Hey Gene! I'm a fellow Crouton user with a C710 (older version of the C720). I had a similar issue once, where sudo wasn't installed.  I ran a command to run the chroot preparation scripts again (from Chrome OS, "sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -u -t {your desktop environment here} -r {your Ubuntu release name here}") and that resolved the issue for me. 

If you'd like  to chat about this off-list as well, I'd be happy to.

Welcome back, and have a great weekend! 

Brandon

> On Mar 8, 2014, at 1:55 PM, Gene Kremer <gene.kremer at visi.com> wrote:
> 
> I was excited to return to Linux after needing Windows for work for so long.
> Retirement and XP going gave me the nudge to get an inexpensive internet
> device that...joy!...I could install Linux on. OK, did that. Got an Acer
> C720 and installed crouton which is supposed to be an Ubuntu distro,
> but.....there is no apt! Can't install anything else. Did a refreshed
> install, but still no good. The Ubuntu forum called my question off-topic. 
> 
> Can someone tell me how to get a real Linux machine that I could do
> something on besides experience the Google hegemony. 
> 
> Good to be back after missing this group for years. 
> 
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