Manage passwords locally on Chrome OS
Master Key is a password manager application that can generate and manage your passwords in a local, encrypted database. In this guide, we’ll show you how you can use the Master Key password management tool on your Chrome OS device.
Enable Linux on Chrome OS
Master Key is an excellent tool, and it works well on Chrome OS, but it is a Linux application and not a Chrome OS app. As a result, you must enable the Linux developer environment on your Chromebook before installing the Master Key app.
To start, click on the clock icon in the Chrome OS taskbar. Then, select the gear icon to load up the Chrome OS settings area. Inside the Chrome OS settings area, locate “Advanced,” and click on the drop-down arrow next to it to reveal its options.
Inside the “Advanced” area of Chrome OS settings, find the “Developers” settings, and click on it. Look through the “Developers” settings for “Linux development environment,” and click on it with the mouse.
In the “Linux development environment” area, find the “Turn on” button and click on it with the mouse. When you select the “Turn on” button, Chrome OS will download a Debian Linux container to your Chromebook, as well as a Chrome OS terminal app to interact with it. This download shouldn’t take too long.
When the setup is complete, Chrome OS should automatically launch the terminal app. If it doesn’t, search for “Terminal” in the Chrome OS app menu and open it up on the Chrome OS desktop.
Once the terminal app is open, find “Penguin” and select it with the mouse. When you select the “Penguin” option, it’ll load up the Linux container terminal interface. From here, run the apt update command to update the Chrome OS Linux container.
sudo apt update
After running the update command, install all of the software patches in the Linux environment by running the apt upgrade command below.
sudo apt upgrade
Once everything is up to date, you’ll be able to install Linux apps on your Chromebook, including the Master Key app.
How to install Master Key on Chrome OS
The Master Key application is best installed on a Chrome OS as a Flatpak from the Flathub
app store. To get started with this program on your Chromebook, you must open up the Chrome OS terminal application.
Once the Chrome OS terminal app is open, search for “Penguin” and select it with the mouse. Upon selecting the “Penguin” option, you’ll be loaded into the Chrome OS Linux environment. From here, use the apt install command to install the “flatpak” package.
sudo apt install flatpak
When you’ve installed the “flatpak” package, your Linux container on Chrome OS will have Flatpak support. However, before you can install any apps, you need to enable the Flathub app store.
Enabling the Flathub app store isn’t too difficult. To do it, simply run the following flatpak remote-add command. This command will add Flathub as a default repository in your Flatpak configuration so that you can install applications.
flatpak --user remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
With the Flathub app store enabled and configured on your system, you can install the Master Key application on your Chrome OS device using the following flatpak install command.
flatpak install flathub com.gitlab.guillermop.MasterKey
Once the Master Key app is set up on your Chromebook, you’ll be able to launch it on your system. To open Master Key, double-click on it in the “Linux apps” folder in the Chrome OS menu.
How to set up Master Key on Chrome OS
To set up Master Key, start by launching the app. You can launch Master Key by searching for it in the “Linux apps” folder of the Chrome OS app menu. Once it is open, you’ll be asked to create a master password. Enter a memorable, secure password. Press the “Create database” button when done.
Once you’ve created your database, find the “+” button, and click on it with the mouse to create a new entry. Next, enter the domain name and the username, and click the “Save” button.
When you select the “Save” button, the Master Key application will generate a secure, memorable password to use for the login. Repeat this process as neccessary to create all-new, secure passwords in Master Key. When done, log into the app to copy the password for login purposes.
