How to install Sublime Text on Chrome OS
Sublime Text is a sophisticated editor for programming and markup. As a result, it is one of the most popular programming tools out there. Here’s how you can get it working on your Chromebook.
How to enable Linux on Chrome OS
Before you can install Sublime Text on your Chromebook, Linux must be enabled. To enable Linux, start by clicking on the clock icon in the Chrome OS dash. Then, after you’ve clicked the clock icon in the Chrome OS dash, look for the “gear” icon, and select it with the mouse. When you click this icon, the Chrome OS settings area will open.
Inside the Chrome OS settings area, locate “Advanced” and click on the arrow next to it. When you click the arrow, Chrome OS will reveal the “Advanced options” available on your Chromebook. Look through the options and select “Developers.” Then, inside the “Developers” area, find “Linux developer environment” and click on it.
When you’ve loaded up the “Linux developer environment” area, find the “Turn on” button and click on it. When you select this button, Chrome OS will download a Debian Linux container to your Chromebook. It’ll also set up the Chrome OS terminal.
When everything is done downloading, Chrome OS will launch a terminal app. In this terminal app, find “Penguin” and select it with the mouse. When you choose “Penguin,” you’ll gain terminal access to the Debian container in Chrome OS.
Inside the terminal, use the apt update command to refresh the Linux container’s software sources.
sudo apt update
Once all of the Linux container’s software sources are up to date, you can move on to upgrading the Linux container’s software. To do this, use the following apt upgrade command.
sudo apt upgrade
With everything up to date, you can install Linux apps like Sublime Text and others on your Chromebook.
How to install Sublime Text on Chrome OS
The Sublime Text editor is available to use on Chrome OS through a downloadable DEB package and a Flatpak package. In this guide, we’ll show you how you can get both versions of the app working.
How to install Sublime Text – DEB
To install Sublime Text as a DEB package on your Chromebook start by launching the Chrome OS terminal app on the Chrome OS desktop. Once you’ve opened the terminal app, search for “Penguin” and select it with the mouse.
After you’ve selected “Penguin,” you’ll have access to the Chrome OS Linux terminal area. From here, use the wget download command to download the latest Sublime Text DEB package to your Chromebook.
wget https://download.sublimetext.com/sublime-text_build-4152_amd64.deb
After downloading the DEB package, you can begin the installation using the apt install command below. This command will load up the Sublime Text DEB package on Chrome OS. It’ll also take care of any dependencies needed to run the program.
sudo apt install ./sublime-text_build-4152_amd64.deb
With the command above run, you’ll have installed Sublime Text on your Chrome OS system. However, downloading a DEB package doesn’t automatically provide updates. If you want updates, you must enable the repo.
To enable the Sublime Text repo, start by downloading the repo GPG key.
wget -qO - https://download.sublimetext.com/sublimehq-pub.gpg | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/sublimehq-archive.gpg > /dev/null
Next, use the echo command to add the repo to your Debian Linux container on Chrome OS.
echo "deb https://download.sublimetext.com/ apt/stable/" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sublime-text.list
With the repo added to your system, run the apt install command to install the “apt-transport-https” package. This package is needed for HTTPS Debian repos.
sudo apt install apt-transport-https
Finally, run the apt update command to finish setting up the Sublime Text repo on Chrome OS.
sudo apt update
How to install Sublime Text – Flatpak
Another way to get the Sublime Text app working on a Chromebook is to install the Flatpak version of the app. The advantage of installing the Flatpak version of Sublime Text is that you’ll get regular updates without needing to enable an APT repository.
To start the installation process, open up the Chrome OS terminal app. You can do this by searching for the “Terminal” app in the Chrome OS app menu. Once it is open, select “Penguin” to access the Linux command line.
Once in the Linux command line on your Chromebook, use the apt install command to set up the “flatpak” package. This package handles everything you need to run Flatpak apps on your system.
sudo apt install flatpak
With the “flatpak” package installed and set up, it is time to set up the Flathub app store. This app store delivers many Flatpak apps to users, including Sublime Text. To enable it, enter the command below in a terminal.
flatpak --user remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
After setting up the Flathub app store on your system, you will be able to install the Sublime Text application on your Chromebook with the following flatpak install command.
flatpak install flathub com.sublimetext.three
With the Sublime Text app installed, you can run it from the “Linux apps” folder in the Chrome OS app menu.
