Acer computer running Chrome OS

[dandawes]

I bought a small Acer computer running on Chrome OS and tried to download OpenCpn onto it. It will not download. Any one out there know how to get OpenCpn to run on Chrome OS?

[Excalibur5]

To my knowledge it's not possible directly. You will need to install Linux first (there are online guides and it isn't that easy in my experience). Then with Linux on the machine you can then install opencpn.

[john61ct]

It is dead easy to install Linux on Chromebooks that go for $50-150 on eBay.

[ohgary]

I have install opencpn on my chromebook, but you need to install the ANDROID version from the play store, not the windows or linux version. Now depending on your chromebook it may not have GPS but thats another issue.

[dandawes]

There is no Android version so far as I can see. What play store would that be?

[john61ct]

I know Google's been going back and forth on supporting Android apps on Chrome, but was under the impression progress has only been made in a very limited way, I thought only with apps designed with that intention.

There are PC-like hardware platforms for Android as well, but nothing to do with Chrome-specific hardware.

[ohgary]

Originally Posted by dandawes

There is no Android version so far as I can see. What play store would that be?

Google play store has opencpn, have it on my cell phone. Found it in the same place on my chromebook.

[dfelsent]

I had open cpn installed under crostini on a cheapo acer chromebook.
There is not yet usb support but might be ok with WiFi. Took hours to build because it’s a slow machine.
But it seemed to run just fine.
I’ve since powerwashed (restored to factory) but will likely build and install again.

[john61ct]

Ooh, missed that, and stable release of Chrome OS 69.

Wonder what the old Pixels go for now? Sexy hardware. . .

[dandawes]

I tried to "install opencpn" under crostini on my cheapo ACER running Chrome OS and it didn't work. I am not terribly computer skilled and don't really know what it means to "hack" opencpn under crostini etc. How did you do it exactly?

All these computerese terms seem to be strategies to hide the secrets so that only the cogniti know what it means or how to do it.

You know, it's easy. Just continuously isomorph the open set of the Hausdorff subspace into the M manifold using the four space-time tangent space at each point after diffeo-transforming the metric tensor. Simple.

[john61ct]

Then that approach is likely not worth the required time investment for your overall Linux learning curve.

[dfelsent]

I just built OpenCPN again on my chromebook under crostini.
I did not bother to try any pre-build packages.
I followed the instructions for building on linux. In particular, the instructions for Debian/Ubuntu/Mint etc.

https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...ompiling_linux

I did not do the special steps for 12.04

sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake gettext git-core gpsd gpsd-clients libgps-dev wx-common libwxgtk3.0-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libgtk2.0-dev wx3.0-headers libbz2-dev libtinyxml-dev libportaudio2 portaudio19-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libexpat1-dev libcairo2-dev libarchive-dev liblzma-dev libexif-dev libelf-dev libsqlite3-dev


git clone git://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN.git

cd OpenCPN

mkdir build

cd build

cmake ../

make

sudo make install

then

opencpn

and it started.

The only issue I had this time was the chromebook went to sleep halfway through the build, leaving a corrupt object file that had to be deleted.

To avoid this I would change the power settings to blank the screen when idle, rather than sleep when idle.

at present crostini can access only internal storage, not external storage so chart management will likely be needed. crostini is working towards access to the external storage though.

If you want to start working towards a better understanding of the command line this is not a bad way to go.

[dfelsent]

and to add, the computerese terms are usually very specific technical language that is a much more accurate and concise way of expressing ideas than using daily vocabulary words.
It is not usually meant as obfuscation.
I was finishing my beer and remarked to the person on the next stool "I've got to get going so I can hoist the dinghy on the davits as I need to leave early tomorrow to catch the tide." They replied "I have no idea what you just said, but it sounds awfully nautical."
That is a use of technical language that has a clear and unambiguous meaning to the initiated, but seems utterly opaque to those outside.
Tech jargon is like that.

[dfelsent]

Originally Posted by ohgary

Google play store has opencpn, have it on my cell phone. Found it in the same place on my chromebook.

The issue for me with chromebook play store opencpn is the lack of support for an external GPS and for external storage of charts.

These issues are present in the crostini approach as well, but are actively being addressed by the crostini team under the same USB support issue.

[BigWhiteWhale]

Here's a simple solution for getting OPenCPN working on a cheap, modern Chromebook, with GPS positioning.


One of the difficulties with Chromebooks/ChromeOS is that it develops SO quickly that information from just a few months ago may not be valid now.

Reading the above points, it seems that people are jumping through a lot of hoops to get things working.

OK, I have a new Chromebook, bought yesterday, £169 Lenovo. Unlike older chromebooks, it supports Android apps straight from the Play Store, with no modification.

I installed OpenCPN from https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...n.opencpn_free

It's not like the WIndows/Linux version I've used on other laptops, but it's fine.

Running it, my chromebook gave a message that I needed to enable the internal GPS, i.e. it just assumed it had GPS, which it doesn't. I disabled this option.

I've used an old GPS dongle (running over USB) very effectively with previous laptops, but whatever I did I just couldn't get it to recognise the dongle or do anything with it. I tried a number of apps to read the raw data, as well as using a powered USB cable, but nothing worked.

Next step was to experiment with the OpenCPN settings to receive NMEA and position via Bluetooth.

I don't have a Bluetooth GPS dongle, so used my Android phone and installed a number of apps, none of which worked.

FInally tried ShareGPS from the PLay store (running on my phone) and it seems to pass the position data really well. So far I'm just using the free version.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...bunch.shareGPS

The Bluetooth connection isn't hugely stable, I wouldn't be comfortable using it at sea, but I do have a lot of Bluetooth interference here. I've a suspicion a Bluetooth GPS dongle would work better, and clearly the OPenCPN app works perfectly well receiving data via BLuetooth..

THe OpenCPN app seems to have a few display bugs on my machine, but these can be resolved by restarting the app. SOmething which takes about 3 seconds!!!

My machine comes ready to install Linux, with no fiddling whatsoever, so clearly things are easier now for Chromebook users. I'm on ChromeOS 74 I think. i.e. the latest version.

THe Chromebook belts along, it's superfast.

My next step now is to purchase a Bluetooth GPS dongle. There's just 'too' much going on with the phone to trust it's pairing up cleanly with the CHromebook. But I'm sticking with this.