Minor glitch with Chromebook.

[New Wrycuda]

I’ve been using my Lenovo Chromebook Plus (i5 CPU, 8GB/512GB) with some success for the last few months. I use the Chrome and Web apps plus a few Android and Linux apps. Highly recommended, but low-end Chromebooks would be best avoided IMHO.

Everything has been smooth and intuitive until I plugged my 28” 4K monitor into one of the USB3 ports and chose “mirror laptop screen” as the default setting. Everything worked beautifully until I tried one of the Linux apps; the cursor left random trails across the screen and this happened with both track-pad and external mouse.

Unplugging the monitor fixed the problem, and a permanent fix was to choose “extended desktop” for the external monitor, with each screen using its default resolution.

As part of the trouble-shooting routine, I installed a bluetooth mouse, which made available another USB port. I am yet to assess the bluetooth battery life, but I suspect that it will be shorter than that of the wireless alternative.

 

[The Point and Shoot Pro]

I’ve been using my Lenovo Chromebook Plus (i5 CPU, 8GB/512GB) with some success for the last few months. I use the Chrome and Web apps plus a few Android and Linux apps. Highly recommended, but low-end Chromebooks would be best avoided IMHO.

Everything has been smooth and intuitive until I plugged my 28” 4K monitor into one of the USB3 ports and chose “mirror laptop screen” as the default setting. Everything worked beautifully until I tried one of the Linux apps; the cursor left random trails across the screen and this happened with both track-pad and external mouse.

Unplugging the monitor fixed the problem, and a permanent fix was to choose “extended desktop” for the external monitor, with each screen using its default resolution.

As part of the trouble-shooting routine, I installed a bluetooth mouse, which made available another USB port. I am yet to assess the bluetooth battery life, but I suspect that it will be shorter than that of the wireless alternative.

That makes sense for the monitors I think because when mirroring the system is fighting two resolutions to create the same image. When you extended the monitor it is working in tandem instead of against each other. As for Bluetooth, the difference in battery life is minimal from my experiences. The larger issue is latency with Bluetooth.

 

[robertlerry]

Use Extended Desktop instead of Mirror — keeps each screen at its native resolution and stops cursor trails. Also check Linux graphics settings or enable hardware acceleration if needed.

 

[New Wrycuda]

Use Extended Desktop instead of Mirror — keeps each screen at its native resolution and stops cursor trails. Also check Linux graphics settings or enable hardware acceleration if needed.

Mirroring desktop setting was simply a first attempt to show that the external monitor was working, but extended desktop is more useful in practice.

Resolution of the 28” monitor is 3840x2160, while the Chromebook, being WQXGA, has multiple selectable resolutions. Native 2560x1600 is too detailed for easy viewing, while 1600x1000 is just about right for the 16” screen.

No specific graphics settings available for Linux, but there’s probably some magic available on-line if it’s ever needed.

 

[The Point and Shoot Pro]

Use Extended Desktop instead of Mirror — keeps each screen at its native resolution and stops cursor trails. Also check Linux graphics settings or enable hardware acceleration if needed.

Mirroring desktop setting was simply a first attempt to show that the external monitor was working, but extended desktop is more useful in practice.

Resolution of the 28” monitor is 3840x2160, while the Chromebook, being WQXGA, has multiple selectable resolutions. Native 2560x1600 is too detailed for easy viewing, while 1600x1000 is just about right for the 16” screen.

No specific graphics settings available for Linux, but there’s probably some magic available on-line if it’s ever needed.

That's the awesome thing about linux. It can be done......somehow.

 

[New Wrycuda]

No specific graphics settings available for [the Chromebook implementation of] Linux, but there’s probably some magic available on-line if it’s ever needed.

That's the awesome thing about linux. It can be done... somehow.

-Just don’t refer to it as “Lye-Nucks”, the kiddies insist that it’s “Linn-Ucks”. :-D

Getting started with Linux can be rather confusing, but the procedures for well-supported “distros” are easy enough to follow and the applications install/uninstall very quickly.

I had never previously fooled with Linux until I acquired a Chromebook and took advantage of the Linux capabilities. Apps such as GIMP install in seconds, while the email app GEARY is very handy and the setup is straightforward (auto-detects server ports and protocol settings). Handles multiple email accounts smoothly while iPad gets confused.

I also took advantage of Linux to rescue my end-of-life Win10 laptop and re-purposed it as a videos streaming computer. I used Zorin Linux which is much like Windows and works perfectly on the 8 year old laptop.

 

[Austinian]

-Just don’t refer to it as “Lye-Nucks”, the kiddies insist that it’s “Linn-Ucks”. :-D

 

[New Wrycuda]

-Just don’t refer to it as “Lye-Nucks”, the kiddies insist that it’s “Linn-Ucks”. :-D

Thanks, I’ve seen that before.

He’s “The Daddy”, so we should take note.

 

[The Point and Shoot Pro]

No specific graphics settings available for [the Chromebook implementation of] Linux, but there’s probably some magic available on-line if it’s ever needed.

That's the awesome thing about linux. It can be done... somehow.

-Just don’t refer to it as “Lye-Nucks”, the kiddies insist that it’s “Linn-Ucks”. :-D

Getting started with Linux can be rather confusing, but the procedures for well-supported “distros” are easy enough to follow and the applications install/uninstall very quickly.

I had never previously fooled with Linux until I acquired a Chromebook and took advantage of the Linux capabilities. Apps such as GIMP install in seconds, while the email app GEARY is very handy and the setup is straightforward (auto-detects server ports and protocol settings). Handles multiple email accounts smoothly while iPad gets confused.

I also took advantage of Linux to rescue my end-of-life Win10 laptop and re-purposed it as a videos streaming computer. I used Zorin Linux which is much like Windows and works perfectly on the 8 year old laptop.

I use zorin on my 11 inch dell 2 in 1 as an ipad/tablet replacement. It's great on that little system. I have tried others but thus far Zorin is the best distro I have used yet.

 

[New Wrycuda]

I took advantage of Linux to rescue my end-of-life Win10 laptop and re-purposed it as a videos streaming computer. I used Zorin Linux which is much like Windows and works perfectly on the 8 year old laptop.

I use zorin on my 11 inch dell 2 in 1 as an ipad/tablet replacement. It's great on that little system. I have tried others but thus far Zorin is the best distro I have used yet.

That Win10 Acer laptop ran faultlessly for more than 6 years and was an obvious choice when looking for a Linux test-bed. A couple of hours of downloading and configuration and everything was fine. Most playback controls are accessible using a wireless mouse.

HDMI drives a large TV in the viewing room, and the only minor problem is that one streaming service doesn’t correctly scale the on-screen controls to the legacy 1366x768 screen, preventing full-screen play-back. Other services are OK in this regard.

I’ve played around a little with Zorin and it’s good; does well to recognise every hardware feature of the oldish laptop.