Installing ChromiumOS

README.md

Install ChromiumOS

1. Get Chromium OS from one of the following places
   1. Download the vanilla build (old but stable): http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/
      1. NOTE: Password is facepunch
   2. Download the nightly build (sync doesn't work): http://download-chromiumos.appspot.com/
      1. NOTE: If you want developer mode, you must change _base_ in the download URL to _test_ as the base image does not have developer tools enabled
      2. NOTE: Password is unknown, instructions for working around this are provided later
      3. NOTE: I could not get syncing working with this build, perhaps due to no API KEYS being provided???
      4. NOTE: I could not move past the welcome screen on the 64bit build due to no network being found (32bit worked)
   3. Download the swift build (unstable): https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/project-swift
      1. NOTE: 5 minutes in to this build, my screen would go black, requiring my to hard shutdown
      2. NOTE: Password is facepunch
   4. Download the arnold build (unstable): http://chromium.arnoldthebat.co.uk/index.php?dir=daily/&sort=date&order=asc
      1. NOTE: 5 minutes in to this build, my screen would go black, requiring my to hard shutdown
2. Extract the archive:
   1. If it has the xz extension: tar -xJf chromiumos_base_image.tar.xz
3. Write the image to disk:
   1. If you are using the vanilla build and are on a mac
      1. Run the mac builder app: sudo Chromium\ OS\ Image\ Creator.app/Contents/MacOS/Chromium\ OS\ Image\ Creator
      2. Select the image file, note that you will be in the root user directory, rather than your own, right click the titlebar to go to your hdd, then Users, then you, etc.
   2. Otherwise, do the following:
      1. Find out the disk location of your usb key using: diskutil list
      2. Unmount the disk: diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX
      3. Write the disk: sudo dcfldd if=image.bin of=/dev/diskX
         1. dcfldd is an enhanced version of dd, that will calculate the blocksize for you, and output progress as it is going
      4. Eject the disk: diskutil eject /dev/diskX
4. Put the disk into your computer, select the usb key as the boot drive
5. If you do not know the install password (nighlty builds face this), press esc immediatly at booting
   1. This will get you to a command prompt
   2. Boot in debug mode: chromeos-usb.A root=/dev/sdb3 cros_debug (add cros_efi to the end if you are on an EFI device)
   3. Press ctrl+alt+f2 to re-enter the command prompt
   4. Set your desired password using: sudo /usr/sbin/chromeos-setdevpasswd and enter a password
   5. Press ctrl+alt+f1 to re-enter the GUI, continue with the normal steps
6. Go through the chromium prompts
7. In your user account or a guest account, press ctrl+alt+t, then type install
8. Shutdown, take out the usb key, turn back on
9. If you need to debug (not available on nightly builds)
   1. If you ever need shell type: shell
   2. If you ever need sudo access in shell, type: sudo -s
   3. If you ever need to write to the filesystem use: mount -oremount,rw /

Known Issues & Notes

• Fix the trackpad: https://github.com/zhaostu/chromium-os-touchpad
• Alternative install instructions if /usr/sbin/chromeos-install doesn't work: dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb conv=notrunc
• Running install on the swift builds complained about GPT table curruption, wanting me to run cgpt repair, and screen would go black within 5 minutes once installed
• 64bit build of http://download-chromiumos.appspot.com/ doesn't work with our wifi card, 32bit build works with wifi card
• The swift builds worked fine, but is quite outdated so not all extensions worked (chromium v28)

This guide was last updated in 2014. I ended up giving up, as all options had issues.

https://chromium.arnoldthebat.co.uk

Cloudready has unofficial images available from here. They are for VMWare (VMDK Format)

https://chromium.arnoldthebat.co.uk

This seems to be outdated, and https://download-chromiumos.appspot.com/ is gone.