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Kicad on a Chrome Book

 

My wife and I both use Chrome books for everyday surfing and email because they are cheap and light weight. For running Kicad I use the 'big' computer in my workshop. However I have often wished I could run Kicad indoors. Rather than shell out for an expensive laptop I wondered if Kicad could be installed on a Chrome book. We have just replaced our ancient Samsung Chrome books with new ASUS one with Intel chips inside. These Chrome books have Crostini installed which is Google's Linux based development framework. Anyway I got this set up on my new Chrome book and I see it provides a basic command line version of Debian stretch. I followed the instructions in the Crostini wiki to set up X apps and got xclock working OK. So on a whim I typed in apt install kicad and to my surprise off it went and installed it. Better still, typing kicad at the command line brings up the familiar Kicad project manager. And it all seems to work (only tried schematic entry so far).

The only downside is it is version 4. Anyone have any idea how I can upgrade this to version 5?

Cheers

Ian
 

Compile from source?


On Thu, Nov 14, 2019, 12:00 Ian Bell <ianthompsonbell@...> wrote:
My wife and I both use Chrome books for everyday surfing and email because they are cheap and light weight. For running Kicad I use the 'big' computer in my workshop. However I have often wished I could run Kicad indoors. Rather than shell out for an expensive laptop I wondered if Kicad could be installed on a Chrome book. We have just replaced our ancient Samsung Chrome books with new ASUS one with Intel chips inside. These Chrome books have Crostini installed which is Google's Linux based development framework. Anyway I got this set up on my new Chrome book and I see it provides a basic command line version of Debian stretch. I followed the instructions in the Crostini wiki to set up X apps and got xclock working OK. So on a whim I typed in apt install kicad and to my surprise off it went and installed it. Better still, typing kicad at the command line brings up the familiar Kicad project manager. And it all seems to work (only tried schematic entry so far).

The only downside is it is version 4. Anyone have any idea how I can upgrade this to version 5?

Cheers

Ian

 

Turned out to be quite simple just ad this line:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports main contrib non-free

to?deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports main contrib non-free
?

then run:

sudo apt install -t stretch-backports kicad
I now have Kicad 5 running on my Chrome book. Woohoo!!

Cheers

Ian

?
 

This is the only hit I see in the group when searching for "crostini", so thought it worth updating.
Ian pasted the same text twice, so his instructions are impossible to follow.

Here's my shot at showing how to get kicad going on a Chromebook under crostini.

Search "crostini" on the web to find out how to turn on the linux environment,
and how to make a directory such as "Downloads" shareable between Chromeos and linux.
Browse a tutorial on the web for the linux bash shell if unfamiliar with linux console commands.

At the linux console on your Chromebook, type the following bash shell command:?
? ? lsb_release -d
On mine, I get an answer of "Description:? ? Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)",

With that information, go to? ?
and follow the instructions while typing at the crostini linux console.

The linux version that comes with Chromeos under crostini is stable,
and since kicad is not a priority for them it typically is not up-to-date.
So those instructions on kicad.org tell us how to install a kicad package
that has been "backported" from a newer version of Debian,
a version of Debian linux that is unstable and still being tested.

Just giving the command "apt install kicad" would work, but probably
gives you Kicad 4.? As of Feb 2022, you really want Kicad 6.

Jerry
 

Following a link from ? down into
? ??
it appears that Debian 11 (bullseye) for Chromebooks already gets Kicad 6.02 by default.
Give a Crostini console command of "apt list kicad" to see which Kicad version you will be getting.
So may be fine to just say "sudo apt install kicad" once you get the Crostini linux environment up
if?"lsb_release -d" at the linux prompt shows "Debian 11 (bullseye)" or later, that version
of Crostini was released in Dec of 2021.?
? ??
Looks like Kicad Debian builds can support ARM processors, but Intel/AMD processors
will have better support for some of the other Debian packages.
? ??

Older Chromeos software versions required bringing the Chromebook into developer mode
to run Crostini (the Beta release of Crostini).? Chromebooks more than 2 or 3 years old
may not be supported by new Chromeos releases, and may not support Crostini at all.?
? ?


After a couple days playing with Crostini on my recently bought Asus CX1500CN Chromebook,
I'm very impressed.? Only issue is that the contrast and viewing angles from the 1080p screen are
not as good as some.? Some may want a faster processor.? You will want a $10 bluetooth wheel mouse
when running Kicad.? If you can live with an 11" screen, some new "refurbished" Chromebooks are $50.

Just got this going, haven't built a board with it yet but am so far blown away with how capable
a lowly Chromebook can be.? Am curious what others with more time on Crostini have to report.

Jerry


On Sun, Feb 20, 2022 at 03:48 PM, Jerry Gaffke wrote:
Just giving the command "apt install kicad" would work, but probably
gives you Kicad 4.? As of Feb 2022, you really want Kicad 6.
 

¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

Hi All

On 2/21/22 13:29, Jerry Gaffke via groups.io wrote:
Following a link from ? down into

Ive been running Linux on my recent Acer 314
No DE, Love it
I m using Kicad 5.x on it
so far very nice
I m also running WINE on it so that
i can run my beloved LTspice


-- 
AC2CL

I do not think there is any thrill that
can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as
he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success...
Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.

- Nikola Tesla

 

Al,

Thanks for responding.

No DE?? What does that mean?
Perhaps "Debian Experimental", so you just stuck with the Kicad 5 that came with "apt install kicad"?
Kicad 6 has some major improvements.

Running Linux on a Chromebook can mean lots of things.
Best guess is you are using their Debian Linux Environment under Crostini.
But you could be using Crouton, or perhaps just rubbed out Chromeos completely
and installed Ubuntu on the machine.? I am curious exactly what it is you are loving.

Yup, LTSpice is absolutely great.
Good to know it works well under Wine on your Chromebook.
I can't think of any other MSWin centric software I would want to port.

I've been using Chromebooks for most of what I do on a computer for nearly a decade.
It just keeps getting better, this weekend the "better" was moving from Crouton to Crostini.
The Crostini Debian terminal with bash suits me fine, cut my teeth on BSD Unix in the early 80's.

Jerry, KE7ER


On Mon, Feb 21, 2022 at 10:37 AM, Al Dutcher wrote:
Ive been running Linux on my recent Acer 314
No DE, Love it
I m using Kicad 5.x on it
so far very nice
I m also running WINE on it so that
i can run my beloved LTspice
 

¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

Sorry, desktop environment
Right, i used apt or apt-get to install
ChromeOS detects that ive done a direct install and
gives me an icon for launching
Sweet!

On 2/21/22 14:39, Jerry Gaffke via groups.io wrote:
No DE?? What does that mean?

-- 
AC2CL

I do not think there is any thrill that
can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as
he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success...
Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.

- Nikola Tesla

 

As it happens I've just moved from SUSE linux to Debian 11
If you want kicad 6 then you need to add the backport repository, which
has it available.

Andy




On Mon, 21 Feb 2022 11:39:16 -0800
"Jerry Gaffke via groups.io" <jgaffke@...> wrote:

Al,

Thanks for responding.

No DE?? What does that mean?
Perhaps "Debian Experimental", so you just stuck with the Kicad 5 that came with "apt install kicad"?
Kicad 6 has some major improvements.

Running Linux on a Chromebook can mean lots of things.
Best guess is you are using their Debian Linux Environment under Crostini.
But you could be using Crouton, or perhaps just rubbed out Chromeos completely
and installed Ubuntu on the machine.? I am curious exactly what it is you are loving.

Yup, LTSpice is absolutely great.
Good to know it works well under Wine on your Chromebook.
I can't think of any other MSWin centric software I would want to port.

I've been using Chromebooks for most of what I do on a computer for nearly a decade.
It just keeps getting better, this weekend the "better" was moving from Crouton to Crostini.
The Crostini Debian terminal with bash suits me fine, cut my teeth on BSD Unix in the early 80's.

Jerry, KE7ER

On Mon, Feb 21, 2022 at 10:37 AM, Al Dutcher wrote:


Ive been running Linux on my recent Acer 314
No DE, Love it
I m using Kicad 5.x on it
so far very nice
I m also running WINE on it so that
i can run my beloved LTspice



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