How Tos

How to access the terminal in ChromeOS

ChromeOS has a terminal app which gives you access to a range of useful command line tools.

To access the terminal just press CTL+ALT+T anywhere from within ChromeOS. This will open the terminal app, known as the CROSH shell – short for Chrome Shell.

There’s a range of commands that you can run including PING and TRACEPATH – a traceroute alternative. Here’s a full list.


battery_test [<test length>]
  Tests battery discharge rate for given number of seconds. No argument will default to 300s test.

bt_console [<agent capability>]
  Enters a Bluetooth debugging console. Optional argument specifies the capability of a pairing agent the console will provide; see the Bluetooth Core specification for valid options.

chaps_debug [start|stop|<log_level>]
  Sets the chapsd logging level. No arguments will start verbose logging.

connectivity
  Shows connectivity status. "connectivity help" for more details

experimental_storage < status | enable | disable >
  Enable or disable experimental storage features.

ff_debug [<tag_expr>] [--help] [--list_valid_tags] [--reset]
  Add and remove flimflam debugging tags.

memory_test
  Performs extensive memory testing on the available free memory.

modem <command> [args...]
  Interact with the 3G modem. Run "modem help" for detailed help.

modem_set_carrier carrier-name
  Configures the modem for the specified carrier.

network_diag [--date] [--flimflam] [--link] [--show-macs] [--wifi] [--help] [--wifi-mon] <host>
  A function that performs a suite of network diagnostics. Saves a copy of the output to your download directory.

network_logging <wifi | cellular | ethernet>
  A function that enables a predefined set of tags useful for debugging the specified device.

p2p_update [enable|disable]
  Enables or disables the peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing of updates over the local network. This will both, attempt to get updates from other peers in the network and share the downloaded updates with them. Run this command without arguments to see the current state.

rlz < status | enable | disable >
  Enable or disable RLZ.

rollback
  Attempt to rollback to the previous update cached on your system. Only available on non-stable channels and non-enterprise enrolled devices. Please note that this will powerwash your device.

route [-n] [-6]
  Display the routing tables.

set_apn [-n <network-id>] [-u <username>] [-p <password>] <apn>
  Set the APN to use when connecting to the network specified by <network-id>.
  If <network-id> is not specified, use the network-id of the currently registered network.

set_apn -c
  Clear the APN to be used, so that the default APN will be used instead.

set_arpgw <true | false>
  Turn on extra network state checking to make sure the default gateway is reachable.

set_cellular_ppp [-u <username>] [-p <password>]
  Set the PPP username and/or password for an existing cellular connection. If neither -u nor -p is provided, show the existing PPP username for the cellular connection.

set_cellular_ppp -c
  Clear any existing PPP username and PPP password for an existing cellular connection.

set_time [<time string>]
  Sets the system time if the the system has been unable to get it from the network. The <time string> uses the format of the GNU coreutils date command.

sound <command> <argument>
  Low level sound configuration. Can be used to play/record audio samples and enable beam forming on Pixel.
  "sound beamforming <on|off>" will enable/disable the feature.
  "sound record [duration]" will start recording.
  "sound play <filename>" will play the recorded audio samples.

storage_status
  Reads storage device SMART health status, vendor attributes, and error log.

storage_test_1
  Performs a short offline SMART test.

storage_test_2
  Performs an extensive readability test.

syslog <message>
  Logs a message to syslog.

time_info
  Returns the current synchronization state for the time service.

tpcontrol {status|taptoclick [on|off]|sensitivity [1-5]|set <property> <value>}
tpcontrol {syntp [on|off]}

  Manually adjust advanced touchpad settings.

tracepath [-n] <destination>[/port]
  Trace the path/route to a network host.

update_over_cellular [enable|disable]
  Enables or disables the auto updates over cellular networks. Run without arguments to see the current state.

upload_crashes
  Uploads available crash reports to the crash server.

wpa_debug [<debug_level>] [--help] [--list_valid_level] [--reset]
  Set wpa_supplicant debugging level.

xset m [acc_mult[/acc_div] [thr]]
xset m default
  Tweak the mouse acceleration rate.

xset r rate [delay [rate]]
  Tweak autorepeat rates. The delay is the number of milliseconds before autorepeat starts. The rate is the number of repeats per second.
xset r [keycode] <on|off>
  Turn autorepeat on/off. If keycode is specified, it affects only that key. If not specified, it affects global behavior.

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