How to share files with Linux apps on Chrome OS

With Linux apps installed on your Chromebook, you might have discovered that software cannot access files within the ChromeOS directories. Let's fix that.

If you own a Chromebook, and you’ve enabled and installed Linux apps, you might have come across a situation where you find you can’t open files from your Chromebook directories with those newly installed apps. Why would you even want to do this? For example: Say you’d like to do some development on your Chromebook, via the Linux terminal window and want to access files either from within Google Drive or Downloads.

Unless you make the Linux subsystem aware of those folders, you won’t be unable to access the documents contained within. Why is this the case? Because the Linux apps you’ve installed on your Chromebook are sandboxed from Chrome OS, which means they are isolated from other apps and the Chrome OS directory structure.

Fear not, you can easily make your directories available to Linux apps with just a couple of clicks.

Let me show you how.

SEE: TechRepublic Premium editorial calendar: IT policies, checklists, toolkits, and research for download (TechRepublic Premium)

5. Issue the ls command and you should see the folder that you shared listed. 6. Change into that folder with a command like cd Downloads and you can then access any of the files within.

Of course, you can access those files from within other applications, such as The GIMP, so it’s not limited to command line only usage.

And that’s all there is to sharing your ChromeOS directories with the sandboxed Linux applications. Enjoy that newfound connection.

Subscribe to TechRepublic’s How To Make Tech Work on YouTube for all the latest tech advice for business pros from Jack Wallen.

From the hottest programming languages to commentary on the Linux OS, get the developer and open source news and tips you need to know.