[Please help]How to install chromium os in a specific disk partition?To dual boot.

[唯久居]

Hi,

    The chrome os seems to be a very nice OS, and I want to try it on my old Lenovo laptop(Windows10 already exists). I would like to  describe main hardware of my old computer first below:

• CPU: i3-2350m
  
• SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 128G
  
• RAM: 8G
  
• Display card: NVIDIA GT550M

    Then I downloaded the chromium os , and use the Win32DiskImager write to my usb. After that I shrink my disk to get 32G for chromium os. 

    Next, I booted the computer from my usb and enter the chromium os command line. I Found the 32G disk partition, it's /dev/sda3.

    I followed a guide in website and input the command /usr/sbin/chromeos-install --dst=/dev/sda3

    But I got the error, it seems "chrome os can only install on whole disk".And the official guide only talked about how to install on a whole hard disk.

1.     So , here comes the question, is it means that I can only install the chromium os on whole disk?
   
2.     If I can install it on a particular partition, what can i do ?
   
3.     Additional question, chrome os was maintained by google, and seems there are some hardware or firmware dependency, can i install it on my old laptop (Not chromium os)?
   
4.     I saw there was another os called cloudready, it was different from chrome os, But it seems not support android store. So is it also has the same user experience? Actually, I prefer chromium os and chrome os more.

    Expect for your reply, thanks a lot!

[Mike Frysinger]

CrOS's expected partition layout is configured at build time.  if you want to use a different setup, you'll need to build it yourself.

-mike

--
--
Chromium OS discuss mailing list: chromium-os-discuss@chromium.org
View archives, change email options, or unsubscribe:
http://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/group/chromium-os-discuss?hl=en

[Matthias Apitz]

El día miércoles, abril 12, 2017 a las 12:56:32p. m. -0400, Mike Frysinger escribió:

> CrOS's expected partition layout is configured at build time. if you want
> to use a different setup, you'll need to build it yourself.
> -mike

Why is this? Sounds like it should be as much as possible impossible to
install it on any other given hardware which is not designed for and sold
with CrOS.

matthias

--
Matthias Apitz, ✉ gu...@unixarea.de, ⌂ http://www.unixarea.de/ ☎ +49-176-38902045

[Mike Frysinger]

On Wed, Apr 12, 2017 at 1:05 PM, Matthias Apitz wrote:
> El día miércoles, abril 12, 2017 a las 12:56:32p. m. -0400, Mike Frysinger escribió:
> > CrOS's expected partition layout is configured at build time. if you want
> > to use a different setup, you'll need to build it yourself.
>

> Why is this? Sounds like it should be as much as possible impossible to
> install it on any other given hardware which is not designed for and sold
> with CrOS.

first, you're confusing Chrome OS with Chromium OS. we're not talking
about Chrome OS.

second, it doesn't change the fact that the partition layout is baked
at build time. it's irrelevant to devices. the default amd64-generic
build is configured to use specific partition numbers on the device
for stateful and such. this is simply how Chromium OS build is
designed.
-mike

[唯久居]

So, is it means that I should pull the source code and try to modify the part which checked the partition part, right?

That seems not flexible enough, isn't it? Is it possible to distinguish amd64 and intelx86? I don't know more..

By the way, I searched the internet, and found another solution, but the date was early. It's said that I can copy the partition and modify the bootloader. I don't know whether it would work now.

Is there a way to make it install success by a few steps? Like modify the installation script or something else like that? 

[Mike Frysinger]

amd64 is the code name for x86_64.  it isn't amd specific.  you can read the history in wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64#AMD64

there is a write_gpt.sh file in the rootfs that controls the partitions used.

-mike

--

[Matthias Apitz]

El día miércoles, abril 12, 2017 a las 01:08:24p. m. -0400, Mike Frysinger escribió:

> On Wed, Apr 12, 2017 at 1:05 PM, Matthias Apitz wrote:
> > El día miércoles, abril 12, 2017 a las 12:56:32p. m. -0400, Mike Frysinger escribió:
> > > CrOS's expected partition layout is configured at build time. if you want
> > > to use a different setup, you'll need to build it yourself.
> >
> > Why is this? Sounds like it should be as much as possible impossible to
> > install it on any other given hardware which is not designed for and sold
> > with CrOS.
>
> first, you're confusing Chrome OS with Chromium OS. we're not talking
> about Chrome OS.

Yes, sorry. The confusion is a bit fueled by the pages at https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os
which deal with both, Google Chrome OS and Chromium OS, even if they
state the difference in the FAQ. I came to all this from an Acer C720
Chromebook, which I changed to boot FreeBSD CURRENT, some two years ago.

> second, it doesn't change the fact that the partition layout is baked
> at build time. it's irrelevant to devices. the default amd64-generic
> build is configured to use specific partition numbers on the device
> for stateful and such. this is simply how Chromium OS build is
> designed.

My question remains: Why I can not install Chromium OS into one
partition of any disk, even as an alternate boot option to test things
out and look how they work? Is it possible to install the produced image
onto a second external USB disk (this is what I do when testing new or
special thinks within FreeBSD, I just install to an external USB disk
and boot from this my C720 and run the tests)?

[唯久居]

I got it, amd64 takes backward compatibility into account.

So you mean I should edit that shell script and made it install on a particular partition, that's right?

If yes, I will try to edit that script.

--
--
Chromium OS discuss mailing list: chromium-...@chromium.org

[Mike Frysinger]

On Thu, Apr 13, 2017 at 1:33 AM, Matthias Apitz wrote:
> El día miércoles, abril 12, 2017 a las 01:08:24p. m. -0400, Mike Frysinger escribió:
> > second, it doesn't change the fact that the partition layout is baked
> > at build time. it's irrelevant to devices. the default amd64-generic
> > build is configured to use specific partition numbers on the device
> > for stateful and such. this is simply how Chromium OS build is
> > designed.
>
> My question remains: Why I can not install Chromium OS into one
> partition of any disk, even as an alternate boot option to test things
> out and look how they work?

because the use case is not terribly important enough to support in a
more dynamic manner. people building the image already have full
control over the disks used. that has been sufficient thus far for
builders.

> Is it possible to install the produced image
> onto a second external USB disk (this is what I do when testing new or
> special thinks within FreeBSD, I just install to an external USB disk
> and boot from this my C720 and run the tests)?

installing onto a USB stick and booting that directly has been
supported since basically the beginning of the project
-mike

[唯久居]

Could you please tell me about the detail? So I can move fast. Thanks. :)

On Thursday, April 13, 2017 at 12:16:53 PM UTC+8, Mike Frysinger wrote:

--
--
Chromium OS discuss mailing list: chromium-...@chromium.org

[Matthias Apitz]

El día jueves, abril 13, 2017 a las 01:57:21a. m. -0400, Mike Frysinger escribió:

> > Is it possible to install the produced image
> > onto a second external USB disk (this is what I do when testing new or
> > special thinks within FreeBSD, I just install to an external USB disk
> > and boot from this my C720 and run the tests)?
>
> installing onto a USB stick and booting that directly has been
> supported since basically the beginning of the project

Thanks. Last question on this:
I read the page https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/quick-start-guide
about how to produce the Chromium OS image onto some USB stick and boot
from. To install (onto another USB disk/stick) I should after boot hit:

With that done, hit Ctrl+Alt+Back (F2). At the prompt type chronos and
install using the following command.

/usr/sbin/chromeos-install

Will this bring up a dialog to choose to which drive install?

[Mike Frysinger]

i don't recall. you could always try and find out ;).

there should be a flag to select the target drive ... --help should
include that info.
-mike

[Mike Frysinger]

you can give it a try.  i don't think anyone has before.

there might be a few latent locations where we assume partition numbers, but work has been on going to centralize all that info in that shell script (which is generated output from the json disk layout used at build time).

-mike

--
--
Chromium OS discuss mailing list: chromium-os-discuss@chromium.org

[唯久居]

It's not easy I think... I tried to modify the shell and ignore the check_removable(). That method tried to find /sys/block/<my partition>, of course it can't be found, because only my physical disk could be found on that path... Really sad.. It was a read-only file system....I can't modify the script.

So if I still want to try it , I need to download the source code and compile it by myself......

Sad...

[唯久居]

Er... Bad luck, I had destroyed my partition table... and my windows 10 was gone...

But I think I have a chance to fix the partition table. If not, then I can try to install the chromium os on my laptop.

The conclusion comes out , if someone wants to install the chromium os on a particular partition, he needs to modify those scripts by himself and then rebuild the chromium os by himself.

Hope there will be a parameter in the future that allow the user to install the os on a particular partition.

[唯久居]

Finally I installed chromium os , but I want to upgrade to chrome os . After upgrade, then I found wireless was not working...

But wireless works well on chromium os, what can i do ?

[唯久居]

I think I should stop struggling, to buy a chromebook seems to be the best choice.

The firmware really can cost a lot of time.

On Wednesday, April 12, 2017 at 9:14:29 PM UTC+8, 唯久居 wrote: