[Chromebooks] Hnk1:
SOME NOTES, BACKGROUND and BASICS

I only have made instructions more user friendly and writing my experience to help the community as when I started, it took me more than a week to get everything sorted out although I am quite familiar with chromebook and android. I have put links within text (orange colour) to make links more user friendly and this guide neater.

I have intended to write this guide so that not only C720P users can benefit from it but also for other devices which lack android / linux support on their chromeboks. However, non chromebook users can benefit from it as well by using the second method or following Project Croissant.

There are essentially two methods/ hacks which work with C720P which I know. All credits to [MENTION=258618]nabil2000[/MENTION] and Project Croissant [MENTION=7385669]alesimula[/MENTION] to make it possible.

The method one is intended for chromebooks only whereas method two is intended to work on all devices and you can check the link mentioned in the name below.

The first method was found by [MENTION=258618]nabil2000[/MENTION]. In essence this method simply takes your chromebook image/ custom chromeos as base and uses another chromebook bin to overwrite the files, adding new ones and making it possible for old devices without android or linux support to run google play store and crostini.

The second method works beyond chromebooks and can run on to almost any device which can be booted via a USB. There is a separate thread for it Project Croissant Link. However, I will also mention in easy steps how I used chromefy (Project Croissant).

PRE REQUISITES FOR BOTH METHODS

1. Chromebook running developer mode

Turn it off and then press Esc+ Refresh+Power

Ctrl+D to disable chromeos verification off

This will reset your device so backup everything in advance.

2. Enabling USB boot + Legacy Boot

In your Chromebook, Open crouton (ctrl+alt+T)

Type

Shell

sudo crossystem dev_boot_usb=1 dev_boot_legacy=1

sudo crossystem dev_boot_usb=1

Restart and this will enable usb boot

METHOD 1

METHOD 1 BASICS USEFUL FOR OTHER CHROMEBOOK USERS

So the trick is to choose an IMG which supports your device hardware drivers, that's why special builds on ATB are preferred than vanilla ones, while FydeOS 5.3.1 also has a very wide range of driver support.

Once you have choosen the IMG file, look for a BIN file which has GOOGLE PLAY STORE SUPPORT if you are looking for that, or Google Play Store and Linux if you are looking for both.

So if you have a Dell 3120 which does not have both, look for a device which has google play store and Crostini and is very similar to Dell 3120 and choose that BIN. However, strangely EVE CAROLINE have more success rate than other builds.

Another thing note mentioning is that suppose if you are using IMG base as 70, even using BIN file of 71 and 69 yields some great results. However, i think that using all three of same version might yield best results (i had similar success with different versions but YMMV)

You just need to follow the same method for other devices and you only need to change bin file names and location (sdb sdc etc) in the script after you have chosen IMG and BIN files as close as possible for your devices.

C720 METHOD

Requirements

1. A custom IMG (fyde /ATB/ your chromebook as base)

2. A software like rufus/windows image write to write that image to a usb

3. 1 or 2 USBs , 16gb are enough and for older versions even 8 gb is enough

4. BIN file

[/LIST]

STEPS

1. Write IMG of your choice to a USB ( ATB version 55 Special ) Download CYAN.bin

2. Place the cyan.bin in your chromebook download folder or you can use a separate usb. I prefer it in chromebook download folder

Ctrl+Alt+ T and type

shell

move to your download folder using crouton by

cd home/chronos/user/Downloads where D is case sensitive

once you are there, check if your file is in the same folder. This will show your bin file name.

ls

3.Type the following commands[/B]

if you rename your file, make sure to rename it in the following command line as well. In my case it is chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin

Also, make sure your name your usb sdb accordingly. The last command will take some time so be patient.

rootfs_start="`cgpt show -i 3 -n -b -q chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin`"

rootfs_size="`cgpt show -i 3 -n -s -q chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin`"

mkdir chrome_efi_mount

sudo mount /dev/sdb12 chrome_efi_mount -t vfat

mkdir chromium_efi_mount

sudo mount -ro loop,offset=$((`cgpt show -i 12 -n -b -q chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin`*512)) chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin chromium_efi_mount

sudo cp chromium_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B chrome_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B -f

sudo cp chromium_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B chrome_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.A -f

sudo umount chrome_efi_mount

sudo umount chromium_efi_mount

sudo dd if=chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin of=/dev/sdb3 bs=512 skip=$rootfs_start count=$rootfs_size

Once everything is done, turn off your PC and use ctrl U to boot from the USB. If everything working and all drivers are working well for your device, you can think of even writing your USB to your SSD. Intructions are after method 2

METHOD 2

Requirements

1.Fyde 5.3.img

2.Caroline 71.bin

3.Cyan 71.bin

4.Chromefy.sh

5.Chromebook running developer mode which has usb boot enabled + legacy. Instructions above

6. A live Linux usb. I prefer Ubuntu . You can use 8gb usb for this.

Remember , You'll need at least 16gb usb for this to work on C720. I suggest use a good usb like sandisk extreme 16gb. I had two Kingston D50 3.0 but after few writes on them, they were dead. (Were easily claimed under warranty)

However, an old SanDisk 2.0 cruzer blade and 16gb Kingston s9 2.0 survived many writes. So I suggest that get a usb which is 3.0 as it'll take less time to write and boot.

STEPS

1.Put all of above in a usb (fyde Caroline Cyan and chromefy) and connect it to your c720 running developer mode.

2. Ctrl+Alt+T and you will be into crouton

3. Type the following

shell
sudo bash chromefy.sh Fyde53.img cyan71.bin caroline71.bin

It will start a script and may take up to 30 minutes. Answer N when prompted in the end. This will write all changes from bin files to your IMG.

4.Once it is done, copy Fyde53 (or whatever the name was of your IMG) from USB and using either RUFUS / WINDOWS IMAGE BURNER to burn it on a USB having at least 16gb space.

5. Once you have it burnt on a USB , boot with it by pressing ctrl+u

6. Check if everything is working out and check playstore and everything is to your liking before you can think of writing it to your SSD.

You'll notice that in your USB from which you are booting, it doesn't show the actual size of the disk.

I suggest ignore it for now and you may write chromeos from your usb to your SSD.

WRITING TO YOUR SSD FROM A WORKING USB

Make sure you boot from the usb while trying to do this.

1. In crouton , ctrl alt+t, first see the partitions by

Shell
Lsblk

2. Check which is sda and which is sdb etc . Usually SSD is sda while usb could be sdb or sdc . Make sure you check well.

3.Next , check if your SSD partition size is larger than your usb. This is important because if the size is not same or less than usb size, it may end with errors. In my case, my usb was 28.2gb and my SSD was 29.2Gb. in your case, if your SSD actual size is 15.0Gb , make sure your usb is no larger than 15. Even 14.9 is fine else it may end up with errors.

4. Type this command which will start writing from usb to ssd

sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda bs=4MB

This will end in few minutes. Do NOT STOP IN THE MIDDLE OR SHUT DOWN your PC while this is happening because it can potentially damage your SSD and you may need to buy a new one.

5.Once this is done, you be running chromeos using ctrl +D from SSD.

Now the issue of internal memory needs to be sorted.

I used different Linux flavours (latest even ) to resize ssd partitions. You just need to resize your state partition to maximum size by using Linux gparted live usb. However, there is a very good chance you'll end up loosing attributes making your SSD non bootable. Thus you'll need to add the attributes back to your partitions by booting chromeos from the usb. I suggest before doing this, make sure you try it on a USB to see you can make it bootable again after resizing.

To check your attributes, after shell in Chromebook crouton or in Linux if cgpt is installed,

cgpt show -d /dev/sda

where sda is your ssd

Kern-A will have attributes before resizing your disk and after that, they may be lost so you'll need to add by

cgpt add -i 1 -S 1 -T 5 -P 10 -l KERN-A /dev/sda2

Where sda2 refers to kernel A partition when using cgpt show command.

Once done , recheck and see that successful has 1 attribute. If yes, your SSD can boot on its own

Reboot to check

[MENTION=648646]nygmam[/MENTION]

On mrchromebox, you can have everything working with android 9, camera migration, google assistant and linux

Steps here