ChromeOS Flow by Hexxeh Install to HDD

I finally decided to pull out the netbook again and check out the ChromeOS release of Flow by Hexxeh. I got the image downloaded, untar'd and imaged to the thumbdrive. Now comes the part when I want to actually install it to the solid-state disk in my Asus EeePC, right? Well, online sources said to just run /usr/sbin/chromeos-install and it would be taken care of. It kept erroring with "Attempt to install to a removable device: /dev/sda". Of course, this is my thumbdrive so that would make sense. Since it took me some digging to figure this one out, I thought I'd throw up the solution here to make it a little more visible on the Interwebs.

Instead, run this command:
/usr/sbin/chromeos-install /dev/sdb

This should work if your internal device is at least 8gb. Unfortunately for me, mine is 4gb and my source media is 2gb. Instead, I ended up just copying the entire live image from my thumbdrive to the hard drive. Whatever works, right?

Run this command instead of the above:
dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb conv=notrunc

The version of Flow that I downloaded today seems to be a little bit outdated and I'm not a fan of the startup and login screens. I'll most likely be playing with the Vanilla builds directly from Google soon when hell week and finals are over.

Comments

  1. AdamMay 28, 2011 at 9:59 PM

    I think I probably found this info slogging through the same sites you did. I came across your post in trying to find a solution to my next problem. Your first step above (adding /dev/sdb after the install command) got me through the installation process to the reboot instruction. Then I got nothing. Black screen. Won't let me try installation again; not recognizing my removable device. Ideas?

    ReplyDelete
  2. LikeableBiasMay 29, 2011 at 4:33 AM

    Do you mean that you've tried booting from the HDD after completing the install process and rebooting? This is where the black screen occurs? Once you complete the installation, you shouldn't need the removable device any longer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AdamMay 29, 2011 at 2:32 PM

    Right. Installation finishes, shutdown computer, pull flash drive, restart computer, black screen of sadness. When I put the flash drive in again flow pops right back up; tried to go through the installation process again, but now terminal is telling me "Error: Source does not look like a removable device: sdb" (without the quotes). Any thoughts?

    ReplyDelete
  4. LikeableBiasMay 30, 2011 at 5:22 PM

    After rebooting, you're setting it to boot from HDD rather than removable device correct? If you're still having trouble with it, I would suggest re-imaging the flash drive and just dd'ing the drive to the HDD itself using the command I posted. I've had a lot more luck with this than the install process, which seems to still be a little flawed during the beta stages.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Trey B.August 15, 2011 at 1:05 PM

    This post did the trick! I've been trying to find these commands, and finally, I found them! Thanks for posting them, it's helped me get a little farther in my geekdom.

    ReplyDelete
  6. JamesSeptember 29, 2011 at 3:21 PM

    I get permission denied. Any suggestions?

    ReplyDelete
  7. LikeableBiasSeptember 30, 2011 at 12:53 PM

    If you're not logged in as root, then add "sudo" (without quotes) to the front of the command to run the line as a super user.

    sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb conv=notrunc

    ReplyDelete
  8. ChadFebruary 5, 2012 at 9:08 AM

    When I try this it says "No medium found"

    What do I do?

    ReplyDelete
  9. LikeableBiasFebruary 7, 2012 at 12:14 AM

    Sounds like you're trying to write to a device that doesn't exist. Have you tried a device listing to find the correct device path for your USB drive?

    ReplyDelete

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