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Trying out ChromeOS from a VMWare image

Posted on November 20, 2009November 22, 2009 by vivin

I was pretty excited when I saw the VMWare image for ChromeOS up for download. I immediately downloaded it to try it out. The zip file I got from gdgt has a vmdk file but no vmx file. I created one from scratch to try ChromeOS out (I've made a new zip with the vmdk and the vmx. The link is at the end of this post.). It's not too bad. The OS boots up really quick. The login screen is pretty spartan (look at the screenshots I have). You login with your Google/Gmail username and password. When you login, it opens up the Chrome browser. I wasn't able to get anything else running other than the browser. Also, when I first logged in, Chrome complained that the security certificate for Gmail had been revoked. But I was able to login when I typed in the address for Gmail in again. The default tabs seem to be GMail and Google Calendar. I'm assuming that because it's such an early build, you're not able to try out the other stuff. Maybe there's a way; I didn't play around with it too much. There is a Date and Time settings menu that's available from the browser, where you can set a few other options, like your proxy, SSL options, home page, and a few other advanced settings.

Update

I was having a conversation with Sheehan over twitter and I made a comment that "Chrome OS is doing the kiosk thing all over again". I guess that's true to an extent. ChromeOS will be running on approved hardware with an SSD. You're probably not going to be able to install anything on the machine and everything seems to be a webapp. What this means is that all your data is online. To be honest, I don't find very much use for that, but then again, I'm not part of the target market. I think this might be useful for people who are on-the-go and who need access to their data from anywhere in the world (well, anywhere in the world with an internet connection). I use my machine for a variety of things; mainly development. Since I also like to tinker with it from time to time, I'm always installing stuff on it. Google will need a very strong marketing campaign so that consumers understand exactly what they're getting. They won't be able to install applications (maybe webapps?) and they won't be able to save arbitrary files to the machine. I wonder what this means for the online experience. What if they're trying to download some sort of file? Where would they save it? Would Google provide online storage for the users? It's a major paradigm shift. Like I mentioned before, your machine turns into a kiosk or a thin-client. Maybe some people won't mind using one, but I view my machine as something much more and so I don't think I will be satisfied.

ChromeOS .vmx file for the .vmdk
[sourcecode]
.encoding = "UTF-8"
displayName = "Chrome OS"
guestOS = "other"
memsize = "512"

ethernet0.present= "true"
ethernet0.startConnected = "true"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet0.connectionType = "nat"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:cd:8d:e6"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

usb.present = "true"

sound.present = "false"
sound.autodetect = "true"
sound.virtualDev = "es1371"
sound.fileName = "-1"
sound.startConnected = "true"

ide0:0.present = "true"
ide0:0.fileName="chrome-os-0.4.22.8-gdgt.vmdk"
ide0:0.deviceType = "disk"
ide0:0.mode = "persistent"
ide0:0.redo = ""
ide0:0.writeThrough = "false"
ide0:0.startConnected = "false"

virtualHW.version = "3"
config.version = "8"

floppy0.present = "false"
[/sourcecode]

I'm no longer seeding the torrent. I suggest downloading the vmdk from gdgt (sign-up required, but just make a fake profile - no verification is performed) and using this vmx file with it.

ChromeOS Login Screen
ChromeOS Login Screen
Chrome browser in ChromeOS
Google calendar in ChromeOS
Date and Time settings
Date and Time, and other settings

13 thoughts on “Trying out ChromeOS from a VMWare image”

  1. Marshal says:
    November 21, 2009 at 10:29 am

    many thanks i can now run chrome OS in VMware player.. just a point to note here by default network is NAT and this doesn’t work in chrome OS. I changed it to bridge disconnect and then connect… then it works …. looks promising..

    Reply
  2. vivin says:
    November 21, 2009 at 11:19 am

    @Marshal
    You’re welcome! Maybe your network configuration was different? It seemed to work on mine with NAT.

    Reply
  3. Pingback: Download Chrome OS Image « techTalks
  4. Max says:
    November 24, 2009 at 8:46 am

    Thanks man. I was frustrated to find out that I can’t run it in VMPlayer after downloading from gdgt (even though they mention you can). Had the same proplem as Marshal, above , and after applying his tips I got it up and running. Thanks again.

    Reply
  5. vivin says:
    November 24, 2009 at 10:58 am

    @Max
    You’re welcome, Max! It’s interesting that both you and Marshal had the same problem with the network. I was trying it out on an already NATed network which might be why it worked for me.

    Reply
  6. Santosh says:
    November 26, 2009 at 3:00 am

    After renaming the file to vmx I am not able to run chrome os.
    Could not open virtual machine: E:\chrome-os-0.4.22.8-gdgt.vmdk\chrome-os-0.4.22.8.vmx

    Can you please help me

    Reply
  7. Santosh says:
    November 26, 2009 at 3:04 am

    It worked for me. Thanks

    Reply
  8. Sivakumar says:
    November 30, 2009 at 11:22 pm

    Thank You, It is working, I was able to run in VMPlayer by choosing network connection NAT

    Reply
  9. jfultz14976 says:
    December 1, 2009 at 12:10 am

    Having same problem as Marshal, I cannot figure out how to change from NAT to bridge. I have VMware Player 2.5.3 build-185404. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

    Reply
  10. vivin says:
    December 1, 2009 at 12:26 pm

    @jfultz14976
    Just edit the .vmx file and change ethernet0.connectionType to bridge.

    Reply
  11. Pingback: » Chrome’s On It Marc Hibbins
  12. Prasad says:
    January 11, 2010 at 3:23 pm

    Worked with such ease. Thanks for the vmx file.

    Reply
  13. Filipe says:
    March 12, 2010 at 4:24 pm

    Thank you. Working now. 🙂

    Reply

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