Can't Uninstall Chromium OS and can't install anything else

[omer porges]

Hi all, I installed the latest build of chromium OS on my Asus eee pc 1001px HDD. It removed everything from it.

Now, I want to uninstall chromium OS and install Lubuntu. So, I created a bootable USB device with the Lubuntu installation guide. But when I try to boot from the USB device nothing happened. At first I though the file is damaged so I downloaded it again, I also made sure that the Lubuntu img copying process went successfully because I was able to boot from the USB device on another computer and the install went perfect there...

Anyways, I am stuck right now.

I can't remove ChromiumOS, and I can't install any other operating system (Yes I tried to check the boot order. if I try to boot from the USB device nothing happens. And if I don't then it just brings be back to ChromiumOS)

Please, I am desperate here...I read the other posts saying that "There is no uninstall process, just install a new OS and it will work", but I can't seem to even do that.

[Mike Frysinger]

if you're having trouble with install media of a different distro (e.g. Lubuntu), then you should consult their forums/support channels

once you format & boot a USB stick with them, the contents of the hard drive (e.g. ChromiumOS) does not matter

-mike

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[rashi...@gmail.com]

Hi, did you succeed with the installation of another operative system in your computer with the chrome OS? Then please share the information cause I am also stuck with the same problem

[K. Christopher Carvalho]

It's a nice theory, but it's not working. Have tried to different live linux distros created using LiLo Live Linux USB Creator, and neither boots past the "SYSLinux 4.04 EDD...." message.

 

Makes it difficult to install a new OS.  Given that the problem exists with multiple other distros, I'm inclined to think the problem is with the ChromiumOS install, but in a way I can't figure out, since as you say, the boot should be from the USB and the HDD shouldn't even be seen until the OS is booted.  However, here's hoping someone here as experience with this and suggestions on how to overcome it.

[Mike Frysinger]

if the CrOS code isn't executing, then the problem isn't with it.  blaming buggy installers/booters on CrOS is unrealistic.

if you can boot CrOS still, or otherwise get access to the hdd, you could always do a basic format:

  dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

(assuming sda is the disk where CrOS is installed)

but again, if this isn't working, you should still consult with the user forums for whatever distro it is you're trying to install.  it's a bug on their side.

-mike

[K. Christopher Carvalho]

I'm not blaming.  Nor do I think that it is a problem with the other distros if the Live USB works on other systems, and if multiple distros fail to boot.  Anyway, to reiterate, I'm not blaming anyone or even criticizing CrOS. I own a Chromebook and it is my favorite OS ever.  Which is why I was experimenting with crOS on the AspireOne.    I was just looking for advice and prior experience.  I can still boot CrOS and will try the basic format. I"ll post back any results I have. Thanks.

[Mike Frysinger]

that the Live USB boot works on other systems is not indicative of it being bug free :).  CrOS uses a partition format that is still not terribly common (GPT), and uses GUID/flag values in the GPT that are much less common.  so a buggy bootloader failing on a system with a disk formatted as CrOS expects is still a buggy bootloader :).

note that once you run that `dd`, your CrOS system most likely will start to crash.  so don't be surprised if it hangs or panics or something.  you just wiped out all the data on the disk that the running system needed.

-mike

[K. Christopher Carvalho]

Hi Mike,

I think you are correct, that it is the partition setup that is causing the issues, though I am still puzzled by why because I would have thought that booting from the USB would render any other drives invisible until the boot process is complete. Anyway, I tried the dd from the local drive and got a permission denied error.  It makes sense that the system wouldn't want to wipe itself out, so I wasn't surprised.  I will reformat the USB drive with Chromium again and try to boot from it and then run that command (presumably the local hard drive will be sdb this time as I expect the USB to be sda, but I will check first using #lsblk.  I'll report back when done.

Thanks for the advice.

Chris

[Mike Frysinger]

yes, you'll need to run the dd via sudo in order to access it directly

-mike

[K. Christopher Carvalho]

Hi Everyone,

I managed to recover the laptop. What finally worked was this:

As per Mike's instructions:

1. Boot CrOS from the hard drive.   (Not sure if another alternative would be to boot from a CrOS Live USB image)

Format the USB drive you will use for the Live USB using the Files application  (or use another Chromebook)

Crtl+Alt+F2  to bring up terminal window

# lsblk                                              ( to confirm drive designation as sda)

sudo  dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda        (assuming sda is the disk where CrOS is installed to do a basic format)

after a couple of minutes CrOS crashed.  Rebooted computer and there was no OS (no bootable media message)

Boot from Live USB.

This isn't the order I did it in.  I only figured out to format the USB using ChromeOS after formatting the CrOS netbook and winding up with no bootable media error message and then having subsequent attempts to boot from Live USB created using either Rufus or LiLo  fail at SYSLINUX message.  Fortunately, I had my Chromebook and was able to format the USB stick in it before writing Linux image to it.  I guess if I didn't have a Chromebook, I could have created a CrOS Live USB again, booted the netbook from that, and then formatted a different USB drive in that machine, assuming there's a second USB port available.

Anyway, it worked. Finally, and I learned a few things. 

Good luck.

[s.dhir...@fountainheadschools.org]

press esc+reload+shutdown insert usb and follow the step i was successful