Still, there are some prerequisites that we have to take care of before we can install an application from the sid repository.įirst and foremost, you will need to have Linux enabled on your Chromebook or Chrome OS device. The good thing about Linux on Chrome OS is that you can always turn it off and start over again if something breaks. Adding a new repository to Linux on Chrome OS is relatively straightforward, but it has to be done properly to prevent what can be catastrophic errors. This file contains repo information and tells the system where to look for packages. To access sid, we need only to add the repository to the Linux sources.list file. To dumb it down a bit, think of it as the Canary channel of Debian. It is where packages are uploaded and tested before making their way to the stable build of the respective builds of Debian. What is “sid?” Sid is the testing repository for Debian. I tried this and it mostly worked, but the application consistently failed to playback recordings properly and it became a nuisance after just a few short minutes. Another option is to install Flatpak and use the version of Audacity found in the Flathub store. I tried multiple times before finally succeeding as the container requires all sorts of dependency updates and forced installs that don’t happen automatically. You can build Audacity from the source if you have the chops to do so, but let me tell you, it ain’t easy. However, it is version 2.2.2 and the newest version is 2.4.2.

With the default Linux container on Chrome OS, you can install Audacity from the terminal using the command sudo apt install audacity and you’ll get a fully-working version of the application. I’ll get into the ins-and-outs of using Audacity on a Chromebook in a follow-up article, but today, we’re going to focus on how to get the latest version of this and a number of other applications installed on your Chromebook.

Audacity on chromebook