Revive your old computer, with Chromium OS

Do you only need your computer to browse the web? Then Chromium OS might be for you.

Chromium OS is a lightweight and fast operating system focused entirely on the web and basically is a web-browser. Chromium OS is the open source version of the operating system found in Chromebooks, Chrome OS.

How to get it

You need to get Chromium OS bootable from a USB-stick. You will need to download a ISO-file for this and burn it to a 4 GB or bigger USB-memory stick.

Arnold the bat makes Chromium OS builds and is very active in releasing new versions.

WiFi supported version: If you are dependable on a wireless network card. This version is from the end of 2013:
http://chromium.arnoldthebat.co.uk/special/Cx86OS_R33-5111_broadcom.7z

Latest version, but might not work with your wireless network card:
http://chromium.arnoldthebat.co.uk/index.php?dir=daily%2F Take the x86 version if you are unsure which to choose.

Now you need to burn your ISO- file to an USB-memory stick. Just Google how to do this. For example, in Windows you can use Win32 image burner: http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

Start Chromium OS

You need to boot (start) your computer from the USB-memory stick that you just put Chromium OS on. You can Google how to do this. Insert the USB-memory stick into the computer and start. You should now repeatedly press F12 (key may vary depending on model) until a menu with start options appear. Choose the USB-memory stick and press Enter. Chromium OS should now start.

If Chromium OS doesn't start but instead halt with a error message try this:
Press Esc repeatedly after choosing USB-memory stick in the start option menu. "aborted. boot:" will now be shown on the screen. Press Tab and then type this command:

chromeos-usb.A root=/dev/sdc3

Still wont work? Try changing the c in sdc3 to b,d, etc:

chromeos-usb.A root=/dev/sdb3  

Install Chromium OS to your harddrive

This is optional. You can continue to run Chromium OS from your USB-memory stick if you want. When installing Chromium OS to your harddrive all data (files) will be lost! Make sure you have made a backup of your files before doing this.

Press Ctrl + Alt + F2 to get to command line (Ctrl + Alt + F1 to get back). Login as chronos with the password "password". Type this command to install: 

sudo /usr/sbin/chromeos-install

If this doesn't work you can go head and copy the whole USB-installation to your harddrive. You may for example get an error message like "Source does not look like a removable device".

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

Get WiFi to work on the broadcom version

Make sure you are logged in to Chromium OS. To do this and to access the Internet you have to connect your computer to a Internetconnected ethernetcable. Download this sh-file: http://www.speedyshare.com/JsXqS/broadcom.sh (from the link on the website). Now go to the command line and log in as mentioned above. Type these commands:

sudo su

mount -o remount, rw /

cd /home/chronos/user/Downloads

sh broadcom.sh

Install plugins (Flash, Hangouts, PDF, Netflix, MP3, MP4)

Make sure you are logged in to Chromium OS. Then right click on the link below and click on save link/target as.
https://gist.github.com/rikels/4031126/raw/a76eb212f9dbc3c59b0799020ff0be16906fd889/data.sh

Now go to the command line and login as mentioned above. Type these commands: 

sudo su

cd /home/chronos/user/Downloads

sh data.sh

To check if the plugins installed successfully go to chrome://plugins/. I haven't got Netflix to work. If you have found a way please let us know.

Get the touchpad to work
If the touchpad isn't working for you have a go with these commands:

sudo su

wget -qO- http://goo.gl/1VWycc | sh

Upgrade to Chrome OS

If you don't mind the WiFi and instead go with Ethernet then this might be for you. Note that all data will be lost. Type these commands:

sudo su

bash <(curl -s -L http://goo.gl/eIAcL5)

Now choose a version number to upgrade. The upgrade is fast and you can try different versions to find one that works for you.

Sources

http://arnoldthebat.co.uk/
https://gist.githubusercontent.com/rikels/4031126/raw/a76eb212f9dbc3c59b0799020ff0be16906fd889/data.sh%20
https://github.com/zhaostu/chromium-os-touchpad
http://zzsethzz.blogspot.se/2013/02/install-chromium-upgrade-it-to-chrome.html