Asus Chromebook C302 with Android Apps

I got an Asus Chromebook 302 that comes with an Intel core m3, 64Gb, 4Gb of memory.

Some problems I got on my device:

After I enabled the android app store the laptop started to reboot randomly. I tried removing the apps and switching chrome os channels, but it did not fix the problem.

So I decided to create a recovery SDCard using chrome recovery utility. I re-imaged the laptop with the SD card, using the instructions from the chrome recovery utility.

After that the laptop booted in stable channel, I update the laptop to the latest stable image.

List of Applications I am running:

Pandora, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Messenger, Hangouts, Play Newsstand, Hangouts Dialer, Calendar, Photos, Npr One, Voxer, Twilight, Firefox, Youtube, Google wifi, Hipchat, 3Dmark.

Here is a screenshot running 23 Android applications at same time.

This is screen shot running twilight, for those of us missing a blue light filter.

3DMark and Octane

The score below is running in the ChromeOS dev channel. I only able to get octane scores between 15000-17000, but the machine still feels really fast.

UnKilled

Alto

The Asus Chromebook C302

This post was written on the Asus C302. I am very impressed with it and would highly recommend it.

Pros:

• Amazing performance,
• Very good build quality, a great keyboard, very nice screen, and just a premium solid feel to it
• Android apps on
• Great backlit keyboard (Mac-book Pro feel)
• Convertible
• Some Android apps like calendar, Pandora, photos, YouTube, Firefox support bigger screen, but most apps still don't, and these apps render in landscape or portrait more like they look on a phone, but without using the extra space of the big screen.
• I like the USB C cable and being able to charge the laptop from both sides, avoids awkward cables when the charger is on the wrong side, like my other laptops.
• Fanless, silent, love that.
• Charging is fast.

Cons:

• Android apps only support 2 sizes, full screen or phone size. In full-screen mode the majority of the apps are just a large super sized version of the phone version, offering very little extra functionality.

Chrome OS advanced commands, settings, expert features

Chrome OS advanced commands, settings, expert features

All features described here where tested on a Asus C302 Chromebook, but should work on all Chromebooks, screenshots are from the Asus C302.

Recovery

Install new factory image for your chrome book
https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/1080595?hl=en

Perform a Hard Reset

Go to settings select the reset section, you can do a reset or a powerwash.

Force-Boot Into Recovery Mode

If you’d like to reinstall Chrome OS and you don’t see the “Chrome OS is missing or damaged” message on your screen, you can force your Chromebook to boot into recovery mode.

First, turn off your Chromebook. Next, press Esc + Refresh on the keyboard and hold down the Power button. Your Chromebook will boot straight to recovery mode.

Enable Canary

First, turn off your Chromebook. Press Esc+Refresh+Power and, when the recovery prompt appears, press Ctrl+D and accept the prompt that appears to disable boot verification. When the Chromebook reboots, press Ctrl+D again. Please note that this will powerwash your Chromebook, so be sure all your local media files and screenshots are copied to Google Drive before you attempt this.

Once your Chromebook has ended up in developer mode and you log in, press Ctrl+Alt+T. This will get you to a "crosh" prompt. Type "shell" as mentioned above, then run "sudo su" to get to a root shell. Once running as root, run this command:

update_engine_client --channel=canary-channel --update

The first parameter ― "-channel=canary-channel" ― sets the channel to canary via the command line. The second ― "-update" ― will run a "ForcedUpdate" app version command, which will, as you'd expect, force an update without checking. It of course will take a while, so be patient. It's also not for the faint of heart, because the progress is shown as a long decimal between 0 and 1 instead of a percentage.

Revert back to verified mode

When you do end up logging in (you need to press Ctrl+D every time you reboot, of course, until the end of this step) you'll want to go back to verified mode for security reasons. So, when you are prompted to reboot when the update is completed, you'll see a prompt to hit the spacebar to disable developer mode. Press it, and you'll be back in verified mode.

Change Chrome OS flags

chrome://flags

Features I enable:

• Material design settings can be enable here (Enable all)
• Experimental Chromecast support for Video Player
• Simulated hardware 'Ok Google' features
• Tab audio muting UI control
• Print Pdf as Image
• Android Wallpapers App 
• Show Android Files app 
• Media Remoting during Cast Tab Mirroring

Manage google cast devices

chrome://cast/#devices

Tools

System Info Viewer

SSH terminal

Google ssh plugin

Do a barrel roll

When you hit the Reload button, the Chrome OS browser refreshes the active web page. Hold down Alt+Ctrl+Shift while pressing it, and you’ll see a much more entertaining effect.

Key commands

Press Ctrl+Alt+/ within Chrome OS to view a handy visual guide.

The Chrome OS keyboard is designed to be simple, but if you’re used to a desktop keyboard, you may feel like you’re missing several useful keys. The good news is that almost all of them can be simulated in Chrome OS by pressing the right key combinations:

Applications

Task Manager           Search+Esc
File Manager            Shift+Alt+m
Message Center        Shift+Alt+n
Status Menu              Shift+Alt+s
Stylus tools               Shit+Alt+p

Screen shot

Screenshot                Ctrl+Switch window

Screenshot region     Ctrl+Shift+Switch window

Screenshot window  Ctrl+Alt+Switch window
Print Screen              Ctrl+Switch Window

Monitor

Swap primary Monitor      Alt+Full screen
Mirror Monitor                  Ctrl+Full screen
Rotate Screen 90 degrees  Shift+Altf+Refresh

Useful Keyboard shortcuts

Caps Lock                Alt+Search (press again to cancel, or hit Shift)
Page Up/Down         Alt+Up/Down or Search+Up/Down
Home/End                Ctrl+Alt+Up/Down or Search+Left/Right
Del                           Alt+Backspace or Search+Backspace
Insert                        Search+>
F1-F12                      Search+1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/0/-/=

You can reconfigure the behaviour of certain keys from the Keyboard Settings dialog, accessible from the main Settings page. There’s also a huge number of additional shortcuts available.

Terminal (crosh)

Open a terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T

Find debugging commands: help
help_advanced

top
tracepath
dmesg
route
uname
ping

Trace a network path (like traceroute or tracert):

tracepath www.google.com

To run standard network diagnostics:

network_diag 

References:
http://strawn-04.blogspot.in/2013/12/chromebook-howto-update-to-hidden.html

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pnhechapfaindjhompbnflcldabbghjo

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pnhechapfaindjhompbnflcldabbghjo