Tag: Chromium

If there was any doubt that Google is planning to make Linux available on a wide range of Chromebooks, a find by XDA Developers should put them to rest.  The code snippet found in a Chromium commit has added 18 new Apollo Lake powered Chromebooks to Project Crostini, the codename for the project to add Linux to Chrome OS.

The new additions are Chromebooks from the likes of Acer, Dell, and Lenovo, offering a much broader group of devices that will be able to run Linux and, notably, not the upper end of processing power.

A new commit in the Chrome OS code review may give the first indicator of what will be replacing the now defunct Supervised Account feature of the platform.  The commit points to a new Chrome OS Account Manager.  The details are pretty thin on it and the comments are still private so there is very little to go on to be fair.

However, this is the first commit to point to anything remotely resembling Supervised Accounts.  That feature, most often used for child accounts on Chromebooks, was deprecated earlier this year.  Google at the time indicated a new solution would be coming forward but didn’t give a timeline.  It may be coming sooner rather than later.

We are only two months into 2018 but it is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Chrome OS.  This year is slated to be a busy one with 8 releases of the platform scheduled to happen this calendar year.  One of those, Chrome 64, has already happened but by the time we get to December, we will be rolling out Chrome 71 believe it or not.

The Chromium team has put together a tentative schedule of releases for Chrome OS for 2018.  While the calendar is subject to change due to unforeseen bugs or other issues, last year the team was pretty much on target all year with releases.  It is a reasonable bet that 2018 will follow suite.

Nearly three weeks after the initial Chrome 64 release in the Stable Channel, there is a new build that has been released for Chrome OS.  Build 64.0.3282.167 or 64.0.3282.169 (Platform version: 10176.72.0 or 10176.73.0) was released earlier today and it will be rolling out to the majority of devices starting today.  Users can manually check for the update by going to chrome://help on their device and checking for the update.

Generally the Chromium team has been releasing the first update of a new build to non-Android running Chromebooks while the second one in the train goes to those than can run the apps.  That appears to be the case here as reviewing the OmahaProxy shows the vast majority of devices now with either the .167 or .169 build as their stable release.

One of the challenges for retailers is showing off a product’s capabilities without leaving it unlocked for random interactions from store visitors.  This can lead to anything from malicious code being loaded up to a porn site loaded up in the browser.  That is where a demo mode comes in handy and, to this point, is something that has not been in Chrome OS.  But that looks to be changing.

A new commit found in the Chrome OS review Gerrit shows that a demo mode could be in the works for the platform.  This would make it immeasurably easier for retailers to setup Chromebooks in their stores that highlight what the platform can do but not leave it open to questionable activity.

There is a new, optional security update for Chrome OS that fixes a vulnerability with the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) in the majority of Chromebooks.  To apply the update however, you will need to Powerwash your device.

The vulnerability has to do with hackers potentially being able to brute force the RSA keys generated by your TPM.  This, in theory, could give the the opportunity to plant malicious code on your device or take it over.  For those not familiar, a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a specialized chip on an endpoint device that stores RSA encryption keys specific to the host system for hardware authentication. It essentially makes sure that the hardware and software on your device are secure and encrypted and what has access to the keys generated by it.  Thus, you see the problem.  If the TPM gets compromised, it can lead to a lot of issues for end users.