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. Hello Arnold

    Thx for a great work you are doing with chromium OS

    How would I ask you about adding extra hardware support? We are trying to use build on the HP 255 G4 laptops, but WiFi does not work (Broadcom 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN ) system shows “WiFi is turned off”

    Reply

        2. Just check latest special build again, I can logon on the second console and run lspci, it shows driver loaded for RTL8723be, but nothing on the main console other then same ‘map pfn…’ messages after chromium logo screen

          Reply

  3. Is there a mp3 encoder available for Chromium OS?
    There’s one called MPD for Gentoo, but I don’t know if it works on this.
    By the way, nice job, actually I’m writing this using your OS.

    Reply

  4. Hey there, using the Aug 10th special build, on my Samsung n150

    For some reason chromium shows wifi off, yet it shows wlan0. Tried insmoding and attempting but failing to do a dmesg | less to go through the output to see the issue. Wifi is enabled in the bios > always on.

    I’ve noticed zd1211 is no longer supported? (Not that I could get that to work anyway)

    Any ideas would be awesome.

    -Rob

    Reply

  5. I’m trying to run Chromium OS using the vdi file, it freezes after I select the first option in grub.

    VIrtualBox settings:

    I/O APIC
    EFI
    Hardware clock UTC
    1 GB RAM
    PAE/NX
    VT-x
    Nested paging
    128MB video memory

    Any ideas, greetings.

    Reply

  6. Hi, I’ve noticed the daily build image size has increased by 200MB when extracted, I used to have a script to pull out the root partition IMG to update, but the offsets have changed. Is there any reason for this ? The special builds are still the same size and work fine. Seems to have happened around 31st July.

    Reply

  7. Hello,

    My Linksys AE1200 is not working, is there any way around to fix this? Already tried a lot of builds, none worked. In Ubuntu I got the drivers working via ndiswrapper. Could you try including the drivers in the next build?

    Thanks in advance,
    Joël van Daalen

    Reply

  10. Hi Arnold,

    Firstly thanks for the great work you’re doing here.

    I’ve installed directly onto an old HP NC6320, at boot up it fails with atkbd serio1: probe failed as well as the same message for serio2, serio3 and serio4. Booting from USB appears to work fine?

    I assume this is something to do with the laptops internal HDD? Any advice?

    Thanks

    T

    Reply

  11. Ignore my last comment, ran through the installation again and it worked OK. Seems I hadn’t specified the source and destinations properly.

    Thanks again for the brilliant work

    Reply

    2. Never mind the webcam… do you think Google Audio/Video plugin works under ChromeOS (re: webcam driver?)

      That is all I really need…

      Great work on the builds, I’ll go back and re-check that previous build that worked OOTB with everything else, see if I cannot get webcam working? It may be impossible without V4L module built tho…

      You have a great day… and remember – everyone here loves what you are doing!!!

      Reply

  15. Im trying to run this image Camd64OS-20150831010101.vdi on VirtualBox 5.0 in ubuntu. I’ve tried with other images too. it starts, gives me a menu with 4 options to boot, none of wich works. it just hangs there. It wouldn’t hurt to include the configuration and version of Virtualbox that was used to test this images. RTFM ain’t gonna cut it IMHO.

    Reply

  16. Hi …. I’m getting Boot image failed to verify – ACCESS DENIED when I attempt to boot from usb on my Dell 7437. Any ideas?

    Reply

  17. Hey, I installed the special update-able image to my USB but every time I boot it up on a different computer I am showed the setup screen with language selection and have to login again. It doesn’t happen if I keep using it on the same computer.

    Is there a way to make this not happen?

    Reply

  18. Hi, am a big fan of your Chromium builds. Any chance you can get them listed on Distrowatch.com? There you can get more support from overall Linux community as well. Thanks for your efforts as always!

    Reply

  20. Can someone point me to instructions on how to get any of these builds to boot up in VirtualBox? I have tried half a dozen different VDI images, every setting I can think of in VirtualBox, both VirtualBox 4 and VirtualBox 5 (latest version of each), and all I get for my trouble is black screens. I have searched this site, and the internet generally, and other than instructions on how to use the very hold Hexxa images, I got zilch zip zero for how to get this to boot up for testing purposes. Hugely frustrating to not have docs. 🙁

    Thanks,

    Reply

    1. Hi Jack

      VirtualBox builds are a smidge broken graphically at the moment. They boot and get network fine but the lack of Framebuffer in the vanilla builds is breaking graphics.

      Ill be replacing them with special builds once I’ve finished testing!

      Reply

  21. Just got the newest version of pepper flash installed but I seem to be having an issue getting mp3/etc working – it seems the paths/codecs have changed?

    Reply

  23. Hey Arnold! Finally found these builds through some friends at reddit, and boy are they quicker than the outdated hexxeh builds!

    I’m having some woes with the installation process.. people saying use — vs – etc, but nothing works for me. I’ve used the fdisk command to see if my /dev/sda is different but no matter what I use I still get the flags: WARN: getopt unrecognized option error

    Reply

  24. First, you are awesome !!!

    It is possible to add this devices on some of the next build ! 😉

    Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR8151 v2.0 Gigabit Ethernet (rev c0) Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 1851

    For LAN network…

    Thanks you !

    Reply

  25. dear arnold,
    your chromium builds are awsome. but i have trouble in enabling wifi in acer aspire 5740 .
    kindly help me out . wifi is very important for me

    Reply

  26. Arnold,

    Love the hard work you’ve done. Working on 3 hp mini models and pushing to some thin clients if all goes well.

    Would there happen to be a way to switch out of dev mode once installed on the local storage or even U-special? I’ve tried several things both from the chromium os and other sites. Just tells me it’s locked.

    Thanks, fearless

    Reply

    1. To be honest, I don’t know since Ive never even considered turning it off! When things are a bit more stable, I can build a base build (hardened by default) but I think thats a way off at the moment!

      Reply

  27. Hola, disculpa lo que pasa es que intento instalarlo en una PC, pero estoy teniendo problemas. He configurado correctamente el BIOS pero cuando deberia iniciar, me salen gran cantidad de letras y numeros, y ahi se congela. Habia probado antes la de los chicos de Hexxeh, y si la pude incluso instalar. Ayuda parfavar!

    Reply

  28. Thanks for the work!

    I installed Chromeos and youtube works, but not flash!

    Trying to install the plugin, it tells me that it is already installed in the browser by default but that is not the case. It is not present in the plugins.

    What can I do to enable flash?

    many thanks
    /Jonas

    Reply

  29. Hi Arnold.

    Thank you for your continuous work on this project. I just wanted to let you know that I have been using various of your builts on several different devices and your last special built has help me use chromium in two baytrail tablets. At least with ethernet adapters. I have two divices with their keyboard docs that I am able to boot into the os. One is Asus t100taf and another no name tablet with identical specs. The only thing that it is missing is the wifi. Other then that all seams to work (minus touch). Wifi shows turned off! Not sure if you have had any interactions with the intel atom baytrail chip and its onboard broadcom adapter, but if you or anyone else has please provide feedback as to how I could get it work. Thank you. Used the broadcom workaround senario, but all comands gave errors.
    Thank you in advance

    Reply

    2. You can compile it yourself and drop it into /lib/modules/3.19.3/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/, then insmod the ko file that you created. That would be a great test if you can do it.

      Reply

      1. Unfortunately I am not too familiar with compiling .ko files. More of a rookie 🙂 wish I could be of more help in it other then testing on my devices

        Reply

  33. Hello
    I am looking at Chromium as a simple OS for a friend .

    I have a Samsung NC110 and have made a USB stick using your instructions .
    When I try to use it to boot the OS it only gets to the first screen -Language etc .
    Because there is No Network available it stalls
    .The only option I have is to do a hard shutdown .

    Any ideas – The WiFi is an Intel Centrino Wireless N-130 which works OK on Linux Lite and Win7

    Reply

    2. Hi,

      Special Built:

      Cx86OS_R46-7323.0-Special.7z
      410137KB Aug 10 2015 05:10:55 PM

      Work on that computer perfectly with the stock wifi card. The build after that does not recognize the wifi driver for your unit. Samsung NC110! I am using this built on it, but I woud venture to say the 64 bit version (same built) should still work.

      Reply

  34. I just started trying out you’re builds and they are awesome, I really like chomiumOS, but on my HP mini I cannot get wireless working the card is a Realtek RTL8188CE any tips on how to get wireless working?

    Reply

  35. Just checking re:

    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

    Status in new builds?

    Cheers.

    Reply

  36. (I don’t know English very well). Hello Arnold, can you tell me please, which of these build, i can install on intel atom z3735F, realtek webcard and intel hd graphics. Thank you for your work. P.S. Sorry for my English.

    Reply

  37. Tried the latest Special-U build, and my Atheros AR9285 (part of AR5B195 combo card with AR3011 BT3) doesn’t work. Bluetooth works and is “able to be activated”. “Enabler WI-FI” is greyed out and cannot be selected. 🙁

    I can probably use Ethernet to eventually activate WIFI, if you think it is available on USB, maybe just a line in /etc/modules ???

    Reply

  38. Webcam support is not killing me 🙂

    I truly appreciate all your hard work, but it appears your more recent builds are going backwards (compatibility-wise)…

    Reply

  39. Hello Arnoldthebat .

    Thanks for your work .

    Before Sep 14 , 2015 . I can’t use your daily or weekly build version , because my rtl8723be wireless network-card don’t work in it . Only your special build version (such as “Camd64OS_R46-7323.0-Special”) let my rtl8723be work well .

    But now , i lost my last hope 🙂 because my rtl8723be don’t work in your latest special build version that “Camd64OS_R47-7451.0-Special” .

    When i type “lsmod | grep rtl8723be” , i get :

    rtl8723be 65326 0
    btcoexist 35588 1 rtl8723be
    rtl8723_common 17963 1 rtl8723be
    rtl_pci 24808 1 rtl8723be
    rtlwifi 52809 2 rtl_pci,rtl8723be
    mac80211 425170 3 rtl_pci,rtlwifi,rtl8723be

    We can see the module is already loaded , maybe has some change in the latest special build version that make any problem .

    I hope to get your help , thanks .

    Reply

  40. I just get a white screen with chromium and a count down timer of 5 and after it just reboots. The Windows boot u special is what I’m trying to use. The other type didn’t even show chromium. I’m using Windows 7 BTW.

    Reply

  41. My Atheros AR9285 does not appear to work at all… I think it may have worked on first boot (got an IP address for WIFI card) but was nowhere near an access point at the time 🙁

    Modules all appear to be loaded (Mac80211. cfg80211. ath9k, ath, ath9k_common, ath9k_hw) so this is very confusing for me.

    I have supplied my lsmod and modinfo (ath9k) output if this helps.

    http://pastebin.com/MyhBU2vU
    http://pastebin.com/00b2DcBT

    Many thanks again… I look forward to giving this a thorough test once I get online – Note: it appears I have working ethernet LAN, but I was saving that as a last resort.

    PS. This is using last night’s nightly build… start screen is not flickery at startup, and there is an EXT4 mount error first thing at startup… dunno if that is related to my WIFI issue tho… Intel HD 3000 Graphics (512MB).

    Reply

  42. I am new to this. My computer is using a 64bit Intel i7-860 processor. I downloaded Camd64OS-20150817010101.img and installed as instructed. I tried booting from the flash drive and just got errors. Did I select the correct build for my processor?

    Reply

  43. Hi Arnold i have a question when i burn it on my usb and try to start my pc from USB it just skipps boot from usb and start booting from HDD,i have compaq dc7600 SFF i can’t run chrome on it i downloaded latest update but still not working,Help me please.. 🙂

    Reply

  44. It installed great the last version b47, until it corrupted my uefi esp drive so I could not boot anymore 🙁

    Please make sure it does not write to the uefi boot disk.

    Well at least I am using it booting from a usb, so do not want to get my windows boot drive corrupted, still it did corrupt the uefi boot drive, not good 🙁

    Reply
  45. Pingback: ChromiumOS | temporalthoughts

  46. Hi Arnold, im a big fan of your work, but there is only one problem: the wifi does not work. im using a ASUS EEE PC 1001HA the chrome os build is: Cx86OS-20150903010102.img can you fix this?

    Reply

  47. I will try it on a Airis 7″ Ultra-Portable Netbook PC. It’s like an Android Tablet, but without touch screen and with keyboard and touchpad.

    It is a very slow “laptop”, try it with LXDE+Debian ARM, but maybe with ChromiumOS it is better.

    Thanks for your hard work.

    Reply

  48. I’m trying to run the x64 version on some Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E430’s. Everything works great except for something weird with the WiFi (Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230).

    The correct driver (iwlwifi-2030-ucode) appears to be included in /lib/firmware, and on first boot, the WiFi works perfectly: sees all available networks, is able to connect, etc. After a reboot, however, it shows no available networks. In Settings it reports that “WiFi is disabled”. Ethernet continues to work fine, but not WiFi.

    I’ve had this on every build I’ve tried. Has anyone else run into a problem like this?

    Reply

        1. For anyone else who has run into this problem, I added a startup script in /etc/init called wifi-fix.conf:

          # run when login screen appears
          start on login-prompt-visible

          script
          stop apmanager
          end script

          Reply

          1. Running Chromium 48 on Asus Eee PC. WiFi worked right out of the box when I installed 45 and I only recently upgraded to 48. WiFi no longer worked after the update but this fixed it for me. Thanks for the tip!

  49. No Network recognized on Camd64OS of 27 september. My desktop Pc is connected via ethernet and seems that Chromium it’s not seeing it. I have asus p5k se as motherboard. Can you help me?

    Reply

  50. I’m trying out the FBeaufort build, just to see if WIFI is stable, and predictable… Haven’t switched camps, just waiting for working WIFI 🙂

    Reply

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