Installing Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with i3 Window Manager on Chromebook

Gordon Tillman

January 9, 2015

In this post I document the steps required to install and configure Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) on an ASUS C200MA-EDU-4GB Chromebook.

I’m going to assume that you have already downloaded Crouton.

Install the base system

Hit Ctrl+Alt+t to start a crosh shell
Enter shell to start a proper shell.
Enter cd Downloads

Install the base system by entering

~sudo sh -e ./crouton -r trusty -t x11,extension -n trusty-i3

Follow the directions

Install the window manager

sudo enter-chroot -n trusty-i3
sudo apt-get install i3
- allow it to create a default configuration file

Install a decent terminal

sudo apt-get install gnome-terminal

Install the Adobe Source Code Pro Fonts

I love these fonts!

Navigate to Adobe’s github download page here.
Download the tar.gz format
Assuming that your chroot is running….
- From the ChromeOS side do Ctrl+Alt+t to open a terminal
- Enter shell, then cd ~/Downloads
- Untar the archive. For me it was: tar xfz source-code-pro-1.017R.tar.gz
- CD into the extracted archive’s OTF directory: cd source-code-pro-1.017R/OTF
- Copy the fonts over to the chroot. For me this was:
```
sudo cp * /usr/local/chroots/trusty-i3/usr/share/fonts/opentype/
```

Set i3 to start automatically when you startx

Do this from in your chroot.

echo "exec i3" > ~/.xinitrc

Make an easy alias for starting your windowing system

Exit out of the chroot
From inside your crosh/shell:
- Edit $HOME/.bashrc
- Add this alias:
```
alias starti3='sudo enter-chroot -n trusty-i3 xinit'
```

Tweak a couple of i3 settings

Back in the chroot, edit the file $HOME/.i3/config

Use the Search key as your i3 mod key
```
set $mod Mod4
```
Use Adobe’s Source Code Pro font as your default font
```
font pango:Source Code Pro 12
```

References

Tips

Audio from the chroot will now be forwarded to CRAS (Chromium OS audio server).
To switch from chroot to ChromeOS: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Forward
To switch from ChromeOS back to chroot: Ctrl-Alt-Forward then Ctrl-Alt-Refresh