While ChromeOS does have a few basic tools for Creatives, these tools tend to be very basic. So for anyone looking to edit a video or podcast, you might need to find alternative tools to use. So in this video we demonstrated how though Linux Development Environment (LDE), we can run Audacity on a Chromebook.
Audacity is a free and powerful, open source piece of audio editing software. Which makes it a fantastic tool for anyone new to content creation. So not only is it easy to learn and understand, because you can add multiple plugins you can often improve the sound quality of a video or audio file you are working on.
Note: As LDE is really just a Virtual Machine of Linux within ChromeOS. By default Linux and ChromeOS will be isolated from each other. So in order to share files between the two operating systems, you will need to setup a shared folder on your Chromebook.
If you are using a school or work Chromebook, accessing Linux Development Environment may have been disabled by your IT department. So please contact your system administrator or tech support before trying to use LDE.
Quick reference notes:
- Open the Linux Development Environment menu
- From within the menu select Penguin to open a Linux Terminal windows
- First we are going to check for update by typing:
sudo apt update- As we did not have any updates, there was no need to perform an update. However, if you need to update the applications and services in your instance of Linux you will need to type:
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade- When we are once again presented with the command prompt we can install Audacity
Note: In order to make installing Linux applications into Linux easier, we use a Software Management Utility called Flatpak. In order for you to use the following commands you first need to install Flatpak into your instance of Linux. – ChromeOS | Linux Development Environment | Install Flatpak onto a Chromebook
- At the command prompt type:
sudo flatpak install flathub org.audacityteam.Audacity- When prompted to “Proceed with these Changes to the system installation?“, type Y
- Audacity will now install onto your Chromebook
- When you once again see a command prompt you can exit out of the terminal window by typing:
exit- We can now try and run the Audacity application.
- In the ChromeOS app Launcher you will a folder called Linux apps which will contain any Linux applications you have installed onto your Chromebook. You should find the icon for Audacity here.
Note: As most cheap Chromebooks use eMMC drives rather that SSD’s, you might find that it takes a while for the Audacity application to load. So this slow load speed is more a limitation of your model of Chromebook, rather than Audacity as an application.
Reference materials:
- Google support article – Setup Linux on your Chromebook
- Wikipedia – Virtual Machine
- Audacity website – Audacity
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