Running Obsidian on ChromeBook

[bscott]

Hey,

Anyone has Obsidian working on ChromeOS, I know there is not a Linux version yet as that would work on ChromeOS.

[Craig]

Hey bscott. Obsidian is available for Linux. You can download as an AppImage or a snap here:

https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-releases/releases/tag/v0.8.15

Maybe one of those will run on a Chromebook?

[bscott]

Thanks!, I had just realized that!

[bscott]

Unfortunately its not loading…, need to debug it. Using Snap install, had to use the --dangerous flag.

❯ obsidian
(electron) ‘allowRendererProcessReuse’ is deprecated and will be removed.
No protocol specified
The futex facility returned an unexpected error code.[1] 6548 abort (core dumped) obsidian

[bscott]

AppImage works

❯ ./Obsidian-0.8.15.AppImage
(electron) ‘allowRendererProcessReuse’ is deprecated and will be removed.
Loading main app package /tmp/.mount_sdsdsdw/resources/obsidian.asar
Checking for update using Github
Success.
App is up to date.

[jeanseb]

I also have this message but the application is opening. If I remember correctly. I had to install a missing dependency on the first startup using the appimage.

[bscott]

Do you remember what that Dep was?

[jeanseb]

sudo apt-get install libnss3. The vault is from shared folder of Google drive and the chromebook is a hp x360 14’

[DannyQuah]

For apps installed by apt, I am able to pin to ChromeOS Shelf (and then choose high/low density, and other attributes). Not so, however, for Obsidian and other packages being used as Appimages. On my Google Pixelbook, therefore, Obsidian shows up with tiny fonts and icons, not just in the documents screen but in its menus and panels. What are others doing to adjust the scaling for Obsidian (and other Appimages)? Is there a flag option, for instance, I can give Obsidian when I invoke it from my shell?

[pshev]

The linux ARM images all seem to be old versions when I looked. You can try to use the Android subsystem and try that, as it is what one gets on the phone. Just installed on my Duet and it can open the vault and I can see content. Haven’t tried all the plugins yet to see if there are any quirks as the Android system on ChromeOS isn’t 100% compatible in practice. But I’m seeing the asks plugin, homepage and others work. And the keyboard works as opposed to many Android apps that lack keyboard support.

[Craig]

Hi DannyQuah,

To get Obsidian for Linux to show up as a pinnable app on my Chrome OS shelf, I needed to create a desktop file for it: /home/user/.local/share/applications/obsidian.desktop

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Name=Obsidian (Linux)
Exec=/home/craig/apps/obsidian/Obsidian-LATEST-arm64.AppImage %u
Icon=/home/craig/apps/obsidian/obsidian.png
MimeType=text/html;x-scheme-handler/obsidian;

Of course, you’ll need to alter the file to point to the location of your AppImage file.

I hope this is helpful!

Craig

[DannyQuah]

Awesome. Works beautifully! Thank you so much.

[DannyQuah]

This adds to Craig’s very helpful answer. I found that “High density” is illegible, but then after a few days use I thought also that “Low density” makes everything too big. (This is an issue for me not just on Obsidian but with other Linux apps on ChromeOs.) Experimenting around this, after I went back and looked up at my old Crostini dotfiles, I found that it is possible to get something in between High and Low density. Change the Exec line in your desktop file to something like this:

Exec=sommelier -X --scale=0.6 --dpi=160 /path/to/your/own/Obsidian.AppImage %u

(let me know if you find that different values to scale and dpi work better for you).