Sunday, December 26, 2010

Easy way to install Ubuntu on your Cr-48

Update: You should probably use the new ChrUbuntu 12.04 Install Guide instead of this one. This guide will not work on Chromebooks updated to Chrome OS version 19 or higher which will be virtually all Chromebooks by June of 2012.

Google has made it clear from day one that the Cr-48 is an open laptop. In fact, a Google Engineer has posted instructions on getting Ubuntu 10.10 running on the Cr-48. But while the process is described in great detail, it's not exactly easy. Thus I've made a much simpler install process that carries out the same steps via an automated script:

Update: This process WILL DESTROY all data on your Cr-48 and set it back to Factory defaults. Additionally, if something goes wrong, your Cr-48 may be left in an unusable state until you recover. I strongly suggest that you create a recovery drive before trying this so that you're prepared in case of failure or if you just want to go back to regular Chrome OS. You and you alone are responsible for any issues, damage or nuclear warfare that results from following this process.
  1. Get root. (also known as Developer mode)
  2. Reboot your Cr-48 but don't login. Make sure you have a WiFi or USB Ethernet connection at this point. 3G is not recommended. Press CTRL+ALT+=> (=> is the forward arrow where the F2 key used to be). We can't use the normal CTRL+ALT+T method to get a shell because can't have any users logged in while we repartition and make room for Ubuntu.
  3. Login as user chronos, no password is needed.
  4. Run "sudo su -" to get a root shell prompt.
  5. Run "wget -O - http://goo.gl/DlmZS | sh -". Most people having issues aren't typing this command *EXACTLY* as it needs to be. The command needs to be exactly "wget<space>dashO(uppercase letter o, not number zero)<space><dash><space>http://goo.gl/DlmZS(case sensitive)<space>|(shift and the key above the Enter key)<space>sh<space>dash". If you get a "not found" error, make sure you have Internet connectivity.
  6. The first time through, the script will resize your partitions to make room for Ubuntu. It may look like the Cr-48 is doing nothing for 10-15 minutes but let it be, after awhile it will reboot and re-initialize the stateful partiiton (told you it was going to wipe your data). This process takes about 5 minutes and then the Cr-48 reboots again and shows you the Welcome screen you got when you first turned on your Cr-48 out of the box.
  7. Go through the setup process until you get to the Google login page. You'll need to have a WiFi or Ethernet Connection again at this point. 3G is not recommended. Now follow steps 2 through 5 again (minus the reboot). This time the script will see that you've already made room for Ubuntu and will start downloading the Ubuntu image and copying it to the SSD.
  8. There are 52 100mb files to be downloaded. Each is compressed so the actual download size ranges from less than 1mb in size to 90mb in size. The total size of all the files is about 1.2gb compressed and 5gb uncompressed so the download and install will take awhile. The files are named ubuntu.binXX.bz2 (where XX is aa, ab, ac, ad, ae, af... ba, bb, bc... all the way to bz). If you want to see how big each piece is, take a look here.
  9. The script keeps track of which of the 52 files have been successfully installed so if you lose Internet connectivity, or the battery dies (you should be plugged in BTW), etc, just re-run Step 5 and it should resume where it left off.
  10. After all 52 files have been downloaded and copied to the SSD, the script will make a few more updates to your Cr-48 and then reboot.
  11. You'll see Ubuntu 10.10 start up! The 1st run it'll complain about an unclean shutdown, check the filesystem and reboot. This is normal. On the 2nd boot, you should see the Ubuntu 10.10 desktop autologin! The username is "user" and the password is "user" if you need to make changes.
  12. Right now, you're in Ubuntu but if you reboot, you'll be back in Chrome OS. To make Ubuntu the default, run "sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -S 1 /dev/sda" (password is "user"). It should be possible to run this from Ubuntu or Chrome OS.
  13. To make Chrome OS the default again, either pull the battery and turn off Developer Mode, or run "sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 0 -S 1 /dev/sda".
Update: If you're seeing very slow download speeds (10-15k/sec), check your WiFi settings, if you're using WPA or WPA2 encryption, make sure your router is set to use AES, not TKIP (should be the default for WPA2, might not be possible with WPA). There is currently a bug that causes very slow WiFi speeds with WPA TKIP.

    341 comments:

    1. Sweet.. i may give that a try.. TY for posting this. :)

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    2. THX a lot, BTW is this ubuntu image desktop version or netbook version?

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    3. Is there a bootloader screen to select which to boot?

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    4. @nopainkiller: It's Ubuntu desktop i686. Default install with all updates as of a few days ago applied.

      @xiao_haozi: No, either the Cr-48s EFI BIOS will need to be extended or GRUB/eLILO will need to be re-written for the Cr-48.

      Jay

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    5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    6. wget -O - http://goo.gl/DlmZS | sh -

      that's a space between wget & -O then a space & another - then a space & http://googl/DlmZS then a space & | then a space & sh then a space & -?

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    7. yes it is important to select your network before the script is run a second time... which your instructions do say to do but perhaps not explicitly... lol should seem obvious enough though :) silly me

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    8. @thissocalledflower: yes, that should do it.

      Jay

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    9. Good work, this could remove the steps which require chroot using another 64-bit Ubuntu system.

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    10. i wonder... can i resize the chrome partition a little smaller, since it has so much free space on it, without breaking my system? maybe add a swap file for ubuntu?

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    11. robbychen:yes, it saves setting up the dev environment, chroot, and VirtualBox, everything can be done from the Cr-48 itself.

      thissocalledflower: I used the partition sizes suggested in the chromium.org article. Others may be possible but would need to be calculated out correctly. However, I don't believe the Chrome OS kernel (which Ubuntu is still using) has support for swap. See the chromium.org article for details on that:

      http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/cr-48-chrome-notebook-developer-information/how-to-boot-ubuntu-on-a-cr-48

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    12. TY for all of this... i wonder too though.. if i switch back out of dev mode.. will i lose all of this or will it stay? The blue unhappy face sux.. really...

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    13. Thank you SO SO SO much.
      So, if I want to go back to Chrome OS, I just pull out the battery and switch the magic switch?
      Then flip it again to get to Ubuntu, since I'm going to leave it the default.

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    14. Thanks for posting this up! I was a little intimidated by the setup instructions they posted up there and really wanted to get ubuntu up and running. I think it would be nice if someone could actually figure out a way to compile grub to work in tandem with the ChromeOS loader.

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    15. Thank so much for this! I was in the same spot as Tobey on this one, those instructions were definitely intimidating.

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    16. Hey, thanks for this. A question: I deleted the "user" account and made my own but it looks like ubuntu still tries to log into that account when I restart. Anyway to switch it?

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    17. Hey, thanks a lot for doing this. A question: I made a new account but when I reboot it looks like it's still trying to login using the "user" account. How can I change this?

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    18. @Chad: first you need to give your user admin privileges so that they can sudo.

      https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo#Allowing%20other%20users%20to%20run%20sudo

      then you should be able to change which user is auto-logged in:

      https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AutoLogin

      Jay

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    19. @Jay: Thanks a lot! I couldn't get into gnome but googling autologin led me to gdm.conf.

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    20. Jay thank you for putting this script together. I placed a link to your blog at,

      https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cr-48-test-pilots

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    21. I keep geting a 404 error for the wget command, I've quadruple checked my syntax, any suggestions anyone?

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    22. @daehnomel: it's case sensitive. What exactly are you typing?

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    23. Not to be rude; it looks like you put a lot of work into this, but how can I trust that your image isn't tainted? It would be trivial to use this to set up your own private army of beta systems.

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    24. When I booted to Ubuntu after I changed the boot options in ChromeOS, the GUI would not load and after entering many different commands (startx, shell, trying to change boot option again using code provided) it would tell me that it is a read only file system. What could be the cause of this?

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    25. is there any way to let the script read the 52 files from usb or portable devices... it is taking quite a while downlaoding from server... and the speed is kind of slow(dont know why. it's just slower than my other laptops in same wifi)

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    26. @antinoun: No offense taken, Ubuntu has some anti-rootkit tools that you could scan the image with:

      https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingSecurityTools

      as to my personal credentials, I spend a lot of time Google's help forums and have earned Top Contributor status in their Google Apps and Google Mobile Forums:

      http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Apps/user?userid=02082836614310486929&hl=en

      @Mehmet: Did it ever work properly? If not you might need to start from scratch. Run Google's USB recovery process to restore to defaults and then rerun the download.

      @noname: If you put the 52 files on a USB drive and got it mounted on the Cr-48, it shouldn't be hard to modify the install script to read them instead of downloading them from the site. Try changing the "wget ..." to be " cat ...".

      Jay

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    27. in fact..i just thought about that, though i have no idea how to mount usb on it and make the whole thing work...
      thanks anyways..i'll try to figure it out

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    28. Thanks! This is sooooo much easier than installing ubuntu in virtualbox and then getting the chrome os chroot like the other guide had you do.

      +1 Internet to you sir.

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    29. @Jay Lee: After I turned the developer switch off, the laptop worked fine so no real damage was done.

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    30. @Jay
      thanks for the script..it boots really fast
      since im testing around and recovery it back...is there a way to get a full image of the build you are using...for the reason that it sucks downloading the files@low speed and i'd like to try it on my other laptop/notebook
      best appreciate

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    31. Thank you so much for this, it worked perfectly and is a hundred times easier than the previous instructions for booting Ubuntu. I was wondering, do you know how to enable a right click on the mouse? That's one piece of functionality I seem to be missing.

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    32. It would be nice if we could upload a full image instead of multiple files, copy it to usb then install, would be so much quicker since the cr-48's wifi sucks

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    33. I wonder, since the first time the wget command is run, it sets up the partitions on cr-48 to a 5 gig size and the second time it installs ubuntu...

      if i manually changed my partition for ubuntu to a larger size on my own and then ran the wget command, would it just install like it does the second time it is run or would it resize my partitions since it is the first time running?

      is it looking for a specific partition size is what i guess i am asking? or can i create a little more wiggle room for ubuntu on my own and still use your very wonderful script?

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    34. @defcon cr-48 won't let you

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    35. From the reg instructions on how to install ubuntu i modified the partitions as such:

      ctrl-alt-=> without logging in
      sign in as chronos then 'sudo bash'
      then 'sudo initctl stop powerd'
      umount /mnt/stateful_partition
      cgpt add -i 1 -b 266240 -s 6051840 -l STATE /dev/sda
      cgpt add -i 6 -b 6318080 -s 32768 -l KERN-C /dev/sda
      cgpt add -i 7 -b 6350848 -s 16537600 -l ROOT-C /dev/sda

      when i ran your script it said it my partitions were strange and refused to run, telling me instead to restore factory defaults before running the script

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    36. After my Cr-48 rebooted after the long wait for the downloads.
      I get to a black screen with white text that seems to be counting up on the left side. and listing out the hardware. It seems that way to me.
      Not really sure can't read the text because of my vision.
      is this a normal screen.
      Its currently on (From what I can tell)
      [625.(lots of numbers)] [drn] Big FIFO is enabled
      To me it looks like a dmesg outpout


      EDIT
      http://i.imgur.com/VXCGp.jpg
      http://i.imgur.com/LB2di.jpg
      Not sure if these came out good. Can not tell.
      This is the screen I get after I did the downloads section and it reboots for the first time. After I get the sad laptop.

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    37. @thissocalledflower: manually download the script from:

      http://cr-48-ubuntu.googlecode.com/files/install-ubuntu.sh

      then modify line 16 with your sizes and run it.

      @erillanos: sounds like a corrupt FS to me. You may need to do Google's USB recovery process then try again.

      @defcon: it wouldn't be to hard to mod the script for USB install, I msy try to get something up in a few days. Cr-48 WiFi is fine in my experience as long as you're not using WPA-TKIP.

      Jay

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    38. Great Work!
      Has anyone had any luck with two-finger scrolling?

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    39. @jay
      just wondering why the version you use here in cr 48 boots much faster than ubuntu 32/64 bit on regular laptops? is it due to some infrastructure differences or ?

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    40. Is there a way to make a script for the netbook version of ubuntu and would it run?

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    41. @Skip: I've not tried it but:

      http://ubuntu-snippets.blogspot.com/2009/03/multi-touch-for-anyall-synaptics.html

      might be worth a look.

      @noname: Ubuntu is using the Chrome OS kernel, not Ubuntu's kernel, thus a large portion of the boot process is identical for Chrome OS and Ubuntu. Also, Google's system optimizations (SSD, quick hardware init, etc) help Ubuntu also.

      @van: You should be able to install this version and then switch it to using the netbook interface. Try the instructions at:

      http://www.gnulinux.in/article/information-and-installation-unity-lightweight-netbook-interface-ubuntu-netbook-edition-une

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    42. Is there a way to retry the installation? The script worked like a charm, but I messed with everything and I would like to start fresh.

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    43. @Jay: Thanks for the reply. No go on the ubuntu snippets synaptics fix. From my research it appears synaptics is not loaded into the kernel.

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    44. Any chance of getting an option of installing either the Netbook edition or the Desktop edition? :)

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    45. If not that, at least why not make an image with ext4 with discard (for TRIM, uncertain if the SSD supports it) and disable journaling? I'm fairly certain the performance would be a tad better than with ext2.

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    46. I am getting a 404 error when I am putting in the command to get the script...

      Any way to fix this? or is this a error on your end?

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    47. Anyone get the 3g working on Ubuntu?

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    48. connection closed at byte ?

      I'm downloading and stuck at 63% saying awaiting response 206 partial content saving to STDOUT

      any reason why it would stop on me !

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    49. I see why this comment thread is screened before comments are posted it's because no one has it working here !

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    50. @testman: you're typing the URL wrong.


      wget -O - http://goo.gl/DlmZS
      make sure the l in DlmZS is a lowercase L (Not capital eye(I))

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    51. @Steven: I do...and plenty of others do. It's REALLY simple.

      To all those having problems reading the terminal lines...copy and paste the line in a text file and play with it...geez...

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    52. @Tug: follow Google's recovery process:

      http://www.google.com/support/chromeos/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1080595

      @Skip: that would make sense since it's the Chrome OS kernel we're re-using in Ubuntu. Not much I can do about that now but I'm working on getting the Ubuntu kernel working on the Cr-48.

      @Steven #1: See my comments above, once Ubuntu is installed it's just a matter of installing the netbook packages (plenty of other help articles cover switching to Ubuntu netbook edition, Google around)

      @Steven #2: Don't think the Chrome OS kernel that we're using supports ext4. Might be able to use it once I get the Ubuntu kernel working but feel free to play around with it yourself and let us know the results.

      @testman: make sure you are typing the command EXACTLY right, it's case sensitive and all of the dashes need to be there.

      Omerta: mine seems to just keep retrying the connection. Not sure what's missing.

      Steven #3: try rebooting and rerunning the script, sounds like a dropped connection. If that doesn't work you might need to follow Google's recovery process then re-run my install process.

      Steven #4: I hate reading blogs with comment spam, I moderate comments to keep my blog from filling up with comment spam. I post anything and everything that isn't spam or pure flamebait.

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    53. will this version of ubuntu accept updates? I just checked for updates and it said none available after a week and a half.

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    54. @Contradude: Try the following keyboard combination to get updates:

      UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B, A

      just kidding :-) I updated the install before making the image, it should update just fine as soon as new updates come out. My guess is the Devs were taking a Christmas break...

      Jay

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    55. Jay, my Ubuntu Linux image stopped loading on Cr-48. I'd like to try your script again but it seems like I need to erase everything in order to do so. However, I do not know how to erase the Ubuntu partition from Cr-48. Can you tell me how to do that?

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    56. @Jon: what do you mean by "stopped loading"? Did you see step 12 and 13 to set whether Ubuntu or Chrome OS boots?

      To start from scratch, follow Google's USB Recovery method (link is above). Then re-run the steps from the beginning.

      Jay

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    57. Yes I did use those steps. What I mean is, when I attempt to load Ubuntu, instead of getting the OS user interface I just get a terminal shell with no way of exiting and going to the OS. I've tried creating a USB recovery stick and for some reason I can't get it to work. I thought perhaps there was another way to erase the Ubuntu partition.

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    58. Also why did you use 11.04 over 10.04 and 10.10?

      Also it is save to use the 6.4 GB partion for storage right? and I can clear the used ubuntu image off?

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    59. more specifically: I get an error that says /dev/sda7 contains a file system with errors, check forced. this is followed by a ton of text and then a prompt that says "cr48-ubuntu login:"

      however, logging in with my username and password does not bring me to the Ubuntu signin screen. instead I just get another prompt with my user name followed by @cr48-ubuntu:~$

      that's the point I can't get out of.

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    60. Download stopped @ file: binby.bz2 w/5.46mb downloaded. before it timed out

      my connection was fine before the server timed out(usb-ethernet). it would not reset. after reboot it went to the startup screen with the sad face and then rebooted again back to chromeos.

      it was already @ the login screen. so i re-ran step 5 and it started to verify files for a few minutes and then it rebooted to ubuntu.

      but i am not at a login gui screen.

      i am looking at this:

      Ubuntu 10.10 localhost.localdomain tty1
      localhost.localdomain login:

      any ideas? any help would be deeply appreciated.

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    61. I assume we can't install a bootloader that will let us select which OS to boot into? Sounds like that'd require way more modification.

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    62. Thanks for this, it looks pretty exciting! However, I am having the slow download speeds which you mentioned. I've changed my router settings (and ever removed them completely) but it still hangs around 10-15k/s. Would it be possible for me to download all of the files to my PC and then just copy them to a specific location on the cr-48? Any info is appreciated! Thanks again.

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    63. i followed the instructions it worked perfectly... the only problems im having is the touchpad scroll and selecting text is hard from what ive read i guess a newer kernal would solve this ...... and actually give you the touchpad tab in mouse settings ??

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    64. On my cr48 the script says it has run successfully and reboots straight into Chrome OS. I even manually set Kern-C priority to five before reboot, per the chromium instructions, still it boots up into Chrome OS.

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    65. @xxdesmus do a google search for insydeh20 bios cr48, you can now flash the bios and install whatever you would like now. At this point OSX/Win7/*nix is all viable. I noticed one thing that might make this script a little better if you want to continue working on it...while I was downloading a[a-z] one of the bzips was corrupted during the download. Perhaps an md5sum check (while adding time to the entirety of it) would reduce the amount of people having errors with the ubuntu image getting dd'ed to the ssd? Thanks for the work - really nice contribution! = )

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    66. so how well does Ubuntu actually run? Can someone post a video of the speed? General impressions, etc?

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    67. I have a ubuntu OS on my USB flash dive, Is there a way I could install from it ?

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    68. @Jon and @Brian: Sounds like corrupt downloads. Use Google's USB Recovery method (link is in my posts above) then re-run my steps in this blog post.

      @testman: I used Ubuntu 10.10 because that is the newest stable release of Ubuntu. 11.04 won't be out till April. 10.04 LTS might work but the original Ubuntu install guide used 10.10 so I used it also.

      @xxdesmus 1: Not using this method, you'd need to use the BIOS flash to use a traditional Grub style bootloader choice menu:

      http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2011/01/turn-your-cr-48-into-regular-pc.html

      @Elijah: not sure what to tell you. How fast do the files d/l from your laptop? I may eventually release a USB based install script when I get a chance.

      @Jason: I'm looking into switching to the Ubuntu kernel but it's not an easy task. If you're going to be running Ubuntu exclusively you might be better off using the BIOS method I linked to at the top of this post.

      @Zeerph: did you run through the script twice like my instructions said? Did it download all the files? You might need to do the Google USB recovery and start over if so...

      @xxdesmus 2: It runs pretty good. Fast boot since it's using the Chrome OS kernel, similar to other netbook experiences. Chrome OS is definitely faster though compared to Firefox...

      @Steven: not using this method, you'd need to follow the BIOS method linked at the top of this post.

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    69. Yes, ran through it twice, and as far as I can tell it ran through all the files since it forces a reboot at the end.

      I was afraid of having to run a USB recovery, mostly because I seem to have misplaced my USB drive. Oh well, I'll give it a go.

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    70. Success: I wasn't able to create a USB recovery drive that works, for some reason. But I re-ran the script a few times and it eventually worked. I am dual-booting once again!

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    71. @Jon: It's the same tutorial pretty much, you can just use Ubuntu to run flashrom instead of Chrome OS but you'll still need to pop open the case. No idea if Ubuntu will still boot after you install the new BIOS but you'll be able to reinstall Ubuntu via USB as you normally would on a PC/netbook.

      http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2011/01/turn-your-cr-48-into-regular-pc.html

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    72. It works amazingly on my machine. Thank you very much Jay!

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    73. Will flipping the developer switch back OFF undo all of these changes?

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    74. @xxdesmus: No but it will boot you back into Chrome OS since Ubuntu is not signed/verified. The only way to completely revert is to use Google's USB Recovery then flip back to non-developer mode.

      Jay

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    75. The partition that is used to download the image of ubuntu to, is there a way to gain use of it for ubuntu, or even just merge it into the one Ubuntu uses?

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    76. @testman: not sure what you mean, the script does not save the image to the Cr-48 SSD, it downloads the compressed 100mb chunks, writes them directly to the Ubuntu partition and then discards them.

      Jay

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    77. @Jay
      I came up with some thought..since in your script..we are able to copy image of system into ssd and boot into ubuntu...for chrome os partition..do you think it possible that we use the same way to update the chrome image(such as the ones here http://www.duh.org/chromiumos/cr-48/)...cuz the way they use will erase ssd and recovery..i dont want to lost ubuntu(redo the whole installation is like pain in butt)

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    78. @noname: If you read the original Chromium page, you see that we're using ROOT-C, which is not going to be used in future updates.

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    79. @Luke
      yes..but there is root-d as well..if my memory is right...then we should be able to put image into that and change priority to boot from there...I'm just a user with only few skills on dev...

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    80. Is there a way to boot up Ubuntu from Chrome OS shell? like a command only because i hate having to change priority boot everytime i need to use ubuntu or chrome... thanks ahead of time

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    81. Anyone get the broadband card working? I'm not sure how to set it up.

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    82. Thanks for he guide, I have the files on my local server which makes for a fast/easy reinstall :)

      Only thing is the trackpad I had Ubuntu 10.10 on it and it didn't have gestures but it could click, with this i can only move the mouse i can't click or do any gestures. Any packages you guys recommend? I saw this guide but its for 10.10 :/

      http://cr-48.wikia.com/wiki/Getting_the_Trackpad_Working_in_Ubuntu

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    83. A little help please!

      Hey Jay Lee, I successfully installed Ubuntu using your script (thanks). I have a problem though. After working for about 2 weeks, the GUI has stopped working and I can only boot into command. Do you have any suggestions? Everything was working fine and it all of sudden stopped booting the GUI.

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    84. Great guide and script, it installed super painlessly, thank you.

      I have been having trouble with rebooting though, even after running "sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -S 1 /dev/sda" from within Ubuntu. When I restart (in dev mode) I am taken to the frowning blue Cr-48 screen. Pressing Ctrl-D to bypass this screen takes me to the green Cr-48 screen (after a brief pause and black screen), and asks me for a recovery device.

      Any idea what I'm doing wrong? How can I get back to my Ubuntu install?

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    85. For some reason, after taking a few screws out of the bottom that the battery is hiding (probably had nothing to do with it working) and then resetting the boot priority with "sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -T 2 -S 0 /dev/sda"

      The -T was important for my CR48 because a value of "1" would get the boot up procedure in Ubuntu then a hard restart for whatever reason. But a value of "2" booted straight into the new OS, or maybe it just needed the first try then a restart, not sure. Then -S 1 worked just fine, now it's booting up into Ubuntu without flaws.

      Thanks for the simple, easy to use script.

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    86. Hi Jay,

      Thanks for putting together a script like this. I was hoping to make use of it today, but when I go to begin the process the address you gave to wget keeps getting 404'd. Are you still hosting the script? Has the address changed? Any ideas about what I might be doing wrong? I've carefully rechecked that I'm typing the address correctly and I've made sure that I'm already connected to my network before entering the shell.

      Thanks for any help or insight to what might be up here!

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    87. Hey Jay, I got it working. I ran fsck and it fixed the OS. Plus,I got learn a lot of Linux while trying to fix it :)

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    88. Thank you so much! I need to program for my school assignments otherwise I live in Chrome OS. This is great! Thank you again. n_n

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    89. After intalling Ubuntu I ran the script sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -S 1 /dev/sda when i reboot it shows chrome recovery hitting ctrl d it goes to chrome os login what do i do to go to ubuntu

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    90. @Mack Diaz, when it shows the Chrome Recovery, don't hit anything. It loads Ubuntu afterwards.

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    91. Even when i let it load after the sad face it erases the stateful partition and rebbots to the initial chrome setup

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    92. Hi Mack,

      did you run the script twice as the instructions above explain?

      Jay

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    93. I ran the script once only is there any other way to run ubuntu again

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    94. @Mack: please follow the instructions exactly. You're supposed to run the script twice. The 1st time through, your partitions are modified, making room for Ubuntu. The 2nd time, Ubuntu is actually downloaded and installed.

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    95. I ran the script 2 times then it complained about unclean shut down then i ran sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -S 1 /dev/sda in terminal to make ubuntu default but it loads chrome os instead of ubuntu

      ReplyDelete
    96. @Mack: You may need to follow the USB Recovery process and start from scratch.

      ReplyDelete
    97. chrome os works fine can i rerun your script to rerun ubuntu

      ReplyDelete
    98. nevermind i reran the sudo cgpt add to put ubuntu default and it just booted in ubuntu thanks

      ReplyDelete
    99. Hi, I have this working fine right now, thanks again for posting this. Just out of curiosity, is this the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Ubuntu? Can you run 64-bit on Intel Atom processors?

      ReplyDelete
    100. @Jon: It is the 32-bit version. The Atom N455 in the Cr-48 is capable of running 64-bit OSes. If you follow the process of flashing the Cr-48 BIOS to a standard PC BIOS instead of Google's custom Chrome OS BIOS they you'll be able to install 64-bit Ubuntu as you would on a regular netbook:

      http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2011/01/turn-your-cr-48-into-regular-pc.html

      ReplyDelete
    101. Interesting, thanks. Seems like more work than I'm willing to do but one other thing: Is there any way to expand the amount of storage available to the Linux instance? Looks like I have 1.2GB of free space left. I can also see a 6.2GB file system but I believe that is the portion used up by Chrome OS.

      ReplyDelete
    102. is there a way to leave ubuntu as the default, but run a script to reboot into ChromeOS on demand? in other words, switch OS's without having to flip the dev switch?

      ReplyDelete
    103. Argg, I get to the stage of typing in: "wget -O - http://goo.gl/DlmZS | sh -"
      and get the following message:
      Resolving goo.gl... failed: Temporary failure in name resolution.
      wget: unable to resolve host address 'goo.gl'

      Any ideas?Thanks so much in advance.

      ReplyDelete
    104. Argg, I get to the stage of typing in: "wget -O - http://goo.gl/DlmZS | sh -"
      and get the following message:
      Resolving goo.gl... failed: Temporary failure in name resolution.
      wget: unable to resolve host address 'goo.gl'

      Any ideas?Thanks so much in advance.

      ReplyDelete
    105. Ignore last post please. If anyone else has this same problem, don't forget to connect to your wifi before doing any of this...

      ReplyDelete
    106. SO if I installed ubuntu and flip the dev switch back to chrome, will it be ubuntu when i turn it back to dev mode?
      also how much ssd is left after this?

      ReplyDelete
    107. uhm when im asked for the password to change ubuntu to default, it won't show my characters that i type

      ReplyDelete
    108. I believe the partition structure has changed, so this list may need to be updated.

      ReplyDelete
    109. Upon completion Ubuntu starts booting and gets stuck at...
      async/4 used greatest stack depth: 5704 btes left

      ReplyDelete
    110. After restarting it once it is stuck it boots an stops with...
      Stop polling thread!
      Polling thread stopped!

      after this a reboot puts it into ChromeOS...

      Running the script reboots and starts to run ubuntu again then gets stuck at the "asynch/4 used" line again.

      Thanks very very much!

      ReplyDelete
    111. Sorry for all the comments. I then ran the cammand to make Ubuntu the default and it just boots to the...

      Stop polling thread!
      Polling thread stopped!

      and stops.

      Thanks again!

      ReplyDelete
    112. Restored my cr48 and started from scratch. This time it worked!

      Awweessssomee

      ReplyDelete
    113. Did this last night, successful on the first try. Thank you so much!

      ReplyDelete
    114. Good Morning, is there anyway to use a sd card as a second hard drive? I am running out of space in the partition, but i wanted to know if some of the programs can migrate there. (linux noob)

      ReplyDelete
    115. When I do this, the Cr-48 goes into a reboot loop, restarting after I hit Ctrl-D on boot... Anyone know why?

      ReplyDelete
    116. Also, a lot of peoples' problems stem from not configuring their proxies first... You need to type:

      export http_proxy=XX.XX.XX.XX:XXXX

      As root BEFORE you run the wget command.

      ReplyDelete
    117. So, before I pull the trigger, I want to ask something. Is it possible to set up the machine so that when your in developer mode you boot into ubuntu and when its beta mode it goes into chrome os? Because I would like Ubuntu as an emergency measure when there is no internet access, and I'm too lazy for that command prompt (I know. I'm a lazy bum). And those of you asking for trackpads, these seem to work for many. http://cr-48.wikia.com/wiki/Getting_the_Trackpad_Working_in_Ubuntu

      ReplyDelete
    118. so ubuntu only gets 2 gig free space?

      ReplyDelete
    119. thanksssssssssssss dude u are awesome i made it :D

      ReplyDelete
    120. Hi, don't mean to hijack the thread but i have a boot problem.

      So thanks to Jays genius I was able to easily install ubuntu on my cr-48 months ago. It's been fine ever since. Then last night i was using it and closed the cover. Didn't shut it down or manually put it to sleep i just closed the cover. Battery was nearly dead and i guess it died over night while the unit was asleep. Now this happens, I'l hit the power button then type "ctrl-d" to get past the untrusted bios message and ubuntu starts to boot then gives the following error message:
      "grub-editenv: error: cannot open the file /boot/grub/grubenv"

      I've tried hitting both "ESC" and holding down shift to load the recovery menu but no luck. My google searches have also come up emtpy. Any
      suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

      ReplyDelete
    121. ok please reply, whenever i flip the switch to go into developer mode i have to reset my account information and take a new picture. After i leave developer mode i have to repeat the same process. Will putting ubuntu on the cr-48 stop this from happening? please help i really want to know

      ReplyDelete
    122. It usually stops. For some reason it happened for me again out of the blues... But again, usually, the wipe doesen't happen if you have ubuntu on the developer's side.

      ReplyDelete
    123. @John your best luck is just doing recovery and installing ubuntu all over again :( thats what I had to do.

      ReplyDelete
    124. Jay,
      I changed the username and password in Ubuntu. Used "sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 0 -S 1 /dev/sda" to switch over to chrome and now I cannot get back to Ubunutu. I assume changing the user account caused this. Any suggestions, or do I need to run through the install again?

      ReplyDelete
    125. im wondering here if the recovery image restore process will COPMPLEATLY undo the stuff here i did get it successfully working i just decided i want to undo what i did and get it back to Compleatly factory defualts size and everything

      using googles recovery thing will it COMPLEATLY undo what was done?

      ReplyDelete
    126. question I put Luigi's Bios on it and his bios shows up but I can't get to terminal or install any OS but chrome works but can't use recovery to recover, I'm stuck with this luigi's bios so does this mean this is bricked for me ?

      ReplyDelete
    127. No, you have to undo luigi if you wanna do recovery. Have you tried the boot menu to install your OS?

      ReplyDelete
    128. Does this setup allow for future Chrome OS updates? I want to make a dual boot of Chrome OS and Ubuntu but would still like to keep my CrOS up to date. Also, how much space does this allot to each OS, and how much free space is left after each OS is installed and updated?

      ReplyDelete
    129. Josh said; I have the recovery on usb flash drive and got to the menu verified for that but it's showing A+B installed with I think is chromes OS but when I try it with ubuntu it goes straight to chrome OS, I can't get to terminal to put in any commands, I can get to Boot with ctrl-shift-D, I could also get to intel bios and set boot devices but nothing helps !

      would you consider this bricked !
      Thanks!

      ReplyDelete
    130. @Brian Lawson: to get back to Ubuntu, while in Chrome, hit ctrl + alt + t to open crosh. type "shell". then run the same cgpt command, except put "P -5" instead of "P -0". Everything else is the same. Ubuntu should boot when you restart. If not, you may want to start over.

      ReplyDelete
    131. Thank you for the guide. I have to say, my CR-48 seems to work better under Ubuntu than ChromeOS. It's more responsive, wireless connects faster, etc.

      The only thing that doesn't work is the microphone. Does anyone know how to make it work?

      ReplyDelete
    132. I am having the same problem as Juno Davis: "I have been having trouble with rebooting though, even after running "sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -S 1 /dev/sda" from within Ubuntu. When I restart (in dev mode) I am taken to the frowning blue Cr-48 screen. Pressing Ctrl-D to bypass this screen takes me to the green Cr-48 screen (after a brief pause and black screen), and asks me for a recovery device."
      I am downloading the recovery image and will try again from scrap, but any help would be appreciated! Thanks for the extremely easy script because I have no experience with linux to use the dual boot instructions

      ReplyDelete
    133. Ubuntu starting booting into command prompt with read access only for some reason (same issue as John above). This occurred after an improper shutdown (holding power button) but I'm not sure if this is the issue. I installed Ubuntu again and shutdown improperly a second time with the same problem. I have no idea why and Google is little help.

      Could this have anything to due with maybe Ubuntu checking the file system on startup (triggered by improper shutdown) and it not looking right due to it being Ubuntu on top of Chrome OS?

      ReplyDelete
    134. Same here showing "grub-editenv: error: cannot open the file /boot/grub/grubenv" after a improper shutdown. I don't wanna do all over again, is there any way around it. I am sure this will happen to any user after their first improper shutdown.

      ReplyDelete
    135. I'm having trouble running the script. I started it but I think I typed the "wget -O - http://goo.gl/DlmZS | sh -" command wrong so the script got an error and stopped. I restored the cr-48 using the usb drive procedure but every time I try to run the script it still gives the same error. This is the error message I get:

      (A bunch of stuff saying that the HTTP request was received ok and then)

      Saving to : 'STDOUT'

      100%[=====================================>] 6,645 --.-K/s in 0s sh:

      cannot open !DOCTYPE: No such file
      2011-02-12 13:55:140 MB/s) - written to stdout [6645/6645]

      sh: HTML: not found
      : not found
      sh: Syntax error: redirection unexpected



      Any help would be appreciated.

      ReplyDelete
    136. Getting a 404 error on the wget command, are you still hosting the script?

      ReplyDelete
    137. On second thought, I'm a sillyhead. I typed DImZS instead of DlmZS :o

      ReplyDelete
    138. I got to step 5 for the second time, and when I try to download it, it says:

      Resolving goo.gl... failed: Temporary failure in name resolution.
      wget: unable to resolve host address 'goo.gl'

      Anything?

      ReplyDelete
    139. Ah! Sorry about the comment, apparently when I rebooted it disconnected me from my Wi-Fi.

      ReplyDelete
    140. for those of you who are having a problem with the 404 error!

      The problem is coming from (what I suspect to be) something with your network set up. It ain't no thang: the URL is still totally fine, for some reason your Cr-48 cannot read the shortened url. The full URL is:

      http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2010/12/easy-way-to-install-ubuntu-on-your-cr.html

      so the code now would be:

      "wget -O - http://cr-48-ubuntu.googlecode.com/files/install-ubuntu.sh | sh -"

      without quotes.

      Enjoy! Also, if possible, edit the OP?

      ReplyDelete
    141. Had this working great, but then my mouse and VT broke when I tried to make the trackpad work as it should. Now I can't do anything except login, launch Terminal, and switch to ChromeOS. I tried running the script again; just bounced me back into Ubuntu. Any idea how I can fix my VT2?

      ReplyDelete
    142. When I try to boot into Ubuntu, it gives me the message:

      Could not update ICEauthority files /home/user/.ICEauthority

      I click Close, as this is the only option.

      It then says:

      There is a problem with the configuration server. (usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconf-sanity-check-2 exited with status 256)

      I click close, as this is still the only option.

      It starts to boot.

      It gives me the message:

      Natilus could not create the following required folders: /home/user/Desktop,/home/user/.nautilus.

      Before running Nautilus, please create these folders, or set permissions such that Nautilus can create them.

      My only option here is to click OK, it closes that dialog, and I'm left with my mouse on my wallpaper. I can use ctrl+alt+=> to get to the terminal, and when I do, I'm stuck.

      Also, as a second attempt to find the answer to Dalton's question, could I just leave Ubuntu as default and flip the Dev Switch every time that I want to switch with OS comes up?

      ReplyDelete
    143. So I did this hack, and I thought that I would like to do it again because I think that I messed up the Ubuntu installation by adding another user and removing the default user.

      But when I try to run wget, it says

      sh: wget:: not found
      sh: Usage:: not found
      sh: Syntax error: EOF is backquote substitution.

      I am connected to an internet-connected Wireless network, and I typed it in exactly as I did before (and it worked last time).

      Do I need to switch back to Verified first and let the ChromeOS reset?

      ReplyDelete
    144. So I reinstalled Ubuntu from scratch and everything works as normal except the trackpad. I don't have right click or multi-touch, and the method mentioned above did not work for me; it broke my Ubuntu as I said before. Has anyone come up with a way to get the trackpad working as it does in ChromeOS?

      ReplyDelete
    145. Would i be able to switch back and forth between Chrome OS and Ubuntu?

      ReplyDelete
    146. everything working fine and launched ubuntu successfullt. it seeems I miss the wireless driver ? any idea where i can find the cr-48 wireless driver for cr-48 ?

      ReplyDelete
    147. Hey Jay,

      Thanks a lot for all your hard work on this; I can tell results have been fantastic. I'm a student, and live/work on campus. Everything around me is all one wi-fi network, and I can't get into it from the Chrome OS, but I'm told it'll work with Ubuntu.

      I've been trying to run the script (with some success) but I'm operating on the Verizon 3g connection (I paid $10 for an unlimited 24hr connection) and it frequently runs below 10K/s and also cuts out altogether every hour or so (I've been at this for ~7hrs) and i have to restart hte script. I think I might get there eventually, but I don't want to have to keep paying $10 to install this if it takes a few days (I have class and can't restart the code every time my connection conks out).

      Do you know if a USB version will be coming out soon? I saw you said you were working on one, which is awesome. If so, I'll just wait for that. Otherwise, I'll just keep on keeping on and cross my fingers.

      Thanks!!

      ReplyDelete
    148. i think mine skipped a couple files when downloading. how can i get back to the sudo su - part? its asking me for the ubuntu user and password, but when i put them in, it says files are missing

      ReplyDelete
    149. Hi Alex,

      Installing Ubuntu over 3G is going to be painful. Is there no coffee shop in your area with free WiFi? Despite my earlier mentioning a USB script, it's off the table for right now.

      Jay

      ReplyDelete
    150. @Josh: You may need to do a USB Recovery and try again:

      http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2010/12/recovering-your-cr-48-to-factory.html

      Jay

      ReplyDelete
    151. Is there a way to switch between Ubuntu and chrome. When I ran the script on chrome to jump to ubuntu is saying "sudo unknown". I am getting annoyed by having to take out the battery and flip the switch everytime.

      ReplyDelete
    152. very well done:) i has ubuntu now! i stripped a little screw on the bottom so i cant flash my bios now:( anyone has an idea? this is a good setup tho for now!

      ReplyDelete
    153. Meh, have no idea what I am doing wrong. Every time I type the wget command it connects like it wants to download only to say it can't save to "_" (broken pipe).

      Is this normal?

      ReplyDelete
    154. This comment has been removed by the author.

      ReplyDelete
    155. @Curtis: Those are all dashes like -. None of them are underscores like _.

      Jay

      ReplyDelete
    156. How do I get it to save then? Is there some way to get it to save?

      ReplyDelete
    157. When I run "wget -O - http://goo.gl/DlmZS | sh-" it says that it is saving to "STDOUT" and creates a progress bar with a download speed beside it but then cuts out before begging the process and says "Cannot write to '-'(broken pipe)".

      Sorry if this is some minor error, I'm not used to doing much with OS-level stuff.

      ReplyDelete
    158. @Curtis: now you're missing the space between sh and the last dash. Please make sure you are typing the command exactly right. It won't work otherwise.

      Jay

      ReplyDelete
    159. Jay, does this setup allow for future Chrome OS updates? I want to make a dual boot of Chrome OS and Ubuntu but would still like to keep my CrOS up to date. Also, how much space does this allot to each OS, and how much free space is left after each OS is installed and updated?

      ReplyDelete
    160. I have had Ubuntu successfully installed for about a day now. I also called Verizon's customer support line to see if I could get some information on the 3G. They can tell you your password and username, look for the e-mail in your inbox that you get when you sign up for the 100MB data plan, it should have your number. I added this information as a Mobile Broadband connection under Networks, but I do not see it under the available networks. I used to before but it stopped appearing. Does anyone have anything on this?

      ReplyDelete
    161. @ Jay Lee, do u know how to switch to chrome OS while I am in ubuntu? when I typed the script it's saying invalid command "sudo". Sld the switch be in developers mode or regular mode while I run this command ?

      ReplyDelete
    162. I tried and failed does anyone have a detailed video of how to do this I was unable to login as chronos

      ReplyDelete
    163. I just restarted my Cr-48, and it went just to the Virtual Terminal screen, and I cannot get to the Ubuntu, the GUI. Please help.

      ReplyDelete
    164. I had trouble on my first try too, just recover again with your flashdrive (you do have one, right? also, I used a 2 gig flashdrive and its fine, you dont need a 4 gig one like it says) and try again. It still seems to be a bit unstable, but thats fine

      ReplyDelete
    165. Am able to use mouse scroll and all the multitouch functionality in ubuntu. Goto Synaptic Package Manager, search for mouse and install mouseemu package. Works sweet. :)

      ReplyDelete
    166. Any suggested "tweeks/settings" for mouseemu ? I installed it, but things still feel 'clunky' for me.

      ReplyDelete
    167. Has anyone discovered a great way to save and then use a script for 'cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -S 1 /dev/sda' while in chromeos (dev-channel) ? (Doing this in Ubuntu is a.o.k., but I can't seem to get an executable script in chromeos that actually executes.)

      ReplyDelete
    168. After setting up ubuntu how I wanted, I booted back into chromeos. When I set the default boot back to ubuntu and start up, after the initial ubuntu text boot screen, the screen flashes a few times and hangs on a black screen. I never get into x. Should I rerun the installer?

      ReplyDelete
    169. The error is "plymouth main process killed by SEGV signal"

      ReplyDelete
    170. Hey thanks for the awesome guide. I love it. I updated the trackpad by downgrading Xorg and locking it to fix broken packages.

      I have a few problems worth mentioning though. Do you guys notice that when you unplug it from the adapter power source, the CR48 thinks that he is still plugged and "charged".

      Lastly the fan kept on spinning all the time. From the moment you turn it on, it has been non stop. Even when there are no opened applications, just plain sitting idle, the fan still runs. Right now my battery life is like 5-6 hours. When I use Chrome OS its like 8 hours and I rarely hear the fan kick in.

      Could be power management issues? Anybody has an idea on how to fix this?

      Thanks

      ReplyDelete
    171. I didnt tweak anything for mouse. I was trying to install usb mouse and installed few mouse package from synaptics. Later found out that my mouse wire was spoit :D After a day i found out that my touchpad is able to scroll vertically n horizontally plus right click(two finger tap). It was just an accidental discovery. No idea which package brought it to life. :-/

      ReplyDelete
    172. Checked the packages. Install 'xserver-xorg-input-synaptics' from synaptic package manager. Should work fine. I removed this package and the functionality doesnt work.. installed it again and works good. :)

      ReplyDelete
    173. Jay:
      Your instructions are very helpful, but I think I messed up. I got through step 8, but it seemed like it didn't get past the bh or by file, and go stuck on like 77%. I was on a spotty network so I followed step 9 and it continued, but it then gave me a long string of fast scrolling code that at the end said "input/output error." I did step 9 again and it gave me the same error so when I restarted again, I ran the sudo cgpt... code from step 12, assuming that it had acually installed. Now, when I am in developer mode, the computer will go to the recovery screen and when I press CTRL+D it restarts and goes back to the recovery screen and would be an endless cycle if I didn't turn off developer mode. Even if I turn developer mode off and back on, it still has this problem. Do I need to do the recovery and try again? Thanks for your help!

      ReplyDelete
    174. I reinstalled ubuntu via the method above this earlier this evening and when I went to the wireless list I noticed that Mobile Broadband was listed and active in there...nice suprise! I selected Verizon Wireless.. but I dont think it worked right off. I was working on something else at the time so I didn't toy with it. Several hours later I try to look into this again and Mobile Broadband isn't listed anymore! Any idea what's up?

      ReplyDelete
    175. Does anybody know of a set of readable instructions for installing Mac OS X or Windows?

      By the way, scratch my last post; I did the recovery and tried it again and it worked!

      ReplyDelete
    176. Only step I had trouble with was with this:
      "wget -O - http://goo.gl/DlmZS | sh -"
      and get the following message:
      Resolving goo.gl... failed: Temporary failure in name resolution.
      wget: unable to resolve host address 'goo.gl'

      which means I needed to connect to wifi. Took me 20mins to find out that I had to select a network in the Chrome setup screen before hitting CTRL+ALT+=>

      Great script! So easy!!!

      ReplyDelete
    177. So it seems that a couple people are having trouble with the GUI just not working. Found a fix yet? All it's booting to is the command line.. running "service gdm start", "/etc/init.d/gdm start", and "startx" all don't work. Halp!

      ReplyDelete
    178. Just a fair warning to those who want todo this. i have done it 3 times, but the 3rd time i did it i bricked my cr-48, im in talks with google to see what i can do, its not pretty, its just a shiney paper weight, so before doing this, make sure you dont mind it if yu accidently get a break, if anyone has any ideas how to fix let me kno, it just keeps going into a infinite loop of recovery

      ReplyDelete
    179. EliTehNinja: I'm not sure the Ubuntu script caused this as some 200 commenters (and literally thousands of people installing this) before you had no such issue. In any case, have you succeeded in creating the USB recovery drive? What error exactly are you getting on the recovery?

      Do you still have the dev mode switch on (pushed towards the battery contacts)?

      Jay

      ReplyDelete
    180. This has been working just fine for me overall, but now I'm trying to set the hotkeys (or the F* keys from the Ubuntu's perspective) to do what the symbols imply on them. I got the sound up/down and mute simply enough through the System --> Preferences --> Keyboard Shortcuts. Now the problem comes when trying to implement the brightness controls (not too concerned about the browser-specific ones of forward, back and refresh, and I found the things which I instinctively attribute to the other keys in the list of options).

      Thus, in a search for a command to use for this, I found the xgamma command, which serves the purpose, though it does not do it interactivly based on the current settings, only absolutely. I could use this command to write myself a shell script to do this, but I was wondering if there was an easier way.

      ReplyDelete
    181. But how can you dual boot these two OS's?

      ReplyDelete
    182. @Jcoinster

      I personally am just toggleing the developer switch, rather than needing to remember the command to type in to change it, or to constantly refer back to this page. When in the developer mode, mine will always boot in Ubuntu, when in the "normal" mode, it will always boot in ChromeOS.

      The alternative is to have those commands (mentioned in the article above, in the last two steps) and enter them in when you want the next boot to be in the opposing system.

      This is under the presumption that the script was executed successfully.

      ReplyDelete
    183. @Jcoinster: my apologies, I accidentally deleted your last comment instead of posting it. Please resubmit.

      Jay

      ReplyDelete
    184. hi Jay Lee.
      i have a question how much space on Ubuntu will i be left with to install things?

      and do you think it would be possible for everything to run well if not better if i bought a larger ssd?

      like the intel 310 80gb ssd?

      ReplyDelete
    185. I pretty much skimmed over the rest of the comments, but is there any way to use a different mirror when downloading Ubuntu? I haven't had terribly low download speeds, but it keeps fluctuating between 50 kbs and 200 kbs. Normally, Ubuntu downloads at 500 kbs. Also, are you using the same mirror the chromium.org tutorial uses as an example?

      ReplyDelete
    186. Hey Jay, so I used this script a while ago, and I was wondering if you could rewrite or manipulate the script to install a different flavor of Linux, like Kubuntu or Xubuntu. I kind of want to experiment with other types and that would be awesome.

      If you can't, that's just fine. Thanks for the great work :D

      Jono

      ReplyDelete
    187. Hey Jay, great work on the image and everything, but I'm having a problem. It resized my SSD and started installing the files. I didn't notice your comment about the slow download speeds so I restarted a few times. Because of this, the files were never fully downloaded, so I'm left with it booting into ChromeOS and no way to boot into anything else. Is there a way to completely start over? Would the Chrome Recovery Image resize the SSD so I could just start anew?

      ReplyDelete
    188. Jay: Do you know how I can repartition it to make there be more than 2 GB of usable space once I install Ubuntu? Or should I just follow the Chrome Developer instructions?

      ReplyDelete
    189. To those asking about resizing the partitions. Grab the script from:

      http://cr-48-ubuntu.googlecode.com/files/install-ubuntu.sh

      and modify lines 15 and 26-28 to your liking. I know a few persons have configured custom sizes already so if they want to post those values here that would help others.

      Jay

      ReplyDelete
    190. @Jono: you can switch to one of the other flavors after installing the default Ubuntu image:

      http://tuxicity.wordpress.com/2007/01/30/howto-switch-from-ubuntu-to-kubuntu-or-xubuntu-or-edubuntu-or-vice-versa-610-edgy/

      these instructions are old but should still work.

      Jay

      ReplyDelete
    191. anyone have any success in playing avi files? i can't get past 5 seconds worth on vlc before it stops.

      ReplyDelete
    192. Hi jay

      If i already installed ubuntu with ur method is it too late to repartition?

      And i made a mistake i was in ubuntu and rebooted and now i have no idea how to get back into ubuntu.
      I just get the chromeos on startup

      ReplyDelete
    193. @Alex: Yes, it's to late. There's no easy way to resize existing partitions without losing data and correupting everything. Do a USB Recovery and start over.

      ReplyDelete
    194. So if you use the USB recovery, it will set your partitions back to normal, correct?

      ReplyDelete
    195. @Travis: Yes. USB Recovery gets you 100% back to factory defaults.

      ReplyDelete