This guide will walk you through the process of installing Tooniversal on your Chromebook. Tooniversal is a creative animation and cartoon-making application that allows users to design and animate their own cartoon characters and scenes. While the graphics performance may not be optimal on Chromebook hardware compared to dedicated gaming systems, you can still enjoy creating animations and exploring the application's features.

Please note that this tutorial is designed for Chromebooks with Intel or AMD processors that support Linux Apps (Crostini). Unfortunately, this method will not work on Chromebooks with ARM64 architecture CPUs, as Tooniversal is currently compiled for x86_64 systems only.

Prerequisites: Enabling Linux Apps

Before we can install Tooniversal, you'll need to enable Linux Apps (also known as Crostini) on your Chromebook. This feature creates a Linux container on your device that allows you to run desktop Linux applications alongside your Chrome OS apps.

To enable Linux Apps:

1. Open your Chromebook's Settings
2. Click on "About Chrome OS" in the left panel
3. Find the "Linux development environment" section
4. Click "Turn On" and follow the setup wizard

The initial setup may take several minutes as Chrome OS downloads and configures the Linux container. Once complete, you'll have access to a Terminal application in your app launcher.

Installation Steps

Now that Linux Apps are enabled, we'll proceed with installing Tooniversal. The installation process involves several commands that will update your system, install necessary dependencies, download the Tooniversal AppImage, and create a menu launcher for easy access. Follow along with the video tutorial above for a visual guide, and use the commands listed below.

If you have any questions during the installation process, please leave a comment on the YouTube video and we'll be happy to help you troubleshoot!

Step 1: Update Your System

First, we'll update the package repositories to ensure we're installing the latest versions of all required software. Open the Terminal app from your app launcher and run:

sudo apt update

Step 2: Install Required Dependencies

Tooniversal requires several system libraries and utilities to function properly. The kmenuedit tool allows us to create a custom menu entry, libatomic1 provides atomic operations support, nemo is a file manager that may be used by the application, and fuse enables mounting of AppImage files. Install these with:

sudo apt install kmenuedit libatomic1 nemo fuse

Press Enter to confirm the installation when prompted.

Step 3: Download Additional Legacy Libraries

Tooniversal was built against specific versions of certain libraries that may not be available in the default Chrome OS Linux container. We'll download libffi6 and libicu60 from the Ubuntu repositories:

wget http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/libf/libffi/libffi6_3.2.1-8_amd64.deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/i/icu/libicu60_60.2-3ubuntu3.2_amd64.deb

Step 4: Install the Downloaded Libraries

Now we'll install the libraries we just downloaded using dpkg, Debian's package management tool:

sudo dpkg -i libffi6_3.2.1-8_amd64.deb libicu60_60.2-3ubuntu3.2_amd64.deb

Step 5: Download Tooniversal

Next, we'll download the Tooniversal application itself. It comes packaged as an AppImage, which is a portable application format for Linux that bundles the application and its dependencies into a single file:

wget https://cdn.tooniversal.com/release/Tooniversal-x86_64.AppImage

Step 6: Make the AppImage Executable

By default, downloaded files don't have execution permissions. We need to make the Tooniversal AppImage executable so the system can run it as a program:

sudo chmod 777 Tooniversal-x86_64.AppImage

Step 7: Create a Menu Entry

To make Tooniversal easily accessible from your app launcher, we'll create a custom menu entry using kmenuedit. Launch the menu editor with:

kmenuedit

In the menu editor:

1. Choose a category where you'd like the Tooniversal launcher to appear (such as Graphics or Games)
2. Click on "New Item" to create a new menu entry
3. Give it a name (like "Tooniversal")
4. In the Command field, enter the full path to your AppImage file (typically: /home/yourusername/Tooniversal-x86_64.AppImage)
5. You can also set a custom icon if you'd like
6. Click "Save" to create the launcher

Launching Tooniversal

Once you've created the menu entry, you can launch Tooniversal directly from your Chrome OS app launcher. Look for it in the Linux apps folder, or in the category you selected during the menu editor setup. You can also run it directly from the Terminal by navigating to the directory where you downloaded it and executing:

./Tooniversal-x86_64.AppImage

Performance Considerations

As mentioned earlier, graphics performance for animation applications like Tooniversal may be limited on Chromebook hardware. This is due to several factors:

• Hardware acceleration limitations: The Linux container on Chrome OS has restricted access to GPU acceleration, which can impact rendering performance
• Resource constraints: Many Chromebooks have modest processors and RAM compared to dedicated workstations
• Container overhead: Running applications through the Linux container adds a small performance overhead

For the best experience, consider working with smaller projects, lower resolution settings, and simpler animations. If you find performance is too limiting, you might want to explore cloud-based animation platforms or consider using Tooniversal on a more powerful Linux system.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

AppImage won't launch: If the AppImage fails to run, make sure FUSE is properly installed and that you've set the correct permissions. You can try running sudo modprobe fuse to load the FUSE kernel module.

Missing dependencies: If you receive errors about missing libraries, double-check that all the packages from Step 2 and Step 4 were installed successfully. You can reinstall them by running the commands again.

Menu entry doesn't appear: Sometimes it takes a moment for Chrome OS to refresh the app launcher after creating a new menu entry. Try closing and reopening the launcher, or restarting the Linux container from Chrome OS Settings.

Additional Resources

For more information about Tooniversal and its features, visit the official website:

https://tooniversal.com/

You can also reference the Google Doc used in the tutorial for a text version of these instructions.

For a comprehensive list of Chromebooks that support Linux Apps, check out our guide: All Currently Supported Chromebooks with Linux Apps (Crostini) support

If you're in the market for a new Chromebook that's well-suited for Linux applications, have a look at our Chromebook comparison and Buyers Guide. You can also join our mailing list to be notified about major Chromebook sales and deals.

Happy animating!