Get OnlyOffice working on Chrome OS
OnlyOffice is an open-source office suite offering a wide variety of tools, including spreadsheet processing, word processing, presentation creation, and more. In this guide, we’ll show you how to get OnlyOffice working on your Chromebook.
How to Enable Linux on your Chromebook
If you have a Chromebook that’s compatible with Linux, you’re all set to start using Linux apps on Chrome OS. Getting started is pretty straightforward: head over to your Chromebook’s settings by clicking on the clock area, followed by the “gear” icon, which opens the Chrome OS settings.
In these settings, navigate to the “Advanced” section. Click on the down arrow next to “Advanced” to reveal a range of additional settings, including the “Developers” options.
From there, head to the “Developers” section. This is where you’ll find the “Linux development environment.” Select “Linux developer”, and then hit the “Turn on” button. This action starts the process of setting up the Linux LXC container, enabling the use of Linux apps on your Chromebook.
Once you’ve enabled the “Linux development environment”, find and open the Chrome OS “Terminal” from the app menu (if Chrome OS doesn’t open it for you automatically after installing Linux). When it’s open, look for “Penguin” and click on it to bring up the command-line interface for the Linux container.
Inside the terminal, you have a couple of important commands to run before you can get up and go with Linux apps on your Chromebook. Specifically, the apt update and apt upgrade commands. These commands are vital for keeping your Linux container updated with the latest software packages.
sudo apt update
This update command is designed to get your Linux container to check for any new software updates and refresh the software sources in it.
After updating, proceed with the upgrade command. This command is responsible for installing all the available updated packages. Keep in mind, the upgrade process might take a little while to complete.
sudo apt upgrade -y
Once you’ve enabled Linux on your Chromebook, you’ll be able to use a variety of Linux apps, including Only Office.
How to Install Only Office on Chrome OS – Flatpak
The fastest and easiest way to get Only Office working on your Chromebook is via Flatpak. The reason? There’s no need to download anything from the Only Office website. Instead, everything is taken care of via the Flathub app store.
To start, open the Chrome OS terminal and select “Penguin.” Then, use the apt install command to install the “flatpak” package. This package handles everything related to Flatpak apps on Chrome OS.
sudo apt install flatpak
Once the Flatpak runtime is installed on your Chromebook, it’s time to set up the Flathub app store. Flathub hosts a ton of Flatpak apps, including Only Office. To enable it, enter the command below.
flatpak --user remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
With the Flathub app store enabled on your system, you can install the Only Office app with the following flatpak install command.
flatpak install flathub org.onlyoffice.desktopeditors
Once the command above is entered, the Only Office suite will be installed and ready to use on your Chromebook via the “Linux apps” menu in the Chrome OS app launcher.
How to Install Only Office on Chrome OS – DEB
If you’re using a Chromebook and would prefer to install Only Office using the downloadable DEB package instead of a Flatpak, you can. To begin, open a terminal window on the Chrome OS desktop.
Once the terminal app is open, find the “Penguin” option and click on it with the mouse. After you’ve selected the “Penguin” button, you’ll have access to the Chrome OS Linux terminal.
Inside the Chrome OS Linux terminal, use the wget command to download the latest version of Only Office to your Chrome OS device.
wget https://download.onlyoffice.com/install/desktop/editors/linux/onlyoffice-desktopeditors_amd64.deb
After downloading the Only Office DEB package to your Chrome OS device, you can begin the installation. Use the apt install command to install the package on your computer.
sudo apt install ./onlyoffice-desktopeditors_amd64.deb
After entering the command above, the Chrome OS terminal will ask you to press the ‘Y’ button on the keyboard to confirm you wish to install the Only Office application on your Chromebook. Do so.
Once you’ve selected the ‘Y’ button, Chrome OS will install Only Office on your system. This process might take a few seconds to complete. When it’s done, you’ll have installed Only Office, accessible through the “Linux apps” folder in the Chrome OS menu.
