69 Beta is awesome

[Nauga]

Finally, smart lock worked like a charm with my 2 XL, and installing the Linux container amounts to tapping one button in Settings to enable it. Cake! Now I have to bone up on Linux commands before I can actually try to use it.

But that's what the weekend's for. New toys!

Be sure to shut off Bluetooth on your PB and your phone if you decide to change channels from Stable, and remember to hit Ctrl + c on the keyboard when your machine gets stuck at updating touchpad firmware. That's supposed to take about 2 minutes, but mine was showing no signs of stopping after 10 minutes and Ctrl + c got it back to the login screen.

Who knows why, but BT was evidently causing bootloops after the update.

Thank you r/Pixelbook subreddit!

EDIT: Disable Smart Lock, too, along with shutting off Bluetooth before installing the 69 Beta update.

EDIT 8/26: Apparently, 69 beta is so awesome that it's been causing craptons of problems, and the Pixelbook beta channel has been reverted to 68. Regardless, I haven't experienced any problems on the 69 beta, and I'm either staying on it until they push a new version of 69 beta or I'm jumping to 70 on the dev channel. A weird position to be in for someone who didn't really know jack about Linux or even changing channels in Chrome before yesterday afternoon.

 

[B. Diddy]

Thanks for the update! Mine is still stuck on 67 stable -- I had heard 68 had been pulled temporarily for certain Chromebooks due to wi-fi issues.

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

I got my brand new Pixelbook today (£549 at Currys with a £200 trade in for a 2011 macbook pro). Changed to beta channel and when it went to restart for update it caused a fatal error and I had to restore the PB back to factory settings!! Not a good start for my new hardware. So now a bit scared to change channel again and will wait for the stable update to download. Miss the dark themed notification and quick settings panel that I enabled on my asus C100PA yesterday before I bought the PB though.

Still running apps is a dream on the new PB. Slides runs as smooth as Numbers does on my MB Air. It is just a delight to use.

 

[Nauga]

Miss the dark themed notification and quick settings panel that I enabled on my asus C100PA yesterday before I bought the PB though.

Well. There's always v70 on the dev channel, which has been tempting me. But there are supposed to be updated versions for every channel but Canary in the works that are due "soon." I'm holding out for one of those.

 

[B. Diddy]

Changed to beta channel and when it went to restart for update it caused a fatal error and I had to restore the PB back to factory settings!!

Eek. Maybe this is why stable 68 is still delayed on my Pixelbook!

 

[dc52ltr]

I got my brand new Pixelbook today (£549 at Currys with a £200 trade in for a 2011 macbook pro). Changed to beta channel and when it went to restart for update it caused a fatal error and I had to restore the PB back to factory settings!! Not a good start for my new hardware. So now a bit scared to change channel again and will wait for the stable update to download. Miss the dark themed notification and quick settings panel that I enabled on my asus C100PA yesterday before I bought the PB though.

Still running apps is a dream on the new PB. Slides runs as smooth as Numbers does on my MB Air. It is just a delight to use.

Pleased you like it Kirstein, I've had mine since the start of this year and I love it

 

[Nauga]

69 Beta is back to being awesome now that the Beta channel's been updated to 69.0.3497.87. Chrome still can't hold on to tabs after a reboot, but Linux apps, like Libre Office, seem a lot snappier than before. Phone unlock is a lot more consistent, too.

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

I signed back up to beta. It didn't upgrade me from 68 stable until today, when I finally got an update back to 69. And Yippee!! I didn't have to reinstall chrome from a rescue disk. So progress from the first 1/2 hour I had my laptop.

I changed my settings bar to the black combi bar using flags. Not tried the linux container. The only thing I will try and install is Libre Office to see what it is like. Fun! Things to explore.

 

[dc52ltr]

I signed back up to beta. It didn't upgrade me from 68 stable until today, when I finally got an update back to 69. And Yippee!! I didn't have to reinstall chrome from a rescue disk. So progress from the first 1/2 hour I had my laptop.

I changed my settings bar to the black combi bar using flags. Not tried the linux container. The only thing I will try and install is Libre Office to see what it is like. Fun! Things to explore.

Hi Kirstein, let me know how Libre Office works please, I'd like to install it myself, thanks, David

 

[Nauga]

FWIW, I only use Libre Office Writer, myself, but it works fine in laptop mode. It does not work in tablet mode because it is not yet connected to the onscreen virtual keyboard (since Linux Apps are restricted to the Crostini container and most Linux apps aren't really optimized for tablet-style devices anyway). I hope that changes, and it seems like it should if Google releases a proper chromebook tablet this year.

You might want to have a mouse on hand, though, because the drop-down menus in LO are a little small to work with using only finger taps.

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

Hi Kirstein, let me know how Libre Office works please, I'd like to install it myself, thanks, David

I agree with everything above. I had to install it using a sudo script in crosh that I found on XDA forums. Not sure where it was. I searched for LibreOffice install on chromebook and it came up.

It works well, although the menus are tiny. I have used a pen stylus to press the icons as it is more accurate.

I also installed the Linux version of the SendLeap sms desktop app and that works perfectly as well. Linux has been quite stable on my Pixelbook.