Chromium Netbooks » how-to

Activate VPN in Chromebook

admin — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 13:41:06 +0000

It may surprise you but Chromebooks have VPN functionality built in. However, it is still a beta feature and is deactivated by default. Here are the steps to activate it. Type in about:flags in the address bar and enable "VPN support" from the list of experiments.

Then, you can easily add layer 2 tunneling protocol (l2tp) and other related features easily. Right now, Chromium OS only supports L2TP/IPSec with pre-shared key and user certificate. In my testing, it worked with Windows Server and Cisco, but since it is still an ‘experimental’ feature, it may not work with all of them.

Unlock GSM Support on Google CR-48

admin — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 07:33:24 +0000

The Google Chromium netbook, CR-48 comes with built in Gobi wireless chip that is perfectly capable of connecting to various GSM networks, but Google has coded it to work with only some mobile broadband protocols.

Google has now unleashed an update for the Chromium OS that would allow you to enable GSM support with the AT&T network as well. Here are the instructions:

Pop your SIM card into the slot under the battery (must be a full-size SIM, microSIMs you’ll just lose in there, fine if you use an adaptor though)

Make sure you’ve enabled developer mode – do this by flipping the switch under your battery
Once you’re booted into developer mode and logged in, press Control-Alt-T
This opens crosh, a limited command shell. Since we’re in developer mode, we can get a full shell. Type the word shell and press enter.
You’ll get a shell that starts with ‘chronos@localhost / $’. Once you’ve got this, we can type in the command that flips over to GSM.
Type the following command: modem_set_carrier “Generic UMTS”
Wait a couple of minutes, then you can exit the shell by typing exit twice.
Your 3G should be usable assuming you have an active service plan on that SIM card, and that ChromeOS knows your APN settings.

Keep in mind that the carrier name will not appear in the user interface. Also, the APN details have to be hardcoded. See the list here.

[via hexxeh]

How To: Add Chrome OS Menu to Google Chrome Browser

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:33:41 +0000

Chrome OS menu which is the first tab is not directly accessible on the Chromium OS. Even it you enter its address, which is http://welcome-cros.appspot.com/menu, you won’t be able to access the Menu. However, there is a workaround –

Right click on the Google Chrome Browser icon on your desktop.
Select “Properties”
Look for “Target”
In the ”Target” box, after chrome.exe” put a space, and add the following line of code
-user-agent=”Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; CrOS i686 9.10; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.5 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/4.0.253.0 Safari/532.5″ -pinned-tab-count=1
Now, Click “Apply” and then “OK”
Now go to “Options” menu in Google Chrome settings.
Under “Home Page”, select ” Open This Page”
Enter http://welcome-cros.appspot.com/menu
Hit “close”
Restart your Chrome browser
That’s it

Thanks Kamal for the tip!