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. I have a slight problem…. I have tried daily and vanilla build, but they remain stuck to the chromium logo. If i connect the usb stick in another port, sometimes it goes to a black screen after logo(no backlight). I can get in the shell/console… I have a gt440 and a phenom ii x2 560…. If i try to enter enable_dev_usb_boot, it says that the firmware is not a ChromeOS one(on both builds). Help

    1. I’m having the same issue trying to install mine on a older Dell Desktop (not sure the specs) but i do have a 8600gt in there. Takes the USB but gets stuck at the Chromium logo, let it sit there for about a hour or 2 and no progress. Wanted to make sure it wasn’t a PC thing considering this this may have some issues with it.

      Any help would be great.

      1. I have the same issue, I have tried changing everything in bios configuration, but allways freezes at the Chromium logo.
        Please help.

  2. Hi Arnold, thanks for all your great work – I have installed your chromium os on several hp laptops of varying models and it works well. I am now trying to do the same for a Lenovo Thinkpad E535 but I have the problem where I get the Chromium logo and then a black screen with a mouse pointer. I believe this may be due to the graphics card not being supported. The card installed is, I believe, the AMD Radeon HD 7640G. Is there any chance that this will be supported in the near(ish) future? I know you must be busy.

  3. Wifi will be unavilable when the OS boots up for 2~3 minutes.
    My OS version is Camd64OS-20170216010101 and I installed it on an intel x64 laptop.

  4. First, thanks for keeping up with this! I’ve repurposed several x86 laptops.

    One is an MSI Wind U100, currently running R50-Special installed on my hard drive. Google (Gmail) says that version of Chrome is no longer supported.
    When I try to update through Settings | About it claims my device is up to date.
    When I sudo stateful_update, and it tries to download the update, I get a Gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file.

    Next I loaded R55-Special on USB, it claims my WiFi is turned off. It’s not, and I don’t get a WiFi symbol next the “< Network" to be able to turn it on/off.
    So I backed down versions R55-Special, R54-Special, R52-Special – each claim the same.

    Backing down to R50-Special, it lets me connect to WiFi but acts the same as R50-Special on my hard drive (see above).
    Same with R48-Special.

    I'd be happy to help troubleshoot if you could point me in the right direction. Hopefully I just have an Operator Headspace problem.

    I've got a CF-30 toughbook that's happy with R55-Special on the hard drive, but I get the same WiFi issue when trying to boot R55-Special from USB on that box.

    Thanks in advance.

  5. I downloaded vanilla version. Wrote to USB disk. I wanted to install on Acer Aspire ONE D270 netbook. When booted from USB disk, it showed Chromium screen. After that it went blank. I have no clue on how to install. Please help. Thanks.

  6. Hi Arnold, question: how can I install on my hard drive the version of Chrome OS “Cx86OS_R57-9202.B-Vanilla”? Is there a special password to execute the commands in this version?

  7. I have tried installing many daily updated versions but every time when I boot from USB it doesn’t connect to WiFi which automatically gets switched off and doesn’t start again. Ethernet connections too don’t work.please help

  8. Arnold, Just installed chromium on an old dell inspiron 1525 that I had lying around and it works brilliantly. Thanks. One question though: How do I increase my storage? Whatever size USB stick I use, the only memory I have is 1.1gb. Can this be increased?

  9. HAve good success with booting from USB. Works great when on USB (except the limited drive space) . However, I get to the command prompt and I can not get it to install. I tried setting the password but it said the password was incorrect when setting the password. I am using the Daily build from today.

  10. Just tried with my Dell XPS 13 9350.

    It boots to the Chromium screen. The screen goes black with a cursor. After 1-2 minutes the laptop reboots.

    Anyone got this working on a Dell XPS?

  11. Hi, I try to give a simple life (light OS instead of XP) to an old laptop (Toshiba EA60-155) which doesn’t support USB booting. So I took the HDD out and connected it to my laptop via USB and used it as a USB stick then just wrote the image onto it. When the old laptop starts booting, it stays at the “Booting the kernel.” forever. Is there any ways to see the solution for that? Thank you!

  12. On an old laptop with a local hard drive I installed the
    chromium os.

    “/usr/sbin/chromeos-install” was not enough to have it
    installed on the hard drive.

    I had to specify the destination.
    “/usr/sbin/chromeos-install –dst /dev/sda”

  13. Build Instructions for USB doesn’t work for me,

    dd if=Cx86OS-20170304010101.img of=/dev/sdc1 bs=4M
    dd: Can’t open «/dev/sdc1»: Permission denied

    Thanks in advanced and sorry about my english.

  14. Hello
    I use thinkpad E450 to install this OS, but it seems wifi driver missed, the wifi network always set as off.
    can you help me?

  15. Absolutely superb build arnoldthebat! After testing for a few weeks I’ve taken the plunge and installed it as my primary OS. Thanks for your work.

    I’ve installed the Camd64OS_R55-8777.0-Special build from last year. When will the next build be out? Unfortunately the build seems to use one of the older versions of chrome (53-55) which results in NET::ERR_CERTIFICATE_TRANSPARENCY_REQUIRED error with symantec SSL certificates (see https://sslmate.com/blog/post/ct_redaction_in_chrome_53 ).

    Many thanks! BW

    Tom (York, UK)

      1. Great! Thanks for the reply.

        I haven’t given the Vanilla builds a go yet as the special builds drivers worked a treat. Will give it a spin.

        BW

  16. I can’t update. It gives me this when I try to through the dev server:

    [0311/050019:INFO:update_engine_client.cc(447)] Forcing an update by setting app_version to ForcedUpdate.
    [0311/050019:INFO:update_engine_client.cc(449)] Initiating update check and install.
    [0311/050019:INFO:update_engine_client.cc(478)] Waiting for update to complete.
    [0311/050026:ERROR:update_engine_client.cc(217)] Update failed, current operation is UPDATE_STATUS_IDLE, last error code is ErrorCode::kOmahaErrorInHTTPResponse(37)

    I think it might be a problem with your server. If I try to visit it through HTTP, it spits out this:

    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/cherrypy/_cprequest.py”, line 656, in respond
    response.body = self.handler()
    File “/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/cherrypy/lib/encoding.py”, line 188, in __call__
    self.body = self.oldhandler(*args, **kwargs)
    File “/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/cherrypy/_cpdispatch.py”, line 34, in __call__
    return self.callable(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
    File “/usr/lib/devserver/devserver.py”, line 1567, in update
    return updater.HandleUpdatePing(data, label)
    File “/usr/lib64/devserver/autoupdate.py”, line 860, in HandleUpdatePing
    protocol, app, event, update_check = autoupdate_lib.ParseUpdateRequest(data)
    File “/usr/lib64/devserver/autoupdate_lib.py”, line 241, in ParseUpdateRequest
    request_dom = minidom.parseString(request_string)
    File “/usr/lib64/python2.7/xml/dom/minidom.py”, line 1928, in parseString
    return expatbuilder.parseString(string)
    File “/usr/lib64/python2.7/xml/dom/expatbuilder.py”, line 940, in parseString
    return builder.parseString(string)
    File “/usr/lib64/python2.7/xml/dom/expatbuilder.py”, line 223, in parseString
    parser.Parse(string, True)
    ExpatError: no element found: line 1, column 0

    The same thing happens if I try it through TOR or any other VPN, so it is not just a problem on my end. Any idea on what is happening?

    1. Oh and i think I might be running the special build, is there any way to check which build I am running? I haven’t updated in almost a year with USB, so that might be the cause of it.

  17. Having trouble with hidden ssid on dell laptop, saw a fix somewhere on this site using command line
    It said that bluetooth was affecting it and it used commands associated with wlan to permanently assign ssid and password.
    Can anybody help me locate this fix– been looking for days and no luck Please..

  18. I am using Lenovo Ideapad 100s-11iby. I did all the installation steps above, but when I boot to the setup screen the laptop shut down immediately. This happens every time, even when I use other build and special build Vanilla. Is there anything else I can do???

  19. Hi. I work for a charity and we are using your build to make Chromium laptops for use by our staff. We use Netsuite and our staff have been getting the warning that the connection is not private with the net::ERR_CERTIFICATE_TRANSPARENCY_REQUIRED error, which I found out is something to do with Symantec certificates and chromium. The suggested fix is to update the version of chrome to the latest version (57?) and we are using the R55 special build. Is there anything we can do to eliminate the error (other than turning off security warnings, which I am loth to do)? Any help greatly appreciated.

    Regards, Alistair

    1. Hi

      The new Vanilla builds will fix that – have you tried those? If your laptops are intel based graphics, the Vanilla builds will work fine…

      Other than that, Im still trying to get R56/57 builds working graphically. Ill update as soon as I have news!

      1. Hello, this is my laptops specifications
        intel atom n2600
        1 GB Ram
        10.1″ 1024 x 600 WSVGA
        chipset: Intel® NM10
        Graphics: Intel® GMA 3650

  20. Hello. I have a huge problem…. I have tried daily, vanilla and special build with 32 and 64 bits , but all of them freezes several seconds after the chromium logo appears. I have an MS-n082 with an intel atom n2600.
    Please help, I want to install it in 30 obsolete netbooks.
    Thanks

  21. Hi, do any of these builds support touch screen? We are looking to add this to PC modules in our large interactive touch screens, but I cannot seem to get the touch to work at all.

    Please help!

    1. Not specifically. I would need to know what your devices are in detail 1st. If you want to maybe email me and we can collaborate on something a little bit more commercial?

  22. Still haven’t tracked down the crosh command he used on his dell e6400 laptop. He said it involved using crosh shell and setting up wlan0. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Please

  23. i have a very cheap lenovo ams A6 laptop.
    Using dd, i always get the message “missing OS” on boot.
    i tried various bios options (uefi/lecacy …) but no success.

    The process looks that dead simple, is there anything i could do wrong?

    thanks for some ideas
    Matthias

    1. I was getting a “non system disk or disk error” until I did a bios update. That has helped for many computers. I guess the drive format or disk hardware is not recognized by older bios versions. I have a pile of older HP laptops that are being used at my school. I had to install Windows on one and use it to download the bios updates and then, one-by-one, plug that hard drive into to each laptop and run the bios update file. It still won’t run every build but at least no more disk errors.

  24. Hi there,

    My laptop screen starts flickering after USB booting process.

    Little information about my lap:
    emachines E627 series

    1. And I’m using both latest Daily and Special build
      Cx86OS-20170411010101.img.7z and Cx86OS_R57-9202.B-Vanilla.7z

  25. Can’t get this one to load at all. I get stuck just past the chrome logo when the screens goes full glitch. Does not allow me to type or move the mouse. The wifi also goes haywire at the point. I’m trying to install it on a Compaq laptop with an AMD Sempron processor and an Nvidia graphics card.

  26. Hello Arnold! I’ve a Satellite pro L770-121 with graphic card Nvidia 315M. After the logo on the boot the system stuck with a black screen. I’ve tried the specials builds but not still not working.

    Thanks in advance!

  27. Hi!! I am wanting to get this installed in our computer labs for our High school and Elementary school.

    I had no issue getting it installed, however- once the OS reaches the login screen it just spins saying “please wait” and never actually logs in. I’ve tried a personal and domain (GAFE) account to no avail. Also tried Vanilla and Special build- same result. Also tried 3 different pc’s (HP, Dell, Lenovo). Same issue. PLS HLP!

    1. Additionally, I cannot “browse as guest”. It shows the “please wait” screen for about 2 seconds, then simply goes back to the login page.

      1. CTL VB90RI1

        Trying the new June releases today.. Will let you know how it goes. Do the vanilla builds support enterprise enrollment and managed apps? I was under the impression I needed the special build for that and wifi support. The specific model we want to deploy is a small, offbrand micro desktop- however, they mount to the back of our monitors- which is perfect for hiding plugs/cords from students!!

  28. Hey, if I were installing it onto my disk drive; would it be possible to chose the drive it installs to?

  29. Hey I have a question, I want to install chromium OS on my old desktop computer, but chromium OS has no driver support for the ethernet what should i do?

    1. I have had a case where the 64 bit version does not connect but the 32 bit version does. Try the 32 bit and see what happens.

  30. I was wondering if you could explain how to, or maybe tell me of a tool that will do this, make an image. I have to modify a few things in your image so that it works properly for the school district I work for, and I’m the only one in the district who knows how to edit it. I was trying to see if there was a way I could just make the changes once, and just create an image off of that so that no one would have to edit it. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

  31. I installed Camd64OS-20170511010101.img.7z on s Dell Latitude D630 and everything works great except that I can not turn on or connect to wifi, only allows me to be connected to a hard wired network connection. What could be causing this issue?

  32. Grettings from Venezuela. I’ve trying to install chromium on this PC:
    – HP Pavilion a6350la
    – Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processador
    – 80 Gb HDD (well, it have three HDD but I want to install Chromium only in one HDD. I have done the cmd install steps)
    – ATI Radeon HD5450 Graphics Card

    I’ve sucesfull install Chromium OS with the cmd procedure, at least the cmd prompt says that it sucessful install. But when Chromium get starts, it get stuck, or freeeze, on the Chromium logo screen.
    Hapens the same when I try to boot from USB, it get freeze on Chromium logo screen.
    Can you help me?

  33. It would be really nice to be able to use spotify on this. Is there anyway to get DRM to work?

  34. Hi,

    I have and usb stick 16GB.
    Chromeium sows 2.27GB.

    Its not using the free7GB of the stick. how can i make use of all the space for data partition.

    Thanks

  35. Hi!
    I’m trying to install on eee pc 1015px.
    It boots fine from USB, everything works.
    When installing to SSD it displays some GPT headers/entries errors, but finishes just fine.
    The problem is it hangs on “Booting the kernel.”
    Is there any solution for this, as it works from usb?

  36. Arnold the image Camd64OS_R58-9334.B-Vanilla.7z does not work. I decompress then I make dd if = image.img of = / dev / sdb bs = 4M from linuxmint. Restart the computer, start loading the system from usb and when it reaches boot kernel stays there and does not boot. What am I doing wrong?
    Help me, thanks

  37. Hi Arnold, Your build’s been a great partner on my Thinkpad x61s in the last year, having been using it for all my junior dev projects I could get running. For a few month’s I’ve been having an issue with image rendering, like all pics from my login picture to browser images and local files showed faded or “stamped” with arbitrary pieces of other pictures from the workspace. Hard to explain but also I could totally live with it, they could also show ok in certain circumstances. And it just stayed like that with every new build I updated/reinstalled to.
    But the recent days’ builds, i’m currently running the amd64 of july 3rd have been lacking basic systemware I’ve been used to, like emerge, more buildessentials than before etc., resulting in perhaps that I can’t or just partly install apps with chromebrew like most importantly I get java without javac, or missing any c compiler etc. Seems like I got a little more limited recently.
    Was there indeed a change in the setup, or it’s just me screwing with the builds more than I should? (i’m a junior yet so excuse if I may sound too esoteric at points) Thanks!

  38. Hi, At the first startup I got Chromium logo and ” Wait while we are fixing the problem….” (or something with this meaning) and now I get the Chromium logo and then a black screen with a mouse pointer. HP pavillon 10 touchsmart. Thanks

  39. Hi Arnold, Im trying upgrade Special Chromium OS build to Chrome OS with Zzsethzz Method but Its not working. I think I need to enable debugging features but Its not enabling too. Can you help me?

  40. Hello again – see comment 62163 ( https://arnoldthebat.co.uk/wordpress/chromium-os/comment-page-16/#comment-62163 )
    Until recently those problematic NB510s have been working like a dream in their repurposed form – and now suddenly they boot absolutely fine, connect fine and progress to where the (old style) logon screen should be and it is just white – the bar at the bottom is there, you can see the wifi is connected. It waits for a while with the whirly circle – momentarily flashes the screen that tells you you’re not connected to the internet, realises there’s a connection and so on. If you catch it in time you can log on as guest (not suitable for the children, obviously) and everything works. I’m guessing Google have changed something that is hard coded into this version which means it can no longer check their logon servers or something. It isn’t affecting the other Toshiba netbook models with later builds so I’m guessing it’s not environmental. Can you help, I’ve tried newer special builds without success?
    Thanks in advance

  41. Has anyone managed to get ChromeOS working with a Toshiba SL45 laptop? As soon as I switch the wifi slider to ON…. 1 sec later… it switches itself back to OFF. (Using the build from 07Aug2017)

    But under Windows 10, wifi and everything else works 100%.

      1. So the “daily” builds are the same as the “vanilla” builds? (Why call them 2 different things? It’s just confusing people.)

        So if I grab the newest “daily” “vanilla”…. I’m really getting what’s already including in the “Broadcom Special”? (Why label them VERY different…. if they are really just the same?)

        I think I’m TOTALLY misunderstanding what “special” builds mean here. In our development team, they mean *SPECIAL* builds… and are nothing like our daily builds. Ever.

        1. They daily builds are not the same as the Vanilla builds. The daily builds are the latest code base, and they dont have Drive support or Broadcom support.

          Enhanced Vanilla builds are from a stable code base, and have update servers to allow OTA updates built in. They also now have enhanced support for Wireless. The reason for the differentiation was the Freon graphics stack.

          https://arnoldthebat.co.uk/wordpress/chromiumos-special-builds/

          Yes, you are TOTALLY misunderstanding.

          1. When I ask where the “64-bit special Broadcom” file was located… I was told to just use the “daily” or “vanilla” instead. (But no idea as to *WHICH* download. Do I just randomly pick one?)

            What is the full URL to the 64-bit Broadcom file? I don’t mind if it’s “special” or “vanilla” or “enhanced vanilla” or “weekly” or “other”. Ugh.

            The readmes have many missing links: https://docs.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README_6.30.223.248.txt

            Every download I’ve tried… installs ok… but the wifi switch can never be turned on. As soon as I slide it to “on” …. it slides itself back to “off” immediately.

  42. Hi Arnold,
    I’m running into some issues. I was wondering if you would be able to help. I installed Camd64OS-20170815010101.img.7z onto a SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB drive. Initial start worked, but when I attempted to do a clean wipe within Chromium to factory reset, it ended up loading up to the Chromium splashscreen and goes no further. I even used a partition remover and retry 3 times, and have been unable to get it to go past the splashscreen. Is there a hidden encryption partition I can’t see in either Linux or Windows?

    Any help would be appreciated. I’d hate to do this repeatedly to flashdrives.
    Thanks,
    Mark

  43. Hi all,

    Do you think one of these:

    WYSE X90L Xn0L Thin Client Laptop Notebook 909521-48L 15.4″ C7-M 1.2Ghz 1GB 1GB

    (currently on ebay)

    (possibly with upgraded RAM and a larger SSD disk) would run Chromium? Or could it possible boot from SD card?

    Any thoughts much appreciated.

  44. I try to install some version of Chromium OS, from more recent, to more old, and none work. When i boot from usb, boot start, but process stuck on chromium logo. Also CloudReady goes in the same issue. I try also with any type of USB key. All from 8GB to 16 GB in size. I try also with crhome recovery plugin, from Windows XP, and by dd command from Linux, but nothing work. The device is Asus eeePC 1101HA, 32 bit Atom, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HD, screen 11.6 inches.
    Any suggestion hare appreciate.

    Best Regards.

    Flavio (Rome – Italy)

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