tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18497097206674655062024-03-14T04:24:16.071-04:00Chromebooks and Chrome OSChrome, Chrome OS, Chromebooks, Chromium, Chromium OS, the Cr-48, Samsung Series 5, Acer AC700, Google, Linux and other misc. topicsJayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.comBlogger300125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-81190770776952958552013-12-31T14:35:00.006-05:002014-04-18T08:20:01.959-04:00Try Chrome OS Canary Without Risking Your Chromebook's StabilityThere's been some buzz recently about <a href="http://strawn-04.blogspot.in/2013/12/chromebook-howto-update-to-hidden.html">Kenny Strawn's discovery of Chrome OS Canary</a> (nice work Kenny!). If you're not aware, Canary is a version of Chrome OS that is even more up to date with code changes and new features than dev channel. So it goes stable --> beta --> dev --> canary with stable being the most stable, reliable and least often updated version and canary being the least stable and least reliable but most often updated. A <a href="https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/canary.html" target="_blank">Canary version of the Chrome browser</a> has been available and can be run in parallel with other Chrome channels on Windows and Mac for some time but there's been no publicly known equivalent for Chrome OS until Kenny's discovery and normally, your Chromebook is only on one channel of Chrome OS, switching between channels meant a USB recovery or powerwash.<br />
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So Canary is going to give you the latest and greatest Chrome OS features weeks or months before stable channel gets them but you sacrifice the stability of your Chromebook because Canary isn't tested nearly as heavily as stable channel is. What if we could run stable channel on our Chromebook and only boot into Canary channel when we wanted to test something or check out a new feature? Wouldn't that be handy? Well, here are instructions:<br />
<ol>
<li>To get started, make sure your Chromebook is in developer mode. Model-specific instructions can be <a href="http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices" style="color: #ddbb99; text-decoration: none;">found here</a>.</li>
<li>Turn your Chromebook off then turn it back on but do not login. Make sure you have a WiFi or Ethernet connection configured at this point. 3G/4G is not recommended. Press CTRL+ALT+=> (=> is the forward arrow where the F2 key would be on a PC). Do not use the normal CTRL+ALT+T method to get a shell. Use the CTRL+ALT+=> method while no one is logged in.</li>
<li>Login as user chronos, no password is needed.</li>
<li>Run the command:<br /><br /><b>sudo crossystem dev_boot_usb=1</b><br /><br />this tells your Chromebook to allow booting from USB / SD Card. Note that not all Chromebooks can boot from all USB or SD Card ports. For example, the Acer C710 can't boot from an SD Card and the Samsung Chromebook can't boot from the blue USB 3.0 port. You'll need to use a port on your device that supports booting. When in doubt, start with one of the black USB ports and go from there.</li>
<li>Stick a USB or SD Card of at least 8gb size in your Chromebook and run the command:<br /><br /><b>rootdev -s -d</b><br />you'll get output like:<br /><br /><b>/dev/sda</b><br /><br />or it might say /dev/mmcblk0. Whichever it is, that is the device for your Chromebooks primary drive.</li>
<li>Now run:<br /><br /><b>sudo fdisk -l | grep Disk</b><br /><br />this will list out all drives your Chromebook sees. Your Chromebook's main drive will be listed and you'll see some devices we don't care about like /dev/mapper/blahblahblah. We're looking for the USB or SD Card you inserted (compare sizes). On an Intel Chromebook with a USB drive it's likely to show as /dev/sdb, with an SD Card it's likely to be /dev/mmcblk0. On a ARM-based Chromebook, a USB drive is likely to be /dev/sda and a SD Card, /dev/mmcblk0. Make sure you've got the right device and remember what it is for the next step.</li>
<li>Now we can run:<br /><br /><b>sudo chromeos-install --skip_src_removable --skip_dst_removable --skip_vblock --dst <insert /dev/whatever from above step></b><br /><br /><b>chromeos-install</b> is a script to copy Chrome OS to another drive. Normally the script is meant to copy from a removable device to a SSD or hard drive but we're going in the reverse direction, thus we need the <b>--skip_src_removable</b> and <b>--skip_dst_removable</b> options to turn off those checks. The <b>--skip_vblock</b> option is needed to prevent an error message that should not matter anyway. The <b>--dst</b> option allows you to specify the destination device you determined in the previous 2 steps. So on my Intel-based Pixel Chromebook and using a USB drive I would run exactly:<br /><br /><b>sudo chromeos-install --skip_src_removable --skip_dst_removable --skip_vblock --dst /dev/sdb</b><br /><br />this command will output some details about the install process and may spit out errors if there's trouble copying to your drive (USB drives and SD Cards fail after awhile, get a new one if you need it).</li>
<li>When the process completes, your Chromebook will reboot. Now with the USB/SD Card still inserted, if you press CTRL+U on the keyboard at the ugly computer screen you'll boot from your new installation on the external card instead of the internal drive. You'll probably notice it's slower, USB 2.0 is very slow compared to SSDs. On first boot, the Chrome OS installation on the external drive will want to repair itself by wiping out the stateful partition (note that this is the stateful partition on your external drive, not the one on your internal drive which should remain untouched). Eventually, after a reboot, you should see Chrome OS boot to the setup process.</li>
<li>Lets confirm we're booted off of the external device by running:<br /><br /><b>rootdev -s -d</b><br /><br />this time, we should see the USB/SD Card's device listed instead of the internal SSDs so we know we're running off the external device.</li>
<li>Now we've got a separate Chrome OS install that we can boot into at will with CTRL+U instead of CTRL+D but we need to switch it to Canary channel. That's easy enough to do by running:<br /><br /><b>sudo update_engine_client --channel canary-channel</b><br /><b>sudo update_engine_client --update</b><br />this will install the latest Canary channel update for us on the external device, again leaving the internal device untouched. Now we're up and running! Canary channel without the risk.</li>
</ol>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com42tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-32344789544552218002013-10-15T14:38:00.000-04:002014-04-18T08:20:56.406-04:00ChrUbuntu for New Chromebooks: Now with more UbuntuSince I started ChrUbuntu back in <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2010/12/easy-way-to-install-ubuntu-on-your-cr.html" target="_blank">December of 2010</a>, it's always been necessary to utilize the Chrome OS Linux kernel with Ubuntu in order to solve some compatibility issues with the Chromebook architecture. That's changed with the Chromebook Pixel and the newer Haswell-based Chromebooks like the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FNPD1OY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00FNPD1OY&linkCode=as2&tag=chro48-20">Acer C720</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FGOTA9M/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00FGOTA9M&linkCode=as2&tag=chro48-20">HP Chromebook 14</a>. Each of these models supports <a href="https://plus.google.com/100479847213284361344/posts/QhmBpn5GNE9" target="_blank">booting from a more traditional PC BIOS mode</a> which makes it simple to use stock Ubuntu kernels on them.<br />
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This ChrUbuntu release is a <u>preview</u> that will only support x86-based Chromebooks, Pixel and newer (read: the ARM-based HP Chromebook 11 is not supported, nor are the older Acer C7, Samsung 550, etc. Use the old s9ryd script for these devices). I hope to eventually wrap this script back in to the main sr9yd ChrUbuntu install script but for now, I recommend this script on these newer devices over the old one.</div>
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<b>Note:</b> The trackpad is only supported with 13.10 and higher. I'm working to backport the trackpad drivers to 12.04. For now stick with 13.10 or use a USB mouse.<br />
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Here are the steps to install ChrUbuntu on a Pixel or Haswell-based Chromebook:</div>
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<ol>
<li>To get started, make sure your Chromebook is in developer mode. Model-specific instructions can be <a href="http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices">found here</a>.</li>
<li>Start with your Chrome device turned off. Turn it on but do not login. Make sure you have a WiFi or Ethernet connection configured at this point. 3G/4G is not recommended. Press CTRL+ALT+=> (=> is the forward arrow where the F2 key would be on a PC). Do not use the normal CTRL+ALT+T method to get a shell. Use the CTRL+ALT+=> method while no one is logged in.</li>
<li>Login as user chronos, no password is needed.</li>
<li>As the chronos user and without having changed directories or run other commands, run:<br /><br />curl -L -O http://goo.gl/9sgchs; sudo bash 9sgchs<br /><br />Make sure you have the command exactly right. The -O and -L after curl are both capital letters. 9sgchs is all lowercase letters and numbers and would sound like "nine ess gee see aich ess" if you said it out loud. If you get a "not found" error, make sure you have Internet connectivity and you're typing the command correctly.</li>
<li>You'll be prompted with some information about your Chromebook and the version of ChrUbuntu to be installed. Press Enter to continue.</li>
<li>The Chrome OS stateful partition where your data and settings are stored is just short of 11gb by default (except for the Pixel which has a 32 or 64gb SSD), the script shrinks the stateful partition to make room for ChrUbuntu. You can choose to give ChrUbuntu from 5gb up to 10gb in 1gb increments (Note: If you've installed a larger SSD in your Chrome device, your max number and recommended max will be larger). I recommend not going higher than 9 as 10 leaves Chrome OS with very little free space (less than 1gb).</li>
<li>Once you've entered a number, your hard drive will be repartitioned. After awhile it will reboot and re-initialize the stateful partition. This process takes 2-15 minutes and then the Chromebook reboots again and shows you the Welcome screen you got when you first turned on your Chromebook out of the cardboard box.<br /><br /><b>Pro Tip: </b>don't like Ubuntu or any of it's variants? You can stop now and plug a ready to go Linux USB Boot disk for <a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_and_use_Live_USB">Fedora</a>, <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch04s03.html.en">Debian</a>, <a href="http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/744">Mint</a> or pretty much any other distro in the drive. Then hit CTRL+L to initiate the legacy boot. Format and install the OS to the /dev/sda7 partition and make sure GRUB is installed to /dev/sda and you should be good to go!</li>
<li>Go through the Chrome OS setup process again until you get to the Google login page. You'll need to have a WiFi or Ethernet connection again at this point. Now follow steps 2 through 5 again. This time the script will see that you've already made room for Ubuntu and start downloading ChrUbuntu.<br /><br /><b>Pro Tip:</b> Here's where you can install other versions of Ubuntu! To see what options you have run:<br /><br />curl -L -O http://goo.gl/9sgchs; sudo bash 9sgchs -h<br /><br />An example custom installation would be:<br /><br />curl -L -O http://goo.gl/9sgchs; sudo bash 9sgchs -m xubuntu-desktop -u lts -a i386<br /><br />which would install the 32-bit version of Xubuntu and the latest LTS release (12.04.3 as of writing) rather than a 64-bit 13.10 Unity desktop (which is the default). Some possible flavor alternatives to Unity (-m option) are:<br /><br /><b>default</b> -- ubuntu-desktop<br /><b>kubuntu-desktop</b><br /><b>lubuntu-desktop</b><br /><b>xubuntu-desktop</b><br /><b>edubuntu-desktop</b><br /><b>ubuntu-standard</b> -- no GUI installed<br /><br />some possible versions (-u option) are:<br /><br /><b>lts</b> -- latest LTS Ubuntu release, 12.04.3 as of this writing<br /><b>latest</b> -- latest official release, currently 13.10<br /><b>dev</b> -- unstable development Ubuntu release. Experts only! If this breaks, don't be surprised.<br /><b>12.10</b> -- Ubuntu 12.10 release<br /><br />the possible architectures (-a option) are:<br /><br /><b>amd64 </b> -- default<br /><b>i386</b><br /><br />the -t target desk option is completely untested right now!</li>
<li>During the installation (within the first 5-15 minutes). You'll see a few prompts to select your encoding, locale and language. For most people, the defaults should be fine, just press Enter but change them if you'd like. Later on, you'll be prompted to decide where GRUB should be installed. YOU MUST CHECK THE BOX NEXT TO /dev/sda in order for boot to work!</li>
<li>After all of the Ubuntu files have been downloaded, installed and configured, the script will make a few more updates and then prompt you to reboot.</li>
<li>At the scary developer mode screen, hit CTRL+L instead of CTRL+D. You'll see ChrUbuntu start up! The username is "user" and the password is "user".</li>
</ol>
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That's it! Now you can just press CTRL+L to boot ChrUbuntu (L as in Legacy, traditional OS) or CTRL+D to boot Chrome OS (D as in Default OS on Disk).<br />
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Last but least, I want to give a big thank you to +<a href="https://plus.google.com/100479847213284361344/posts" target="_blank">Bill Richardson</a>, +<a href="https://plus.google.com/102325349472273329333/posts" target="_blank">Ron Minnich</a>, <complete id="goog_294034895">+</complete><a href="https://plus.google.com/101550095383851162852/posts" target="_blank">Stefan Reinauer</a> and other Googlers who work on the low-level Chrome OS hardware/software and have made a truly incredible, powerful and open Chrome OS platform! Great work guys!</div>
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Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-67647025685151555972013-06-26T08:52:00.001-04:002013-06-26T08:53:09.625-04:00ChrUbuntu Zero to Desktop in 15 seconds<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/108304992255149838420/posts/Z81RwZFuEhw">https://plus.google.com/u/0/108304992255149838420/posts/Z81RwZFuEhw</a><br />
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that is all.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-76258468687869932462013-05-31T16:45:00.000-04:002013-10-17T10:04:10.401-04:00ChrUbuntu: One Script to Rule Them All!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Update: </b>If you want to run ChrUbuntu on a Chromebook Pixel or one of the new Haswell-based Chromebooks like the HP Chromebook 14 or Acer C720, please take a look at <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2013/10/chrubuntu-for-new-chromebooks-now-with.html" target="_blank">the newer script that offers a better way to dual boot</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Update: </b>I'm aware that the script isn't working on Cr-48s, Samsung Series 5 and Acer C700 first gen Chromebooks but no longer have any of those to do testing with. For now, use the older <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2012/04/chrubuntu-1204-now-with-double-bits.html">12.04 script</a> on those models and upgrade to 13.10 if you want using the normal Ubuntu upgrade instructions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm excited to announce a major update to the ChrUbuntu script. This new version offers:</span><br />
<ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<li>A single script that works on ALL Chrome devices including the ARM-based Samsung Chromebook.</li>
<li>A single script that can install any Ubuntu version: 13.10, 12.04.3 LTS, even the latest daily dev image. (Note: ARM Chromebook is currently limited to 12.04.3 as newer versions are broken on ARM)</li>
<li>A single script that can install <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a>, <a href="http://www.kubuntu.org/">Kubuntu</a>, <a href="http://lubuntu.net/">Lubuntu</a>, <a href="http://xubuntu.org/">Xubuntu</a>, <a href="http://edubuntu.org/">Edubuntu</a> or many other desktop variants.</li>
<li>A fully up-to-date ChrUbuntu install on boot. No more downloading hundreds of megabytes in updates after first boot.</li>
</span></ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To make all of this possible, I've rewritten the ChrUbuntu script to pull packages directly from official ubuntu.com sources rather than utilizing my own pre-configured, static image of an Ubuntu installation.</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Want to say thank you for ChrUbuntu? Feel free to do so in the comments below, via <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRVGZGHMFDQSC">PayPal</a> or by visiting the advertisements on this blog. If you purchase a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009LL9VDG/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B009LL9VDG&linkCode=as2&tag=chro48-20">Chromebook</a> or any other <a href="http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=ur2&tag=chro48-20">Amazon.com</a> items using these links, you pay the same price but a portion of the cost goes to support this blog.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ready to get started with the latest, greatest ChrUbuntu? Here are the instructions:</span><br />
<ol><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<li>To get started, make sure your Chromebook is in developer mode and has a developer BIOS installed. See <a href="http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices">Google's instructions for your model</a>. Older Samsung and Acer owners should pay special attention to the Developer BIOS instructions.</li>
<li>Start with your Chrome device turned off. Turn it on but do not login. Make sure you have a WiFi or <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2011/11/quick-review-5-agiler-usb-ethernet.html">Ethernet</a> connection configured at this point. 3G/4G is not recommended. Press CTRL+ALT+=> (=> is the forward arrow where the F2 key would be on a PC). Do not use the normal CTRL+ALT+T method to get a shell. Use the CTRL+ALT+=> method while no one is logged in.</li>
<li>Login as user chronos, no password is needed.</li>
<li>As the chronos user and without having changed directories or run other commands, run:<br /><br /><b>curl -L -O http://goo.gl/s9ryd; sudo bash s9ryd</b><br /><br />Make sure you have the command exactly right. The -O and -L after curl are both capital letters. s9ryd is all lowercase letters and numbers and would sound like "ess nine are why dee" if you said it out loud. If you get a "not found" error, make sure you have Internet connectivity and you're typing the command correctly.</li>
<li>You'll be prompted with some information about your Chromebook. You may need to run an additional command to install a developer BIOS on your Chromebook. Press Enter to continue.</li>
<li>The Chrome OS stateful partition where your data and settings are stored is just short of 11gb by default (except for the Acer C7 where it is much larger), the script shrinks the stateful partition to make room for ChrUbuntu. You can choose to give ChrUbuntu from 5gb up to 10gb in 1gb increments (Note: If you've installed a larger SSD in your Chrome device, your max number and recommended max will be larger). I recommend not going higher than 9 as 10 leaves Chrome OS with very little free space (less than 1gb).</li>
<li>Once you've entered a number, your hard drive will be repartitioned. After awhile it will reboot and re-initialize the stateful partition. This process takes 2-15 minutes and then the Chromebook reboots again and shows you the Welcome screen you got when you first turned on your Chromebook out of the cardboard box.</li>
<li>Go through the Chrome OS setup process again until you get to the Google login page. You'll need to have a WiFi or Ethernet connection again at this point. Now follow steps 2 through 4 again. This time the script will see that you've already made room for Ubuntu and start downloading ChrUbuntu.<br /><br /><b>Pro Tip:</b> Here's where you can install other versions of Ubuntu! Just specify the preferred Ubuntu flavor and version at the end of the command:<br /><br /><b>curl -L -O http://goo.gl/s9ryd; sudo bash s9ryd [flavor] [version] [target-disk]</b><br /><br />For example:<br /><br /><b>curl -L -O http://goo.gl/s9ryd; sudo bash s9ryd xubuntu-desktop lts</b><br /><br />this will install Xubuntu and the latest LTS release (12.04.3 as of writing) rather than a 13.10 Unity desktop. Some possible flavor alternatives to Unity are:<br /><br /><b>default </b>(ubuntu-desktop on x86, xubuntu-desktop on arm)<br /><b>kubuntu-desktop<br />lubuntu-desktop<br />xubuntu-desktop<br />edubuntu-desktop<br />ubuntu-standard</b> (no GUI installed)<br /><br />some possible versions are:<br /><br /><b>lts</b> -- latest LTS Ubuntu release, 12.04.3 as of this writing<br /><b>latest</b> -- latest official release, currently 13.10<br /><b>dev</b> -- unstable development Ubuntu release, experts only! If this breaks, don't be surprised<br /><b>12.10</b> -- Ubuntu 12.10 release<br /><br />[target-disk] is the last argument (specify "default" and "latest" for the first two arguments if you just want to install the defaults to an external drive). An example installation to SD Card might be:<br /><br /><b>curl -L -O http://goo.gl/s9ryd; sudo bash s9ryd default latest /dev/mmcblk1</b></li>
<li>During the installation (within the first 5-15 minutes). You'll see a few prompts to select your encoding, locale and language. For most people, the defaults should be fine, just press Enter but change them if you'd like.</li>
<li>After all of the Ubuntu files have been downloaded, installed and configured, the script will make a few more updates and then prompt you to reboot.</li>
<li>You'll see ChrUbuntu start up! The username is "user" and the password is "user".</li>
<li>Right now, you're in ChrUbuntu but if you reboot, you'll be back in Chrome OS. This is a safety feature, if ChrUbuntu won't boot, you want to be able to get back into Chrome OS to fix it. To make ChrUbuntu the default, run:<br /><br /><b>sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -S 1 /dev/sda</b><br /><br />on the ARM Chromebook, replace /dev/sda with /dev/mmcblk0. The password is "user". It should be possible to run this from ChrUbuntu or Chrome OS.<br /><br />To make Chrome OS the default again, either turn off Developer Mode, or run:<br /><br /><b>sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 0 -S 1 /dev/sda</b></li>
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Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-55130104450736350022012-12-27T15:05:00.000-05:002013-01-02T16:38:18.407-05:00So You Want ChrUbuntu on a USB / SD Card? Well Merry Christmas!<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>Update #2:</b> I've updated the script so that module loading works with beta and dev channel Chrome OS kernels. If you were on beta or dev channel and ChrUbuntu booted but you couldn't connect to WiFi/ethernet, try now. Thanks to not-so-lazy commenter "The Lazy Husband" for the pointer and fix. I've also added a possible fix for some people getting out of space errors.<br />
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<b>Update:</b> I've updated the title since it doesn't look like USB hard drives work properly (USB Flash drives do work). I haven't tested extensively but my guess would be the Chrome OS firmware simply doesn't support booting from USB hard drives like it does flash drives. Also, I should have mentioned earlier, the Cr-48 will not work with USB Flash / SD Cards either since it does not support the CTRL+U boot method.<br />
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I'm happy to announce updated versions of the ChrUbuntu install scripts that supports installation to an external USB or SD Card leaving Chrome OS and the internal SSD unchanged. This works for all Chrome OS devices including the new ARM-based Samsung Chromebook. Your USB / SD Card needs to be 8gb or larger and <u>all current data on it will be lost</u>. Installation is very simple, just follow the normal ChrUbuntu instructions but specify the correct script below instead of the old script (I'll update the main instructions as soon as some of you verify this worked for you). You also need to specify the device name of your external drive. Depending on your Chrome device, this may be something like /dev/mmcblk0 or /dev/sdb. You can find out what devices you have with the command:</div>
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<b>lsblk | grep disk</b></div>
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Look for the device of the same size as your external drive. Add /dev/ to the beginning of the device name. In general:</div>
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<ul>
<li>The 1st USB drive plugged into an x86 Chromebook will be /dev/sdb</li>
<li>The 1st SD Card plugged into an x86 Chromebook will be /dev/mmcblk0</li>
<li>The 1st USB drive plugged into an ARM Chromebook will be /dev/sda</li>
<li>The 1st SD Card plugged into an ARM Chromebook will be /dev/mmcblk1</li>
</ul>
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To install ChrUbuntu to a SD Card on an x86 Chromebook, run:</div>
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<b>wget http://goo.gl/tnyga; sudo bash tnyga /dev/mmcblk0</b></div>
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Be sure to type this exactly. That's t n y g a and if you said it aloud it'd sound like "tee in why gee aye".</div>
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To install ChrUbuntu to a SD Card on an ARM Chromebook, run:</div>
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<b>wget http://goo.gl/34v87; sudo bash 34v87 /dev/mmcblk1</b></div>
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Be sure to type this exactly. That's 3 4 v 8 7 and if you said it aloud it'd sound like "three four vee eight seven". Also, make sure the USB drive (if you're using USB) is plugged into the black USB port, not the blue USB 3.0 port which doesn't support booting.</div>
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One nice thing about installing to an external drive is no reboot is needed, the script partitions the drive and starts downloading ChrUbuntu immediately.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
In order to boot ChrUbuntu from an external drive, instead of pressing CTRL+D or waiting 30 seconds at the "sad computer" startup screen, press CTRL+U immediately. This makes it simple to switch between Chrome OS and ChrUbuntu. CTRL+D or a 30 second wait on bootup starts Chrome OS. CTRL+U starts ChrUbuntu.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Note that if you exit developer mode after installing ChrUbuntu to an external drive, you'll need to rerun:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>sudo crossystem dev_usb_boot=1</b></div>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
to get USB CTRL+U booting working again. Be sure to share your success or failure (with details in the comments below!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Now do you need a good SD Card to use with ChrUbuntu? Purchase one of these from Amazon and a portion of the cost goes to support this blog!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=chro48-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B007NDL56A" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=chro48-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B005TUQU00" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=chro48-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B004TS1IFK" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com272tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-27227345835551562572012-11-27T20:19:00.000-05:002012-11-27T20:19:18.174-05:00Donate Button Back UpJust a short note to let everyone know that after a number of commenters have requested it, I've put the donate button back up. If you choose to say thanks for ChrUbuntu with your wallet, thank you and know that I'll be using the money towards a Nexus 4 phone :-)
<br />
<br />
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input name="cmd" type="hidden" value="_s-xclick" />
<input name="hosted_button_id" type="hidden" value="BRVGZGHMFDQSC" />
<input alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!" border="0" name="submit" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif" type="image" />
<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" />
</form>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-27835817301727094692012-11-12T14:54:00.000-05:002013-06-01T10:53:30.785-04:00Looking for an Acer C7 ChrUbuntu tester<b>Update:</b> There's a new version of the ChrUbuntu script that offers much more flexibility. Be sure to check out my latest post at <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2013/05/chrubuntu-one-script-to-rule-them-all_31.html">ChrUbuntu: One Script to Rule them All!</a><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #999999;">Google just <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/acer-c7-chromebook.html">announced</a> the <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/acer-c7-chromebook.html">Acer C7 Chromebook</a>. It's an Intel Core processor so I believe the <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2012/04/chrubuntu-1204-now-with-double-bits.html">latest ChrUbuntu instructions</a> should work properly on this newest model but I'm looking for confirmation. A few things to note if you try this:</span><br />
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">Any issues running the script? If there are errors, please report exactly what the error message was.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">The ChrUbuntu script should detect the larger 320gb drive and let you choose more than 5-10gbs of space for ChrUbuntu (something like 5 to 290gb or so would be my guess). If it only prompts for 5-10 or so, send me the output of the command "cgpt show /dev/sda".</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">How do graphics look? It should be an Intel graphics card which Ubuntu 12.04 should have no issues with but I want to confirm.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">I'd be curious to know the output of commands like "dmesg", "lspci -vv" and "lsusb" if anyone gets around to running them.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">How well does the trackpad, sound, webcam, etc work?</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="color: #999999;">If you're get an Acer C7 Chromebook and you're reading this, let us know all about it in the comments!</span><br />
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #999999;"><b>Update:</b> I've already noticed a few possible issues with the current script and I'm working on some updates. Be sure to use the most recent instructions (the goo.gl link will differ) in order to get these changes.</span></div>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com376tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-9471860435078082222012-10-29T18:15:00.001-04:002013-06-01T10:55:37.396-04:00ARM ChrUbuntu 12.04 Alpha 1 Now Available For New Chromebooks!<b>Update #3:</b> There's a new version of the ChrUbuntu script that offers much more flexibility. Be sure to check out my latest post at <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2013/05/chrubuntu-one-script-to-rule-them-all_31.html">ChrUbuntu: One Script to Rule them All!</a><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><b>Update #2:</b> I've updated the script so that module loading works with beta and dev channel Chrome OS kernels. If you were on beta or dev channel and ChrUbuntu booted but you couldn't connect to WiFi/ethernet, try now. Thanks to not-so-lazy commenter "The Lazy Husband" for the pointer and fix. I've also added a possible fix for some people getting out of space errors. The script below now works with external USB Flash and SD Card ChrUbuntu installs.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><b><br /></b>
<b>Update:</b> Instructions for <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2012/12/so-you-want-chrubuntu-on-external-drive.html">installing to an external USB or SD Card</a> are up!</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #666666;">Thanks to those who <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2012/10/chrubuntu-on-arm-based-chromebook-lets.html">donated to the project</a>, I'm excited to announce the first alpha release of ChrUbuntu 12.04 for the new <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009LL9VDG/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B009LL9VDG&linkCode=as2&tag=chro48-20">Google Chromebook with ARM processor</a>! This is an alpha release meaning there's a good bit of stuff that doesn't work yet. Known issues include:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">Sound does not work in my limited testing</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">The touchpad is somewhat finicky to work with</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">Google Chrome does not exist for ARM Linux distributions except the Chromebook itself. You can install Chromium browser from the universe repository.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">Graphics are not accelerated. We need to work on ripping Chrome OS binary drivers or wait until Google open sources the full stack for the new Chromebooks.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">???</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">success!</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="color: #666666;">What works:</span></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">WiFi (no problem connecting to my home WPA2-PSK network)</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">Bluetooth (limited testing)</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">Battery monitor</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">USB / SD Card</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #666666;">Installing ChrUbuntu on a new Chromebook is extremely easy, just follow the steps below.</span></div>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">You need to be in developer mode. Start with your Chromebook off. Hold down the ESC and Refresh keys (2 keys at top left of keyboard on either side of the arrow keys) and then press the power button. You'll boot up to the recovery screen prompting you to perform USB recovery. Now hit CTRL+D on the keyboard and then Enter. You should reboot into recovery mode.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">After entering developer mode, your Chromebook will wipe and then reboot into the out of box (OOB) setup screen. Proceed to configure WiFi but do not login to a Google account. Press CTRL+ALT+=> (=> is the forward arrow where the F2 key would be on a PC). Do not use the normal CTRL+ALT+T method to get a shell. Use the CTRL+ALT+=> method while no one is logged in.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">Login as user chronos, no password is needed.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">As the chronos user, run:<br /><br /><b>wget http://goo.gl/34v87; sudo bash 34v87</b><br /><br />Make sure you have the command exactly right. 34v87 is all lowercase letters and would sound like "three four vee eight seven" if you said it out loud (go ahead, try it!). If you get a "not found" error, make sure you have Internet connectivity.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">You'll be prompted with some information about your Chromebook. Press Enter to continue.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">The Chrome OS stateful partition where your data and settings are stored is just short of 11gb by default, the script shrinks the stateful partition to make room for ChrUbuntu. You can choose to give ChrUbuntu from 5gb up to 10gb in 1gb increments (Note: If you've installed a larger SSD in your Chrome device, your max number and recommended max will be larger). I recommend not going higher than 9 as 10 leaves Chrome OS with very little free space (less than 1gb). Once you've entered a number, your hard drive will be repartitioned. Then the Chromebook reboots, wipes the stateful partition, reboots again and shows you the Welcome screen you got when you first turned on your Chromebook out of the cardboard box.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">Go through the Chrome OS setup process again until you get to the Google login page. You'll need to have a WiFi or Ethernet connection again at this point. Now follow steps 2 through 5 again. This time the script will see that you've already made room for Ubuntu and will start downloading the ChrUbuntu image and copying it to the SSD.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">There are 52 100mb files to be downloaded. Each is compressed so the actual download size ranges from less than 1mb in size to 99mb in size. The total size of all the files is about 1gb compressed and 5gb uncompressed so the download and install will take awhile. The files are named ubuntu-1204-arm.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 <a href="http://code.google.com/p/cr-48-ubuntu/downloads/list">here</a>.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">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 4 and it should resume where it left off.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">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.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">You'll see ChrUbuntu start up! The username is "user" and the password is "user" if you need to make changes.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">Right now, you're in ChrUbuntu but if you reboot, you'll be back in Chrome OS. To make ChrUbuntu the default, run:<br /><br /><b>sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -S 1 /dev/mmcblk0</b><br /><br />(password is "user"). It should be possible to run this from ChrUbuntu or Chrome OS.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #666666;">To make Chrome OS the default again, either turn off Developer Mode (instructions for doing show are shown at bootup), or run:<br /><br /><b>sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 0 -S 1 /dev/</b><b>mmcblk0</b></span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<span style="color: #666666;">Thanks again to all the donors! We'll keep working to make ChrUbuntu a great and fun experiment on Chrome hardware!</span></div>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com327tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-51988555056050772392012-10-24T23:13:00.001-04:002012-10-25T07:25:54.270-04:00First steps<div>
<div dir="ltr">
I've got an Ubuntu rootfs booted. I need to get networking up and running so I can install packages and work towards a graphical desktop. We'll get there!</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNoDMOPASPGxDRrTV1iqj6FIi8lu6i5trhkPCkEnN_fXuIX1LNPZvAZzQYE85VXNagdERSiSkLMD2aC_ugXdpdxPOuao5bmd1_CtHzW3f9_Pa0iDTaIhFoQ8OoDq-yjd5pwkaODuCvnEJj/s1600/IMG_20121024_231110.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNoDMOPASPGxDRrTV1iqj6FIi8lu6i5trhkPCkEnN_fXuIX1LNPZvAZzQYE85VXNagdERSiSkLMD2aC_ugXdpdxPOuao5bmd1_CtHzW3f9_Pa0iDTaIhFoQ8OoDq-yjd5pwkaODuCvnEJj/s320/IMG_20121024_231110.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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</div>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-53205666065162339612012-10-19T10:32:00.000-04:002012-10-22T05:36:51.562-04:00ChrUbuntu on the ARM-based Chromebook: Let's Do This!<b>Update:</b> We made it! Thanks to all who donated!<br />
<br />
By now, you've probably seen that Google has announced a <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/landing.html">new $249 Chromebook</a> and if you're reading this blog, no doubt you also know that unlike other Chromebooks, this one is based off of <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/samsung-chromebook.html#specs">an ARM processor</a>. That means these Chromebooks definitely will not work out of box with <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2012/04/chrubuntu-1204-now-with-double-bits.html">my ChrUbuntu 12.04 instructions</a> which assume an x86 Intel processor.<br />
<br />
However, I'm fairly confident that Ubuntu will run on these ARM based Chromebooks with a tad bit of work and some <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/109993695638569781190/posts/3EoeZU8QnNG">Google employees seem to agree with me</a>. I can't really justify purchasing a new Chromebook since at last count, we have 5 Chrome OS devices in the house but I do want to see ChrUbuntu running on these units also. So I'm starting a ChrUbuntu on ARM-based Chromebooks campaign. Here's how it works:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>You donate an amount of your choosing to the campaign. Donations are accepted via PayPal so they're simple and secure. I'll keep this blog post updated with the total amount donated so far.</li>
<li>If the donation fund doesn't reach $250 by November 19th (1 month from now), I'll refund all donors via PayPal.</li>
<li>If the donation fund reaches $250, I purchase an ARM-based Chromebook and get to work on ChrUbuntu for ARM-based Chromebooks.</li>
<li>I will do my very best to get ChrUbuntu running on the new Chromebook. If I'm successful, full details and scripts will be posted to this blog as has been the case for ChrUbuntu on the Cr-48, Samsung Series 5, etc. I'll keep the unit in order to maintain ChrUbuntu for ARM-based Chromebooks.</li>
<li>If I fail to get ChrUbuntu for ARM-Chromebooks working by Jan. 1, 2013, I'll donate the unit to someone in need of my choosing (think along the lines of broke college student who has no computer).</li>
</ol>
<div>
If you're still reading, you can donate to the campaign here (goal reached, link removed, please stop giving me money).</div>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-76328010867003927472012-10-11T22:35:00.002-04:002012-10-12T15:05:32.438-04:00How to run Chrome OS (not Chromium OS) on a Virtual MachineAs part of my job, I often want to be able to demo Chrome OS to clients so that they can see how simple it is or to show them a concept such as enterprise enrollment. However, since Chromebooks aren't compatible with common screen-sharing applications like GoToMeeting.com or WebEx, it's not possible. Google+ Hangouts do work on Chrome OS but you have to have a user logged into the Chromebook, no demoing the login screen or enrollment process.<br />
<br />
So I set out to find a way to run Chrome OS (the official code) on a virtual machine. Even before Chromebook hardware was available, Chromium OS, the open source base for Chrome OS has been able to run on virtual machines (see <a href="http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/" target="_blank">Hexxeh's nice nightly builds</a>) but I didn't want to deal with the rabbit trail of Chromium OS vs. Chrome OS when presenting to clients, I wanted them to see exactly what they'd see on a Chromebook. So with a little scripting, I've managed to get Chrome OS running on VMWare workstation (should work on VMWare Player and Fusion also though I haven't tested). Here are the instructions:<br />
<br />
<b>Disclaimer:</b> None of this is official or supported. I'm not responsible if Chrome or Chromium OS breaks your physical or virtual machine, destroys your data or re-elects Obama. The risk is entirely your own.<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Download <a href="http://cr-48-ubuntu.googlecode.com/files/cros-vm.tar.bz2" target="_blank">this VMWare image</a>. It's an unofficial, 200mb Chromium OS image. We'll use it as the base image, overwriting the Chromium OS filesystem and kernel with Chrome OS. The image is .tar.bz2 compressed. Windows users may need to download <a href="http://www.7-zip.org/" target="_blank">7-Zip</a> to decompress.</li>
<li>Once decompressed, open the .vmx file in VMWare and boot the machine. You'll see Chromium OS boot up. Your VM should have Ethernet setup so the image automatically has Internet connectivity, no need to run through setup since we'll be blowing things away shortly.</li>
<li>Press CTRL+ALT+spacebar. Release the spacebar but hold CTRL+ALT down and press F2. This switches us to the virtual console on Chromium OS (the spacebar is needed to make sure the VMWare guest and not the host OS pick up the CTRL+ALT key combo).</li>
<li><b>Login as user chronos password chronos. </b>We'll want Chrome OS to start with a fresh stateful partition as soon as we first boot it so run:<br /><br /><b>sudo <b>touch /mnt/stateful_partition/.developer_mode</b> </b>(password is chronos again)<br /><br /><br />this tells Chrome OS that the system has been in developer mode and should be wiped when it next boots up. Since we're running on a VM, there's really no such thing as a developer switch like there is on a real Chrome OS device but Chrome OS assumes it's not in developer mode so it does the wipe for us.</li>
<li>Now we're ready to download Chrome OS and overwrite Chromium OS. This step is pretty easy. Just run:<br /><br /><b>wget http://goo.gl/4suhf; sudo bash 4suhf</b><br /><br />this will download a script and run it. The script takes care of downloading Chrome OS and overwriting your VM with it. You'll be able to choose which specific Chrome OS image you wish to use. All of the models I've tested have worked but if you're low on VM resources (RAM, CPU) then I suggest using Mario. If you want a 64-bit VM, use the Samsung 550 or Series 3 image.<br /><br />When the script finishes, you'll be back at the command prompt but attempting to run any commands will crash. This is because you're still booted into Chromium OS but you've overwritten your VM disk with Chrome OS. Just manually reboot the VM with the reset button. Your stateful will quickly be wiped and you'll see Chrome OS boot with that official logo!</li>
</ol>
<div>
<b>Gotchas</b></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Auto-updates don't work. You'll need to rerun the script in Step 5 to update. Sometimes the recovery image version lags behind the current stable version of Chrome OS.</li>
<li>Enterprise enrollment won't work out of box but it can be made to work. Hit CTRL+space then F2 (let go of space, hit F2 while holding CTRL the entire time). Run:<br /><br />sudo su -<br />echo 'serial_number="1234567890"' > /tmp/machine-info<br />restart ui<br /><br />replace 1234567890 with whatever serial you prefer. Then follow the normal CTRL+ALT+E method to enroll. If you have devices already listed in your CPanel you can choose one that's not been enrolled yet, use it's serial and be able to demo auto-enrollment.</li>
<li>For some reason I can't figure out, Chrome OS always want's to display at 1280x800 but VMWare only shows 1280x720 cutting off the bottom 80 pixels. It's something to do with the VESA BIOS on VMWare I believe (and the fact that Chrome OS expects an Intel graphics card that's not there on the VM). It's annoying that the bottom part of the screen where the clock, menu, etc are is missing. You can however use CTRL+Windows Key to pull up the menu of apps. If anyone finds a workaround to fix this, I'd love to know it. <b>Update: </b>turning the VM off and setting the monitor to 1024x768 forced in VM settings lets you see the menu bar. I couldn't bump the resolution higher than 1024x768 without cutting off the bottom.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Good luck and post in the comments how Chrome OS works in a VM for you!</div>
</div>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com106tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-10579945115902820112012-09-07T08:16:00.000-04:002012-09-07T09:30:37.951-04:00How the Chromebox and Series 5 550 Got Their Codenames<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxWySqG-WWVWRoJ_uHd8KdnnmvHooUoiVciYDa0AnOGv0u-mHiA16EArO1C7DrGC42Bba5v3mQuF0p9Mgo_hjNkRVOQCRA48bRBuNyYEr4fego9im7XYNuTyicQm31ew5rnmKlsK-Lpo1b/s1600/screenshot-20120907-062858.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxWySqG-WWVWRoJ_uHd8KdnnmvHooUoiVciYDa0AnOGv0u-mHiA16EArO1C7DrGC42Bba5v3mQuF0p9Mgo_hjNkRVOQCRA48bRBuNyYEr4fego9im7XYNuTyicQm31ew5rnmKlsK-Lpo1b/s320/screenshot-20120907-062858.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="https://profiles.google.com/116132849288851300235/about" target="_blank">Bill Richardson</a> is a Google engineer working on Chrome OS and the guy who originally put <a href="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" target="_blank">Ubuntu on Chromebooks</a> (I just automated his work with a script and hosted image). He recently <a href="https://groups.google.com/d/msg/chromebook-central/y8d5jVkJ3F4/Rpg7RZtASAcJ" target="_blank">shared</a> some really cool insight into how Chrome OS devices got their nicknames. For reference, the Samsung Series 3 Chromebox is know to engineers as Stumpy and the Series 5 550, Lumpy:<br />
<br />
<i>That name has a little history. Our cubicles have name plates on them. As a joke, someone added nameplates to the hardware lab door with the names of the seven dwarves from Snow White. A couple of us were trying to remember all the names without looking, when the chief hardware guy stopped by to talk about the new desktop form-factor chromebook. He wanted to pick a clever project name, and since it was short and squat and we had similar-sounding names on our minds, I suggested Stumpy. He liked it, so it stuck. Then we wanted the laptop version to sound similar, and to keep them straight we started it with 'L' for "Laptop", which gave us Lumpy.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Some folks had a similar reaction to yours, but the thing to remember is that many engineers still have a childlike "playing with toys" enthusiasm. In our techno-geek culture, giving a silly or fun project name to something is an indication that we like it.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>After the fallout from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Macintosh_7100#Codename_Lawsuit" target="_blank">Apple's BHA project</a> </i>[link added by me]<i> in the mid-90's, a lot of big companies stopped letting the engineers pick the names, which I think takes a lot of fun out of it.</i><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I'm not sure why but the idea of a bunch of Google engineers sitting around trying to name off the seven dwarfs makes me laugh. </div>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-64386210659188562342012-08-27T21:37:00.000-04:002012-08-27T21:37:01.610-04:00Update: ChrUbuntu 12.04 now works on Cr-48 and Samsung Series 5!I'm happy to announce that I finally found the time to get ChrUbuntu 12.04 working on the original Cr-48 and Samsung Series 5. I achieved this by custom compiling 64-bit Chromium OS kernels for both devices. The instructions in the <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2012/04/chrubuntu-1204-now-with-double-bits.html" target="_blank">ChrUbuntu 12.04 blog post</a> have been updated to point to the new script. A few things about this new version of the script:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The script now works on the 1st generation Cr-48 and Samsung Series 5 Chromebooks. A custom 64-bit kernel is used for Ubuntu. Newer Chromebooks will use the official 64-bit Chrome OS kernel found on the device at script execution time.</li>
<li>I don't have an Acer Chromebook to test with and there's <a href="http://crosbug.com/33940" target="_blank">no public overlay to compile for the Acer (ZFB) device</a>. For now, these boards will use the Cr-48 kernel. If an Acer user tries this script, please report your results back here! I'm particular interested to know if the trackpad and audio work properly.</li>
<li>The script now detects the size of your hard drive and dynamically adjusts the maximum size you can select for the Ubuntu partition. Hardware modders rejoice!</li>
</ul>
<div>
If you're an original Cr-48 or Samsung Series 5 owner and are looking for a way to say thanks, consider upgrading or getting a family member a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007Y8DJAO/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007Y8DJAO&linkCode=as2&tag=chro48-20" target="_blank">Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook</a> or a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007Y8DJEA/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007Y8DJEA&linkCode=as2&tag=chro48-20" target="_blank">Samsung Series 3 Chromebox</a> using these links. The price is the same but a portion of the cost goes to support this blog!</div>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-91280985771897682612012-07-21T09:08:00.000-04:002012-07-21T09:08:01.858-04:00Coming Soon to Chrome OS: Auto 2-Step Verification via Bluetooth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtkL0XEtrUuX53068JDlRWY919GLTdr2q6PBjfbqpFNxbqPvCse92f0Q_L7_lqDpNr9gmpdJlTDAtp_LEpnf7TOoPfR-96vONJ1NwEC5he8VUMz2YEv8rIwntbsNx6Bezsu77HZ3RDvH1F/s1600/2012+-+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtkL0XEtrUuX53068JDlRWY919GLTdr2q6PBjfbqpFNxbqPvCse92f0Q_L7_lqDpNr9gmpdJlTDAtp_LEpnf7TOoPfR-96vONJ1NwEC5he8VUMz2YEv8rIwntbsNx6Bezsu77HZ3RDvH1F/s320/2012+-+1.png" width="220" /></a></div>
Google's <a href="http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=175197">2-Step Verification</a> is one of the coolest security features I've ever used and it's free. But it's not cool when I'm in my comfy chair at the end of the day and my phone with the authentication code is on the other side of the room charging. It seems Google is looking to solve this major inconvenience to my life by adding Bluetooth support to the Android Google Authenticator app and to <a href="http://crbug.com/97502">Chrome</a> and <a href="http://crosbug.com/3697">Chrome OS</a> also.<br />
<br />
As usual, it seems Google is dog-food testing OTP remote access on their own employees. Hopefully that means we'll see this feature launch soon. The Chrome OS-specific code is currently getting punted to later and later releases (now at R23 which probably translates to this fall).Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-43254426808357549452012-05-30T06:02:00.002-04:002012-07-10T11:38:31.621-04:00Looking for 2nd Gen Chromebook / Chromebox owners to try Ubuntu install<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/assets/common/images/content/chromebox-overview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/assets/common/images/content/chromebox-overview.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>Update:</b> ChrUbuntu works on both the Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook and the Samsung Series 3 Chromebox (i5 and Celeron versions). Thanks for all the reports! FYI, I also got a i5 Chromebox at I/O myself and it's crazy how fast it is!<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Y8DJ22/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=chro48-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B007Y8DJ22&adid=0H7BME87M3G1WESZXX7T&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Frcm.amazon.com%2Fe%2Fcm%3Flt1%3D_blank%26bc1%3D000000%26IS2%3D1%26bg1%3DFFFFFF%26fc1%3D000000%26lc1%3D0000FF%26t%3Dchro48-20%26o%3D1%26p%3D8%26l%3Das4%26m%3Damazon%26f%3Difr%26ref%3Dss_til%26asins%3DB007Y8DJ22">2nd Generation Samsung Chromebook</a> and the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Y8DJEA/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=chro48-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B007Y8DJEA&adid=01YH8DF17H32X8074N71&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fchromeos-cr48.blogspot.co.uk%2F">1st Chromebox</a> are out! I'm looking for testers to try installing Ubuntu via the script on both of these devices. In theory, it should work but I can't say for certain. Worst case scenario, a USB recovery may be necessary.<br />
<br />
It's not clear if these new devices will ship with a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Chrome OS since Chrome OS 19 and 20 were 64-bit but seem to have reverted to 32-bit in later releases. If the 12.04 install process errors out with "you need to be running a 64-bit version..." then try the 11.04 install process if you could.<br />
<br />
If you try the install, let us know how it goes in the comments! In other news, I'm aware the 64-bit Ubuntu 12.04 installer won't work on Chromebooks any longer since Google reverted to 32-bit builds. I'll see if I can get a 32-bit release out soon.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-53774386944499245582012-04-28T09:01:00.002-04:002013-06-01T10:56:38.660-04:00ChrUbuntu 12.04. Now with double the bits!<b>Update #4:</b> There's a new version of the ChrUbuntu script that offers much more flexibility. Be sure to check out my latest post at <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2013/05/chrubuntu-one-script-to-rule-them-all_31.html">ChrUbuntu: One Script to Rule them All!</a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="color: #999999;"><b>Update #3:</b> I've updated the script so that module loading works with beta and dev channel Chrome OS kernels. If you were on beta or dev channel and ChrUbuntu booted but you couldn't connect to WiFi/ethernet, try now. Thanks to not-so-lazy commenter "The Lazy Husband" for the pointer and fix. I've also added a possible fix for some people getting out of space errors. The script below now works with external USB Flash and SD Card ChrUbuntu installs.</span><br />
<span style="color: #999999;"><b><br /></b>
<b>Update #2:</b> Instructions for <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2012/12/so-you-want-chrubuntu-on-external-drive.html">installing to an external USB or SD Card</a> are up!</span><br />
<div>
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #999999;"><b>Update:</b> The script now works on older Cr-48 and Samsung Series 5 Chromebooks. For details, see this <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2012/08/update-chrubuntu-1204-now-works-on-cr.html" target="_blank">blog post</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #999999;">I'm excited to announce the release of ChrUbuntu 12.04! ChrUbuntu is a clean install of Ubuntu 12.04, the latest Long Term Service release customized to run on Chromebooks. This is the first Ubuntu for Chromebooks that is 64-bit which means it will be twice as fast! Okay, maybe not but it'll at least be compatible with the new Chromebook and Chromebox :-) Also with this release, Chromebook features like 2-finger scrolling and audio and brightness controls work out of box.</span><br />
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #999999;">Installing ChrUbuntu is extremely easy, just follow the steps below. Want to say thank you for ChrUbuntu? Feel free to do so in the comments below or show your support by visiting the advertisements on this blog. If you purchase a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0067U9W7Y/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=chro48-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B0067U9W7Y&adid=1GN6R0XY1N0K4CA9YFZ6&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fchromeos-cr48.blogspot.com%2F">Chromebook</a> or any other Amazon items using the links on the right, I get a small portion of the cost :-)</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">To get started, make sure your Chromebook is in developer mode and has a developer BIOS installed. See Google's instructions for the <a href="http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/cr-48-chrome-notebook-developer-information" target="_blank">Cr-48</a>, <a href="http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/samsung-series-5-chromebook" target="_blank">Samsung Series 5</a>, the <a href="http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/acer-ac700-chromebook" target="_blank">Acer AC700</a>, or the 2nd generation <a href="http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/samsung-sandy-bridge#TOC-Entering-Developer-Mode" target="_blank">Samsung Series 5 550 and Chromebox Series 3</a> depending on your model. Samsung and Acer owners should pay special attention to the Developer BIOS instructions.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">Reboot your Chromebook but <u>do not login</u>. Make sure you have a WiFi or <a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/2011/11/quick-review-5-agiler-usb-ethernet.html" target="_blank">Ethernet</a> connection at this point. 3G is not recommended. Press CTRL+ALT+=> (=> is the forward arrow where the F2 key would be on a PC). Do not use the normal CTRL+ALT+T method to get a shell. Use the CTRL+ALT+=> method while no one is logged in.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">Login as user chronos, no password is needed.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">As the chronos user, run:<br /><br /><b>wget http://goo.gl/tnyga; sudo bash tnyga</b><br /><br />Make sure you have the command exactly right. tnyga is all lowercase letters and would sound like "tee in why gee aye" if you said it out loud (go ahead, try it!). If you get a "not found" error, make sure you have Internet connectivity.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">You'll be prompted with some information about your Chromebook. You may need to run an additional command to install a developer BIOS on your Chromebook or, if you have a 1st generation Chromebook, you might be notified that a special non-official kernel will be used to allow 64-bit Ubuntu to run on your hardware. Press Enter to continue.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">The Chrome OS stateful partition where your data and settings are stored is just short of 11gb by default, the script shrinks the stateful partition to make room for ChrUbuntu. You can choose to give ChrUbuntu from 5gb up to 10gb in 1gb increments (Note: If you've installed a larger SSD in your Chrome device, your max number and recommended max will be larger). I recommend not going higher than 9 as 10 leaves Chrome OS with very little free space (less than 1gb). Once you've entered a number, your hard drive will be repartitioned. It may look like the Chromebook is doing nothing for 10-15 minutes but let it be, after awhile it will reboot and re-initialize the stateful partition. This process takes about 5 minutes and then the Chromebook reboots again and shows you the Welcome screen you got when you first turned on your Chromebook out of the cardboard box.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">Go through the Chrome OS setup process again 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 3 through 5 again. This time the script will see that you've already made room for Ubuntu and will start downloading the ChrUbuntu image and copying it to the SSD.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">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 1gb compressed and 5gb uncompressed so the download and install will take awhile. The files are named ubuntu-1204.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 <a href="http://code.google.com/p/cr-48-ubuntu/downloads/list">here</a>.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">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 8 and it should resume where it left off.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">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.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">You'll see ChrUbuntu start up! The username is "user" and the password is "user" if you need to make changes.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">Right now, you're in ChrUbuntu but if you reboot, you'll be back in Chrome OS. To make ChrUbuntu the default, run:<br /><br /><b>sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -S 1 /dev/sda</b><br /><br />(password is "user"). It should be possible to run this from ChrUbuntu or Chrome OS.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #999999;">To make Chrome OS the default again, either turn off Developer Mode, or run:<br /><br /><b>sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 0 -S 1 /dev/sda</b></span></li>
</ol>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com312tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-82300678230470760032012-02-18T19:23:00.001-05:002012-04-26T11:20:53.105-04:00Quickest automated way to continuously check for updatesCommentor Germaine told us about a fast way to check for the latest updates without needing to be in dev mode:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Go to chrome://settings/about in the browser</li>
<li>Press CTRL+SHIFT+J on the keyboard</li>
<li>Paste in setInterval(function(){chrome. send('CheckNow');},5000)</li>
<li>Press enter. Watch as Chrome checks for updates itself every 5 seconds</li>
</ul>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-74049553303667492142012-01-10T13:38:00.004-05:002012-01-10T13:42:18.543-05:00Acer AC700 Beta Channel Update: 1412.64.0Beta Channel for the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00507ALBG/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=chro48-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00507ALBG">Acer AC700</a> has been updated to version 1412.64.0. The Chrome browser version is 17.0.963.27.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-46164996309076692562012-01-10T13:38:00.003-05:002012-01-10T13:42:26.036-05:00Samsung Series 5 Beta Channel Update: 1412.64.0Beta Channel for the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0067U9W7Y/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=chro48-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0067U9W7Y">Samsung Series 5</a> has been updated to version 1412.64.0. The Chrome browser version is 17.0.963.27.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-19277774370335318922012-01-10T13:38:00.001-05:002012-01-10T13:38:47.374-05:00CR-48 Beta Channel Update: 1412.64.0Beta Channel for the CR-48 has been updated to version 1412.64.0. The <br>Chrome browser version is 17.0.963.27.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-48177971382205159322012-01-06T12:50:00.003-05:002012-01-07T18:00:53.242-05:00Acer AC700 Stable Channel Update: 1193.158.0Stable Channel for the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00507ALBG/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=chro48-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00507ALBG">Acer AC700</a> has been updated to version 1193.158.0. <br />
The Chrome browser version is 16.0.912.75.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-75324140914522444192012-01-06T12:50:00.001-05:002012-01-07T17:59:10.448-05:00Samsung Series 5 Stable Channel Update: 1193.158.0Stable Channel for the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0067U9VUC/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=chro48-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0067U9VUC">Samsung Series 5</a> has been updated to version <br />
1193.158.0. The Chrome browser version is 16.0.912.75.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-2194124613838369042012-01-06T12:39:00.000-05:002012-01-06T12:40:00.239-05:00CR-48 Stable Channel Update: 1193.158.0Stable Channel for the CR-48 has been updated to version 1193.158.0. The <br>Chrome browser version is 16.0.912.75.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-73847608626855348422012-01-05T03:00:00.005-05:002012-01-07T18:01:11.193-05:00Acer AC700 Dev Channel Update: 1412.64.0Dev Channel for the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00507ALBG/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=chro48-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00507ALBG">Acer AC700</a> has been updated to version 1412.64.0. The <br />
Chrome browser version is 17.0.963.27.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1849709720667465506.post-86721344400209239532012-01-05T03:00:00.003-05:002012-01-05T03:00:48.784-05:00Samsung Series 5 Dev Channel Update: 1412.64.0Dev Channel for the Samsung Series 5 has been updated to version 1412.64.0. <br>The Chrome browser version is 17.0.963.27.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00619758583418639317noreply@blogger.com0