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Ed Reel edited this page Nov 17, 2023 · 76 revisions

Q: How do I know when to create a fake package that references an existing package?

A: Generally, if the package name differs from the executable name then it may make sense to add a fake package to avoid confusion. Creating a fake package can also avoid future namespace collisions caused by executables with the same name.

Q: What can I do to fix sh: warning: setlocale: LC_ALL: cannot change locale (en_US.utf8)?

A: Add the following to ~/.bashrc:

export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8

Then execute source ~/.bashrc.

Q: A message from a package I just installed scrolled past the screen. What can I do?

A: Run crew postinstall <package> to see the message.

Q: What can I do about missing icons in gimp?

A:

  1. Launch gimp
  2. From the main menu, select Edit > Preferences (you may need to scroll past the bottom to see using the arrow button)
  3. Under Interface, click Icon Theme
  4. From the Icon Theme selections on the right, click Legacy
  5. Click OK

Q: How can I test packages?

A: See Testing procecure.

Q: tlmgr gives this error:

tlmgr: Remote repository is newer than local (2017 < 2018).

What can I do?

A: You have to update Texlive to a newer version. Run sudo mount -o remount,rw,exec /tmp, and then follow the instructions from this link:

https://www.tug.org/texlive/upgrade.html

Q: Code crashes when I try to open a folder through the dialog button. What can I do?

A: GSettings schemas have to be compiled and installed. Run this command to do so:

glib-compile-schemas /usr/local/share/glib-2.0/schemas

Q: I'm having issues generating diagrams with plantuml and graphviz. What can I do?

A: dot's plugins need to be configured using dot -c before using these programs.

Q: I don't see any extension in code's Marketplace. What can I do?

A: The Marketplace must be activated by hand by adding the following information to /usr/local/share/code/resources/app/product.json:

"extensionsGallery": {
    "serviceUrl": "https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/_apis/public/gallery",
    "cacheUrl": "https://vscode.blob.core.windows.net/gallery/index",
    "itemUrl": "https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items"
}

Q: I'm having trouble with font size in apps depending on GTK2. What can I do?

A: Packages like gimp and sublime_text still depend on GTK2. This leads to huge font size that cannot be solved by setting the SCALE environment variable. The solution is to create a ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file containing a default fixed font size. To do that, run this:

echo 'gtk-font-name="sans-serif 6"' > ~/.gtkrc-2.0

Q: Where can I find more information about configuring GTK?

A: More info can be found here.

Q: How do I change my default linker?

A: To change your default linker, run:

crew install ld_default
ld_default

and follow the instructions from there.

Q: I cannot run a compiled program in my Downloads folder. What is wrong?

A: Since Chrome OS mounts the ~/ folder without the exec permission, you will have to remount as exec on every boot (or have these lines in your ~/.bashrc).

sudo mount -o remount,rw,exec,symfollow ~/

Q: I cannot execute man commands and receive an error as follows:

$ man gzip
man: can't execute /usr/bin/less: No such file or directory

How can I fix this issue?

A:

echo 'export PAGER=less' >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc

OR

echo 'export PAGER=most' >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc

Q: How do I display the Chrome OS version from the shell?

A: cat /etc/lsb-release If you only want the major release, type crew const CHROMEOS_RELEASE. For more information about the device, the native command crossystem --all can be run. This will provide the version along with much more information like firmware status and boot modes.

Q: How do I find my hardware specs?

A: crew install lshw and then enter sudo lshw. Many devices also have information about their hardware on the Chromium Developer Information for ChromeOS Devices wiki page.

Q: How do I display my architecture?

A: arch or uname -m or crew const ARCH.

Q: How do I install or update packages without getting prompted for dependencies?

A:

yes | crew install <pkgName>
# ==== or ====
yes | crew upgrade

Q: How do I get man pages working?

A: crew install manpages followed by mandb -c. You will also need to set some environment variables as explained in blue text.

Q: What does configure: error: C preprocessor "/lib/cpp" fails sanity check mean?

A: crew install buildessential will solve your problem.

Q: How can I force update my Chromebook to the latest version?

A: See https://www.thegeekstuff.com/2017/08/chrome-os-update-to-latest-version/.

Q: How can I force update my Chromebook to the latest version in the stable channel via the command line?

A: sudo update_engine_client --channel=stable-channel --update

Q: Where can I find information about keyboard shortcuts?

A: See https://www.thegeekstuff.com/2016/04/chromebook-keyboard-shortcuts/.

Q: A Chromebrew package is not available for the software I need. What can I do?

A: Before you attempt to add a new package, consider there are many apps installable via gem, npm, pip or composer. A fairly comprehensive list of command-line apps can be found here.

Q: Can I run i386 (32-bit) applications on x86_64 (64-bit) Chrome OS?

A: Yes. You can install the 32-bit versions of various libraries & elf loader, using the libc6-i386 Debian package. You can set this up as follows:

curl -LO https://deb.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/glibc/libc6-i386_2.24-11+deb9u3_amd64.deb
mkdir libc6-i386
cd libc6-i386
ar x ../libc6-i386_2.24-11+deb9u3_amd64.deb
tar xpf data.tar.xz
cp -a lib32/* /usr/local/lib/
cp -a usr/lib32/* /usr/local/lib/
cd ..
rm -rf libc6-i386
rm libc6-i386_2.24-11+deb9u3_amd64.deb
echo "alias linux32='/usr/local/lib/ld-linux.so.2 --library-path /usr/local/lib'" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Following this, you can run 32-bit binaries with the linux32 command, e.g.

$ linux32 ${BINARY}

You may need to install other libraries to get more complex applications to work.

Q: I get No such file or directory when trying to run a binary

A: One possibility is the binary is incorrect architecture, e.g. 32-bit on 64-bit OS. See above question.

Q: Why doesn't @skycocker commit to this anymore?

A: When I was creating Chromebrew I was around 15-16 years old and happy to spend day and night on working on open source stuff. It gave my life a lot of sense. Today I’m a bit older and I spend a lot of time on work, helping my friends who want to be developers start, I also have a bit of a personal life. While I still create some open source projects from time to time (whenever something is clearly missing), I’m not really able to catch up with all the issues that are here, all the changes that are happening and so on. I’m super happy people are using and contributing to Chromebrew, but it is a free, open-source project.

© 2013-2024 Michal Siwek

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