Chromium OS

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
    1. Use p7zip to extract the IMG file from the downloaded file.
    2. 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
    3. Boot from USB stick
  • Windows
    1. Use 7zip to extract IMG file from the downloaded file.
    2. Use Win32 Image Writer, then select the IMG file and select the USB device from the menu.
    3. Click on “Write”.
    4. 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




2,715 thoughts on “Chromium OS”

  1. Any ideas how to install Chromium OS with one of John Lewis’s SeaBios ROMS? I’m opening a terminal and logging in as chronos, but when I run the command: /usr/sbin/chromeos-install, it says it doesn’t recognize the location of the dev/sdb1 drive or something like that. I want to keep Chrome OS on my Acer C720, but I installed John Lewis’s ROM so I can potentially dual boot Ubuntu or Windows later on.

    Reply

  2. I have been able to put the image on a flash drive and boot into Chromium on my Acer AOD150 netbook. Everything works including wifi, sound, etc.

    HOWEVER… 🙂

    I can only do this once. When the OS is shutdown and the netbook restarted, Chromium will not boot at all. The system just sits there. I have reloaded the image on the memory stick a half dozen times and each time it works great until I shut it down.

    I am assuming this has to do with OS verification.

    Could somebody give me a clue here? Thanks.

    Reply

    1. I have this issue too. I originally get the full-colour Grub boot screen, but after that, a plain-text different version (looks truncated slightly with titles), and the plain-text grub (?) menu always fails to boot.

      Reply

  4. I can’t run Chromium OS on VirtualBox 4.3.28 .
    I choose weekly vision and download the [ Camd64xxx.vid.7z ] .
    And then i use it for virtual machine .
    If i run , i can see the GNU GRUB menu .
    Last , I get [ Booting ‘local image A’ ] and stop here .

    Maybe i need some setting ?
    There is my setting .
    [ Enable EFI ] is checked .

    Thanks 🙂

    Reply

    1. I have the same problem as yours .
      It’s not only stop at “Booting ‘local image A’” . Other selects are no work . Forgive my poor English .

      Who help us , please?

      Reply

  5. So after getting the “cannot verify space” in the Files app, I did the fix with the API keys. Now I’m getting a “we’re sorry your password cannot be verified” error. Any ideas on how to fix that besides starting over?

    Reply

    1. Never mind, must have been a typo. It’s working now on USB, I’ll see after I reinstall on the HDD.

      Reply
  6. Pingback: Installing Flash on Chromium OS | My Blog
  7. Pingback: Turn your old laptop into a Chromebook! | Benjamin Peters

  8. How would I ask you properly about adding some extra hardware support?

    My LAN drivers (Qualcomm Atheros LAN+WLAN) don’t work (LAN not at all, WLAN might work but I don’t have a router close enough to be able to use it)

    The specific drivers as on KUbuntu 15.04 are `atl1c` for wired, `ath5k` for wireless. I wasn’t able to find the proper modules within the kernel modules folder to insmod them (and the last “Special” build also has other issues with “insmod”ing some of the present modules (unknown symbol errors)

    Reply

      1. Yup it seems like atl1c is the one I’m complaining about. Now it’s still missing, a year later.

        Reply

  9. Trying to setup on Virtual box but does not work saying:

    [ 0.1939381] atkbd serio1: probe failed
    [0.298687] EXT4-fs (sda3): couldn’t mount as ext3 due to feature incompatibilities
    [0.689039] piix4_smbus 0000:00:07.0: SMBus base address uninitialized – upgrade BIOS or use force_addr=0xaddr

    Please help.

    Reply

    1. Your first step is to tick “Enable EFI” in System settings. You’ll get to a GRUB loader. This is as far as I got as of yet 😉

      Reply

    2. I strongly suspect the EXT4-fs couldn’t mount as ext3 error is due to the build system. I just built on my own machine and did not see this error (EXT4 is the HostOS fs).

      The piix4_smbus error is a commonly seen non-critical error. Just ignore that.

      The atkbd serio1: probe failed error is a deal breaker, it causes the system to hang. It shows up on my build as well, apparently it’s a bug in the source code which needs to be fixed.

      I also noticed that regardless of the platform, a default ChromeOS build targets a USB deployment, I don’t know the consequences of that yet and haven’t yet found documentation what it might be changed to or how to re-build the boot to also likely solve the atkbd error.

      So, bottom line is that ChromeOS cannot run in a VM until further notice.

      Reply

      1. Hi Tony

        Not quite true since I have just downloaded the latest build from my web site and powered it up in VirtualBox. Yes the errors are correct, but the OS does load and allows you to get to console using Alt-F2. Graphics are very broken on the daily/weekly build so its console only for now.

        Reply

  10. Hi
    Fooling around with a HP 625, trying to install the Chrome OS. I get the error that can be found in another post and reply here, the “doesn’t know the destination” and I have used the –dst /dev/sda but it doesn’t help. The strange thing is that I first installed the version of the OS that can be found at chromeos.hexxeh.net and that version I was able to install to my harddisk (but the version of Chrome was too old so I was not able to get any new apps).
    This make me think that my laptop can be used for this OS but not the latest build. The OS works fine running from the USB-stick but that is not how I want it. Someone, any idea?

    Reply

    1. Ran into the same problem. Runs good but old Chrome browser. Any other good up to date builds?

      Reply

      1. Yes. I tried to build “Camd64OS_R45-7216.0-Special”. Onex not find Ethernet (PPPoE) connection. Can you solve it? My network adapter “Realtek RTL8201CL – 10/100 PHY”. Motherboard “Biostar N68S3B”. Chipset “NVIDIA MCP68S (nVidia GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a)”.

        Reply

  12. Cannot boot via USB. Can I burn the .img to DVD? Live DVD of Android x86 5.1 Lollipop worked on DVD (but not on any type of USB). Acer Aspire 4752 – 8GB RAM – Intel HD 3000 Graphics.

    Cheers.

    Reply

    1. Incorrect, can boot, just large black blocks making the screen unreadable (NVIDIA 8400GS and GTX 660). Will try laptop Intel HD 3000 later tonight with latest nightly downloads.

      Reply

  13. Dear Arnoldthebat,

    When you say:

    dd if=ChromeOS.img of=/dev/sdX bs=4M/

    Does X can be substituted for c or c1 ? ( if my pen drive is in /dev/sdc and /dev/sdc1 )

    Reply

  14. Hi, I’ve tried to install Chromium on an HP mini 2133 and it keeps freezing during installation. From my sleuthing around the web I think it may have to do with the Via C7-m processor it has, making it incompatible.

    I’m a teacher and our school already has some Chromebooks. We had these HPs hanging around that were unused because they still had XP on them. I’d love to convert a set of 10 of these little guys over so that my students can use them in class since we’ve recently switched over to Google.

    I’ve already converted over a Toshiba netbook and it’s working well, but the 3 HP minis I’ve tried have all had the same result. If you need more info I can rerun the install, but I was hoping that if it is a definite known “no-go” then I can stop and try to come up with a new solution for these computers.

    Reply

  16. Is there any way to get Flash and MP3/MP4 working on the latest Chromium 45 builds? I can get Flash working, but not the others.

    With Chromium 43 I do get all of them.

    Reply

  17. Hi Arnoldthebat,

    I’m trying to install one of your builds on my old Dell Vostro 1500 series. Tried to boot from this build: Cx86OS-20150715010101.img and am getting this error:
    firmware file “b43-open/ucode5.fw” not found

    Any help is very appreciated 🙂
    Thanks,
    Keli

    Reply

        1. I have Arnold and the special build gets me a step further. It loads the graphic env, I mean it tries to load graphics but it fails pretty badly. I see mouse cursor, I see right hand side of the bar and can click on time, wifi(not available) and something else. However windows do not render correctly and are not interactive at all. It seems it has a problem with the graphics.

          Any suggestions?
          Keli

          Reply

  18. Dang-it, I have been downloading the top listed files, thinking they were the newest… When am I gonna learn how to pay attention?!

    Reply

  19. Just a quick note to say that latest nightly image (YES, I got the CORRECT ONE this time!) is working perfectly on Acer Aspire 4752. Amazingly fast, even from USB. All working including WIFI/Bluetooth, multitouch etc.

    Do you have a tutorial on how to install to internal laptop HDD?

    Reply

    1. Can you also easily change the default user (or add a new user) not Chronos? If you logged in, are you still user chronos?

      Reply

  21. Dear ArnoldTheBats,

    We were trying to use the latest daily build for certain PC inside the company. e.g. one of them is this following link (http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00GWI66B6/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and the others have Intel CPU. They does not seems working unfortunately.

    Is there a reason for explaining why Chromium OS on USB not working on our machines? Could the reason be more than hardware compatibility issue?

    Thanks very much for any reply in advance!

    Reply

  22. Has anyone booted these images under KVM? I’m curious if so. and what the configuration or qemu command was. I have been able to boot but the GUI never comes up, only the ctl-alt-f2 console is available.

    Reply

  23. Got it working on an old Lattitude D520 except for sound, any hints on enabling /troubleshooting sound?

    Reply

      1. Thank you for your response, but after running the configuration change for the mousepad driver, the sound started working, so probably no need to add to the build

        Reply

  24. Thank you for your great job Arnold. Thanks to your Chromium OS builds I was able to upgrade it to Chrome OS and now I can triple-boot Windows 10, Ubuntu and Chrome OS!
    I already had Windows and Ubuntu, so what I did was install Chromium to a USB stick and upgrade it to Chrome OS in the same USB stick. Then I copied all the content of the EFI partition of the USB stick to a newly created /boot/ directory inside the ROOT-A partition. Finally I copied STATE and ROOT-A partitions to the beginning of my Hard Drive and added a menu entry for Chrome OS in Grub2.
    It wasn’t easy but finally I was able to find out a way to boot Chrome OS with my other operating systems without having to wipe my entire disk or use scripts like ChrUbuntu or Crouton!!

    Reply

  25. Hi,

    Is there a special hardware requirements for these builds?

    Tried it on several Intel, AMD cpu, does not work.

    Is it possible that you could tell me which Hardware would be needed?

    Thanks a million!!!!

    Reply

  26. I’m installing the latest build on a DELL 5400. I did this last March and it worked on the same machine.

    This time, after I run /usr/sbin/chromeos-install it says it “can not determine destination device. Specify –dst yourself.

    I tried a couple of these suggestions, like –dst/dev/sda but that doesn’t work. Any other ideas?

    Reply

          1. Thank you! I am trying install the special build on an ASUS 901 which has 4gb and 8gb SSD drives. Your instruction got the installation started on the 4gb but then it said “Smart command failed” and it is telling me to add “-T permissive” options. ???

  27. This really is a great site, Chromium works great on the old Dell laptop I have, I was just wondering the best way to dual-boot. when I search I get several different methods on how to do it – but nothing seems straight forward. If anyone has a link to straightforward instructions on configuring this, then thanks in advance.

    Reply

  29. Really appreciate the work you put into this. The site has been very helpful for getting me started with the OS.

    When using a USB based install I don’t seem to be able to change the user settings section. I can see it but it has a warning that it can only be changed by – then show my account. Any ideas on how I can get the ability to change these settings? Seems I can change other settings.

    Thanks

    Reply

  30. Arnold meanwhile thank’s for your good work.
    I use Chromium os live usb and unfortunately i formatted the partition “SD Card 3” and now it is “UNTITLED” ! How can I change the name to this partition ?

    Thanks in advance

    Paolo

    Reply

  31. HI,
    I’ve downloaded the last img available on the weekly folder and created the USB flash perfectly.

    The systems boots OK but on the first screen where I have to select the Language, Keyboard and Network I cannot find any network available. Both on WIFI and connected to the router I get no connection, like if the adapter would be off.

    Any idea on how to fix this?

    Cheers

    Reply

  32. Hi ArnoldTheBat, just a couple of quick questions…

    What is the status of MP3/Flash/PDF support in your latest nightly builds? Is it possible to get any or all of these working?

    I realise now that I was logging in as my Google user, not Chronos, thanks for the reply before, was not quite sure what I was asking at the time (very new to Chromium OS).

    I want to dual-boot my Hackbook Pro (Acer Aspire 4752) which has BIOS boot. I cannot easily resize the partition due to MBR partition (BIOS not support GUID). How much space should a Chromium OS take on the hard drive?

    I have completely corrupted my OSX HFS+ journaled filesystem from Chrome OS before, writing to partition. Should I create a FAT32 transfer partition to avoid this?

    Can I adjust mtab/fstab and stop OSX partition mounting at startup?

    Sorry if these are basic questions, I’m still new to all this.

    Reply

  33. When I try to install from usb to HDD (Asus eeePC) there is always the massage:
    initctl:Unknown instance:
    Error: can not determinate destination device. Specify –dst yourself.

    What can I do to solve that problem?

    Reply

  35. Does anyone have any instructions on how to install this from a CD? My bios won’t let me boot from a usb.

    Reply

  36. I am trying to load chromium on an Asia netbook and everything works fine after changing the wifi card out except when I try and select a wifi network that is password protected no prompt for a password comes up and everything freezes. This does not happen if I join an unprotected network but as soon as I select one with a password everything freezes except the mouse. Has anyone else run into this issue and if so does anyone have a fix.

    Reply

  38. Hi

    im using this in a work environement with multiple users per pc and i wanted to know if it was possible to remove the last users automaticly after a log off.

    thanks !

    Reply

  39. How do I disable updates from your vanilla daily? I got a version that I like and want to stay with, but it keeps updating itself. I patched some things etc and have to fix daily.

    Reply

    1. Just to follow up. I found how to disable updates on Vanilla.
      Go to command prompt Ctrl+Alt+F2 then:
      1. Type mount -o remount, rw /
      2. Type vi /etc/lsb-release
      3. Remove everything after = for CHROMEOS_DEVSERVER and CHROMEOS_AUSERVER
      4. save
      5. Type mount -o remount, ro /

      Reply

  40. Sorry for being a noob, but what is the latest version that will support pepper flash and also realtek wifi? I am using 64bit version 45 of your special distribution and wifi & all other drivers are working fine, but it will not take the patch that includes support for pepper flash, pdf, mp3 and mp4. I intend to refresh some older toshibal sattellite 855 laptops and deploy for or high school lab,,, No previous experience with Chromium and not much of a linux admin either. My motivation however is that these old machines run like race cars with Chromium… any help would be appreciated.

    Thanks for your efforts with these distibutions,
    Shane Hale

    Reply

    1. @ GSHale

      I’m wondering on how to do this too. Chromium OS would be the perfect OS for me and one of my notebooks, but without Flash and MP3/MP4 I simply can’t get by 🙁

      Reply

  41. Hi! I was really happy that I found these Chrome OS images here and unfortunately something went wrong (like always):
    I installed chrome os with the script /usr/sbin/chromeos-install (after booting it from USB). Installation went fine with some warnings. But after restarting, my Laptop is throwing me back to the BIOS because there isn’t anything he can boot to. I looked at the boot options and there were none! I’m not sure what’s the problem and I tried for hours now to fix this. Unfortunately, I’m not a linux expert. Did I forget something to do? Any reply is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
    Oh, I have a UX31A Zenbook Prime.

    Reply

  42. Hi Arnold, I was wondering if there is a fix to the login issue. When i enter my email and password and 2 step verification info chromium gets stuck on the “Please Wait” loading screen. How can I get past this?

    Reply

  43. Hi Arnoldthebat,

    Having serious issues with built-in webcam (USB), wondering if it were possible for a new special build to compile the following into the kernel:

    CONFIG_VIDEO_DEV=y
    CONFIG_VIDEO_V4L2_COMMON=y
    CONFIG_VIDEO_MEDIA=y
    CONFIG_USB_VIDEO_CLASS=y
    CONFIG_V4L_USB_DRIVERS=y
    CONFIG_USB_VIDEO_CLASS_INPUT_EVDEV=y

    Many thanks for your excellent work to date 🙂

    Reply

    1. I’m getting in Virtualbox 5 and on different PC’s with USB the following error

      KASLR using RDTSC…
      Decompressing Linux… Parsing ELF…. Performing relocations… done.
      Starting the kernel.
      tsc: Fast TSC calibration failed
      EXT4-fs (sda3): couldn’t mount as ext3 due to featrue incompatibilities
      piix4_smbus 0000:00:07.0 SMBus base address uninitialized – upgrade BIOS or use force_addr=0xaddr

      Reply

  46. With my network adapter it says “WiFi is turned off” even though the bluetooth is working. Works with ethernet. Any suggestions for getting WiFi functional?

    Build used:
    Camd64OS-20150808010101.vdi.7z
    368069KB
    Aug 08 2015 03:54:05 AM

    Hardware
    Device:
    Lenovo IdeaPad U310 43752BU
    Custom network card:
    AzureWave Broadcom BCM94352HMB
    CPU:
    i5-3317U
    Intel HD Graphics 4000
    HM77 chipset Ivy Bridge architecture

    Reply

  47. Hello,

    I have leneovo x130e laptops with AMD cpu’s E450 series and Atheros wifi cards. The Vanilla builds all boot just fine and everything looks to work except wifi. I’ve tried all of the latest special builds and none of them boot. I get the chromium splash screen(large size) and then I get balck text loading and that’s all the further it gets. Any ideas?

    Reply

  48. Hi there Arnold,

    I keep trying to install chromeOS on every laptop I have available.

    My knowledge of Linux is not that big, but mostly I can handle it. I have installed this build on an Acer Aspire 7551. This machine has a broadcom network adapter and a QualComm Atheros wireless card (PCI).

    Running and installing from USB works fine, everything works including web-cam, sound and so on. But then it tells me te reboot because of some updates. Then it happens . . . . no more wifi.

    So when I startup with a fresh install, wifi works fine. After the update wifi works strange.

    When I startup after the update, wifi shows that is is not enabled. When I connect a lan cable, I get network connectivity and I can work. When I unplug the network cable . . . up comes the wifi networks and I can use a wifi connection.

    What’s the problem here ??? Hope you have an answer or can point me to an answer.

    Thanks in advance.

    Jacco

    Reply

  49. Hey Arnold and anyone else who may be able to help out. I’m using the most recent special build for x86 cpus and I go to install the codec for flash and mp3, ect. but I can’t seem to get it working. Youtube works, but things like flash games and twitch.tv does not. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

    Reply

  50. Using on an Asus X101CH and it launched but it did not recognize the wireless card: Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter. It uses the ath9k linux module and works with other ‘nixes. I also inserted 2 different USB wifi devices and I was still stuck with “no networks.” Help?

    Reply

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