[CoLoCo] Java on Chrome OS

[Jim Hutchinson]

Hey all,

I'm on the verge of getting our school to consider Chrome Netbooks of some sort - probably netbooks with "unofficial" installs but that's not decided yet. One of the main issues is that teachers rely on a number of websites that use Java such as http://phet.colorado.edu/

Our one sample chrome-book does not run Java apps and I'm discovering that it's not part of the OS. I read one link that had some instructions but can't find it again. Does anyone know for certain if there is a way to get Java running on Chrome OS and how easy/hard this is? If you have a link to a solution (or better yet a build that already includes it) that would be great.

Thanks.

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[David Overcash]

I can't remember if Java was in this install - but I do remember that there wasn't a web page that didn't seem to work correctly...

http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/lime.php

It's similar to an AOSP Android build - they took the source for ChromeOS and built in more hardware support and ( afaik ) some other minor features.  Give it a while via USB disk?

Hope that helps!

-David

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[Jim Hutchinson]

David,

Thanks for the info. I did install the lime build by hexxeh and verified that java works. However, the jnlp apps used on http://phet.colorado.edu/ don't work even though the java test page loads and says java is working. According to Phet, they use java web start. Not sure how it's different but frustratingly chromium just downloads the jnlp files but can't open/run them.

I've been googling all night. Any insights would be most welcome.

Thanks.

[David Overcash]

Java Web Start - to my understanding - attempts to use the browser to download the application to your computer and run it locally - which is quite different from running the application in-browser.  My guess is that it won't work because ChromeOS doesn't have any place for the application to "install" to - and just doesn't know how to handle those intents.

FWIW - I can't get those to work in Linux either, but I'm using OpenJDK, so that would explain quite a bit.  :)

-David

On Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 10:55 PM, Jim Hutchinson <j...@ubuntu-rocks.org> wrote:

David,

Thanks for the info. I did install the lime build by hexxeh and verified that java works. However, the jnlp apps used on http://phet.coloYou probably undersrado.edu/ don't work even though the java test page loads and says java is working. According to Phet, they use java web start. Not sure how it's different but frustratingly chromium just downloads the jnlp files but can't open/run them.

[Jim Hutchinson]

Yeah, the Phet folks confirmed that the apps are local and likely the cause of them not working in chrome. Bummer. They did say they might port to html5 but currently just a discussion.

[Michael Haney]

On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 7:02 PM, Jim Hutchinson <j...@ubuntu-rocks.org> wrote:
> Yeah, the Phet folks confirmed that the apps are local and likely the cause
> of them not working in chrome. Bummer. They did say they might port to html5
> but currently just a discussion.
>

I wonder if Google could be persuaded to add Java support to the
Native Client feature of Chrome and Chrome OS.

--
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
https://sites.google.com/site/thezorch/

Let Hollywood Die, call your Congressman now and tell them its not
their job to save the failing business model of a industry that
refuses to adapt.

Break some Windows, bring freedom to your PC. www.ubuntu.com

[Chris Fedde]

Our kids school district (Littleton) suffers from a number of problems
with vendor and student technology lock in that seem to require
microsoft products to enable them. Infinite Campus for example seems
to be IE bound as do a few other staff tools that support the smart
boards, calculators and document projectors. Having said that the
whole district converted to google for email, document management and
calendaring this semester. No more Outlook at least. All in all it
still seems to be a mixed bag on overall "linux-ability" in our
district.

chris

[Jim Hutchinson]

That's kind of cool actually. I think our district is toying with full Google apps for mail and calendaring as well but they are also locked in and rather inflexible. The HS is loving the Chrome OS and is planning to buy more but IT is holding purchases hostage and pushing MS solutions until the pilot is done. According to the teachers, however, the verdict is in and Chrome is a win.

Still would like a java solution since too many education tools rely on it.

Jim

[Andrew Barney]

I'm not sure about java on chrome, but i do know that the smart boards do have a linux client available. In H.S. me and my friends would play kolf at lunch time using the smart board on ubuntu. But i guess your referring to the dependency on IE. Maybe you could try installing ies4linux? It probably wouldn't be a great solution though.

As a side question, Isn't ChromeOS just a highly customised version of ubuntu netbook edition? I remember trying out one of the first alphas of ChromeOS, and that's the impression i had. Although it was in very early testing stage at that point, so i have no idea how much it's progressed since then.

-Andrew

[Neal McBurnett]

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 11:17:52AM -0700, Andrew Barney wrote:
> As a side question, Isn't ChromeOS just a highly customised version of ubuntu
> netbook edition? I remember trying out one of the first alphas of ChromeOS, and
> that's the impression i had. Although it was in very early testing stage at
> that point, so i have no idea how much it's progressed since then.

ChromeOS is very different from Ubuntu. It provides no ability to download any non-web applications. In fact, no ability for users to change the root drive at all. Also, no access to a normal shell, etc. It has boot code in ROM and only runs software that the boot code verifies. So very different than most any other Linux. More tightly controlled than Android, but programmable via only HTML5 rather than Java, HTML5 and native code.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_OS

Neal McBurnett http://neal.mcburnett.org/

[Michael Haney]

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 1:44 PM, Neal McBurnett <ne...@bcn.boulder.co.us> wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 11:17:52AM -0700, Andrew Barney wrote:
>> As a side question, Isn't ChromeOS just a highly customised version of ubuntu
>> netbook edition? I remember trying out one of the first alphas of ChromeOS, and
>> that's the impression i had. Although it was in very early testing stage at
>> that point, so i have no idea how much it's progressed since then.
>
> ChromeOS is very different from Ubuntu.  It provides no ability to download any non-web applications.  In fact, no ability for users to change the root drive at all.  Also, no access to a normal shell, etc.  It has boot code in ROM and only runs software that the boot code verifies.  So very different than most any other Linux.  More tightly controlled than Android, but programmable via only HTML5 rather than Java, HTML5 and native code.
>
>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_OS
>

Chrome OS does a system file check every time it boots. If it finds a
corrupt file or a file that's been modified by some kind of malicious
software it will re-image the OS from a known good backup or grab a
fresh install from the Internet.

Chrome and Chrome OS both natively support Flash, HTML5 Canvas, WebGL,
CSS3, and Native Client .nexe C++ apps. You sorta kinda do install
apps, but that just involves adding an icon to your apps list. Only
Native Clients will actually install to the internal storage.

Here's a Native Client demo:
http://www.cs.utah.edu/~rafkind/tmp/paintown/nacl/paintown.html
If you get the message the plugin isn't allow open a new tab to
chrome:flags and Enable Native Client, then restart Chrome.

For the most part Chrome OS is a Cloud-Only OS, meaning the apps it
runs are on the web, and the same thing goes for your documents. It
does support USB thumb drives and hard drives for playing local video
and audio files, and for saving documents locally when you aren't
connected online. Gmail and Google Docs are designed to work off-line
when you don't have an Internet connection.

Under the hood its Linux based. Chrome OS has a command shell called
crosh which is a bit limited, but in development mode a full bash
shell is accessible. Most users likely won't ever need this except for
devs and power users.

--
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
https://sites.google.com/site/thezorch/

Let Hollywood Die, call your Congressman now and tell them its not
their job to save the failing business model of a industry that
refuses to adapt.

Break some Windows, bring freedom to your PC. www.ubuntu.com

--