Any PC VM Software/Emulators for ChromeOS?

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Kimberly5384
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Any PC VM Software/Emulators for ChromeOS?

Post by Kimberly5384 »

I've been looking to get a bit more out of my Chromebook, so I was wondering if there is any sort of VM Software available for the platform.
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zde
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Re: Any PC VM Software/Emulators for ChromeOS?

Post by zde »

If you have Debian installed in ChromeOS VM on your Chromebook then you could run Wine and then some emulators supported by both Wine and Debian. Not all since your kernel is somewhat restricted in that mode, but I know that PCem works fine, at least (both native and windows versions).

If you use Developer mode and installed Linux and/or Windows then, of course, you could use all emulators for Linux or Windows...

Kimberly5384
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Re: Any PC VM Software/Emulators for ChromeOS?

Post by Kimberly5384 »

zde wrote:If you have Debian installed in ChromeOS VM on your Chromebook then you could run Wine and then some emulators supported by both Wine and Debian. Not all since your kernel is somewhat restricted in that mode, but I know that PCem works fine, at least (both native and windows versions).

If you use Developer mode and installed Linux and/or Windows then, of course, you could use all emulators for Linux or Windows...
Finally, a clear, concise answer. Thanks for the help, I'll try developer mode and see how it goes...
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zde
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Re: Any PC VM Software/Emulators for ChromeOS?

Post by zde »

Cosmo wrote:Finally, a clear, concise answer. Thanks for the help, I'll try developer mode and see how it goes...
Just a word of advice: I'm not entirely sure you want the developer mode.

It's mode designed for developers and basically turns your Chromebook into a GNU/Linux device... yet pretty weird GNU/Linux device: there are no X Windows Server (thus most GUI programs don't work out of the box), there are Chrome browser which works as Windows Manager (yet Wayland window manager, not X Window manager!) and so on.

In short: it should be possible to install VirtualBox or VMWare in such a mode - but this would require quite a non-trivial amount of work.

It maybe easier to install Crouton instead. This, too, is not entirely trivial, but at least this would give you Chromebook with dual-boot and normal GNU/Linux environment.

Even more involved is the next step: installation of SeaBIOS and then Windows. This, too, is doable - but very involved and dangerous.

I would suggest you to start with Debian and see if you could live with it before you'll do all that.

P.S. Maybe one day VirtualBox guys and/or VMWare guys would read the documentation and would make VirtualBox and/or VMware specifically for ChromeOS (this should be possible thanks to Crostini), but for now you either have to use limited version of Linux with only things like QEMU/PCem/UAE/etc or have to do dangerous surgery in Developer mode...

yksoft1
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Re: Any PC VM Software/Emulators for ChromeOS?

Post by yksoft1 »

If you don't want install other OS on your (bootloader locked newer) ChromeOS devices, here seems to be a lot of PC emulators that runs inside browsers.
I remember that there are one written by Fabrice Bellard that runs Windows 2000..

With Emscripten, many emulators with SDL/SDL2 backend gained some possibility to be ported to run in browsers.
https://yksoft1.github.io/

zde
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Re: Any PC VM Software/Emulators for ChromeOS?

Post by zde »

Emulators that run in Browsers are usually slow and drain battery like a hell. If you would install Debian (you don't need to unlock your bootloader or do anything warranty-changing for that, although not all devices are supported) - you can install all Emulators except for Hardware-assisted ones. MAME, PCem, QEMU, WinUAE and so on.

Also could run other GNU/Linux apps like Firefox or IntelliJ IDEA.

That's really the best "first step" option if your device supports Debian installation in Crostini...

Kimberly5384
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Re: Any PC VM Software/Emulators for ChromeOS?

Post by Kimberly5384 »

I found some other options I thought were useful so I'll post them here. Alternatively there are a few things you can do. On Chrome OS, after enabling Linux applications, you can install DOSBox. From there, you can install 9x operating systems. I was able to do this pretty easily emulating Windows 3.1.

On the other hand, you could use Google Cloud services and run more modern versions of Windows such as Server 2016 or Windows 10. Not really something I would do, but if you're really interested in it I'd say go for it.
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MCpillager12
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Re: Any PC VM Software/Emulators for ChromeOS?

Post by MCpillager12 »

Just don't use a ChromeBook. It's pretty underpowered and might run VMs very slowly.

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Re: Any PC VM Software/Emulators for ChromeOS?

Post by AlphaBeta »

MCpillager12 wrote:Just don't use a ChromeBook. It's pretty underpowered and might run VMs very slowly.
I don't think that answers the original question.
AlphaBeta, stop brainwashing me immediately!

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zde
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Re: Any PC VM Software/Emulators for ChromeOS?

Post by zde »

MCpillager12 wrote:Just don't use a ChromeBook. It's pretty underpowered and might run VMs very slowly.
My pixelbook has i7-7Y75 which could go up to 3.6GHz, 16GB RAM and 512GB storage.

More than adequate for sub-3lb laptop. Most thin and light laptops I've used are slower, in fact.

MCpillager12
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Re: Any PC VM Software/Emulators for ChromeOS?

Post by MCpillager12 »

zde wrote:
MCpillager12 wrote:Just don't use a ChromeBook. It's pretty underpowered and might run VMs very slowly.
My pixelbook has i7-7Y75 which could go up to 3.6GHz, 16GB RAM and 512GB storage.

More than adequate for sub-3lb laptop. Most thin and light laptops I've used are slower, in fact.
I'm talking about the chromebooks that you find in schools and the cheap ones, especially the Samsung ones.
AlphaBeta wrote:
MCpillager12 wrote:Just don't use a ChromeBook. It's pretty underpowered and might run VMs very slowly.
I don't think that answers the original question.
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Can you PLEASE just leave me alone? Thanks.

Kimberly5384
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Re: Any PC VM Software/Emulators for ChromeOS?

Post by Kimberly5384 »

I have a Lenovo C330. I got it as a gift.
Why couldn't I have gotten a Windows PC instead...
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