How to read E-Books on a Chromebook
Chrome OS lacks a good E-Book reading application. If you’ve been wanting to read some E-Books on your Chromebook, you’re stuck. Luckily, you can fix this by installing the Folate Linux application. Here’s how to get it working on your Chromebook.
Enable Linux support on your Chromebook
Before you can install the Folate E-Book reader on your Chromebook to read E-Book files, you’ll have to enable Linux support. To enable Linux support on your Chromebook, start by clicking on the clock icon.
After selecting the clock icon in the Chrome OS dashboard, click on the gear icon. Selecting this icon will open up the Chromebook settings area. Then, look for the “Advanced” area, and click on the arrow next to it.
Once you’ve selected the arrow button next to the “Advanced” section of Chrome OS settings, scroll down and locate the “Developers” section. Then, click on it and locate the “Linux developer environment” area.
Inside the “Linux developer environment” area, find the “turn on” button and click on it with the mouse. When you select this button, Chrome OS will download a Debian 12 LXC container to your computer, as well as a terminal app.
When the download is complete, Chrome OS will launch a terminal app. In this terminal app, locate “Penguin,” and select it with the mouse. When you select “Penguin,” you’ll gain access to the Linux container’s terminal interface.
Inside of the terminal interface, use the apt update command to check for software updates. Checking for software updates regularly is important to keep your Linux container in working order.
sudo apt update
After you’ve run the command above, you’ll want to run the apt upgrade command. This command will install any updates you’ve checked for previously. Upgrading is usually a quick process.
sudo apt upgrade
Once the upgrade is complete, you’re free to begin using the Linux container on your Chromebook.
How to install the Folate app on Chrome OS
There are two ways to install the Folate application on a Chromebook. The first method involves downloading the latest Folate DEB package from the project’s Github. The second installation method involves Flathub. We’ll go over both installation methods in this guide.
Debian installation
To install Folate via the Debian method, start by launching the Chrome OS terminal app. Then, select the “Penguin” option to access the terminal interface. After accessing the terminal, use the wget command to download the Folate DEB package.
wget https://github.com/johnfactotum/foliate/releases/download/2.6.4/com.github.johnfactotum.foliate_2.6.4_all.deb
With the package downloaded to your Chrome OS computer, use the apt install command to install the Folate app on your Chromebook, as well as all of it’s required dependencies.
sudo apt install ./com.github.johnfactotum.foliate_2.6.4_all.deb
Once the package is installed, you’ll be able to access the Folate app in the “Linux apps” folder in the Chrome OS app menu.
Flatpak installation
The Debian installation method works, however, the Flatpak method ensures that Folate is always up to date via Flathub. To get Folate working via Flatpak, start by launching the terminal app.
After accessing the terminal app, click on “Penguin,” and then use the apt install command to set up the “flatpak” package. This package allows you to install the Folate app.
sudo apt install flatpak
Once the Flatpak app is installed and set up, you can use the flatpak remote-add command to enable the Flathub app store.
flatpak --user remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
With the Flathub app store enabled, you can install the Folate application on your Chrome OS computer using the flatpak install command.
flatpak install flathub com.github.johnfactotum.Foliate
How to add E-Books to Folate on Chrome OS
Folate automatically will add E-Books to your reading library in the app. However, you’ll have to open the book in the app first. To open up a book in Folate, start by launching the Chrome OS “Files” app.
After launching the Chrome OS “Files” app, find “Linux files” and drag your E-Book files into this directory. Folate supports PDF, EPUB, MOBI, and other book formats. However, for the best experience, we suggest EPUB/MOBI.
Once the book files are added to the “Linux files” folder via the Chrome OS, launch the Folate application via the “Linux apps” area of the Chrome OS menu. Then, with Folate open, find the “Open File..” button and click on it.
Using the file browser, locate the E-Book you wish to add to the Folate app. When you’ve located it, click on it to add it to the app. As soon as you’ve added the E-Book to Folate, it’ll appear in your library, and you’ll be free to read it on your Chromebook. Enjoy!
