Fydeos 2020-12-16
The ever-curious Les Pounder wonders if his trusty Raspberry Pi 4 can be used as another Chrome device?
The ever-curious Les Pounder wonders if his Pi 4 can be used as another Chrome device?
There have been many attempts to use the Raspberry Pi as a cheap Chromebook platform and the latest attempt is Fydeos. It was developed for Raspberry Pi 3, 4 and 400 models, and aims “to provide a usable Chromium OS pre-built image that everybody can download… provide an open-source code base that everybody can use to build and improve Chromium OS on Raspberry Pi.” We took it for a test drive on a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB RAM.
Downloading the image file, then writing to a microsd card took mere minutes and it wasn’t long until we had booted Fydeos for the first time. Following the set-up screen, we connected to Wi-fi and linked our Google account. It then hung for what felt like forever: we could see activity lights flashing on the Pi, but nothing on the screen. After waiting, we were able to progress onwards and start using Fydeos.
Just like the real thing
First impressions of the interface were good; it felt no different to using an official Google device. We opened a few browser tabs and went to a few sites. Everything appeared okay. There were moments where screen tearing was visible, but nothing detrimental to the experience. Opening a Youtube video we noticed that playback was a little strained for 1080p60 videos. Looking at the “Stats for nerds” option, we noticed around 30-40 per cent dropped frames. Testing with a 1080p30 we noted no dropped frames. Connecting via Ethernet also improved Youtube playback, as well as general Internet speeds. We also tested out Geforce Now, a means to play the latest games in your browser or via a dedicated program. For Fydeos we can use the Chromebook browser option, and our game of Deus Ex: Mankind
Divided looked pretty, but whenever we moved or fired a weapon, it became a slideshow with lots of latency.
For web browsing and reference, Fydeos is great. It looks and feels like an official Chrome device, and we can personalise, configure and tweak the system to our needs.
Media playback via Netflix was a no go. It failed to load anything and presented a generic error message. Sideloading Chromium Media Edition proved unsuccessful.
We wanted to test Linux support, something that has been part of Chromeos for sometime now. Going to the Settings and enabling Linux Beta support was easy, until we hit a minor snag: our installation wasn’t using the full capacity of the microsd card. Powering down Fydeos and expanding the partitions on our main Ubuntu machine solved this hiccup, but it may put off others.
Fydeos uses apt to install Linux software, so we felt right at home. Installing GIMP took some time, but it installed cleanly and was available as a program from the default user interface. Software installation doesn’t stop with the terminal, though. We tested installation via the browser using Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code by downloading the 64-bit deb file and installing from the Fydeos/chromeos default user interface. Installation took a little while but we were soon able to run VS Code from the Fydeos interface via an application icon.
So do we ditch our Chromebooks for Fydeos and a Pi? Well, no. It’s fun to use, but for daily tasks Fydeos is usable if a little limited. Pi and Chrome device users should stick with what they have for now. But the team behind Fydeos should be applauded for its commitment and work on this great OS.