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I bought the CD Chrome OS 0.4.206 beta Virtual Machine zipped VM 32 Bits - (x86) from Linux CD. The CD is unbootable while the CD Ubuntu Desktop Edition 10.04 that I got free from Shipit is bootable and usable.

How can I get the Chrome OS in the Cd up and running ?

2 Answers 2

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You got a DVD with a zipped virtual machine. This DVD is not bootable. You need VMware Player or one of the commercial VMware products to run it on top of your existing system.

The linuxcd.org web site clearly states:

This is a Virtual appliance be used with Vmware Player, available here: [...]

This DVD provided as is contains a preinstalled Chrome OS.

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Well you really shouldn't have bought this seeing as it's freeware. But to answer your question that software you purchased is not bootable. It is a VMware virtual machine meaning you need either VMware player, workstation, server, or ESX to host the virtual machine and make it usable. The product page for linuxcd.org says this clearly: http://www.linuxcd.org/view_item.php?id_version=4167.

Please realize this is not really Google's Chrome OS, it is a flavor of linux that has a bunch of Google software pre-installed and is made by SUSE NOT Google: http://susestudio.com/. The only real way to get ChromeOS that I know of at the moment is to be a part of their CR48 pilot program or be an employee. Future netbooks planned to be released this year will contain Google's Chrome OS. As far as I know right now there are no plans to release ChromeOS as a stand-alone bootable/installable OS. It will be custom tailored to the hardware it is being put on at first.

If you wish to make a live cd or install this (fake) version of Chrome as a primary OS yourself visit the actual project pages here: http://getchrome.eu/download.php. Another place offering something that is very similar can be found here: http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromium-os-faq#TOC-What-s-the-difference-between-Chrom. Again, neither of these is an OS supported by Google themselves, it is just based off of their open-source code projects.

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    Not everybody has a broadband internet connection. 1.75$ covers barely the disk, nothing more.
    – Daniel Beck
    Feb 28, 2011 at 19:34
  • True, I sometimes forget this. However in this particular instance the software in question seems more of a bait and switch that is trying to cash in on the Chrome OS name and perhaps confuse potential users (especially since its site makes no attempt to educate the users of the differences as chromium.org does). I have no objections to the linuxcd site or its services, just to this particular flavor of linux which swayed my answer to be overwhelmingly negative.
    – Diffuser
    Feb 28, 2011 at 19:45

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