Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
Previously, I looked at my decision to buy an HP Chromebook 11 G5 and exploration of Crouton and Ubuntu MATE. The Chromebook purchase had been a result of having an aging Macbook Pro and wondering what to replace it with. I decided to give a Chromebook a try and bought an HP Chromebook 11 G5.
Early experimentation with Chromeos and Crouton was replaced with focus on Chromeos after I acquired a Raspberry Pi 3B. Here I look at the Chromebook/Raspberry Pi symbiosis as a possible Macbook Pro replacement.
Ok, you may ask, why replace one computer with two?
Well, using the Chromebook by itself led almost immediately to Developer Mode, and Crouton enabling me to run Ubuntu Mate and various other flavours of Ubuntu on the machine.
This was fun, but removed one of the most attractive aspects of the Chromebook… The validation of the operating system on bootup.
I ended up believing that one should run a Chromebook in normal mode, and look for other ways of accessing traditional software when needed. I didn’t want to pay for a rollApp or similar accounts. Without really thinking of any connection between the Chromebook and anything else, I decided to buy a Raspberry Pi 3B and see what it could do.
Once I had got the machine, I spent some time investigating its capabilities.
My final decision was to use it as an extension to the Chromebook, acting as a server, and, amongst other things, providing access to traditional software like LibreOffice, Scribus and Gimp. I also thought that it would be nice to have it act as a DropBox-like file server to myself and other members of the family, both on the local home network and via the internet.
This was achieved by loading Nextcloud on the RASPI connected to a 2TB powered external drive.
To access the RASPI from the Chromebook locally, I use a combination of VNC Client and Secure Shell SFTP. The VNC Client gives me the RASPI desktop on the Chromebook, and SFTP allows transfer of files between the two.
If away from home, or overseas, and wanting to do something on the RASPI, I use VNC Connect which is free to RASPI users, and Cloud Commander, to transfer files between the two. If I want to access my Nextcloud installation when away from home, I fire up Dataplicity and access Nextcloud through my personal wormhole.
To use Cloud Commander, I start two instances of Dataplicity. In the first I type “cloudcmd” and in the second [Cloud Commander uses port 8000], I initiate port 8000 in ngrok and copy the https url into my browser.
My experience is that VNC Connect cannot be set up headlessly on the RASPI. You have to plug it via an HDMI cable to a TV, and use a USB mouse and keyboard to initiate the link to the RealVNC server. Once this has been done, and port 5900 has been port forwarded in your router, you are able to access the RASPI GUI from anywhere.
There are a number of security considerations to be mindful of when connecting to the RASPI over the internet, the most important being to change the default RASPI password when initially configuring Raspbian.
Postscript
Having mentioned rollApp earlier in this piece, I have just discovered OffiDocs. Using this when away from home might be better than using VNC Connect.
What is interesting is that, since my purchase of this Chromebook nearly a year ago, the options for access to traditional software like LibreOffice and Gimp via the browser seem to have multiplied, and I think this trend will continue.
The OffiDocs pathway gives browser access to a fully configured Linux virtual machine.