How to Enable Microphone and GPU Acceleration in Linux on Chromebook

While Linux support was announced three years back on Chromebooks, which means running Linux on Chromebooks has been possible for a long time, initially, there were some basic features missing during the launch. However, Google seems to be catching up now as it is spearheading to make Chrome OS a viable platform for everyone. For instance, now you can enable microphone and GPU acceleration in Linux on Chromebooks. Both of these features were a long-standing demand from creative and power users and finally, Google has delivered the promise. So without further delay, let’s go ahead and learn how to enable microphone support and hardware acceleration in Linux on Chrome OS.

Enable Microphone and GPU Acceleration in Linux on Chromebook (2021)

Here, we have mentioned two easy ways to turn on the microphone and GPU acceleration support in Linux on Chromebook. You can expand the table below and move to the relevant section easily.

Turn On Microphone Support in Linux on Chromebooks

You can enable the microphone in Linux on Chromebooks right now and for that, you don’t need to update to the Beta or Dev channel. The feature is available in the stable channel since Chrome OS 80 and now Google offers a user-facing option to turn on microphone support in Linux.

1. Once you have set up Linux on your Chromebook, open the Settings page and move to Advanced -> Developers in the left menu.

2. Next, click on “Linux development environment”.

3. At the bottom, you will find “Allow Linux to access your microphone”. Enable it and that’s all.

4. Now, open any audio-recording application. Here, for example, I have used Audacity, which is one of the best Linux apps for Chromebooks and it recorded my voice clearly which confirms microphone support in Linux on Chromebooks.

Note: You might have to change the recording device to sysdefault: Line:0 in Audacity. For other applications, you don’t have to make any changes. 

5. If the microphone is not working in Linux apps on your Chromebook then reboot your device. It will likely fix the issue.

Enable GPU Acceleration in Linux on Chromebooks

Before we begin, let me clarify that GPU acceleration has been added to almost all the Chromebooks by default since Chrome OS 81. The only caveat is that you need to upgrade the Linux container to the latest Debian Buster build. Here is how to go about it.

1. Open the Chrome browser and move to the Chrome Flags page.

chrome://flags

2. After that, search for “Crostini GPU Support” and enable it from the drop-down menu. You can also directly open the dedicated flag from the below address. Now, click on the “Restart” button at the bottom.

chrome://flags/#crostini-gpu-support

3. After the reboot, open the Linux Terminal and run the below command to update the packages and dependencies. Just copy and paste the command in the Terminal and hit enter. After that, it will update to the latest Buster build.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y

4. Once the packages are updated, run the below command to install the Mesa utility. It lets you know whether GPU acceleration has been enabled or not on your Chromebook.

sudo apt-get install mesa-utils -y

5. Finally, to confirm if GPU acceleration has been enabled or not, open the Linux Terminal and run the command given below. If it mentions “Accelerated: Yes” then you are done. You can now play desktop-level Chromebook games and use graphics-intensive Linux apps on your Chromebook effortlessly. Enjoy!

glxinfo -B

Make Your Chromebook a Powerful Machine

So that was our short guide on how to enable microphone support and GPU Acceleration in Linux on Chromebooks. These were two of the highly-sought features from the creative and gaming community and Google has finally walked the talk. With the recent addition of Android app sideloading on Chromebook, Google has made amply clear that it’s taking the Chrome OS platform seriously. Now, all we need is webcam support in Linux on Chromebooks. As and when that happens, we will definitely let you know. Anyway, that is all from us. So what do you think of these two new additions to Chrome OS? Let us know in the comment section below.

Comments 48
  • BRUCE A DAVIDSON says:

    I tried this, and the microphone still doesn’t work in Linux. Works fine in web apps.

    • Arjun Sha says:

      Open Settings – Advanced – Developers – Linux – Allow Linux to access your microphone.

  • tino schmidt says:

    whats on the 8th and 9th line after “:/Debian/”?

  • makayla washburn says:

    i did that on my chromebook it it did not work. what should i do?

  • Xavier says:

    Do I have to save anything or can I just close the tab after I type in glxinfo -B & that

  • help says:

    this is not working:(

  • chaos, of what? says:

    mine is stuck at cannot open display

  • Jacob says:

    I was finally able to figure out the main problem people were having. If you are having problems follow these steps.

    pen the terminal and run “sudo apt-get update” command;
    Now run “sudo apt-get dist-upgrade” command, then restart your device;
    Now, just to make sure, open terminal again and run “glxinfo -B”

    If it says “Device: virgl” and “Accelerated: Yes” it worked.

    • Ava says:

      Can I do this without messing anything else up on my Chromebook? I don’t want that command to interfere with the accessibility of my Chromebook.

    • tom says:

      i have the samsung chromebook plus v2, and i followed your instructions, and it says -bash: glxinfo: command not found

      i installed and enabled everything, is there anything that can help.

      • Gray says:

        I had the same problem. I had to run the code “apt-get install mesa-utils” without the quotation marks when you input it into the terminal. After this downloads the glxinfo -B code worked. If the apt-get code is locked for you put a “sudo” in front of the code to give yourself root access.

        The code would then look like

        sudo apt-get install mesa-utils

      • tim says:

        after i put the cmd to install the mesa utility, told me “Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend – open (13: Permission denied)” and then “Unable to acquire the dpkg frontend lock (/var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend), are you root?” help?

    • Summer says:

      so i tried it and the first command says ERROR: unknown command: sudo

    • niggaballs says:

      thx

  • dave says:

    mine says: llvmpipe
    accelerated: no

  • PLz help says:

    nvm i fixed it but. When try to open it says its gona update. Then says unable to update 250 mb storage required. I have over 6 gb storage left in my chrombook. And 4.1 dedicated to Linux this is for how to get steam on chromebook

  • PLz help says:

    nvm i fixed it but. When try to open it says its gona update. Then says unable to update 250 mb storage required. I have over 6 gb storage left in my chrombook. And 4.1 dedicated to Linux

  • PLZZZ HELp says:

    Idk if u reply to these, but any1 can you help. I got through all the steps, I agreed, but another mini steam page didnt pop up. So I deleted that tab and went through the process again but it says that the latest version of steam is already installed..

    • someone says:

      give linux more storage

  • Kelly says:

    I did all of the above. Now when I try to run glxinfo -B it says Unknown option ‘-B’ and then lists other options

  • anonymous says:

    Is the “Pixelbook 2” the Pixelbook Go or the Pixel Slate?

    • tom says:

      its the pixelbook 2, the pixelbook go and slate are completely different things

  • James says:

    After running sudo apt-get install mesa-utils, power cycle your Chromebook (easy way to restart the VM) and the glxinfo -B command will work

    • Henry says:

      Thank you very much! I tried everything else. But then i did that and it worked perfectly. All i did was the sudo command you said, then typed glxinfo -B. And it worked!.

    • tim says:

      THANK YOU SO MUCH IT TOOK ME SO LONG NO OTHER CMD WORKED BUT THIS ONE DID THANKS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH

  • Arty says:

    Steam runs but it tells in the command Vulkan instance missing VK_KHR_xcb_surface extension” … ?

  • Elijah Garcia says:

    I did all that and it say unable to open display

  • My Name says:

    At first it said command not found, now it’s saying unable to open display.

  • me says:

    My chromebook says can not open display.

    • My Name says:

      Have you found a solution?

  • me says:

    My chromebook says command not found!

    • Shawn Heilig says:

      It says the exact same thing for me!

  • Dorothy says:

    Instead of virgl, my device says llvmpipe. I have an Acer Chromebook R13. Is there a way to fix this?

    • D says:

      Hi Dorothy, did you ever get an answer to this? I have the same chromebook and in addition to llvmpipe, it says accelerated:no.
      Thank you!

    • Food Dude says:

      Same problem. I have an r11

    • Chrissie says:

      Anyone ever figure this out? I have an R13 and having this same issue

  • Sarah Singh says:

    Exactly the same issue here, as Abby Franco above. Please help!

    • Arjun Sha says:

      You can run sudo apt-get install mesa-utils to install the required library. After that, run glxinfo -B command.

      • Tim says:

        Thanks Arjun that worked. Cheers ?

      • Jessie Maclean says:

        thankyou so much, this was what worked for me after the above solutions

  • Abby Franco says:

    The glxinfo -B command isn’t working, it says command not found. I am on the linux terminal.

    • Kodi says:

      Abby Franco, did you ever find a solution to this problem? I’m having the same issue, haha.

      • Arjun Sha says:

        Run sudo apt-get install mesa-utils to install the required library. After that, run glxinfo -B command.

      • Srg.4 says:

        Still isn’t working after using sudo command

      • gren.9 says:

        you are doing it wrong. when it asks if you want to continue, type a Y so it can actually download all of the required libraries. then if you type in the command it should work

      • Elijah Garcia says:

        I did all that and it say unable to open display

      • My Name says:

        At first it said command not found, now it’s saying unable to open display.

      • James says:

        Power cycle your chromebook after sudo apt-get install mesa-utils and glxinfo -B will work

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