Chrome OS (beyond 70) stability?

[WillysJeepMan]

Chrome OS 70 brought a major step forward for 2-in-1 chromebooks like Pixelbook. But since that initial release (and including the latest beta versions of 73) stability has taken a significant step backward in my experience.
(I have tested things under the 73 beta but went back to 72 stable)

Just 3 examples:

First (minor), when clicking on the launcher icon (lower left), it brings up the search and one line of most recently used apps. If I two-finger scroll (either up *OR* down) it shows the next page of apps. But if I scroll up on that page, it closes the launcher (only scrolling down brings it to the next page).

Second (moderate), left-mouse click within an Android app no longer is interpreted as a finger tap. The workaround is to physically touch the screen.

Third (more serious), I had installed the Gnome Software Center for Linux and it no longer displays the catalog.

Also, when right-clicking on an icon for a Linux app installed on the PB and selecting "use low-density" it will sometimes crash the app and prevent any Linux app from launching...even after a reboot. The only remedy appears to be to remove and re-install Linux support.

Those are just three... there are quite a bit more.

This string of recent updates (since 70) have cause me to have a bit of uncertainty as to how the Pixelbook will behave.

Is anyone else experiencing and weirdness?

If I'm at 72 (stable) is there a way to revert back to 70 (stable)? And is there a way to prevent accidentally updating?

 

[Rukbat]

I don't have a PB, but ...

First (minor), when clicking on the launcher icon (lower left), it brings up the search and one line of most recently used apps. If I two-finger scroll (either up *OR* down) it shows the next page of apps. But if I scroll up on that page, it closes the launcher (only scrolling down brings it to the next page).

2-finger scrolling up should bring you to the previous page? If you're on the first page? If I were writing it, I'd either 'ding' in the speaker ("don't do that"), or close the recently-used apps list. It sounds as if the developer assigned to that part chose the latter.

Second (moderate), left-mouse click within an Android app no longer is interpreted as a finger tap. The workaround is to physically touch the screen.

That's major. It does in all versions of Android (if you plug in a mouse).

The only remedy appears to be to remove and re-install Linux support.

Now you got me confused (because I haven't played with the device). The OS that Android runs on is Linux. If you remove Linux ... you boot to recovery, usually, because there's no OS for Android to run in. I'd assume that ChromeOS also ran in Linux.

And the place to report it would be the PB Beta channel. Someone missed a few things in 72 "stable". Add requests to fix them to the 73 beta list. (They're not going to send out a fix to 72 if they're beta testing 73.)

 

[WillysJeepMan]

I don't have a PB, but ...

...

Now you got me confused (because I haven't played with the device). The OS that Android runs on is Linux. If you remove Linux ... you boot to recovery, usually, because there's no OS for Android to run in. I'd assume that ChromeOS also ran in Linux.

Support for running Linux apps within ChromeOS is done via an optional "container". By default, ChromeOS does not set up that Linux container. Linux apps don't run on the same thin Linux that is used as the basis for Chrome OS.

It is this Linux container where things like the Gnome Software Center, LibreOffice, etc. run in. When setting those Linux apps to "use low-density", it appears to sometimes corrupt the Linux container. The only way to resolve that, is to remove the Linux container (via Settings in ChromeOS) which also automatically removes all apps installed in that container, and to re-active support for Linux apps.

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

Gosh the removing and reinstalling of the Linux container sounds like a nightmare. I haven't really had those issues on my PB. I have a Bluetooth vertical mouse to use with mine. Granted I don't use mine all the time but I have had no real issues with my PB at all.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Gosh the removing and reinstalling of the Linux container sounds like a nightmare. I haven't really had those issues on my PB. I have a Bluetooth vertical mouse to use with mine. Granted I don't use mine all the time but I have had no real issues with my PB at all.

It's actually not bad. It is a simple setting in the Chrome OS Settings. Then there are a handful of console commands to install the Gnome Software Center and things like LibreOffice.

My frustration is that it was working quite well in Chrome OS 70, and now it isn't. This is very un-chromebook-like to see this kind of regression.