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Getting Started with ChromeOS Containers via Project Crostini

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ChromeOS has been criticized as a limited operating system in the past by many tech reviewers however things are about to change with the introduction of ChromeOS Containers. This is due to something known as “Project Crostini”. If you are a Pixelbook owner who does not mind getting their hands a bit dirty in the command line, you can try this now and unlock the full potential of your Pixelbook.

Archived — this post is kept for reference and may be out of date.

Prerequisites

In order to access the necessary commands, you will need to perform the following actions. As a reminder, this will currently only work on the Pixelbook. You DO NOT need to have developer mode enabled to setup virtual machines.

Enable The Developer Channel

As of this writing, you will need to be running ChromeOS R67 or higher. This is currently only active in the “Developer Channel”. I need to add a warning that the Developer Channel will make your Chromebook get more frequent updates and there may be bugs. It is possible to go back to “Stable” however this will require a factory reset.

  • Go into your ChromeOS Settings
  • Select “About Chrome OS”
  • Select “Detailed Build Information”
  • Select “Change Channel”
  • Select “Beta”

Your Chromebook will check for updates and download the latest build on the developer channel. You will be prompted to reboot when complete.

Enable Containers

After you reboot, you will have several new flags in your Chrome OS Flags Settings, This next set of steps will enable container support.

  • Enter “chrome://flags/#enable-cros-container” in your Chrome address bar and enable the “Chrome OS Container” flag
  • Reboot your Chromebook

Introduction to vmc

ChromeOS containers are controlled via the “vmc” command which can be launched from the ChromeOS Terminal (CTRL + ALT + T). These are the possible options

vmc start – This command will start a container with whatever name you wish. If the container does not exist, it will automatically be created. “vmc start developmentvm” will create or start a container named “developmentvm”. You can create as many containers as you wish. You will automatically be dropped to a termina shell.

vmc list – This command will list all containers that are on your Chromebook.

vmc stop – This command will stop the container with the name specified. “vmc stop developmentvm” will stop the container named “developmentvm”

vmc destroy – This command will destroy the container with the name specified. “vmc destroy developmentvm” will destroy the container named “developmentvm” and remove all contents. This can not be reversed once performed.

Setting Up a Debian VM In A Container

Now that I have introduced the vmc command, lets put this in action by spinning up a Debian VM and installing some software on it.

Access a ChromeOS Shell (Ctrl + Alt + T) Create a container by running

vmc start testvm

Provision Debian by running (replace with your unix username (lower case, no spaces))

run_container.sh –container_name=stretch –user=<username> –shell

Upgrade the Debian Install by running

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Install Something with apt – In this example, we will be installing the desktop version of the Mozilla Firefox browser but the possibilities are limitless

sudo apt-get install firefox-esr

Launch Firefox by running “firefox”

That’s it – You should now have Firefox running. You can install just about any debian package via apt.

If you want to re-enter your container after rebooting or closing your browser window, you just need to run the following two commands to get back to the shell from within the ChromeOS Terminal (Alt + Ctrl + T) – Remember to replace “” with your unix username.

vmc start testvm
run_container.sh –container_name=stretch –user=<username> –shell

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