[Chromebooks] UK Jules:
Really Really Excellent...Works on a VMware VM too

[MENTION=4604892]lucaoldb[/MENTION] - thank you so much for your Post; I was attracted to the Fyde fork for the option of Android Apps (unlike CloudReady where this is not an option) - but wasn't too happy about about my data going through Fyde's servers.

I downloaded VMware image 'v7.1-Preview1' from Fyde's site and, after following your instructions and learning some VIM commands, it works great. My version of VMware Professional Version 11.5.3 (15870345) running on MacOS Catalina 10.15.4. Unsure if many people have taken the VM route v booting from USB?

As I've spent a day of time on this, I wanted to now share what I found/learnt as I went through this process - as feedback and to help others who are tempted to try doing it - please take the below in the spirit they're offered (some may not apply to you especially if you're doing the boot from USB route):

1. When Importing the downloaded image, VMware didn't install it without a message that the image didn't fully comply => 'retry' worked fine :)

2. As I'm UK-based, UK is not listed on the List entering your Mobile; getting the Fyde Verification Code via Mobile (to create my Fyde User Account) was a real pain :( I tried the 3rd Party 'free' services and all were blocked/never arrived. I ended-up asking a friend in a Country on the List to then message me the Code which landed on their mobile ;)

3. The good news is that once you've created this Account, it's a one-off and you can use it for multiple/repeat Installations :) Just use a dedicated 'test' gmail account ;)

4. I allocated 4MB RAM; use vm default HDD...adjusting the VM hard disk allocation a) didn't make any difference and b) couldn't be resized back down (RAM can be easily resized up/down)

5. When making the edits to the 'chrome_dev.conf' I did a log-off then shut-down (at one stage via the VMware VM 'shut-down') - from my memory, I had an issue with being unable to re-edit the same file if I just did 'restart' from within Fyde. Just do the multiple somewhat pedantic steps route to reboot is safest imo

6. Use the dedicated 'test' gmail account for the initial 1st Installation; and a.n.other non-critical or non-confidential data 'day-to-day' gmail for the 2nd FydeOS user account. If you follow the instructions, the second user account does not route your log-on details or the associated gmail account through the Fyde servers :). You can test your second account settings by disabling the Fyde Chrome Extensions->testing->then deleting->testing for that 2nd account and checking that the OS still works fine for that 2nd account

7. The 1st Primary Account can't be removed or hidden at the log-on page; just ignore it and only log-on to the 2nd account

8. I initially found there were storage warnings when I downloaded Apps from the Google Play Store; I created a new VM and increased the assigned RAM and all seems stable (as of writing) > [MENTION=4604892]lucaoldb[/MENTION] - any thoughts on this when run as a vm?<<

9. During one stage of the installation, the Google Drive icon in 'Files' appeared, stayed for 10 secs, then disappeared - never to be seen again! :-| I'm assuming this is due to the older version of FydeOS compared to the USB option and/or it's running as a vm? Just guesses. > [MENTION=4604892]lucaoldb[/MENTION] - any thoughts?<<

10. I found an issue that YouTube didn't display the images properly - say if they're embedded in a web site. The Android YouTube App showed the same issue :(

11. After some experimenting, the workaround was to download Opera; then the YouTube site played images/sound perfectly :) > [MENTION=4604892]lucaoldb[/MENTION] - is this likely an old Chromium codec issue? Any known fixes for this version? <<

Whilst I've asked [MENTION=4604892]lucaoldb[/MENTION] some Q's, if anyone else knows that answer do share these.

That's it folks! Hope that helps?

If anyone