ChromeOS < 141 provides an experimental UI for creating and managing multiple Crostini containers. When enabled, it improves UX and allows to:

  • Launch our container by clicking on its name in the terminal, instead of going through crosh. If the VM is off, it will launch it as well.
  • Mount folders into the container from the Files application.
  • Browse the container user home directory through Files.

To enable it, navigate to: chrome://flags/#crostini-multi-container, switch the drop-down to “Enabled” and then restart.

Now, go to: Settings → Linux → Manage extra containers → Create. Fill in the “Container name” with lxc-nixos and click on Create (importantly, do this after you have created the container from crosh). If the container was previously running, stop it first with lxc stop. You can now start it from Terminal.

A screenshot showing the `lxc-nixos` container available in the Terminal application. The experimental UI makes it seamless to start and access the container from Terminal.

A screenshot showing the `lxc-nixos` container available in the Files application. Use Files to browse the container home and mount directories into it.