Update: 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 ChrUbuntu 12.04 blog post have been updated to point to the new script. A few things about this new version of the script:

• 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.
• I don't have an Acer Chromebook to test with and there's no public overlay to compile for the Acer (ZFB) device. 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.
• 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!

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 Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook or a Samsung Series 3 Chromebox using these links. The price is the same but a portion of the cost goes to support this blog!

Coming Soon to Chrome OS: Auto 2-Step Verification via Bluetooth

Google's 2-Step Verification 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 Chrome and Chrome OS also.

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).

Looking for 2nd Gen Chromebook / Chromebox owners to try Ubuntu install

Update: 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!

The 2nd Generation Samsung Chromebook and the 1st Chromebox 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.

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.

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.