Installing the Chrome Operating System

General geekiness found me trying to get the Chrome OS running this weekend. It took a lot of time to work through all the resources, which consisted of conflicting instructions and horrific software. It all worked out, though, and I now have the OS running on a netbook. This is a quick summary of what turned into worry, and it doesn’t include the severe dead ends and problems I encountered.

Google tried to broaden a small-footprint management gadget for netbooks running net-based total apps. The middle plumbing is Linux, and the UI is a version of the Chrome browser. Whether or not this could locate a huge-scale mindshare might not be decided for a while. The legit launch will probably be 12 months from now. But it’s miles an exciting idea, and I desired to get my hands around it. If it does become popular, it will likely be something that user help experts will want to understand if you want to guide their apps successfully.

The foremost factors are the device hardware and the Chrome OS software.

The pre-launch model of Chrome OS has many hardware dependencies, so I did some research to choose a device on which the OS has been effectively established. There were some candidates. I picked the Asus Eee PC Seashell because it met the necessities and looked like a nice netbook.

The netbook comes with Windows 7 installed. To use Chrome OS, you need a USB flash drive with a photograph of the software on it.

The page referenced under Jorge Sierra presents instructions, a Chrome construct, and an image-writing device. I already had a couple of pieces of equipment referred to in the article.

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I did all the flash disk processing on my Toshiba/Vista pc.

The Sierra article provides a hyperlink to a BitTorrent bundle with Chrome OS and a picture-writing tool. Different Chrome OS builds are available, but this one was exceptional.
I ran the torrent, and the download took about ten minutes. I opened the zip record that changed into the torrent package and then extracted the Chrome OS build: chrome_os-img.

The subsequent step is to decrease outlast power. Since the photograph record was near a few GB, I bought a 4 GB SanDisk Cruzer. Any emblem will feature paintings, but I wanted one with an LED to inform you there has been interest in it. I used the HP Disk Storage Format Tool to format the USB force using the NTFS placing. The Format Tool is available from some websites.

I checked the formatting using the Windows Manage command. Click Computer/Manage/Storage/Disk Management. You should see the USB power and a “Healthy” message if the formatting went efficiently.

Next, I used the Win32 Disk Imager application to put the photo record on the USB pressure. This became protected in the Sierra package deal, but I already had it. After launching the utility, I pointed to the chrome_os—img report. My USB pressure (E) was already decided on. Click Write, and the method starts. When the Progress bar is full, the copying is complete. The USB pressure is now prepared to be used.

After unpacking the netbook, I first activated the Windows 7 Starter kit protected on the tool. I do not suppose you need to do this, but I wanted the tool to work with Windows anyway. I also wanted to check the wifi connection. The wifi determined my community’s quality, so I powered it down.

The final step calls for an alternative to the BIOS so the netbook boots from the USB force.

I plugged the USB force into the netbook, pressed the energy button, and tapped the F2 key until the BIOS setup appeared. The BIOS key might be special from tool to device. By the way, I needed to tap the F2 key in preference to keep it down.

The boot instructions I found on the web did not work. I had to make changes inside the BIOS. The following commands are labored for this Asus netbook.

From the Boot menu, select Boot Device Priority. The first alternative ought to be the device HDD tough power. Press enter, and you ought to see Removable Dev as an alternative. Select that by pressing input.

The Boot Device Priority option for Hard Disk Drives is below. Thefirstt Drive was the HDD harddrivee. My USB was indexed with the name (SanDisk Cruzer) as the second Drive. Pressing input at the first pressure brought up a pop menu. I decided on the USB pressure,e and it swapped places inside the listing with the HDD. Then, I used F10 to store and exit from the BIOS setup.

The device immediately booted to the Chrome OS login screen. I used Jorge Sierrad’s username and password: “Chronos” and “password. ” I consider that a logon carried out using Jorge for his unique distribution. I noticed instructions for a one-of-a-kind Chrome OS distribution, and the logon became exclusive.

The first issue appears in the Chrome browser. The same browser you’ve got on Windows or Mac. The OS would not robotically apprehend your wifi. A small icon in the top right corner of the display has a wifi menu. Click that and choose your network. I additionally examined my ethernet cable, and that worked first-rate. Once that is achieved, I should begin surfing the web. I have completed all of those paintings, and so far, I haven’t completed anything that you couldn’t do in any other OS with any browser. The OS loads fast, tons faster than the Windows 7 Starter.

There is a page that operates as an application dashboard. You can see a screen seize on the Sierra net web page. A Chrome icon inside the top left corner of the screen launches that web page. From there, I launched Facebook, Google Docs, and many others and entered my logins for each. I couldn’t trade or add any gadgets to the control pane, but I anticipate that it will be exchanged. For unlisted packages, like LinkedIn, I Opened them in the browser and set bookmarks.

An essential OS feature for cutting and pasting has become available. I was capable of reducing and pasting between the various web apps without a hassle. While we do this without consideration on Windows, Mac, and many others, that is the sort of conduct you need an OS for.

Another crucial conduct is printing. This is not supported right now. I attempted to use the print commands inside the various apps. Most of the time, I obtained blunder messages. In Gmai, the handiest preference was Print to File. I didn’t honestly assume there to be support for specific printers. That may be a hard proposition for Google, but probably an important one.

I had set the date and time in Windows. The date became diagnosed in Chrome OS; however, now is not the proper time. There turned into a menu item to exchange time options, but the conversation box did not have a way to alternate the time—only the time quarter.

There is no OFF button within the OS. I just used the energy button. However, the subsequent time I booted, Chrome showed a message that the machine hadn’t been shut down effectively. I anticipate there could be a few fixes for that.

John R. Wright
Social media ninja. Freelance web trailblazer. Extreme problem solver. Music fanatic. Spent several months marketing pubic lice in the financial sector. Spent 2002-2008 supervising the production of ice cream in Africa. Had some great experience developing robotic shrimp in the aftermarket. Spent several years getting my feet wet with puppets in Miami, FL. Was quite successful at supervising the production of corncob pipes worldwide. What gets me going now is working with electric trains in Mexico.