Category: Chrome

Run x86 program on ARM Chromebook with Exagear Desktop

About Exagear Desktop Many ARM Chromebook users should know you may not have much fun compared with x86 Chromebook, the main reason is you can’t run popular x86 programs on ARM Linux by Crouton. I have written a post about running x86 version Sopcast on Raspberry Pi before, which using QEMU user mode to run x86 program on ARM Linux, however, its drawback is the performance of QEMU user mode isn’t really well. Now we get a good news that Eltechs has released their new Exagear Desktop software, they claim it is able to get near native performance by running x86 Linux program on ARM Linux with Exagear Desktop, which is about 5 times faster than QEMU. This sounds really useful for my Samsung Chromebook, so I’m considering buy a license (Exagear Desktop is not freeware, you need to pay 20 to 30 dollars according to your device) to see its real performance. You can check more details about Exagear Desktop on Eltechs’ website: http://eltechs.com/product/exagear-desktop/ After paying 30 dollars, Eltechs will send you an email with downloading link and license file, you can download Exagear Desktop from their Google Drive link. Install Exagear Desktop You should know some concept about Exagear Desktop before you start trying, the ARM Linux system is called host system, the x86 Linux system you need to run is called guest system, and you need to make sure your ARM device meets its requirements: ARMv6 or ARMv7 processor; 512MB or more memory; Ubuntu 12.04 14.04 or other Debian-like Linux system. ARM Chromebook totally satisfy these requirements, for saving your time, you should try install Ubuntu Linux on Chromebook with Crouton. I’m using XUbuntu 14.04 armhf system to test Exagear Desktop software. Unpack the install package of Exagear Desktop, you can see these files: Exagear Desktop provides […]