A Few Notes
on Running Debian Linux on the Asus
CM3
and Similar Chromebooks
The Asus CM3 and the Lenovo 11 inch Ideapad are very similar. They run ChromeOS
with an optional inbuilt Linux sandbox VM (Crostini) running current Debian Linux.
Most things work without problems.
Neither freecad nor meshlab would run reliably.
Some things needed a bit of searching,
SSH/SSHD:
SSH works out of the box once ssh keys are installed.
SSHD server needs a bit of setting up setting up
The MAC address is randomised , a feature which cannot be changed, making it hard
to get the IP address of the chromebook on a local network. I had to execute journalctl
on the dhcp server to recognise the PC , and get its IP address.
e.g.
ssh dhcp-server sudo journalctl -u ssh |grep "user from 19"
While It is quite possible to run an ssh server, it is inconvenient to both find the IP and to remap the SSH port.
If you need a server then a chromeos PC is probably not the right thing
Linux Terminal:
Xterm interacts poorly with the crostini desktop (poor font usage and poor cut & paste).
Lxterminal makes a good alternative. It may need tweaking as follows:
Lxterminal as Xterm Alternative:
Lxterminal is similar to xterm,but sets shell variables per XDG. If bash recognises them it
will use their settings. EG if you wish to use a history file in the
current working directory then:
#set xdg and run bash for local history file
export HISTFILE=./bashhist.local
export XDG_CONFIG_HOME=./.config
lxterminal -e bash &
User Look and Feel::
The chromeos desktop is quite good, but requires familiarisation.
The keyboard is specific to chromebooks and has non-standard function keys.
The standard IBM keys can be emulated by pressing the search key (between tab and shift)
while then pressing the corresponding chrome function key.
The 2nd mouse button can be enabled under touchpad device options
Xvkbd does not focus, but it is not needed since the onscreen keyboard
can be enabled ,and cooperates with linux.
Stylus:
The CM3 comes with an inbuilt touch stylus and charger. This works well. The button mapping is slightly different
to a mouse.
Summary:
This Chromebook makes a good portable linux capable PC or terminal at low cost with good battery life, where
high CPU performance is unnecessary.