Installing PlatformIO with VS Code on Chromebook

Getting there with ESP development on a Chromebook…

  1. Make sure you have VS Code already installed.
  2. In a terminal, sudo apt install python-is-python3 python3-venv
  3. Open up VS Code, hit Shift + Ctrl + X and install PlatformIO IDE.

For a while, the PlatformIO installer was complaining about Python3.6+ interpreter not working. it seems it was actually specifically looking for venv. Once I installed that, it worked fine.

Installing VS Code on Chromebook

  1. First, enable Linux on your Chromebook.
  2. Download the latest .deb installation from https://code.visualstudio.com/download
  3. Move this file to the Linux shared files (should be visible in the file manager, and is probably empty). This folder is your home directory in Linux.
  4. Open a Linux terminal and type
    sudo apt install ./{downloaded file}.deb
  5. You will likely be prompted to add the Microsoft apt repo to your installation. Select YES.
  6. Once installed, you should now have VS Code in your Launcher.

Remember that you’re running VS Code from inside a Linux container, so your other Chromebook files won’t be available.