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. Hi friends. Greetings from Spain.
    I try some special builds (r34 r33 r48 r50) in my old laptop but none of them seem to work. I listen a “sound system” but then I only see a white screen. R50 also shows for 2 seconds a screen with the chromium logo but then… White screen again.
    Which one should I use for an old intel core duo t5250 @1.50ghz
    Ram 2gb
    32 bits
    Thank you very much for your help

  2. Hello arnold! I have a problem! I got on my usb stick the R50 build because the others remain stuck on booting kernel… I boots, it shows the chromium logo, then restarts a couple of times , and it lets me ,then, get into chronos …. But nothing more… I think it is a a graphical issue? My PC specs are: Amd phenom II X2 550 black edition 8gb ram and a nvidia gt440…. Can you please help me?

      1. Hi Arnold,

        I’m having the same issue as above and I can get to the command line.

        Any ideas of what I can do?

        Thanks

  3. Thanks so much for this resource. Wanted to report some usage, Lenny Bruce works with my Raspberry Pi 2. Octane scores improved over Lubuntu, and surprisingly uses less energy (wattage) overall. Haven’t been able to get video camera to work in Hangouts, and Youtube is slow, glichy, but most apps work well as long as they don’t require Flash.

    Having challenges with HP Mini’s. One mini the touchpad, ethernet and wifi doesn’t work. Another the wifi doesn’t work. Thanks again for all the efforts. Thanks!

    1. Plop Boot Manager, write the ISO to a CD rom, put the USB drive in and it should boot when you select USB on the boot manager.

  4. Hallo arnold, just want to thank you for an amazing OS. And a good comment section for trouble shooting

  5. I tried Cx86OS-20160229010101.img for my second attempt. Got the Chromium splash screen but then it just stayed there and finally went into a black screen. The light on my stick, however, kept flashing at different intervals, which I think means that data was loading. After about an hour, though, I figured it was time to quit.

    Tantalizingly close. I hope you can get a build that works with my hardware. I hate buying new stuff if I can recycle old.

    Thanks for your efforts.

    1. I have the same problem with the Camd64OS. It boots to the chromium screen but then after a minute or so goes black.

  6. Can’t get past login screen, set date and time as mentioned in other posts, but after logging in with credentials I get an email from google showing a login from unknown device, but actual laptop just sits there at “Please Wait” and spinning circle…I can get into shell, but that’s it

  7. I installed the special built Camd64OS_R50-7881.0 on Feb 14, 2016. Everything seems to work fine except cannot listen to Google play. It requires install Adoble Flash.
    Do you have fix for it?

  8. Looking for a build for school computers. 32 bit dells. Models 260 270 280 Tried a few special ones but can’t get to load I can’t tell what are on the builds. Any help would be appreciated.

      1. Hey i have a toshiba satellite c55 ihave been using your special builds and everything seems to be working perfect except mtp. is this not working on all builds? thanks.

  9. I just want to report that I installed Cx86OS_R50-7881.0-Special.7z on a HP 530 and that ChromeOS is 100% compatible with the HP 530.

  10. So I tried running the 64 bit on my Toshiba Satellite L755 and it won’t recognize the ethernet connection. I used it for my Acer Aspier ES1 and it worked perfectly fine. The ethernet port is working fine because I tested that on Windows 10. Toshiba laptop has a 2nd gen I3 processor. I’m currently going to test the 64 bit special build to see if that helps. But do you have any solution?

  11. Hey, I have a Dell Latitude D410 laptop from 2006 (which does support USB Booting)
    However, I have a problem; when I start the laptop from the usb flash drive with the chromium image, it will go to “Your system is repairing itself, please wait”, and everytime it restarts, it goes to that screen.
    I have tried several different builds and checked if its corrupted, so far none is corrupted but i got that screen everytime.
    I also tried several different flash drives, same result.

    It seems like this is a problem of Dell laptops, since they will reset the USB hub power while booting from USB, do you have any fixes for this?

    1. Probably a Non-PAE processor.
      I’ve tried installing Chromium OS builds on a number of older Dell laptops with Pentium-M processors. The problem you described is due to the fact that the PAE option is not enabled (and the BIOS doesn’t even have the option for enabling it) so the Chromium OS (which absolutely needs PAE) won’t install. I’ve managed to install an OS link Cub-Linux because I can interrupt the boot and insert a “force-pae” flag which enables the PAE functionality that the Pentium M processor actually has, even though the BIOS isn’t set up to recognize it. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any Chromium OS builds that allow me to interrupt boot and insert a “forcepae” command.

  12. First, this is a awesome work. Second, english isn’t my first language, so sorry for any mistakes. Now, i have dual boot Ubuntu and ChromeOS. I want to access Ubuntu storage as SDCARD through ChromeOS, i think i can use /etc/fstab, but i don’t know format or syntax in ChromeOS. Can you help me?

  13. Apologies for the complete noob question but … I ran the dd command to create the bootable USB stick. The command completed OK but when I try to boot from it I get “No boot partitionll found”.
    Also the USB drive is not showing in the file manager but is listed under lsusb so l don’t know how I can format it to retry the dd ?

    Any help appreciated !

  14. Found your distro by chance. Burned it to a USB stick and booted. Like what I saw, so thought of installing it a separate partition in my Linux Box. Looked in and copied the contents of ROOT-A to an ext4 partition and did update-grub. Grub found the installation and booted in. Added a wallpaper, some apps. Works very nicely. This is the first impression. Thank you for your work!

    1. Archive mounter would mount the 3 partitions in the .img file. Then you can copy the contents of ROOT-A to an ext4 partition.

  15. Hello i installed the Os but when i got to the main screen it says i have no network. No wifi no Ethernet. But i do have a Ethernet connection plugged in. and it said my wifi is turned off. Can someone please help me I’m on a Dell Inspiron 6400

      1. its working now in the latest daily build the ethernet is recognished and operating.. but when i’m trying to update i get:

        Update Failed, current operation is UPDATE_STATUS_IDLE,
        last error code is
        ERRORCode::K0mahaErrorInHTTPResponse(37)

  16. I just installed the special build R50 on a Dell 2100 and it works fine (even the wireless driver), since the netbook has only 16GB HD, the best solution was running Chromium OS. EVen the enterprise enrollment works fine, but I have just one question: what is the number assigned to the machine during the enrollment. It is not the serial # (like for every other Chromebook)

      1. I’d like to match the serial number to a decommissioned serial number from my managed Google account. Is there any way to specify the serial number on an installed version?

  17. Is there any chance to run this image under vmware? I try all images (daily, weekly and special) and every image stuck in boot process. I used quem-image to convert image from raw format to vmdk.

  18. Thank you for the builds. We put Chromium os on 35 computers in my school in Iceland and it works like a charm.
    One simple question though. We are having trouble with flash players on them. Flash content won´t play but when we try to install flash player on them it looks like it´s already there.
    Any solutions?

      1. Ok great to know.
        Our only problem with the chromium computers is the flash thing. Way too many educational sites still use Flash like it´s 1999.

  19. I’m trying to install on a Dell Inspiron 6000. I’ve tried both the most recent daily build and special build, but I keep getting stuck in a restart loop. Everything seems to be working fine until I try to boot up from my USB drive. I get a screen with the Chromium logo and a message saying, “Your system is repairing itself. Please wait.” This runs for about 5 min then it restarts and does the same thing again and again. Any advice or known fix? Thank you!

  20. Hi, Im trying to install chromium on an old windows vista, asus f5nseries but I don’t get past the chromium startup screen. I tried to install it on the hard drive as well, but no difference. I am guessing I’m missing some kind of driver or similar. Any idea what to try?

  21. Arnold,

    Thanks for all your hard work. I will get right to the point.

    .Created USB with Win32DiskImager using “Cx86OS_R50-7881.0-Special”
    .Built a VM with no OS in ESXi 6 with USB device attached and set to boot to EFI
    .Booted into GRUB and chose Local Image A
    .Got Chromium splash screen, then cuts to black screen
    .Ctrl+Alt+F2 brings me to shell
    .Verified network connection with ping to googles DNS

    Nothing after this though… I see from a previous post that there is an issue with the graphics in VMware… I know there is a way to convert an installation of Chromium into Chrome OS once it has been installed. Is there a way to run the install from shell instead of the UI? There seems to be scarcely little information out there on doing this in VMware ever since hexxeh left the scene. I have a client wishing me to run tests on Chrome OS for VDI purposes. Any help would be appreciated!

    Thanks

  22. Which build should I use for ARM processors? The instructions says “CARMOS” build but I do not see any? Am I just blind? 🙂

  23. Boots from usb stick on my old Latitude D520 – wifi OK as well.
    But when I try to install on my hard drive for a permanent solution is says “can’t find destination, specify –dst yourself” How do I fix that?
    Also when in command line how do I get back to Chrome browser without re-booting?

  24. hi arnold you’re doing a great work 🙂

    i’ve got a problem though

    *i tried booting Cx86OS_R50-7881.0-Special.7z on my desktop (pentium dual core E6600)

    *everything went well till the installation screen came up
    and it wouldnt detect my ethernet connection as i dont have wifi adapter in my desktop

    *i tried this on my acer emachine laptop and i installed by connecting via WiFi. everything worked smoothely 🙂 thanks
    *but i tried to connect ethernet on the laptop and it wouldnt even show up

    so how can i install chrome os on my desktop and use it via ethernet ??? pls help me

      1. i didnt understand what u meant by that?? could u tell me the procedure on how to do those pls ?

  25. Hey Arnold,

    I have a Dell Vostro 1500 with an Intel wireless chipset. I’ve run through several builds and can’t seem find one that gets this wireless working.

    On the plus side the Dell 2120 (a majority of our older inventory) works great!

    Thank you for everything, and if you have any idea’s on the vostro that would be swell!

  26. Hej
    I Have problem with network it is says “Wi-Fi is turned off.”
    My laptop is Lenovo 11e type 20D90009MD

    Thank you

  27. I have just tried out the newest 64 bit special build on my HP Stream Pro and it works flawlessly with one exception. It doesn’t see the touchpad. I would really like to install it to the hard drive as the only OS but this is a deal breaker. Got any ideas?

  28. Hi arnold..

    Recently i ve been facing an issue with wifi.
    When i flash a build newly to a usb, the initial setup detects the wifi and connects fine..
    But after that sesseion, if i reboot , the wifi is not detected by chromiumos, it says wifi disabled..
    My notebook is Asus N56VJ.
    Any command that i can use to just restart the network service or something similar to what is available on normal linux?
    Thanks…

      1. Hi arnold, thanks for your reply.. ill try with the special build.

        But can you share the real issue with this bug.. is there anything i can help with? so that it can work with my configuration out of the box.. just trying to help.. thanks..

  29. Hi Arnold. Many thanks for all the hard work here. Just wanted to ask about MP3/MP4 support but more about MP3 actually. I installed the latest special build R50. All seem to work on my Dell E4300 except for playback of MP3 files.

    I haven’t tried playing an MP4 file yet in all honesty. 🙂

    Please can you advise how would I make them work?

  30. I am stuck at Google account login “Please wait” screen 🙁

    BIOS and OS time is correct.

    Changed account. Still stuck.

  31. Hello Arnold,

    I am trying to fix some old computers (Airis) in my School. (I am the teacher in charge of them). And I am not sure what img use. Can you help me with any idea?

    Many thanks for your hard work

  32. Hi,
    is it possible to request a wifi adapter adding to the distro? I have an Acer Aspire One ZG5 with an Atheros AR5007EG wireless network adapter which is not recognised by Chromium. I can only use the laptop when connected by ethernet.
    thanks
    Paul

  33. I tried the latest Special build on my MacBook Pro Mid 2010 with NVIDIA GeForce 330M graphics, but it gave me a black screen. I believe this is because of the fact that it has NVIDIA graphics. Is there a way to get NVIDIA Graphics working on this Special build?

  34. I would edit or delete the previous comment, but I can’t. Anyway, I managed to get filesystem access, so I entered my api key, client id and secret to /etc/chrome_dev.conf and rebooted. When I booted up, I was greeted with an error message that I have to log in again. Since then I can’t login and it always shows “Your password couldn’t be verified”

    Does anybody know what am I doing wrong?

  35. Hey Arnold, this whole concept is awesome. I’m very new to this stuff and have no real computer programming experience. Here is what I’m trying to do:
    At our school we have a ton of this little white netbooks. The only info I can get on them is they are MDG minis. The cpu information says intel atom cpu N270 @1.60ghz 798mhz, 0.99gb ram. I’m trying to get them to be more useful again. I have tried all 3 types of your chromium os daily builds. The x86 build worked sort of but it will not allow wifi and I cannot get it on the hard drive. I also tried the special builds and same problem. Not sure what to do next. I was able to get hexxeh lime build to work and install on the hard drive but this build will not allow flash or allow certain content from websites to work. There is also issues with the track pad etc. It doesn’t seem to work as clean as what people claim it should therefore I feel I’m missing something. I have been working on this for a better part of a week and feel at this point I need some help. Any help would be great

    1. I was able to get x86 special build to install on the HDD but when I go to log in it just sits there with the blue cicle rotating. Any ideas?

  36. Just giving this a try for the first time. Successfully downloaded the current version, copied it to USB, booted on old PC… everything works fine so far.

    Just have one (simple?) question… I’m using a 128gb USB3 flash drive, and would like to use the extra capacity to hold media files… can I setup / mount an extra partition on the drive for this?

    Thanks!

  37. Hello!
    I picked up an acer cloudbook 14 for cheap and I’m trying to get these builds working. It seems that I have everything but wireless working. This thing has an Intel AC 3160 wireless adapter in it. Any chance it will be added in the future?
    Thanks!

  38. Hi I need to change the evdev.conf file to calibrate my touch screen but how do i access this file in chromium os?

      1. Hi I have a question. I’m trying to fix and old computer putting chrome OS in it. I downloaded your file and did the process until I got to this point where I don’t know what to do. It says:
        Welcome to OpenSUSE 12.2 “Mantis” – Kernel 3.6.5-10-default (tty2).
        Linux login:

        Then I have absolutely no idea what to do next. Help?

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The general witterings of a nerd