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AnastasiaDunbar/How to enable Developer Mode on Chromebook.md

Last active February 23, 2019 21:47
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How to enable Developer Mode on Chromebook.md

Before enabling Developer Mode, archive your 'Downloads' folder, bookmarks, passwords, cache, add-ons, themes, apps, history, settings, custom words for spell check and etc. if you'd wish to keep your data.

Remember to disable Developer Mode before getting warranty support, this would also go through the same powerwash process.

Before setting up Linux (Beta), note that your Chromebook typically protects your computer by running each app in a “sandbox”. However, all Linux apps are run inside the same sandbox. This means a harmful Linux app can affect other Linux apps, but not the rest of your Chromebook. Permissions and files shared with Linux are available to all Linux apps. But speakers, microphones, cameras, USB devices/debuggers, Android Studio, emulators, hardware acceleration, GPU and video decoding aren't yet supported.

Steps to enable Developer Mode on your Chromebook:

  1. Press and hold Esc+Refresh+Power simultaneously.
  2. Press Ctrl+D when asked to insert recovery media.
  3. Press Enter on “To turn OS verification OFF, press ENTER.”
  4. Press Ctrl+D when it states that the OS verification is off.
  5. Wait for the system transitioning into Developer Mode and it'll boot up on its own.
  6. Press Ctrl+D (or wait for an audible beep) instead of space bar when it says “OS verification is OFF. Press SPACE to re-enable.”, otherwise you'd have to start all over again.

There are firmware utility scripts to rewrite its firmware boot flags in https://mrchromebox.tech/#fwscript if you'd like to remove the “OS verification is OFF. Press SPACE to re-enable.” that appears every time you boot up your Chromebook. One could borrow your computer as an example to take into consideration. Be warned that it might not work as intended.

If you can't pin a Linux app to shelf, make a desktop entry ('.desktop' as a file extension) for that in the /usr/share/applications/ directory, just set Exec to the right path to program and you might also need to be concerned of if it's an editor that should be able to open files in another window without unintentional problems occurring.

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