Google Chrome OS (chromium) on my Samsung NC10
Hi all,
So my multi-boot NC10 just got another option… Chrome OS off a USB drive. However, this came about after I messed up my hackintosh install by installing a kext file which was supposed to fix the audio, but instead led to an un-bootable hackintosh. Anyway, I thought I’d try out Chrome OS and found this really nice package created by Twitter’er @Hexxeh (http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/index.php) where you download the compressed tar.gz file, open terminal (i’m on a Mac) and run some commands and about 15 minutes later, you have a USB drive that’s ready to be booted.
I put the drive into the NC10, pressed the power button, and soon a Chromium OS screen comes up. You’re supposed to enter your gmail login/pw, but when I do this, I receive the “network not found” message, so I used the default login/pw (facepunch/facepunch – i’m guessing this is build-specific so check hexxeh’s FAQ for the latest). Chrome OS loads and it’s basically the Chrome browser. Upon loading, however, nothing would come up. It appears that the wireless wifi hardware takes some time (like 4-5 minutes) to find a wireless network, but after entering my SSID/key, I was surfing and enjoy the simple OS.
Since I have an external monitor installed, the resolution was just mirrored off the NC10′s LCD so the bottom half was just black. To change this, you’ll need to press Ctrl+Alt+T to go into terminal view, then you’ll type (no quotes): “xrandr -s 1024×768″ (or whatever you prefer). If you just type “xrandr” you’ll see all the available options. After the screen refreshes with the new resolution, type “exit” to return to the Chrome UI.
Pretty simple. Go try it!
Steve.
ps. That Hexxeh guy greatly simplifies the process so I’ll be donating some paypal funds. He’s a student doing this in his spare time and compared to the Hackintosh process, this is a walk in the park!
