Set up ChromeOS VM on Xcp-ng

Computer Hardware & Server Infrastructure Builds
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Has anyone tried to create a ChromeOS VM on XCP-NG? Some writeups describe doing something similar with “VMware Player”.

ChromeOS, from what I have read, seems to be dependent on particular UEFI settings - possibly this is why its setup is not just the regular “load the ISO from a USB stick” route

No pressing reason to do this, mostly would like to be able to see what it does.

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I took a deeper look at this. A number of posts on the XCP-NG forum, the subreddit r/ChromeOsFlex and elsewhere. Conclusion from people with deep understanding of how things work - this cannot be done.

Reasons include…

  • ChromeOSFlex does not provide a .vma file or similar
  • It only installs from the “USB stick” style install, not the “DVD/CD” disk mount install - and XCP-NG only does the “DVD/CD” style

Some people have managed to make it run, but the result is more or less unusable.

In praise of ChromeOSFlex

Meantime I am happily using ChromeOSFlex on an ten year old laptop where it runs amazingly well. The Google Drive for the sign in account shows up as part of the file system - quite seamless.

ChromeOSFlex (unlike regular ChromeOS) does not permit installation of apps from the Google PlayStore. But it has a “developer” mode which runs a Linux environment which allows you to install many Linux apps, including those with a GUI.

So obsolete hardware is its natural habitat, not the virtualized abstracted space that some of us live in, and least some of the time.

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