If you frequently use Linux on your Chromebook, you must have seen programs that come in tar.gz, AppImage, and DEB packages. DEB programs are easy to install and AppImage programs work fine on a Chromebook, but installing a tar.gz file on Chrome OS is a bit of a hassle. To make things easy, we provide you with a handy guide on how to install a tar.gz file on your Chromebook. You need to run a few commands and everything will be ready.
Uploading Tar.gz File to Chromebook (2021)
In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to install LibreOffice, one of the best Linux apps for Chromebooks. It comes in tar.gz file format and requires extraction and manual installation in a Linux container. I’m assuming you already have Linux installed on your Chromebook. So, without further ado, let’s move on to the steps.
1. First, ‘tar.gz file’Linux files‘ section under the Files app.
2. Next, press the “Ctrl + Enter” keyboard shortcut on your Chromebook and copy the filename. make sure you copy it. all filenametar.gz extension included.
3. Now, run the Linux Terminal and run the following command. Be sure change filename with the one you copied above. It will extract the tar.gz file to a folder on your Chromebook.
sudo tar -xf filename.tar.gz
4. After the tar.gz file has been extracted, go to the ‘Linux files’ section under the Files app and copy folder name. This time you won’t have an extension.
5. Now, run the following command move inside the extracted folder. Remember to replace the folder name in the command with the actual name you copied above.
cd foldername
6. At the bottom of the folder, Search for .deb files. As for LibreOffice, the DEB files are under the “DEBS” folder, so we need to move to that folder. Run the following command to navigate to a specific folder.
cd DEBS
7. Once here, execute the following command and install all DEB programs It’s under the tar.gz file on your Chromebook. Installation will take some time, so please be patient.
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
8. Finally, after the installation is complete, you can access the apps from: App Drawer Under Linux folder. This much.
Extract and Run the Tar.gz File on Chrome OS
So you can install a tar.gz file on Chrome OS. I also mentioned how you can extract the contents of the tar.gz file via the Linux Terminal. If you don’t have access to Linux or just want to extract the contents of a tar.gz file, follow our guide on how to extract ZIP, 7Z, or TAR files on a Chromebook. Anyway, that’s it for us. If you have any questions, let us know in the comment section below.
