• ChromeOS

    Chromebook Hotkeys and Keyboard Shortcuts

    Using keystroke combinations to perform actions on computers have been a massive time saver, since the days when Douglas Engelbart basically invented the macro keypad at the same time that he invented the mouse. They were always meant to be used together. I find that when I’m navigating my Pixelbook and my Surface I tend to use the screen to tap, more and more – similar to how they used light pens introduced in the MIT Whirlwind in the 50s. But those keystrokes still save three or 4 taps at times and not only are they great time savers, but they kinda’ make you look wizardly to those watching over…

  • ChromeOS,  Ubuntu,  Unix

    Make Changes to the Chromium rootfs

    By default, the Chromium OS rootfs is read-only. If you boot the system in developer mode, you will be able to disable rootfs verification and modify existing files or write new files into the file system. Before you do this, note that your file system will no longer be verifiable (won’t checksum properly) and you’ll end up needing to restore a recovery image in order to get back to normal mode. So this might be a bit dangerous if you’re not using the device for something like regression analysis (why I needed to do this). To make the file system writeable, first fire up a command prompt via crosh, by using Control-Alt-T…