x86-Bit Support for chromiumos. (Please read.)

[Adam Kearn]

Hello everyone,

I have been working on building an x86 build of chromiumos for several weeks now. 

But haven't been able to pull together a successful build for that architecture yet...  

I understand that the support was dropped because 32-bit CPU's are outdated, However

In most small schools/colleges they still have these systems and cannot afford to upgrade them

to shiny-new desktops, therefore chromiumos would be a great (free) alternative for them.

I was wondering if anyone one would like to help out as it's a lot of work

and I do not know what needs to be changed/added to the source code for it to work.

If anyone would be willing to spare there time into making this posable it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

From - Adam Kearn.

[Luigi Semenzato]

Can you give some examples of the systems you would like to support?
What CPU, how much RAM and disk space? There's a good chance that
even if you get the system to work with a recent version of Chrome OS,
it won't work very well. And even if you get it to work once, chances
are that maintaining it current will be a lot of work.

Have you considered or tried running a recent Linux distro + Chrome on
any such system?

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[Adam Kearn]

I am extremely sorry for the late reply,  I've been revising for my upcoming tests and completely forgot about this.

Running a Linux distro with the chromium browser wouldn't be an option as every system needs to be managed by a Google Admin console using our domain.

The systems I would like to support are Dell 745  (I do not know what CPU it is using but I can check that in the morning.)

I know for definite that they have 4GB ram installed and have 80GB HDD

Having the latest version isn't really that important to me, as long as I can have it boot I don't care.

I was hoping that we could bring back the support for this architecture. I do not mind putting the time into making this work, The only problem is that I have no clue what needs doing.  If anyone would like to help me out It would be amazing.

I'll get back to you with the CPU model in the morning.

Thanks for your help

Adam

[Dmitry Torokhov]

The link suggests that CPUs in that product line should have EM64T, any reason why you can't run 64-bit builds on them?

[Adam Kearn]

I wasn't able to fully check what CPU model it was using as I didn't have time but I'm pretty sure that it's using this:   Intel Dual Core Processor E2160 

[Luigi Semenzato]

Hi,

unfortunately I don't have much insight on the management console, but my first concern would be whether devices that don't run Chrome OS proper (i.e. Google firmware and a Google-signed build of Chromium OS) can be managed this way.  Do you know that this is possible?

[Adam Kearn]

I have tested arnaldthebat's chromiumos build and I have also tested "enrolling" and it works just like an official Chromebook

The Admin Console allows administrators to control all the users and devises in the domain.

It's a bit like the group policies on a windows server. 

more about the admin console -> https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/1289314?hl=en

We have some HP DC7900's as well that we would like to install chromiumos on.

I have taken a picture of the "system information" on the BIOS if that helps. 

I have also found the documentation for this system as well  (Page 22-23 has the CPU/GPU model on)

http://www.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01549447.pdf

Thank you for your help and replies.

- Adam Kearn