HOWTO run Chromium OS on a Dell Mini 9 with wifi

chrome-icon-200x200UPDATE: I’m now running the latest build of Hexxeh’s Chrome OS named Flow – and everything just works out of the box.  The release is much improved, and it’s getting very close to being the perfect day-to-day netbook OS as far as I’m concerned.  Great work!

While I still really dig my Dell Mini 9, even with 2Gig of RAM it feels kinda sluggish when I have my normal 50 tabs open, and I’ve always known someone could do better (since I’m too lazy to recompile a kernel for it like I would have in the past).  With all the focus on netbooks it was bound to be addressed, and while Android looks promising, it’s currently still more of a phone OS than something you’d be able to use on your netbook.  I’ve run it off a USB drive on the Mini 9 just to check it out, it was cool, but again, not really usable enough for a ‘top – maybe that’s not the target. Another I want to check is Moblin, Intel’s effort using Ubuntu as a base, but I haven’t seen a Mini 9 HOWTO (maybe I’ll have to write my own…) for that.  So, enter Google Chrome OS, Google’s idea of how to not only address this problem, but perhaps lay out how we will use these computers in the future.  It’s always funny when I start talking about cloud and thin clients, it takes me back to dumb terminals talking to mainframes, but I digress. The point is, thanks to great posts at jasongriffey.net and Lifehacker, it’s really easy to install Google’s Chrome OS on a Dell Mini 9, the only thing I really have to add is that you have to use ChromeOS Zero from the hexxeh.net site. After all, this is an open source project, so folks are going to make changes/fix things and share with everyone. Looking at the site they had a new release, yesterday (gotta love it!) The last time I tried a build the wifi on my Mini just worked, so it looks like those problems are a thing of the past.




Posted on January 12, 2010 by . This entry was posted in featured, geek, headline, linux and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • matt1912

    More of a question than a comment: Would you suggest this is a good idea for netbooks with 1GB of ram as well. I will entertain any option that gets me off Windows 7 Starter. It's is petty,I know, but you cant change the wallpaper on your desktop. Its like buying a “Car” and not being able to use the windshield wipers without getting the “Deluxe Car”. I assumed too much I suppose.

  • Anonymous

    More of a question than a comment: Would you suggest this is a good idea for netbooks with 1GB of ram as well. I will entertain any option that gets me off Windows 7 Starter. It’s is petty,I know, but you cant change the wallpaper on your desktop. Its like buying a “Car” and not being able to use the windshield wipers without getting the “Deluxe Car”. I assumed too much I suppose.

    • http://fak3r.com fak3r

      I have 2Gig on this laptop, but 1Gig should be fine for either Chrome OS or Moblin. I would do a dual boot to keep your 7 partition until you know you don’t need/want it. The great thing about this OSs is that they’re very new, so improvements are happening daily, so what didn’t work last month/week could be worth a try again now. I’m going to reload Chrome soon, I like where they’re going, but look forward to a proper Moblin release to try out too.

    • http://fak3r.com fak3r

      I have 2Gig on this laptop, but 1Gig should be fine for either Chrome OS or Moblin. I would do a dual boot to keep your 7 partition until you know you don’t need/want it. The great thing about this OSs is that they’re very new, so improvements are happening daily, so what didn’t work last month/week could be worth a try again now. I’m going to reload Chrome soon, I like where they’re going, but look forward to a proper Moblin release to try out too.

    • http://fak3r.com fak3r

      I have 2Gig on this laptop, but 1Gig should be fine for either Chrome OS or Moblin. I would do a dual boot to keep your 7 partition until you know you don’t need/want it. The great thing about this OSs is that they’re very new, so improvements are happening daily, so what didn’t work last month/week could be worth a try again now. I’m going to reload Chrome soon, I like where they’re going, but look forward to a proper Moblin release to try out too.

  • http://fak3r.com fak3r

    I have 2Gig on this laptop, but 1Gig should be fine for either Chrome OS or Moblin. I would do a dual boot to keep your 7 partition until you know you don't need/want it. The great thing about this OSs is that they're very new, so improvements are happening daily, so what didn't work last month/week could be worth a try again now. I'm going to reload Chrome soon, I like where they're going, but look forward to a proper Moblin release to try out too.

  • http://fak3r.com fak3r

    I have 2Gig on this laptop, but 1Gig should be fine for either Chrome OS or Moblin. I would do a dual boot to keep your 7 partition until you know you don't need/want it. The great thing about this OSs is that they're very new, so improvements are happening daily, so what didn't work last month/week could be worth a try again now. I'm going to reload Chrome soon, I like where they're going, but look forward to a proper Moblin release to try out too.

  • http://fak3r.com fak3r

    I have 2Gig on this laptop, but 1Gig should be fine for either Chrome OS or Moblin. I would do a dual boot to keep your 7 partition until you know you don't need/want it. The great thing about this OSs is that they're very new, so improvements are happening daily, so what didn't work last month/week could be worth a try again now. I'm going to reload Chrome soon, I like where they're going, but look forward to a proper Moblin release to try out too.

  • http://fak3r.com fak3r

    I have 2Gig on this laptop, but 1Gig should be fine for either Chrome OS or Moblin. I would do a dual boot to keep your 7 partition until you know you don't need/want it. The great thing about this OSs is that they're very new, so improvements are happening daily, so what didn't work last month/week could be worth a try again now. I'm going to reload Chrome soon, I like where they're going, but look forward to a proper Moblin release to try out too.

  • http://fak3r.com fak3r

    I have 2Gig on this laptop, but 1Gig should be fine for either Chrome OS or Moblin. I would do a dual boot to keep your 7 partition until you know you don't need/want it. The great thing about this OSs is that they're very new, so improvements are happening daily, so what didn't work last month/week could be worth a try again now. I'm going to reload Chrome soon, I like where they're going, but look forward to a proper Moblin release to try out too.

  • http://fak3r.com fak3r

    I have 2Gig on this laptop, but 1Gig should be fine for either Chrome OS or Moblin. I would do a dual boot to keep your 7 partition until you know you don't need/want it. The great thing about this OSs is that they're very new, so improvements are happening daily, so what didn't work last month/week could be worth a try again now. I'm going to reload Chrome soon, I like where they're going, but look forward to a proper Moblin release to try out too.

  • Tipsfromtech

    hey..you can run chrome os from a partition?

    • http://fak3r.com fak3r

      Do you mean dual boot? Install it alongside another OS? I’m not sure, I haven’t tried that yet (actually have a really small SSD drive on this ‘top, need a better/bigger one!)

  • Tipsfromtech

    hey..you can run chrome os from a partition?

  • http://www.facebook.com/woodrow1856 Patrick Woods

    They seem to have removed wi-fi support from the latest version. Can you possibly post a link to the date of the most recent version you installed that worked with wi-fi? I am trying to install on a Mini 9 with no luck at all on the wireless front. I don’t know how far back to look.

    Thanks!

    • http://fak3r.com fak3r

      Flow is the one they list on the front page, it’s old, over a year now, but it has the broadcom wifi included, so it works. The ‘latest’ version he’s compiling does not. His follow up to Flow was Lime, but people kept asking for it and he kept complaining they were asking too much, so he ‘canceled’ it. I’ve been unable to persuade him to open source what he’s done.

      I’m currently running Meego https://meego.com on the Mini 9, and it works well. For day to day stuff it’s fine, but I still prefer Chrome OS.

      I would like to learn how to run the Chrome OS build from source, and then look at patching in some non-free wifi drivers so it’d ‘just work’ for the Mini 9…if you have any interest drop me a line.

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