[How To] Install and Run Chromium OS onto a USB Flash Drive - Ubuntu/Linux Mint

In this tutorial, we will see how to install and run ChromiumOS onto a USB storage device using the OS image created by Hexxeh. The ChromiumOS image will be installed in a 4GB USB stick or higher in persistent mode. You can use the commands given below under Ubuntu/Linux Mint (12.10/12.04/Mint 14/13, etc.) and any other Linux-based system.

Getting Started

Open the terminal and download the ChromiumOS image to your home folder (precisely in the ChromiumOS folder) with these commands:

mkdir ~/ChromiumOS; cd ~/ChromiumOS 

wget -c http://goo.gl/ICSpt -O ChromeOS-Vanilla-3274.0.zip 

unzip ChromeOS*.zip 

mv ChromeOS*.img ChromeOS.img

Let's now identify the USB device by running this command:

fdisk -l

For my system, the USB flash drive is mounted as /dev/sdb1. Unmount the USB device with this command:

sudo umount /dev/sdb1

Note: Replace /dev/sdb1 with your own USB device name.

To create a bootable USB device using the Chrome OS image, run this command (all data in your usb device will be deleted):

sudo dd if=ChromeOS.img of=/dev/sdb1 bs=4M

or

sudo dd if=ChromeOS.img of=/dev/sdb1 oflag=direct

After you finish, boot from the Chromium OS USB flash drive. You can also use the Plop boot loader which allows to boot from USB storage devices. If you fail to create a bootable USB stick, you can download and use the ChromiumOS VM for VirtualBox from here.

Here are some screenshots of ChromiumOS: