How to install Bambu Studio on Chrome OS
If you own a Bambu Labs 3D printer and wish to slice models for 3D printing on your Chromebook, installing the official Slicer is essential. This guide will demonstrate how to set up Bambu Studio on Chrome OS.
How to enable Linux on your Chromebook
Running Bambu Studio on your Chromebook means enabling Linux support. To start, click on the clock icon in the Chrome OS dash. After selecting the clock icon, select the gear icon. Selecting this icon will launch the Chrome OS settings area.
Inside of the Chrome OS settings area, browse for the “Advanced” section. Once you’ve located “Advanced,” click on it with the mouse. Selecting “Advanced” will reveal the Advanced Chrome OS setting options.
Look through the Advanced Chrome OS setting options for “Developers,” and select it with the mouse. When you’ve selected “Developer,” look for “Linux developer environment,” and click on it with the mouse.
After selecting the “Linux developer environment” section, find the “Turn on” button, and click on it with the mouse. When you select the “Turn on” button, a pop-up window will appear.
In the pop-up window, Chrome OS will walk you through configuring your new Linux environment (disk size, username, etc.) Go through the process of setting up your Linux developer environment.
When you’ve finished configuring the Linux system on Chrome OS, it’ll download a Debian Linux container to your system. In addition, Chrome OS will also download a Chrome OS terminal application, which you can use to interact with Linux.
Updating the container
Once the Chrome OS terminal app is done downloading the terminal app, it’ll launch it. With the terminal open, find “Penguin,” and select it with the mouse. Upon selecting “Penguin,” the Chrome OS terminal app will give you control of the Debian Linux container.
Inside the terminal, use the apt update command to update the software sources for the Debian Linux container on your Chromebook.
sudo apt update
After updating the software sources for the Debian Linux container, you’ll need to install software upgrades in the container. You can install the software upgrades using the apt upgrade command.
sudo apt upgrade -y
Once all software upgrades are installed in Chrome OS, you’ll be ready to install Linux software on your Chromebook, like Bambu Studio.
How to Install Bambu Studio – Flatpak
The optimal method to install Bambu Studio on your Chromebook is through Flatpak. Flatpak simplifies the process significantly. To begin, open the Chrome OS terminal.
After opening the terminal, locate “Penguin” and select it with your mouse. This action grants access to the Chrome OS Linux terminal. In this terminal, utilize the apt install command to install the “flatpak” package:
sudo apt install flatpak
Post installation of the Flatpak package on your Chromebook, the next step is to configure the Flathub app store. Execute the following command to add Flathub as a package source for Flatpak:
flatpak --user remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
With Flathub activated, it’s now possible to install the Bambu Studio Flatpak package on your Chromebook. Use this flatpak install command:
flatpak install flathub com.bambulab.BambuStudio
After executing the above command, Bambu Studio will be installed on your Chromebook. To launch the application, navigate to the “Linux apps” folder in the Chrome OS menu, or use this terminal command:
flatpak run com.bambulab.BambuStudio
How to Install Bambu Studio – AppImage
While we strongly recommend installing Bambu Studio via the Flathub app store as a Flatpak on Chrome OS, this isn’t the sole installation method. An alternative is to use a downloadable AppImage (akin to a Windows EXE, but for Linux).
Begin by opening the Chrome OS terminal. Use the mkdir -p command to create a new directory for storing AppImage files:
mkdir -p ~/AppImages/
cd ~/AppImages/
Next, download the Bambu Studio AppImage file, particularly the Ubuntu version, as Chrome OS’s Linux container is Debian-based (Ubuntu is a derivative of Debian). Utilize wget for downloading:
wget -O bambu-studio.AppImage https://github.com/bambulab/BambuStudio/releases/download/v01.08.03.89/BambuStudio_linux_ubuntu_v01.08.03.89-20240109.AppImage
Verify the presence of the “bambu-studio.AppImage” file in the directory with the ls command:
ls
If “bambu-studio.AppImage” is listed, update its permissions to make it executable on Chrome OS. Achieve this with the chmod command:
chmod +x bambu-studio.AppImage
With the permissions set, Bambu Studio is executable. To run it on your Chromebook, enter the following commands:
cd ~/AppImages/
./bambu-studio.AppImage
