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Christophe_Roux's avatar
Christophe_Roux
Level 2.0: Eclair
3 months ago

[Bug Report & Solution] Root Cause of Grayed-Out ADB Debugging on Debian 13 (Trixie): Broken Google Repository

Hello Chrome OS Engineering Team,

After extensive troubleshooting regarding the "Enable ADB debugging" toggle remaining grayed out on managed devices, I have isolated the root cause. It is not an Admin Policy issue, nor a user error.

The issue is a missing dependency in the Google Package Repository for Debian 13 (Trixie), which prevents the installation of cros-guest-tools.

Without cros-guest-tools, the Chrome OS Host cannot verify the container's integrity or establish the necessary bridges, leading the OS to lock developer features (ADB) as a security fallback.

Here is the technical breakdown and the required fix.

1. The Environment

  • Host: Chrome OS (Version 131+)
  • Guest: Debian 13 (Trixie) - Current Stable.
  • Repository Config: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cros.list
  • deb https://storage.googleapis.com/cros-packages/142 trixie main

2. The Error

When attempting to install or update the integration tools via sudo apt install cros-guest-tools, the package manager fails with a hard dependency error:

 

The following packages have unmet dependencies: cros-guest-tools : Depends: cros-im which is a virtual package and is not provided by any available package

Running sudo apt search cros-im confirms that this package does not exist in the trixie RELEASE of the repository.

3. The Diagnosis

The cros-guest-tools meta-package depends on cros-im (Input Method integration).

  • In Bookworm (Debian 12), this dependency is satisfied (likely by cros-im-default or similar).
  • In Trixie (Debian 13), the cros-im package has not been published or linked in the repository index.

4. The Solution (Action Required from Google)

The repository maintainers need to push the missing input method packages to the Trixie DIRECTORY immediately.

Required Action:
Please ensure cros-im-default (or the architecture-specific equivalent) is added to:
https://storage.googleapis.com/cros-packages/142/dists/trixie/main/

Once this dependency is resolvable:

  1. cros-guest-tools will install correctly.
  2. The Host<->Guest handshake will complete.
  3. The "Enable ADB Debugging" toggle will unlock in the Chrome OS Settings.

Please escalate this to the Cros Packaging team.

Best regards,
Christophe Roux

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2 Replies

  • Lynda's avatar
    Lynda
    Google Community Manager
    2 months ago

    Hi Christophe_Roux​, once again thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on the above.

     

    Reports of this caliber - complete with dependency logs and repository paths - are invaluable to us.

     

    Suggested next steps:

     

    1. Issue Tracking: While this post is an excellent start, I recommend also submitting this via the ChromeOS Issue Tracker (issuetracker.google.com) under the Chromium > OS > Systems > Containers component if you haven't already. This allows for direct tracking by the engineers.

    2. Also I'd suggest you raise a support case about this via the Admin Console to get more specific feedback and guidance.

    Thank you again for your contribution to the community.

  • Christophe_Roux's avatar
    Christophe_Roux
    Level 2.0: Eclair
    2 months ago

    I have excellent news: I am still waiting from Google cros-im package but I have found a very simple workaround :

    In my Chromebook settings : on this screen 'Settings > about Chrome OS > Linux development environment > Manage USB devices' you can choose to toggle on the USB devices you want to 'Give Linux apps control over USB devices.' First plug in your Android Phone to the Chromebook with a USB cable, it will then appear in the list of devices. toggle on the option in front of your device.

    It is done!
    Now no need to have 'enable ADB debugging' because Chromebook directly allows the Crostini vm to use the device. If you use Android Studio for instance (deployed in Crostini), you will see the device appear at the top line of the developer environment.

    Then you can directly deploy your app and debug.

    Have a nice day!