Blog Chromebook guide

💻 Chromebook Ubuntu Troubleshooting and Device Switching Guide

This blog requires 0 prior coding experience and starts from the very basics.
If you were lost in class, this will pull you back to the right track.

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✅ When to Use This Blog

Use this guide if:

1. You are currently using a Chromebook or a KASM device.
2. You are having trouble setting up the virtual environment and VS Code.
3. You’re done with how slow Chromebooks are and want to switch to a new device.

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Why Do We Need Ubuntu?

You can access VS Code directly on your Chromebook.
However, running VS Code this way removes many important features.

To get the full development experience, we’ll:

1. Set up Ubuntu (Linux environment).
2. Run VS Code inside Linux.

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Prerequisites

Before starting:

• You must have already created an Open Coding Society account.
  👉 If not, go to pages.opencodingsociety.com and log in.

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🖥️ Setting Up on Chromebook (KASM)

1. Go to kasm.opencodingsociety.com/#/login.
   • Log in with your GitHub username (typed in the email field) and the same password.

2. On the right, click the orange Ubuntu Noble → Launch Session.

3. Right-click inside the session → Open Terminal Here.

4. In the terminal, run: ```bash mkdir opencs cd opencs git clone ⚠️ If you don’t have your own repository, go to this link and click Fork.

Continue setup: cd student/ ./scripts/activate.sh # Enter your GitHub username and email ./scripts/venv.sh code . When VS Code opens, go to Extensions (icon with 4 small squares) and install:

Python

Jupyter Notebook

🔄 Next Time You Log In When you come back later: cd opencs/student source venv/bin/activate code . ⚠️ Common Chromebook Issues Ubuntu Freezing Close the window and reopen Ubuntu through kasm.opencodingsociety.com.

In the session list, delete the old one, wait until it fully disappears, then start a new session.

source venv/bin/activate Not Working Usually caused because you forgot cd opencs/student If you are in the correct directory and it still fails → ask your peers or Mr. Mortensen.

👉 Always check your spelling when typing commands — many errors are just typos.

🖥️ Switching to Windows (with WSL) If Chromebooks are too slow and you’ve moved to a Windows system, here’s how to set up Ubuntu via WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux):

In the Windows search bar, type and run:

wsl –install -d Ubuntu-24.04 Set up a username and password (save these somewhere safe).

Exit WSL: exit Set Ubuntu 24.04 as the default: wsl –set-default Ubuntu-24.04 Start Ubuntu again: wsl Inside Ubuntu, run: mkdir opencs cd opencs git config –global credential.helper “/mnt/c/Program Files/Git/mingw64/bin/git-credential-manager.exe” git clone https://github.com/Open-Coding-Society/student.git cd student/ ./scripts/activate_ubuntu.sh ./scripts/activate.sh After setup, close the terminal.

🔄 Next Time on Windows When reopening Ubuntu:

bash cd opencs/student source venv/bin/activate code . ⚠️ Common Windows Issues PowerShell Error: File Activate.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system.

Fix:

Run PowerShell as Administrator.

Enter: powershell Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process 🚨 Important: The setup process will not work inside PowerShell. You must type commands inside the Ubuntu terminal that WSL installed.

🎉 That’s it! You now know how to set up your coding environment on both Chromebooks (KASM) and Windows (WSL).

If you run into problems, ask your peers, Mr. Mortensen, or ChatGPT — don’t push forward on the wrong path.

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