Crostini for dummies

• Feb 28, 2020 - 13:46

I'm having trouble finding the downloaded appimage from the Linux terminal. I managed to figure out how to "share" the download folder with Linux, but I can't find the path from the terminal. Whatever I try I get "no such file or directory."

Am I going to be able to access my musescore files from Chrome, later on? Will Linux and Chrome play nicely together in their sandboxes?

I'm so confused.


Comments

Sorry, I find that I had two different profiles on here with two different e-mail addresses / usernames. So I'm replying to my own question with my new and improved profile -- deleting Regina Terrae.

The good news is yes, everything works extremely well once you get it set up, and it's not that hard to set up.

So it sounds like you downloaded the appimage, but are not sure how to find it. I'd suggest downlaoding it again, and this time, make you save it to your "Linux files". Then when you open your terminal window as per the installation instructions, you will see it.

By default when you save scores from MuseScore, they will go to a folder called Documents/MuseScore3/Scores, which in your case will be found within your "Linux files". So you will be able to access those scores from anywhere else on that Chromebook by going to that same folder. On my system, I am using a special technique to place my MuseScore3 folder within my regular Google Drive, so I can actually access those scores from anywhere, even my Windows computer. But you don't need to use this special technique - you can also simply select "My Drive" when saving your scores. To get that working, though, you need to use the share your "My Drive" with Linux, So if you get to the point where you basically have things going and find you would like to be able to access your scores even when not using your Chromebook, we can worry about that then.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks, Marc! So, when I open my terminal window ... where will I see the file? This: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/install-chromebook seems to assume that I'm already familiar with Linux, but I'm not. I'm through the first 2 steps, and it's in the Linux Files directory.

For Step 3, what exactly does that command look like? Is it
" chmod +x MuseScore-3.4.2-x86_64.AppImage "?
Because I tried that, and didn't get an error message ... but then when I tried
" ./ MuseScore-3.4.2-x86_64.AppImage " , I got "./ is a directory", and when I took out the space between ./ and MuseScore, I got "cannot execute binary file: Exec format error"

Then for step 5, I have no idea about required libraries. And for step 6, is that
" sudo apt-get install AppImage " ?

As for sharing output files with Google Drive, I will definitely want to do that, especially after all the dire warnings about putting my chromebook into developer mode in order to install the linux terminal in the first place. I definitely want to be able to Powerwash the Chromebook without losing (much).

Thanks again for answering!

In reply to by Sister Felicity

It seems you might have an ARM-based Chromebook, which will complicate things. What do you see if you type "arch" in the terminal window (and hit Enter)? If it doesn't say x86_64, you have the wrong version of the AppImage file. Let us know, and we can advise better.

Unfortunately, though, the only AppImage versions I know of that would be likely to run on other systems are pretty old. They may not work well with Crostini. In theory, the same steps would apply, though - download the appropriate AppImage, follow the same steps but substitute the appropriate filename. And, no space after the "./" (the error you got when you remove it is what suggests to me you are not actually on an x86_64 system - which is to say, not a 64-bit Intel processor).

The step about installing libraries shouldn't be needed with current versions of MuseScore and ChromeOS, but unfortunately I have no idea if the older version you may need for your system will work right away or not. You'll have to try it, and if you get an error about a missing library, then that's how it would be solved.

Step 6 means to add the word "install" right after the "./MuseScore-3.4.2-x86_64.AppImage" (well, separated by a space, and also, you'll need to specify the correct filename for the version you are using). You do this if you want to be able to run MuseScore "normally", using the regular Chromebook launcher or an icon on the shelf. And I assume you do. So once you manage to get MuseScore to run at all, I'd close it, then run the install step. After that you should find MuseScore in your launcher, and you can pin it to the shelf, etc.

In reply to by Sister Felicity

Very possibly yes. Do delete the x86_64 file, then try the 32-bit version (it's newer than the ARM-specific version but might still work). Follow the same steps except replacing the filename with whatever the file you are downloading is called. When you get to step 4, let us know how it goes (remember, no space)

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

OK. I tried with the ARM version, and step 4 gave me "no such file or directory", although again step 3 went through without comment. Browsing through the other options: so far, Debian is way out of date, Snappy I'm not sure yet if it works with Crostini. But I'll try the 32-bit AppImage as you suggest.

In reply to by Sister Felicity

If step 4 says that, you must have typed the command incorrectly. Be sure you are typing the filename exactly as you downloaded it. Normally the linux terminal has "command completion", so after typing the "./" and the first few letters of the filename, you can press Tab or Esc and it will fill in the rest.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

So, I've installed flatpak -- and yes, they have a version for ARM. I went to their chrome-side flathub and downloaded the musescore file, but of course, Chrome doesn't know what to do with a file with extension *.flatpakref. I also tried installing from the command line, but there the terminal is asking for a password, which I never set up and don't know how to find. I figured out how to switch to root user (please, tell me how to switch back, when all this is done!) and created a new password there, and installed it. However, I can't run it.

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In reply to by Marc Sabatella

No, the 32-bit didn't work -- same error ("cannot execute binary file: Exec format error").

I'm going to bed now. I really appreciate all your support. If you leave me any more advice tonight I'll try it out early in the morning. Otherwise, I think I'm going to try flatpak. Trial and error, maybe something will work out.

Good night.

In reply to by Sister Felicity

Eeesh! Yes, crostini is in stable channel and actually has been for, hmm, probably at least a year or more, but audio has only been working for somewhat less than that, and MuseScore's AppImage has only been optimized for this configuration for a few months (albeit only the x86_64 version obviously). Anyhow, hopefully, you didn't lose anything you cared about in the powerwash, but in the end, it should be better.

Any day now (?) they should be releasing Chrome OS 80 - the last projections I saw said February, and by my count today is the last day, and they're lucky it's a leap year :-). The big thing that will bring is an update of the Linux container from "stretch" to "buster", which is to say, from an older version of Linux that most people don't support anymore, to the current most well-supported version. So maybe wait until that happens, then try to recreate the Linux container and try again. Sorry this is such a pain! Hopefully we'll all learn something from this and maybe eventually figure out a better solution for ARM-based Chromebooks.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Oh! Well, that's good news about the Chrome update, so there's hope. Good, because I'd really love to get Musescore working, without having to go out and buy a new laptop!

The good thing about a Chromebook is that there's very little to get wiped out in a powerwash -- all my data, settings, passwords, pretty much everything, is on Google's servers. Photos go straight to Google Photos, everything. So yeah, no worries about that. It even started re-installing my few Android apps without my asking.

In reply to by Sister Felicity

Cool, it's true that on the Chrome OS side, it's relatively painless. I'm a little apprehensive about needing to re-create my Linux container, though, because I've got quite a lot set up in it, and I'm not expecting it to survive the update. I did make a backup of it but am not holding out a lot of hope that it will restore correctly after the update,

In reply to by Sister Felicity

Sistuh F.: - I'm looking for a conversation that was posted more recently where you ultimately found success with your Linux / Musescore installation on your Lenovo Chromebook. If you're willing to help us out here, we're about to take a third crack w/my own efforts and I'm hoping you might be able to help save us a whole lot more time and trouble. I've held off on contacting Marc Sabetella directly because I know how busy (and conscientious!) he is.

HERE'S MY MACHINE:
2019 Lenovo 11.6" HD IPS Touchscreen 2-in-1 Chromebook, Quad-Core MediaTek MT8173C (4C, 2X A72 + 2X A53), 4GB RAM, 32GB eMMC, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth

I'm about to turning off the pre-existing Linux installation and installing one of the options offered over here to see if that helps.

It's good to know that you were able to succeed with this all this after all the trouble you took to make it happen and hoping we'll benefit a little from all your hard work.

David Saphra / dsaphra @ gmail.com

In reply to by dsaphra

I got it done on flatpak: https://musescore.org/en/node/302210
Then I undid it because I was getting feedback on the snap forum and was trying to see if that would work -- not that there was anything wrong with the flatpak version, that I know of, but wanted to help get the kinks worked out of the other. Never did get the snap version working, though ymmv -- here's the discussion: https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/error-installing-musescore-on-chromeos/159…

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