Running AWS CLI Tools on ChromeOS / ChromeOS Flex

Using ChromeOS / ChromeOS Flex with AWS CLI Tools

What is the AWS CLI?

The AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) is an open-source, unified software tool that allows you to manage and interact with Amazon Web Services (AWS) using commands in your terminal or command prompt

Full details are available here:

AWS CLI

Why would I want to use Amazon CLI Tools from the Linux VM on ChromeOS Flex?

ChromeOS and ChromeOS Flex provide a standard Debian 12 Linux VM as part of their developer options that has the foundational tools for but can be customized to provide a complete developer environment.

This tutorial uses the AWS tools installation and extends the Linux VM in ChromeOS Flex to allow local development.

Initial Environment Setup

Activate the Linux VM in ChromeOS Flex:

https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439?hl=en

Make sure to extend the initial disk space to 64GB or higher when setting up the VM:

Verifying Linux VM Setup

Start the Linux VM and open the shell:

Get all Local Linux VM Updates:

This step makes sure that the Linux VM has all Local updates.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Add basic development tools to the Linux VM:

sudo apt-get install git
sudo apt-get install curl
sudo apt install build-essential

For a fresh installation — this make take 3–4 minutes to pull all required package dependencies.

Python Version Management

One of the downsides of the wide deployment of Python has been managing the language versions across platforms and maintaining a supported version.

The pyenv tool enables deploying consistent versions of Python:

GitHub - pyenv/pyenv: Simple Python version management

As of writing — the mainstream python version is 3.13. To validate your current Python:

xbill@penguin:~$ python --version
Python 3.13.11

Installing AWS CLI

The latest AWS CLI is available here:

Installing or updating to the latest version of the AWS CLI

To do a quick install-

curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/install

This will extract the package:

xbill@penguin:~$ curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/install
  % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
                                 Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 63.7M 100 63.7M 0 0 67.9M 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 67.9M
Archive: awscliv2.zip

You can then validate the version:

xbill@penguin:~$ aws --version
aws-cli/2.34.5 Python/3.13.11 Linux/6.6.99-09128-g14e87a8a9b71 exe/x86_64.debian.12
xbill@penguin:~$ 

Setting Up the AWS CLI

Full step by step instructions are available here:

Setting up the AWS CLI

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/getting-started-quickstart.htm

For short-term sessions- login to the AWS Console:

xbill@penguin:~$ aws login
No AWS region has been configured. The AWS region is the geographic location of your AWS resources.

If you have used AWS before and already have resources in your account, specify which region they were created in. If you have not created resources in your account before, you can pick the region closest to you: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/global-infrastructure/latest/regions/aws-regions.html.

You are able to change the region in the CLI at any time with the command "aws configure set region NEW_REGION".
AWS Region [us-east-1]:
Attempting to open your default browser.
If the browser does not open, open the following URL:

https://us-east-1.signin.aws.amazon.com/v1/authorize?response_type=code&client_id=arn%3Aaws%3Asignin%3A%3A%3Adevtools%2Fsame-device&state=c57aba33-771a-4ee8-a8af-d655a86de09e&code_challenge_method=SHA-256&scope=openid&redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2F127.0.0.1%3A46193%2Foauth%2Fcallback&code_challenge=oeHr2u56zf_3IDRLlacJf6M4PoAYl5ILc0NKokWG6TI

Updated profile default to use arn:aws:iam::106059658660:root credentials.

Testing the AWS Tools

Once the AWS Tools have been installed and configured- they can be used directly from the command line in the ChromeOS Shell:

xbill@penguin:~/gemini-cli-aws$ aws s3 ls
2026-03-10 10:22:51 xbill-test

Taking it to the Next Level — Gemini CLI

Install Gemini CLI in ChromeOS:

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

A pre-built Git repo with tools for working with Gemini CLI and AWS is available here:

git clone https://gitHub.com/xbill9/gemini-cli-aws

Then Gemini CLI has full visiblity and support for the AWS tools along with the GEMINI.md configuration file:

This is a multi linux git repo hosted at:

github.com/xbill9/gemini-cli-aws

You are a cross platform developer working with 
Amazon AWS and Google Cloud

You can use the AWS CLI :
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/getting-started-quickstart.html
https://aws.amazon.com/cli/
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/

## Automation Scripts

This repository contains scripts for updating various Linux environments and tools:

- `linux-update`: Detects OS (Debian/Ubuntu/Amazon Linux) and runs the corresponding update scripts.
- `aws-update`: Updates Amazon Linux 2023 packages and installs `libatomic`.
- `debian-update`: Updates Debian/Ubuntu packages and installs `git`.
- `gemini-update`: Updates the `@google/gemini-cli` via npm and checks versions of Node.js and Gemini.
- `nvm-update`: Installs NVM (Node Version Manager) and Node.js version 25.

Running the AWS CLI from Gemini CLI

Finally — the full suite of AWS CLI tools is available from Gemini CLI:

cd gemini-cli-aws
gemini
describe my s3 buckets

✦ The xbill-test bucket is the only S3 bucket in your account and was created today, March 10, 2026. Here are the full details:

  Bucket: xbill-test
   - Creation Date: 2026-03-10T14:22:51+00:00 (Today)
   - Region: us-east-1 (Default)
   - ARN: arn:aws:s3:::xbill-test
   - Owner ID: 7a8ebd4eaaa8d16dc7abbee00cac3ade142b19fc2695b8a5d49d9711c1c298a4
   - Status: Empty (No objects found)

  Security & Access
   - Public Access Block: Enabled (All 4 block options are set to True)
   - Bucket Policy: None (No bucket policy is configured)
   - Encryption: Enabled (Default encryption using AES256)

  Configuration
   - Versioning: Not enabled
   - Logging: Not enabled
   - Lifecycle Rules: None
   - Tagging: None (No tags associated with this bucket)

Summary

The Linux development environment was enabled on a standard ChromeOS environment. Then - the AWS CLI tools were downloaded and installed. The final step was to configure and test the CLI tools directly from the Linux VM.