Chromium OS is an open-source project that aims to build an operating system that provides a fast, simple, and more secure computing experience for people who spend most of their time on the web.
All downloads are located at https://chromium.arnoldthebat.co.uk/. This will be updated daily where builds compile succcessfully..
Build Instructions for USB
- Linux
- Use p7zip to extract the IMG file from the downloaded file.
- At the shell, run the following (where sdX is your USB stick and ChromeOS.img is the path to the IMG file you extracted):
dd if=ChromeOS.img of=/dev/sdX bs=4M - Boot from USB stick
- Windows
- Use 7zip to extract IMG file from the downloaded file.
- Use Win32 Image Writer, then select the IMG file and select the USB device from the menu.
- Click on “Write”.
- Boot from USB stick
All builds based on amd64 and ARM generic board.
If you want to install to your hard drive, follow the instructions here and here. Heed the warnings noted in the links!
Please note: there is a new behaviour with the chronos user password. The password has been removed from build R55-8777 onward and will continue to be removed for better overall security. Older builds have the password of ‘password’.
This means you need to use ‘chromeos-setdevpasswd’ from either shell or console to set your own password from build R55-8777 onwards.
By default, this also disables SSH access so if you also need this level of access, you will need to set a separate password using ‘sudo passwd chronos’. This allows the password for dev access and SSH access to remain separate if needed.
You can also just set a password using ‘sudo passwd chronos’ and this will allow for both dev and SSH access if you need to keep them the same. Do not use ‘chromeos-setdevpasswd’ if you want to keep the passwords the same.
Once installed, you can update from the Dev Server noted here.
Thanks to The Chromium Projects
Chromium OS GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Hey, i’ve tried to install it on virtualbox, after i could “fix the pae issue”, it showed a meesage saying that “calibration failed” and a few more lines with some errors, is there a way to fix it??
thanks
VirtualBox builds are a bit ill graphically currently so compiled purely for testing boot and network access and suchlike.
does the update server not work anymore?
i have tried all possible combinations and the update always fails.
for 64bit build it should be this one? update_engine_client –update –omaha_url=http://chromebld.arnoldthebat.co.uk:8081/update
Looks like its still working. Bear with me since Ill need to build a client. Are you definitely using 64 bit?
yes, indeed, its a 64bit client running from USB (5GB Storage left on stateful partition)
out of the ordinary – my USB stick is /dev/sdc because i have a msata SSD and a spinning disk in my Thinkpad x230, so i have to boot up using chromeos-usb.A root=/dev/sdc,
everything else is standard.
I appreciate your work, many thanks for it!
Arnold, thanks to you, this has been an great experience.
I have a working ChromiumOS system on my HP Mini 110. I tracked down the 3.4.0 Broadcom build, and I was able to get critical components working, including Flash. Awesome!
My install experience with this has been interesting, so I thought I’d share.
I’ve been considering removing Flash to save system resources.
I’m still trying to figure out how to do some OS level tasks (e.g. check system resource utilization).
It took several days to figure out how to get ChromiumOS working. The biggest initial delay was figuring out how to make changes to the system files. I eventually discovered the userids and passwords, the [Ctrl+Alt+F2] and the ‘mount -o remount, rw /’ command by reading your scripts. I’m not sure how to make this more obvious.
The scripts to add Broadcom wifi and Synaptics touchpad doesn’t work well. They expect you to have network access to perform the wget commands. Which is difficult because I don’t have WiFi access yet. So I had to download the scripts on a separate PC and download the files, mentioned in the scripts, onto a usb flash drive. Which I then had to figure out how to mount to, to get the files onto the Chromium OS device.
Given the Synaptics touchpad config scripts wouldn’t work, is having Synaptics support something that could be part of the standard build?
With this learning process, I now can image my flash drive, make the drive read/write, copy necessary files, and run scripts to setup everything. So very cool.
Remaining items:
The system doesn’t like to resume. At this point, I have to reboot it every time I wake it up from sleep. This seemed to work better on the 3.14.0 builds. Anxiously waiting for the broadcom version.
The NIC doesn’t work.
Haven’t tried the webcam
Seems slower than WinXP with Chrome, so going to compare to Lubuntu (or similar) with Chrome
Hi
On the resume front, have you tried messing around with the screen brightness? Ive seen it switch the screen to black so whilst it looks dead, its actually working still..
New Broadcom special build ‘coming soon’. I just need to automate more, but its working nicely on my test rigs.
It will have built in synaptic support as well so should make things far easier!
I can’t wait to try out the new Broadcom build! Oh wait… I’m not the only one… 🙂
Keep up the amazing work – just wish I could help more.
hi guys.
im new in here…im trying to run chromium os on my laptop(hp dv6 6177)i downloaded latest daily and Cx86OS_R41-6500.0-Special.non booted.it says something about decommpresing and the screen goes black and nothing happens.myconfig:i7 8gb ram dual graphics:1-intel 3000 2-amd 6770m 2gb.
i tried hexxeh last build and it worked great but was too old.
guys please help.
guys turns out im so stupid!
downloaded the wrong arch….so
so great work …..i only have problem music player and video player dont play anything ….otherwise excellent performance and every hardware is working fine…. thanks a lot for your great work.
Hey fazel,
I have a dv6-6024 (i7, 8GB, 1gb 6770m) and can’t get these builds to work for me, but the old 2013 hexxeh works fine from usb. I too get some booting text which flashes for a second and then screen goes blank…
What is the exact file you flashed to the usb which worked?
Hey, thx so much for providing the builds. 🙂
BTW, recently searching on Wikipedia found that Chromium now has the unofficially-admitted stable version (ie. 42.0.2311 at the moment). I suggest to stick with the stable branches in order to reduce server load and enhance stability.
What do you think?
—
http://chromium.woolyss.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_(web_browser)#2015
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_release_history
Hi!
I’m giving feedback: I tried to boot some of your daily builds (the latest I tried is from today, 30/01/15) on 3 of my computers :
– TOSHIBA SATELLITE-L855 (Core i7)
– HP p6713fr (Core i5)
– HP Compaq 6510b (Intel Core 2 Duo)
I always had the same problem: I could get the “( ¤ ) chromium” logo with white background, and then I got the first login screen, with the language selection.
This screen never actualisate. I can click on the buttons and this works, but what is on the screen never changes. Only the mouse moves.
I could even enable acessibility features to reach ChromeVox, and then login with my e-mail and password, and I think that the next thing I got was the desktop, but I only could see the very first configuration screen.
The only way to refresh the screen is to click on the developer options, then click [Cancel], but this is only available on the first login screen, and while I go further on the setup process, there is no way to get this screen back.
The [CTRL] + [ALT] + [F1-6] is working, and there is no display problem on this mode, but while I come back to the graphical user interface, I don’t see the first login screen anymore, but what was before on the screen while on tty mode.
I hope this can help in any way! Don’t hesitate to ask me details or try doing things to help you!
A small precision, I tested both 32 and 64-bits images, but I didn’t tested every builds on every computer.
Hi! I have an intel NUC box that has always been fine running your 64-bit system, but now it seems to boot up to a messed up screen output – like it doesn’t understand the screen resolution or something – are there some hotkeys for fixing this?
Never mind! I solved it. I discovered I had downloaded the x86 instead of the amd64 – now it runs great! Thanks!
how to create a bootable DVD? coz i dont have “boot from USB”… any help?
I do know from Linux that you can’t make a bootable CD ISO off a bootable USB, the reason for this is that USB images use syslinux as bootloader (which can only be installed on FAT32) and CD ISO’s use isolinux as bootloader (isolinux won’t install on anything but iso9660).
is there an option to run CHROMIUM OS in a mac book air?
Read the last comment on this Website http://www.reddit.com/r/chromeos/comments/2d1ze8/chromeos_on_macbook_air/
I’ve booted a new amd64 img successfully from a USB, but when I try to run “install” from the command line it complains that it doesn’t know the destination and that I should specify –dst. What should I do about that?
Hi John,
You will run the command with
--dst /dev/sdaso that the entire command looks like:chromeos-install --dst /dev/sdaJust to clarify – that is TWO dashes before the dst command. The next part “/dev/sda” means “device”/”first disk” so that it installs onto the first main hard disk.
Here’s a link to a spot in a video with the command being typed in: https://youtu.be/lg7oFNdD1us?t=400
Hope that clarifies (nobody shoot me for calling it “first disk”)
Hi, I have an old HP Pavilion g6 1318-ax notebook and I am trying to install your x64 builds. However, I am stuck at the welcome screen. My mouse and touchpad are detected (and the cursor is moving) but I am unable to click. and open the dropdowns on the welcome screen to select language and wifi. How can I troubleshoot?
Sam, you ever fix this?
>Sam
Me too.
My PC is HP machine too.
Almost things are looked like working well.
But Monitor doesn’t refresh.
So, Everything are looked like not work.
Thank you for your work and time.
I use an HP Notebook with Realtek Wifi RTL8723BE.
All Camd64OS – Build working perfectly, only wifi is not working.
I have install on usb.
The Special-Build is not bootable.
I connect over lan cable.
I hope you can help me.
Thanks and best regards
Is there a good build that will work with desktop computers. I have used hexxeh builds for Dell 760 and 780 works great but its not updated. Is there a build here that will work with older desktops. Ive tried several from this website without any luck.
This website is wonderful. Thanks!
I know a lot (most?) of people are putting Chromium on old notebooks, but I would like to buy a more upscale PC ultraBook and convert it to ChromiumOS. I know this puts me on the bleeding edge, a place I am ill-fit to be.
Which brings me to my question: how do I decide ahead of purchase that a notebook is likely to run well ? Presuming I can come up with an inventory of parts used, does a list of driver support exist ? Is that sort of match enough, or will I run into ‘greater than the sum of its parts’ issues ?
Forgive me if the following is crap, but I keep imagining a user being able to provide a component list and being served up a compiled distro. Would that not be totally brilliant ?
Intel based wireless is possibly your best bet to maintain most compatibility.. Bear in mind graphics support for newer cards is likely not to be developed.
I think you can buy a chromebook!
Is there no ISO version of chrome os/chromium os?
I am use to just burning linux on to disc and installing that way to HDD. I absolutly hate dos/sudo command mumbo jumbo, so if anyone knows how to get a ISO version please post it.
Thx
How to make it work on Virtual Machine? I’m having some problems… Can anyone make a tutorial maybe?
Hi I got some trouble when I update use dev
Server.
When I use the Dev update as ur blog say.
I download the update file successfully. And then . chromium os tell me need reboot.but when I reboot. I just got a black screen when kernel loaded.
I use the daily build 20150509 amd64 version
I think you may have been unlucky with the daily builds so your graphics is not working anymore. Thats the risk of the new builds!
Hi there! I want to thank you for your great work here! Just made Chromium working on my Acer Aspire 5738z with some addons from .
Thank you!
The assembly has a driver Nvidia 304? If it does not, then you could not add it to the next assembly?
Added to the list!
Hi, thanks for your work and sharing. I had s bug that made me reinstall again.
1. Start Chromium OS
2. Enter to google account un chrome browser
3. Go to settings in google account to change the password
4. Change the password
The sesion in Chromium OS end and it is needed re-enter the password (the new password).
5. The problem: never log-in, I wait 3 hours and the Wait screen never gone. I needed reinstall all system.
Thanks for read that report.
Hi Arnold , I like your work man ! Keep it up.
There is an issue regarding Google Drive , my files are not being shown…Any help you could do ?
This is to do with API keys which I cannot distribute. You can add your own.
Hi Arnold. Could you please elaborate on how to add our own API keys so that we can get Google Drive integration working? I’ve generated the keys, but can’t figure out what to do with them now that I have them. Edit /etc/environment & add the GOOGLE_API_KEY etc vars?
Have a look at http://calfaro.alfahar.com/chromium-os-installation-step-by-step/
Has anyone had a problem on the recent builds where after you connect to a wifi network, the computer just kernel panics? I haven’t tried one of the older builds.
I have install problem and try too many co.. /usr/sbin/chromeos-install –dst=/dev/sda … These worked for me…
I am a teacher trying to get an old Dell Studio 15 up and running as a Chromebook for my students. The USB boots fine… but I’m having two problems. Wifi is not working and when I try to install it on the hard disk, it says “cros-disks stop/waiting
Error: can not determine destination device. Specify –dst yourself.” It sounds like it wants me to specify where the install will go, but I have no idea what command to type. Any help is appreciated. Thanks
Bruce – the answer to your install problem is directly above your post…
chromeos-install --dst /dev/sdaAs for the wifi – if it’s not working, the only thing you can do right now is try different builds. Let ArnoldTheBat know what exact WiFi device is in that computer and maybe he’ll have a suggestion/solution in an upcoming build…
I tried using /usr/sbin/chromeos-install -dst=/dev/sda but i got this message: Flags: WARM getopt: invalid option — ‘d’ followed by invalid options for ‘s’ ‘t’ ‘=’ and so on. Any suggestions? (Regardless, awesome work — beer money has been sent!)
Hi Bruce. Thanks for the beer money! Its actually “/usr/sbin/chromeos-install –dst /dev/sda”
Darn. Still doesn’t work for my macbook. GPU is a nvidia 320m. Maybe its because I’m booting using EFI? Please help!
Could someone ELI5 how to install t 16gb usb and use the whole stick. I’ve tried using gparted to move and resize the partitions but it destroys the data on root-a. How would I go about pre partitioning before install?
Arnold, all I can say is that your builds are pretty epic 🙂
Currently using it on a HP Mini 110, pretty awesome, the Wifi, the trackpad works, I have a Chromebook, (don´t know if the Webcam) and I have material design, the only thing I miss is having a driver for ethernet, is there a way to install normal Linux drivers? Or is it there a possibility to include it in the next build? 😀
Keep the awesome work 🙂
Saul, which build did you use? I also have the HP Mini 110, and i used the latest daily x86 build (June 20), and the wifi does not work.
I have a bunch of Dell netbook 2120s. Could anyone point me to the best stable image that would work for these? Thanks!
(Netbooks) you knew what I meant LOL
I’ve tested out both 64 and 32 bit versions of chromiumos-special-build-r44-7015 on a dell 2120 netbook. Both versions work decently well. Only nagging issues is wifi credentials are lost on reboot, have to keep re-entering.. and yes I have it installed on the HD. Anyone else experiencing this?
Hi Jeff,
I have a bunch of Dell 2120’s as well and have been running the 64-bit version of that special build with zero issues at all. I’ve heard of a few people having audio issues but mine have been just fine. I do not lose network credentials either.
I know this information doesn’t help you but it’s different than your scenario so I thought I would mention it.
Hey, Nice work. I’m a newbie here. I’ve got a question about the flash player. It does not play all content. It say’s I need to update the player but when I visit the adobe flash website It say’s that my Chromebook is up to date. Is there a solution to this? I use the CHROMIUMOS SPECIAL BUILD – R44-7015
Greatings from Holland.
Peter
How can i use it on Virtual Machine? Please, someone help me
I would like to test and debug my Javascript project with Chromium OS, but the disk images are unusable because there are missing variable values in the cfg files of the boot partition. Am I missing something ?
i have the same issue after installing on the hard drive.
I’ve generated a GUUID for sda3 (labeled ROOT_A), put it everywhere I see “root=”, removed “dm=…” entries, set “PROMPT=1” and tried every boot setup. No one is working.
There is also something in the partition table that hangs my BIOS when I insert an USB key with the image before Windows boots…
Hi, sorry I’m new to this, when I tried to boot Chromium OS from the USB drive I get a lot of Kernel error. I would assume that this is due to incompatible firmware and such. I am trying to install this on my Dell Precision M4800. Do you have any idea how to fix it?
You are lucky, on my side it hangs the BIOS 🙂 The only fix I see is to build it yourself with the proper options for your device.
Haha, I actually got it to work simply by enabling optimus mode in my bios
Does anyone know how to dualboot this/install it onto partition so we don’t have to use a flash drive all the time?
You can use a VM, but apparently it only works with ‘qemu’.
Well i dont want to run it on a VM, i have the space and power to run it on a separate partition. PLus to be honest I just want to install it so i have “cool stuff on my bootloader and such” lol. I have MacOSx, Ubuntu and Window7 on my bootloader, I just wanted to install ChromeOS so I can get another cool one xD
I followed this guide: http://lifehacker.com/5820358/how-to-turn-your-netbook-into-a-chromebook-with-chromium-os
but I had no success. I’m not sure if it because the Chromium OS version had been updated for a long time , or I simply suck with Linux commands 😛
Any help would be appreciated
ChromeOS has 12 partitions for itself.
Really?
Well I only made 2 partitions.
I can easily make 12 partitions and dd it with Linux though, if that help
I just need to know how to boot it
I can’t reply to your last message, so I reply to this one… It will be painful ! Try this : Add a grub entry for the boot partition #12 of Chrome OS and tell sysinit the path of its ROOT_A partition (#3) on your system. I’m not sure it will be successful.
So… which one is the #12 one? 😛
If they have name, my god
The only 3 things/4 things with name that i see is OEM, EFI System, ROOT-A and STATE
Maybe partition #12 is not required, it’s just a boot loader. But the partition table of Chrome OS is a GUID Partition Table. So you may have to convert your partition table to a GPT.
OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD
I DID IT
Didn’t need to create 12 partition at all.
Follow this guide:
http://johnskdev.com/install-chrome-os-on-your-netbook/
Bravo ! And thanks for the link. Finally, if I understand, it does only need ROOT-A and STATE, right ? I’ve seen ‘verified’ partitions with payloads and etc. Maybe they are required for development and some applications.
Hi –
I have a similar problem.
I have a HP EliteBook 8470p. I installed chromiumOS per instructions. It installed fine and at the end, it told me to reboot.
So once i reboot, the system cannot find a partition to boot into.
Help please…
thanks.. Den
Hi!
I’ve downloaded the newest build from your downloads page (Tried both x86 and x86-64 versions), but trying to boot the image in virtualbox ends with following errors in the vm’s screen:
atkbd serio1: probe failed
EXT4-fs (sda3): couldn’t mount as ext3 due to feature incompatibilities
piix4_smbus 0000:00:07.0: SMBus base address uninitialized – upgrade BIOS or use force_addr=0xaddr
And then, it stops.
Downloaded some older images – same problem 🙁
So, what’s going on? Could you, please, take a look at it, arnoldthebat?
I have the same problem. It’s because none of the installed video card drivers succeed. I passed 3 days trying to install another display driver. I’ve chosen xf86-video-mode-setting because it is hardware independent. My god, it popups me a bunch of missing dependencies. I’m still on it. Note that I’m a newbie with ‘portage’.
I don’t think we’re on the same page here, as the issue is not about missing display drivers, rather by the fact it hangs on startup. I’ve tried to run the VDI’s on two different PC’s (Mac os X with NVidia 660ti and Windows 8.1 with some Intel gpu -> both had the same problem 🙁 )
Calling arnoldthebat: could you please take a look at it?
Try ALT+F2, login, and see what happens…
Ok, from that I can enter the shell, thanks!
It’s still strange, though, It shouldn’t matter that much when running VirtualBox, right? Also, I have no idea how to make it all work after getting to the shell 🙁
Ok, from that I can enter the shell, thanks!
It’s still strange, though, It shouldn’t matter that much when running VirtualBox, right? Also, I have no idea how to make it all work after getting to the shell 🙁
The developers work with ‘qemu’, an emulator that runs only on Linux. So they don’t care about VMWare and VirtualBox and Windows. There is a Windows version of ‘qemu’, but this is not official. If your computer runs Linux, it is not a problem for you. But most people runs Windows… I’m trying to build an image with the appropriated drivers for VirtualBox included, but it’s not an easy task.
Oh, qemu. Tried it, surprisingly, it worked! Thanks!
Also, if you’re going to package the drivers for virtualbox, can you please direct me to your blog/repo/etc where it would be released? (I prefer Virtualbox, that’s why 🙂 )
Sure, if I succeed !
Hi,
I have a Thinkpad X61 (64 bit, 2GB ram). What image should I use, the daily or the “special”? And how can I mount my home directory to a partition on my hard drive?
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Its better you find the best one!
Caro Arnold,
Efetuei os procedimentos como indicado, mas não obtive sucesso! Ao iniciar pela pendrive, acusa a seguinte mensagem:
acpi : ec: fail in evaluating the_reg object of ec device. broken bios is suspected.
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] no caching mode page found
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] assuming drive cache: write trough
gma 500 0000:00:02.0: gpu: power management time out
rtlwifi: firmware rtlwifi/rtl8192cfwu_b.bin not available
gma 500 0000:00:02.0: trying to get vblank count for disable pipe 0
gma 500 0000:00:02.0: trying to get vblank count for disable pipe 0
solicito seu auxilio!
How do I set wallpapers? Running chromium OS on live usb.
I just tried last 64bit build, Camd64OS-20150516010102 version, and everything is working fine ! I use a Dell Inspiron 17R and every devices seems to be recognized by this OS.
However, as usual, just youtube and Google Play Music can be read… No way to play video streaming from Dailymotion or Deezer from exemple, but it is still due to Adobe license rights I guess…
As a way to conclude, this Chromium release is very close from Chrome OS versions.
Did you run any of the available scripts that install Flash player for you? I believe those sites use Flash.
Open a command prompt, become root (sudo su) and then run this:
curl -L www.brash.ca/flash.sh | bashWarning: This script will, in theory, install Google Pepper Flash Player. But it might contain virus or malware.
Hi,
I’m a newbie here, thanks a lot for your great work.
And I want to know…is there any way to keep my preferences and data after reboot? (e.g., I don’t need to sign in again when I use other computer)
I know the data are stored in casper-rw file in Ubuntu, is there any method to do that in Chromium OS? thanks
All successfully installed!
/usr/sbin/chromeos-install –dst /dev/sda
It does not contain a virus or malware. It simply installs the pepper flash player.
Feel free to check the script line-by-line and download the tar file it downloads to install pepper flash.
If you want I can even explain every thing that it does and where the files came from.
Please don’t post such nonsense without checking first.
It contains binary executable (.so files).
And from an untrust source
And it was just a warning
A very unnecessary warning. Instead of scaring people away from it, how about you check it first? ‘Cause you know what? People are downloading these image files from ATB without knowing if he’s collecting passwords and personal information with some sort of back-door data mining… better put on our tinfoil hats!
People are here to try out something cool and to bring life back to older tech by hacking around with some code and stuff. If you’re worried about viruses or malware, don’t do this sort of work on important or deployed computers.
Instead of assuming the negative, check it first. If a virus scanner shows issues, then you can warn. Don’t just shout out a blanket warning.
Warning: The air you are breathing might contain avian flu…
I soooo need to put a ‘like’ button on wordpress! Thanks as ever for the positive feedback!
Sorry MrPlow, God blessed you. Have a good day.
Anyone knows how to access developer mode?
Hi –
I followed the instructions to add the Chromium 20-June build on a memory stick and then reboot but after the chromium logo is displayed for a few seconds I just see a gray screen with the mouse pointer and nothing else, I am trying it onto Dell Inspiron 6400 Laptop, how can I fix this?
Thanks
Maybe try another build. Or if you know Linux and shell, you can take a look at the log files. To go to the shell, press ALT+F2 and login.
I can navigate around linux using the shell but do you know in which directory should I find the log files?
“/var/log”
Hi Guys. Was hoping someone could help me with getting flash working as you seem to be having good success with it. Have installed Chromium on my hard drive – computer is dell 1555. have ran the script to install flash and other codecs mentioned in post from june 17. it runs fine but if i go into youtube and try and run any movies the browser crashes with the “something went wrong” blue screen. if i try a few other sites with what i think is flash content it does seem to work.
Any ideas? Thanks for your help.
Youtube may use HTML 5 instead of Flash. So the problem is elsewhere.
(Or the virus is waking up) 🙂
That makes sense. Should I assume that the browser would support HTML5 natively – ATM it does a blue screen if I try and run a youtube video.
Interested if anyone else has youtube working on a dell studio 1555?
Cheers.
Great Job! Using ChromiumOS Special Build – R44-7015 on NB HP 6710b. Everything working, just please make build for Intel 4th gen, GUI lagging sometimes. I’ve used Win XP,7,Mint and with Chrome OS greatest battery life. Keep up the good work.
Still no gui in virtualbox images. I can only access the terminal. Where is the GUI? How do I get it to work fully?
VirtualBox is still broken for the GUI other than testing the build compiles and boots. Its a work in progress.
Matt Garrett is writing something for us, VirtualBox users. It will be ready tomorrow. See https://laptopninja.io/how-to-run-chrome-os-on-any-laptop/