How to create a bootable USB from ChromeOS?

[Dan Stark]

I have enabled developer mode and tried the Chromebook Repair Utility to use a local image of ubuntu and get it onto my USB stick, but it will not allow me to select the .iso file? Is there a way to do this through Chrosh? or am I completely missing something? Thanks in advance.

*I need to create the unbuntu usb since my windows pc crashed during a "reset" of the newly installed win10 and I don't have my recovery disk.

[Mike Frysinger]

you're trying to use the Chromebook Repair Utility, which takes a Chrome OS recovery image and creates a bootable USB stick, to try and create an Ubuntu USB bootable image using an Ubuntu ISO.  i'm pretty sure that won't work.

if you have shell access, you might want to consult some of the pages out there for using dd to create the bootable image.

-mike

On Thu, Jan 7, 2016 at 9:02 AM, Dan Stark <danr...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have enabled developer mode and tried the Chromebook Repair Utility to use a local image of ubuntu and get it onto my USB stick, but it will not allow me to select the .iso file?  Is there a way to do this through Chrosh? or am I completely missing something?  Thanks in advance.

*I need to create the unbuntu usb since my windows pc crashed during a "reset" of the newly installed win10 and I don't have my recovery disk.

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[Dan Stark]

I do have shell access and I think using the dd method would definitely be easiest but I couldn't find proper directions :(

[Forrest Smith]

Dan,

If you rename the Ubuntu.iso to Ubuntu.bin you might be able to use the Recovery Utility (sounds like you already found the 'use local image' option which is also necessary in this case).

Never done this myself, so I can't say the USB, once written, will work properly, but I do know the utility will write non-official binaries if they're named as such.

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[Dan Stark]

Will do. Thank you!

[Natanya]

Dan, have you tried a utility called unetbootin​? I can't help you with it, but I've watched demos and it's specifically for creating a bootable .iso on a USB stick. It's supposed to work for several Linux distros, but it's focused on Ubuntu. Hope that helps, -natanya

[Kingdon Barrett]

In general the modern installation ISOs for most distros are in fact "hybrid" ISOs now, that can be directly 'dd'ed onto the target device using the most expected incantation:

dd if=distro-image.iso of=/dev/target

or even

cat distro.iso > /dev/target

That /dev/target should be your target USB device itself and not a numbered partition on it,

Beware also that your target USB device will be completely wiped by this.

There is very little need for something like unetbootin, except in cases where the distro is not providing hybrid "dd'able" isos.  For Ubuntu, Debian, (elivecd), etc you should be set with the above method.  For ISOs that don't have a proper boot record, that depend on syslinux, or some other non-hybridized ISO booting method (the only distro that comes to mind at the moment is the VMware ESXi installer ISO), just doing a plain DD in those cases won't work, and unetbootin might usually be able to help.

On Thu, Jan 7, 2016 at 8:46 PM Natanya <bene.ge...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dan, have you tried a utility called unetbootin​? I can't help you with it, but I've watched demos and it's specifically for creating a bootable .iso on a USB stick. It's supposed to work for several Linux distros, but it's focused on Ubuntu. Hope that helps, -natanya

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[Micah St.Clair]

OK, so here is the mysteries method to get the chromebook recovery tool to make usb's bootable, way faster then unetbootin or other programs. The key is you have to zip your ISO file. Thats it. once you zip it, very easy on a chomebook, right click the iso and say zip. then the chromebook tool will see it and do the job well. I have done other linux os as well, all work great. 

Mrdude33

[DennisLfromGA]

@Micah,

That's very interesting, thanx for the info.

A few questions though if I may:

When you use the Chrome OS Recovery utility and zipped Ubuntu iso on the USB stick -

• Does it format the USB stick with the Chrome OS partitioning scheme and allow you to boot it using CTRL+U ? 
  
• And / Or, does it allow you to boot it using CTRL+L (via SeaBIOS) like a Live OS ? 
  

Curious,

-DennisL

[Forrest Smith]

You shouldn't need to zip it - in fact this is a bit of a slow down since the utility proceeds to unzip it for you.

Just rename the iso to a .bin and it should be recognized by the CRU and even faster.

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[Vinícius Quennehen]

man, that is actually creating a usb boot unity, i wil try to boot from it and let you know if works

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[Gabe Garbowit]

Well in lieu of an update on this front. I am following these steps right now so I will make one! I am using a Windows ISO however so we shall see how that goes. Standby people

[Gabe Garbowit]

Tragically. It does not appear to work. I am getting Reboot and Select proper Boot device

[Huntracony]

It worked perfectly for me. Did you try going into the boot menu and selecting the USB? I didn't need to, but you might.

[Julian Sanchez]

It worked thank you

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[ExotixFantonix]

I tried this a trillion times, am I doing something wrong??

SIDENOTE: I am using the very first Samsung chromebook, the arm one.

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[Mike Frysinger]

that device won't boot arbitrary USB images (including Ubuntu).  it will only boot a USB stick using the CrOS GPT layout and bootable kernels.  the former can be converted to the latter, but i don't know if there are any easy utilities out there to help.

-mike

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[ExotixFantonix]

Would you mind explaining to me what you're talking about and how it's done, as I really do not like Chromium OS

SIDENOTE: I didn't buy the chromebook, I got it for Christmas from my dad.

[ExotixFantonix]

Plus, I don't own any other computer, so I need a way to get it up and running on Chrome OS, and no other computers.

[Richie]

I'm a bit late to the conversation here, but it is possible to use the Chrome OS terminal "crosh" and use the "dd" command to flash an image (.iso) to an external or internal drive. You can email me at myrmidon...@gmail.com if you need help or have questions, as I'm sure everyone else in this group is tired of the notifications from a two year old group.

~Best wishes, Richie.

[Joel Hockey]

The chromebook recovery utility app will let you flash your own image by selecting settings (gear icon at top) > Use local image

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chromebook-recovery-utili/jndclpdbaamdhonoechobihbbiimdgai?hl=en

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[Richie]

Depending on who you ask that is the case, but I've found that it's not 100% true, right now I have "ubuntu-18.04-desktop-amd64.iso" and the Recovery Utility doesn't acknowledge that the .iso image is there, therefore I cannot flash it to anything. I've heard that there's one of two reasons for this happening, the first is that the Recovery Utility only uses official .iso images, and the second and more believable in my opinion, is that the recovery utility refuses to flash an .iso image that cannot be booted on the system. When I did this the first time, it simply got to the point where I was confused and annoyed with it, and just used the dd utility in crosh.

~Richie.

On Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at 10:53:32 PM UTC-4, Joel Hockey wrote:

The chromebook recovery utility app will let you flash your own image by selecting settings (gear icon at top) > Use local image

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chromebook-recovery-utili/jndclpdbaamdhonoechobihbbiimdgai?hl=en

On Thu, Jun 7, 2018 at 11:43 AM, Richie <myrmidon...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm a bit late to the conversation here, but it is possible to use the Chrome OS terminal "crosh" and use the "dd" command to flash an image (.iso) to an external or internal drive. You can email me at myrmidon...@gmail.com if you need help or have questions, as I'm sure everyone else in this group is tired of the notifications from a two year old group.

~Best wishes, Richie.

On Monday, January 8, 2018 at 12:38:54 PM UTC-5, ChromeCrafterWilliam wrote:

Plus, I don't own any other computer, so I need a way to get it up and running on Chrome OS, and no other computers.

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[DennisLfromGA]

'crosh' does not have a 'dd' command, you have to be in Developer mode and get shell access to have 'dd' available.

The recovery utility does not acknowledge the .iso suffix but if you change it to or append .bin or zip it it will recognize and use it with no problem, as mentioned above.

The iso file does not have to have the CrOS partition structure or even be signed to write the image, I've used it many times for just such scenarios.

~Dennis

[Rainbow Asteroids]

gooelg saech https://askubuntu.com/questions/278403/how-do-you-make-usb-bootable-on-chromebook

[Angel Holmes]

Dan Stark. If you still want to write Ubuntu onto your usb using Chromebook Recovery Utility you now can. All you have to do is go to your files and right click on the iso. Then you click zip selection. After that process is completed, you can go ahead and open up Chromebook Recovery Utility again. Use your local image and the zip should show up. Use the zip, write it to the usb, restart your system and set it to boot your usb, load up the usb os and install from there. Finally you should be good to go with Ubuntu installed freshly and securely on your system. 

On Thursday, January 7, 2016 at 9:02:59 AM UTC-5, Dan Stark wrote:

[Adam Kearn]

Try this:

1. Rename the .ISO to .BIN     You have to do this step or it won't let you select the file.
2. Open the Chromebook recovery utility
3. Click the settings icon (top right)
4. Click "use local image"
5. Select the .BIN file 
6. Click continue
7. Have a drink (might take a while, depending on the size of the image)
8. Boot the USB  

[Chadd Franck]

I have everything set up to flash with the Recovery util, but when  I try to choose usb device, it doesnt recognize the "drivedroid" usb as somethng it can write to, is there a way to mount it so I can ue the automated recovery tool?

[Chadd Franck]

On Saturday, September 8, 2018 at 12:34:26 AM UTC-7, Chadd Franck wrote:

I have everything set up to flash with the Recovery util, but when  I try to choose usb device, it doesnt recognize the "drivedroid" usb as somethng it can write to, is there a way to mount it so I can use the automated recovery tool?  I am in Dev mode on Chromeos

 

 

[Keith I Myers]

What is drivedroid?

On Sat, Sep 8, 2018, 3:34 AM Chadd Franck <chaf...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have everything set up to flash with the Recovery util, but when  I try to choose usb device, it doesnt recognize the "drivedroid" usb as somethng it can write to, is there a way to mount it so I can ue the automated recovery tool?

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[DennisLfromGA]

Chadd,

Sometimes external media is not in a compatible format or has hidden partitions that can interfere or refuse to be used as recovery media.

This can usually be overcome by easing the media first -

Then do not format the media but proceed directly to selecting the device or using a local image in the Recovery Utility.

~Denny

[Keith I Myers]

On Saturday, September 8, 2018 at 3:34:26 AM UTC-4, Chadd Franck wrote:

I have everything set up to flash with the Recovery util, but when  I try to choose usb device, it doesnt recognize the "drivedroid" usb as somethng it can write to, is there a way to mount it so I can ue the automated recovery tool?

I just Googled DriveDroid and it appears to be an Android Application that allows it to simulate a bootable flash drive. I am pretty sure this will not work with the ChromeOS recovery tool as a destination. If you want to use DriveDroid, you would most likely need to use a normal flash drive to write the image to and then dd the flash drive to a .img file in which you can transfer over to your phone via USB. This of course is not really a supported way to do things so I am not sure how well it will work.