Install Chromium OS to SECOND internal drive on EEE 901?

I am trying to install the Chromium OS on an EEE PC 901, and I have succeeded in using Image Writer for Windows 0.2r23 to copy the IMG file to an SDHC card.

Since the OS speed is limited by slow card access, I'd like to install the Chromium OS on the second, unused, internal SSD Drive, D:.

However, Image Writer doesn't allow me to restore an internal drive from an IMG file.

To be clear: I boot in XP on C: then run Image Writer to install the Chromium OS.

Does anyone know how I can either convince Image Writer that D: is a removable drive or know of alternative program that will let me restore D: from an IMG file (non-windows file system)?

Andrew Swift

Posted 2009-12-05T14:22:42.947

Reputation: 1 031

user jeppe comments: "I have a question that came to me when reading this.. does it have to be a SSD drive? or can i install to a regular HDD? I have the Acer aspire one netbook" (2010-03-15). Andrew Swift replies: "It should work exactly the same way for a regular HDD. Can you confirm here?" (2010-03-16). – quack quixote – 2010-04-16T10:47:58.107

user TutorialPoint comments: "If you only want to try a beta version of a netbook OS; just use virtualization software; free stuff like Sun's VirtualBox, i would recommand." (2009-12-05) – quack quixote – 2010-04-16T10:50:17.493

Answers

I was able to copy the OS to the second internal hard drive by:

Log into the USB version
Press Control-Alt-T to get a terminal window
Type the following and follow the prompts
```
/usr/sbin/chromeos-install /dev/sdb
```
Reboot from the second internal SSD (holding down escape).

Note: choosing sda instead of sdb (or leaving out the /dev/sdb) will install the OS to the first internal drive.

Andrew Swift

Posted 2009-12-05T14:22:42.947

Reputation: 1 031

I came across a similar problem. My solution was to use a bootable Ubuntu usb drive. I booted the Linux distro and ran the img writer from there.

kzh

Posted 2009-12-05T14:22:42.947

Reputation: 3 213

Andrew, I'm trying to do exactly the same thing on my 901, have a Runcore 32GB drive with my windows partition on and, after succesfully running the cherry version of the Hexxeh Chrome OS Cherry Build (http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/) on a usb stick and installing it over the windows image, I'm struggling to get it onto the 4GB internal SSD.

Image Writer won't write to it.

Acronis clones the disk but can't make it bootable and due to the small size on the 901, I can't read the full instructions it gives on how to go about doing this afterwards!

Chromium itself always picks the Runcore SSD, whatever Bios setting I try and use to hide that drive.

I read that LinuxLive USB Creator 2.2 can be used to write a drive image to an internal drive if run from the command line and the --force option used. However I lost the page I was reading with the info on whilst trying to track down the program to download!!!

I'll re-post if I find a way and likewise, if you sort it out, please let me know what method was successful!

user20647

Posted 2009-12-05T14:22:42.947

Reputation:

Still trying with no success, however I have found the fedora live usb writing tool here:

https://fedorahosted.org/releases/l/i/liveusb-creator/

then supposedly if you rename the .img to .iso and run the live usb program from the command prompt, navigating to the program folder and typing:

liveusb-creator --force F:

Where F: is your internal SD drive letter, it'll then open the live usb program and allow you to write to that drive letter. It then errors out unfortunately when trying to unzip the .iso and create the image on the drive.

Any further ideas?

– None – 2009-12-08T22:00:53.060

Still no better way to do it than in my proposed answer. My main concern is that to have XP and Chromium, I have to use the furnished restore CD that will only install to C:. So, I'd like to get Chromium on D:. Still looking... – Andrew Swift – 2009-12-09T11:32:29.490