Chrome OS' open source pays off, NVIDIA Ion now supported

As you might have read earlier (here), Hexxeh released another build of Chrome OS, named Flow. I covered the major new features of this open-source release, but one such feature warrants another look.

Hexxeh built in NVIDIA Ion graphics support ino Flow, with full hardware acceleration. This is one of the first major signs that Google's choice to make Chrome OS' source code open is paying off. Without open source, Chrome OS would not support NVIDIA Ion, unless Google chose to do so. And if Google didn't want to do that, Ion users would be left out in the cold. But, thanks to Hexxeh, Ion users can rejoice and Chrome OS is a stronger operating system in the end.

If Google wants Chrome OS to take on the big dogs, this might be just the way to do it. While Google's own devs are hard at work making the system better, there are also developers like Hexxeh out there doing the same thing. As they always say, the more the merrier!

Hexxeh releases ChromiumOS Flow

Hexxeh, the creator of Chromium OS images that are easy to boot from USB, has just released the latest version of his work, dubbed Flow. ChromiumOS Flow comes with a slew of new features, such as more video hardware support and automatic updates.

Here is the complete list of new additions, according to Hexxeh:

User-customisable menus (rearrange, add, delete apps on your own menu)

Automatic updates via the Velocity engine (with an all new interface from what you saw in the BETA, it’s now been integrated into the browser)

nVidia GPU support (this includes ION, and it’s fully hardware accelerated)

Realtek RTL8187SE support (RTL8192E is coming as an update soon)

Audio fix

Flash fix

Bookmark Sync fix

Power indicator fix (as long as it worked in Cherry)

Battery life improvements

Increased image size to 2GB (1GB was becoming too restrictive, needed to do this to add more hardware support, sorry!)

Webcam support (to test this, right click on a YouTube video and then click settings)

If you need a guide on how to get Flow running, we have a nice one here: Install Chrome OS to USB.

Simply download the new image and follow the rest of the instructions. Maybe this version will support our video card? Let us know how your experience goes.
You can check Hexxeh's announcement post here: It's Flow time

Chrome OS Updated (Cherry Version)

Our faithful beast of a hacker, hexxeh, has come through again. And this time, it's you Broadcom wireless users that are in for joy.

Hexxeh announced his new Chromium OS build today, stating that "ChromeOS Cherry released with new Broadcom/Ralink support and many bugfixes! Broadcom WiFi works, but you need to wait about 5 minutes after booting to connect to a network." The new build is deemed "Cherry", apparently following the soda references that the last build (Chrome OS Diet) started.

Pretty cool. Maybe Google should hire this guy for PR? Or even for developing Chrome OS? Well, if you interested in installing "ChromeOS Cherry" you can download the USB image here: Chrome OS Cherry.
And we have some instructions for first time users here: Install Chrome OS to USB
Hexxeh, this better be all-natural cherry, not that artificial flavoring crap. Let us know how this build tastes to you down there in the comments!

Install Chrome OS (64-bit version)

Oh how they are coming out of the woodwork now! Here is the latest Chrome OS build, created by our good friends over at Chromiumos64.org. As you might have gathered from their domain name, they have created a 64-bit version of Chrome OS for your enjoying.

However, the installation process seems a bit involved (it includes six 200 MB downloads). I would be happy to take the plunge, but the resident 64-bit machine (an AMD Turion 64 X2) is under lock and key. It isn't owned by me per say (another inhabitant of the Magna Techa group HQ owns it) and I'm not ready to go flipping tape decks on it just yet.

So get on it, you heiresses of the 32-bit era. Let us know what you find down there in the comments!
[Via Chromiumos64.org]

Install Chrome OS on Asus Eee PC

After the adventure with the Dell Mini 10v and Chrome OS, some of you other netbook users may be feeling a little left out out. Well, now there is a guide to installing Chrome OS on Asus's Eee PC. I'm not sure if I would do this if the Eee PC is your main man in the computing area, as Chromium OS is still pretty rough around the edges. But if you like to live on the edge hit up this link for the full guide: How to Install Chrome OS on Asus Eee PC 701.
[Via Sampletheweb.com]

Got a Dell Mini 10v? We've got a Chrome OS Image for You!

Recently, some developers at Dell have prepared a Chrome OS specially for the Dell Mini 10v. The Mini 10v is one of Dell's netbooks and is very close to the type of hardware that Google wants to use when Chrome OS is released to consumers.

So do you have a Dell Mini 10v? I don't, but I am downloading the USB image to inspect the changes that the Dell developers have made. Apparently they have gotten the wireless network feature in Chrome OS to play nice with Broadcom hardware. It's pretty cool to see employees of such a heavyweight as Dell playing with Chrome OS.

However, if you don't have a Mini 10v, you have time to buy one. And by that I mean, time to work at McDonald's, save up enough money to buy the netbook, and then wait until Chrome OS' final version is released. Unfortunately, this is due to the dismal download rate of the image. I have been downloading it for 18 hours and it has three days left running at 20 kB/s (it is a 7.5 GB file).

So has anyone tried the image out? If so, do you mind torrenting it and sharing the love? I will be sure to bring you my findings on the custom Chrome OS build as soon as I can get my hands on it. And if you already have, let us know what you think in the comments!

You can check out the post from Dell here:
Chrome OS Wi-Fi Support Running on a Mini 10v... Source Code Available

Chromium OS Testing: Gateway Laptop via USB Install

As you know, I have installed Chrome OS (Chromium OS) to a USB drive. I am now testing it on an old laptop of mine. Here are the specs for the machine:

Gateway MT6729
2 GB RAM
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU (1.6 GHz)
160 GB HDD
Intel Graphics
15.4" screen
Atheros Wireless Internet

So after a few hours of playing around with Chromium OS, I have discovered the things that work and the things that do not work (for my machine).

Functioning Features
- Wired Internet connection
- Log in works as expected
- My Google credentials sign me into all Google web apps
- Flash video (with fullscreen mode)
- Audio works
- Most apps open as expected (malfunctions cited below)- The Books app takes you to a Google Books version of Alice In Wonderland :)
- Chromium OS did detect my USB mouse and it works properly, including the scroll wheel
-Surprisingly, the USB install of Chromium OS actually remembered by bookmarks after shutdown. I'm not sure if this is a "cloud"-based feature or if it is writing them to the drive somehow...
- The power button on the laptop causes a proper shutdown

Non-functioning Features
- The Contacts app oddly brings up Gmail Chat, I was expecting a shot to my contacts in Gmail instead
- The calculator would not load for me
- The "To-do list" brought up the old sign on for an @google.com account (which we do not have)
- Chess did bring up a Flash-powered web app for playing chess
- Wireless networking does not work in Chrome OS on my machine, as of now
-  There's an odd bug that will either sign me out or crash the browser every so often (does not seem to be on a set time interval).
- Other hardware buttons (i.e. volume, mute, media controls) do nothing

The State of Chromium OS: Week 1
All in all, Chromium OS is running much better than I would have predicted. I am using it on unsupported and untested hardware (not the recommended notebook) and it is a very early build. I am quite impressed with the speed of Chromium OS and how well it works even this early in the game. Have you booted your PC with Chromium OS? What did you think about it? Let us know in the comments!

Edit: And as noted in the comments, a reader has booted Chrome OS on an even older (1.8 GHz single-core) rig. Read about his or her experience below.

Install Chrome OS to USB

Thanks to our friend Jorge Sierra at Makeuseof.com, we can now install Chromium OS, the open source version of Chrome OS to a USB drive. This will allow us to boot the OS natively on our computer, not in virtualization software.

I will walk you through how to install Chrome OS on your USB drive and boot your computer with it.

Things you will need:
1. 4 GB or larger USB drive
2. Image Writer program
3. USB image of Chrome OS
4. A Windows (or Linux :). I added alternate directions at the bottom) computer that can boot from a USB drive

1. Download the USB image and Image writer program. 

You can use Mr. Sierra's torrent file to download the Chrome OS USB image: Chrome OS to USB torrent file (just right click it and select "Save Link as...). You will need a BitTorrent client to download the image via the torrent (I recommend utorrent). Or you can simply download the file here: Chrome OS USB image.  For Windows, a program called Image Writer for Windows will be included in the torrent or file download. I will show you how to install Chrome OS on a USB drive in Windows.

2. Write Chrome OS Image to USB drive

To write the Chrome OS image to your USB drive, you will need to run the Image Writer for Windows by clicking on "Win32DiskImager" file that you downloaded with the Chrome OS image. After you install it, run the program and browser for the Chrome OS image clicking on the folder icon beside the text field in Image Writer. Select the image, then select your USB drive under the device section. If you don't know the letter of your drive, go to My Computer and see what label it has (should be (G:) or (H:) depending on how many drives you computer has). The writing process takes a few minutes, so don't be alarmed at its slowness.

Now select "write" to write the Chrome OS image to your USB drive.

3. Booting the Chrome OS USB image

Next, you will boot into Chrome OS using the USB image. First you will make sure your computer is set to be able to boot from a USB drive. To do this, simply change the boot setting in BIOS to look for a USB boot image (move USB drive above Hard Disk in you boot sequence). Now restart your computer with the Chrome OS USB plugged in and it should boot it before looking at your hard drive for an operating system. If you have any questions, just ask me in the comments!

For Installing Chrome OS on a USB drive in Linux:

Follow Step 1 and 2 above until the point where you write the image to USB drive. In a Linux environment, there is a Python script that you can use to write an image to a USB (I obtained it from Moblin.org) Here is a link to download the script: Image Writer. It is recommended that you have Python 2.4 or greater installed.

Write the image to the USB drive:
In a terminal type these commands-

# cd [directory with downloaded image-writer file]
# chmod a+x ./image-writer
# ./image-writer [Chrome OS USB image file name]

Make sure you replace "directory with downloaded image-writer file" and "Chrome OS USB image file name" with the actual directory and file names on your computer. The script will ask you which drive to write to. Simply enter the USB's designation and let it rip!
Thanks goes to the Moblin team for Image Writer.

Once again, credit goes to Jorge Sierra at Makeuseof.com for the Windows directions.

Desktop is now accessible in Chromium OS

It looks like Google's developer's are hot on the job of making Chromium OS into a consumer-ready Chrome OS. Perviously, if you were to select the Chrome OS desktop tab (the one the far left corner of the browser) it would take you to a login page for an @google.com account. Now it takes you to a page so you can login with your own credentials.

The desktop for Chromium OS is quite interesting, with multiple web-app icons. The icons include Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, Google Calendar, Google Reader and more. This shows that Google isn't attempting to shoehorn users into signing up for their services. They politely provide shortcuts to two more major email providers right on the default desktop.

The Chromium OS desktop also has the disclaimer "UI under development. Designs are subject to change." at the top. It also links users to chromium.org/user-experience, which explains what the Chrome OS developers are doing and how they want the UI for the system to be developed. So what do you think of Chromium/Chrome OS' user interface? Let me know in the comments!