#1

Is there a way ChromeOS users can use Obsidian without relying on Crostini or running an installed application? This would essentially be equivalent to being able to run Obsidian in a browser.

5 Likes
#2

Just for reference on getting it working on Chromeos:

What worked for me

  1. Enable linux in Chromebook settings (not crostini)
  2. Download obsidian…Appimage from website and put in Linux folder
  3. Open terminal. Making it executable didn’t seem to work, so I ran it via an app called midnight commander - in terminal I ran: sudo apt install mc . Then select appImage file and hit enter (this I figured out from https://www.reddit.com/r/Crostini/comments/bpiizj/appimage_on_chromeos/)
  4. It didn’t install an icon, so to run it I have to via terminal : open terminal and enter: ./obsidianfilename.AppImage

You could then also use rclone to sync your vault with cloud storage like dropbox

2 Likes
#3

Good morning

Obsidian appears to be an Electron app, which I guess is how they can support multiple platforms so easily. Except Chrome OS (properly - my Chrome book doesn’t support Linux so it’s not universal)!

How about publishing Obsidian as a Progressive Web App (PWA) - it’s all the same benefits of Electron plus Chrome OS and you don’t need to package Electron (it is just running a Chrome browser anyways so I struggle to see the value in Electron)! And PWA’s work on Android too (but the only one I use is Twitter so I’m not as familiar with them there).

3 Likes
#4

I second this. perhaps a self hosted server version!

#5

I think PWAs have different security box issues for reading the file system – i.e. browsers can’t read the file system due to sandboxing. Or calling specific OS calls underneath that Electron needs, for example for setting the file menus.

#6

I second this. Building a Progressive Web App (PWA) will take time and effort, however it allows the team to use one application across all major platforms. The Twitter app is a prime example, just like YouTube Music. It is also a way to bypass app stores and their restrictions to donate a percentage of your income to, for example, Apple and Google.

A PWA can also act as a bridge to have people enjoy Obsidian on their mobile devices on short term, and allow the developers more time to develop a native app in the long term. Flutter is a framework I have read about and seems promising for developing cross-platform mobile apps, including Linux.

Now I am not a developer, so there may be shortcomings that I am not aware of.

Read more about PWA development on:
PWA home: https://web.dev/progressive-web-apps/
Web support for Flutter: https://flutter.dev/web

#7

Has there been any further research into an in-browser or a PWA version of Obsidian? Anything outside developers could do to help?

#8

Echoing what @ksandvik mentioned, I think it might be incompatible with what Obsidian does. I found this stackoverflow question, and from there I found this:

At least for now out of scope is access to the full file system, subscribing to file change notifications, probably many things related to file metadata (i.e. marking files as executable/hidden, etc). Also not yet planning to address how this new API might integrate with .

I’m not an expert on this though, so feel free to look into this more.

#9
  • on a chromebook, you can set up opening the application through AppImage. download the Obsidian AppImage, and place it in the Linux folder. Then, open the Terminal and type:
    chmod a+x Obsidian-0.9.4.AppImage
  • now Obsidian can be opened anytime after this set up by simply typing:
    • ./Obsidian-0.9.4.AppImage
    • hint: press tab to autofill the filename after typing the first three letters! So, effectively opening Obsidian is quick by typing ./Obs + tab.

reference: https://beebom.com/install-appimage-programs-on-chromebook/

#10

there is a .deb build for chromeos

#11

My employer locks down our Google Accounts such that I can’t use Linux or Android on a Chromebook if I’m signed in to my work account. Kind of a deal-breaker for using obsidian with no web app…