Beginners guide to install Chrome OS on netbook – using free Chromium OS

Jun 18, 2011 by suhail    128 Comments    Posted under: Chromium OS, How-To Guides, Technology

Chromebook’s were launched in USA on June 15th but for the rest of us we can have a nearly full functional Chromebook / Chromium-book for free using a spare laptop or netbook. Not only is the experience of cloud computing great but its also very quick and hassle free. I personally have been using a converted Chromebook for months and love it (read about my journey here).

I do not recommend buying a new netbook for this but if you really want to, I would recommend sticking to Samsung or Acer models they are most the compatible ones. For more details you can check compatibility list here.

You can install ChromeOS or Chromium OS in two ways:

1. USB Install (recommended 4gb or more): Everything resides on a USB drive and you use the USB drive on any laptop of your choice.
2. Hard Drive Install (A full cloud netbook): You wipe all existing data and operating system on your laptop or netbooks hard disk and just use Chrome OS / Chromium OS.

Note: You can now also download images created by me, using this link.

The best chromium os builds are available from Hexxeh’s vanilla build page and I high recommend using the Vanilla builds. They are fairly stable now, you can read more about them in a review here.

Ok, now lets begin with the process.

Things you will need:

1. A USB pen drive ( 4gb or more )
2. The Hexxeh Vanilla Build ( Download from here )
3. 7-Zip – Free Unzip utlity ( Download from here – Just use the latest version )
4. Windows Image Writer – Free Software ( Download from here – Download Binary package and not Source
5. Access to a windows machine – to make the bootable Chrome OS drive
6. A netbook or laptop ( for permanent install ) – 16gb or more disk size recommended

How to make the USB drive:

1. First Use 7-Zip to open the image you downloaded from Hexxeh page.?
   

   Open hexxeh build in 7-Zip

2. Now Click on extract to extract the file to a desired location on pc. It should extract a file similar to screen shot below.
   

   1st Extract Result – using 7-Zip

3. Now Right click on this file and go to 7-Zip and click on Extract Here.
   

   Begin Second Extraction

4. This should result in an IMG File like this.
   

   Second Extraction Result – The IMG File

5. Now Plug the USB pen drive into computer. Make sure there is no data in USB drive as all data will be lost. Backup if you need to save data from USB.
6. Open Image writer for windows that you downloaded previously and open the IMG file you extracted earlier. 
7. Click on the Write button and Wait for the process to finish.
   

   Imagewriter …

8. Once the bar reached 100% click exit and unplug the USB drive from windows machine.

This finishes the creation of a bootable Chrome OS / Chromium OS USB disk. Now You can use this as a normal USB install and keep booting your laptop or netbook using the chrome os bootable pen drive you just created or you can follow the steps below to make a permanent install on your netbook or laptop.

Steps to make a permanent install of Chrome OS on laptop or netbook:

Warning this will destroy all data and operating system on the computer you install it on

1. Boot your laptop / netbook using the USB created in steps above. If you do not know how to boot into your computer BIOS to change settings use this guide.
   
2. On boot you will begin with the configuration process which should take less than 2 minutes.
3. You will be asked to select your network first. Remember this is a cloud computer so it can not do anything without a network.
4. Once you provide the network password it will ask you for your google account details. If you do not have one, it will allow you to create a new one or you can also browse in guest mode.
5. Once you enter your username and password, the screen will ask you to select an account image.
6. This is the end of the configuration process.
7. You will now see a browser window like one below and that all.
   

   The Chromium OS – Launch Page

8. To make the permanent install of ChromeOS / ChormiumOS press Ctrl+Alt+T
9. This will bring you to a command line. Type the command “install” (in small caps without quotes)
10. It will ask you for a password. If you are using the vanilla builds from hexxeh the password is “facepunch” without quotes.
11. This will start your installation process, which should go on for about 5-10 mins depending on whether you have SSD or Hard disk in your netbook.
12. Once completed type exit and press the power off button. Remove the USB pen drive from laptop or netbook and restart.

That’s it, you now have your fully functional Cloud computer running Chromium OS. To find out more about the services and programs you can use to do thing on chromium os, follow my blog.

Feel free to drop me any questions on comments section below or catch me on twitter.

Note: Installing OS on a computer or netbook is an irreversible process. All data and previous os would be lost. Also if you do not follow the instructions properly it may cause damage to your system. Please treat all instructions above as is and at your own risk.

Thank you.