This is an old revision of the document!
There are times when you need to run Unix shell, usually for one-off script or quick test. Here are ways I found to run shell on Chromebook, Android phone, and Windows.
- Chromebook
- Bash – Type <Ctrl-Alt-T> from Chrome browser or desktop to get “crosh>” command prompt, and then type
shell
to get a full Bash shell. You have to enable Developer Mode to get access to the shell command. Chromebook can be switched into Developer Mode by pressing <Esc-Refresh-Power> and then follow instructions. - Ubuntu/Debian – Install “crouton” in developer mode. This installs Ubuntu/Debian in chroot environment, where you can switch between Chrome OS and Ubuntu/Debian. You can install full desktop or just command-line packages.
- Android
- Termux – This is “Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app” for Android. It emulates Ubuntu-like command-line distro.
- Windows
- BusyBox – This is single binary compiled for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.
- Cygwin – This is like command-line distro that you install to a directory.
- Windows Subsystem for Linux (used to be called Bash on Ubuntu on Windows) – Go to Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows features on or off, and enable the “Windows Subsystem for Linux” option.
- VirtualBox (or VMware or Hyper-V) – This is full VM, where you can install any Linux distro.