake one like we recommended, right?) and follow the instructions to start from scratch.