Enable linux VM on managed accounts - Appimages only

[gabriele vidali]

I found out that Linux VM is not available for managed accounts which is annoying if you want to install education software like Arduino IDE for example.

I know this is designed with security in mind but I came up with this idea to offer this possibility to have a linux VM anyway.

My idea is that chromeOS, in case of a managed account, should allow to run an app like a modified nx-software-center only instead of the terminal.

The modified nx-software-center could then allow the parents to choose which appimage to install on the chomebook, just like the play store currently works with family link.

At the moment if you run the nx-software center appimage on a chromebook, all appimages installed (they are located in ~/Applications) will already appear in the chromeOS app list drawer.

In case you think this is insecure, I read that firejail is available to sandbox appimages

Do you think this is feasable ?

https://github.com/Nitrux/nx-software-center

[Dmitry Torokhov]

Hi Gabriele,

Disabling Crostini (Linux VM) is a decision of your domain administrator. Please speak to them and see if they will be willing to enable access (which is done through the Google admin console).

We unfortunately currently do not have management capabilities to control what software is deployed and is running in a VM, so that might be the reason why the functionality is disabled for the devices in your domain.

Thanks,

Dmitry

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[gabriele vidali]

I'm not talking about a school managed device, it's just a standard device managed by parents.

[Dmitry Torokhov]

Ah, I see. Yes, crostini is indeed disabled for children's accounts, lack of management tools is one of the big factors.

[Dominik Behr]

As a consolation, there is online Arduino IDE that works pretty well. And online Scratch editor. Which is pure OG Chromebook experience ;-)

[gabriele vidali]

I know, but that's limited to a bunch of boards compared to the full ide.

Besides Arduino, however, nobody finds the idea to have a managed appimages store useful at all.

Or it's just too much work ?

I thought that implementing the playstore approval workflow to another store would be something almost trivial