Chromebook network tools?

[David C. Menges]

I was hoping to use a Chromebook as a cheap network admin tool, but with the NAT sandbox thing (100.115.x.x), it doesn't look promising.  

I've tried to get around it via Linux (Beta), Developer mode, and a USB wired network dongle. The Android app Fing (network scan) sees nothing.  When I attach a USB wired network dongle and turn off wifi, ChromeOS and Linux (Beta) use the wired connection (browsing, ping work), but /sbin/ifconfig output looks no different, just one interface, eth0 (or when wifi on).

One thing I'd like to do is configure new network devices - today a Ubiquiti P2P link, which, like many network devices, must be setup via a computer on the same subnet as the device, dictated by the device after a factory reset, like 192.168.20.x.  Using the wired dongle I can set a static in ChromeOS and presumably Linux (Beta); I can't test now, but I'm skeptical given what I've observed so far.

Clearly I'm not a network engineer, just a so-so IT guy.  I'm probably not appreciating how much ChromeOS and Linux (Beta) are running independently, and suspect there's no great solution.  Thanks for any hints.

[Mike Frysinger]

you don't need dev mode in order to use Android or Crostini/Linux(beta).  although, if you're in dev mode, you can do whatever you want directly via the crosh shell command.  we try to discourage dev mode usage on systems that support Crostini as most people don't really need that kind of raw shell access, and security is better overall when you leave dev mode disabled.

by design, Crostini does not get direct access to any network device, nor is it allowed to control/change the network settings.  our docs go into detail on the security model:

  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/containers_and_vms.md

this design though shouldn't impair your ability to use network tools inside of Crostini like nmap which seems to offer a lot of the same functionality as fing (not that i've ever used fing, i'm just glancing at their product page).

you should be able to set static IPs via CrOS directly without a problem.

-mike

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[Emre Erenoglu]

I don't think low level network function stuff could be done on Android or Crostini, they are both abstracted from the real network and network interfaces.

You'd have more success using either Chromebrew or Crouton.
Chromebrew adds a package manager which may have the apps you look for.
Crouton would add a chroot.

I'd go with Crouton to be safe.

Both runs on Chromeos Kernel and see the related interfaces so shall be good for your use case.(I think both would need developer mode though)

[Mike Frysinger]

that depends entirely on your definition of "low level".  if your tools all operate at the IP level or higher, then Crostini should be fine.  if you need to operate below that level (e.g. use promiscuous mode for packet sniffing or tweak the WiFi power/regulatory settings), then resorting to dev mode is prob your only option.

-mike

[Emre Erenoglu]

Indeed, what I meant is tools requiring interface access.
Also tools or apps requiring listening ports also don't seem to work.
(For me, Off topic, For example I could not get VoIP SIP Android apps to work properly, no incoming audio)