Custom distros and desktop environments

[TheRealFanjin]

Is it possible to add your own distros or/and desktop environments?

[betapictoris]

Yes, you can make your own target by adding it to the targets folder, you can then run your own crouton version by running main.sh in the installer folder. You may need to move the crouton-master folder into /usr/local/bin due to new Chrome OS security (see #4026).

Set by step

1. Download the crouton code by as a .zip.
2. Unzip the file so you have a crouton-master folder.
3. Move this file to /usr/local/bin/.
4. Make a copy of one of the target files and edit it to install your packages.

I like to edit it on a GitHub fork and edit there, then you can download it and copy it (using sudo as that will overwrite the old one), this will also save your code in case you mess something up and need to factory reset.

[TheRealFanjin]

Thanks for the answer! So for example, if I wanted to install Fedora what packages would I need and where would I get them?

[betapictoris]

For this you would need to create a custom release... not so much a desktop environment. I haven't tried it before but you could, probably, do it.

It appears to me that they are stored in the installer folder. If you made a copy of one of the already made ones (debian, kali, or ubuntu) You can modify the defaults file to have the Fedora mirrors and the releases file to have the Fedora releases then you should have a working Fedora install, although you would need to modify the files using apt or apt-get to have the fedora package manger, using detection of the release so the Debain, Ubuntu, and Kali releases still work.

It would take a lot of time but it would, in the end, work.

[marauder316]

It would take a lot of time but it would, in the end, work.

How stable would the new chroots be?

[betapictoris]

Well it depends on how stable they are made. You would need to add support for things here and there, that if you skipped could lead to problems that would lead it to be "unstable".

[marauder316]

OK, thanks

…

On Mon, 11 Jan 2021 at 19:02, Mr. Hallway ***@***.***> wrote: Well it depends on how stable they are made. You would need to add support for things here and there, that if you skipped could lead to problems that would lead it to be "unstable". — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#4393 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ARFWV6534Q2M4WQI3XDS66TSZONRXANCNFSM4VULPMFA> .

[DrDoktor]

since this is about custom distros and crouton is it possible for this distro to be used

[marauder316]

I assume it would be, but I think the Liberté devs were clear when they mentioned potential instability due to age (last release was in 2012)

For context:

PLEASE NOTE: Latest release of Liberté Linux is old, and you should use it only if you understand the security implications.
A new release of Liberté, if created, will have significantly different usage objectives.

[betapictoris]

I agree with @marauder316, you should be able to get it to run on a Chromebook but I don't think app, or driver, support is going to be amazing.

[llvee]

@dnschneid Has crouton ever been considered as a security solution or developed in that way? I haven't realized the use case for Crouton in that way. Wondering if you might be able to network in someone on the Google ChromeOS team since I am interested in contributing to security solutions for more secure development environments on ChromeOS & what your thoughts are regarding the above question.

[dnschneid]

If you want a secure Linux dev environment, crostini is a lot more secure than crouton is. I believe there's also ways you can tap into the container manager and run your own containers inside the VM.

crouton mainly just tries to minimize how much it breaks Chromium OS's security model, but inherently it has root access to the full system.

[llvee]

Thank you for sharing about the differences between Crostini, Crouton.

I have much more progress to make with my own solutions.