It’s Flow time…

by Hexxeh on Feb.15, 2010, under ChromiumOS

ChromiumOS Flow
At long last, Flow is ready. After much lost sleep and frustration it’s finally ready for you all to enjoy. Just incase you don’t know already, here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be shipping. Oh, and note the last feature: a little bonus for you that I may have omitted to mention earlier.

  • User-customisable menus (rearrange, add, delete apps on your own menu)
  • Automatic updates via the Velocity engine (with an all new interface from what you saw in the BETA, it’s now been integrated into the browser)
  • nVidia GPU support (this includes ION, and it’s fully hardware accelerated)
  • Realtek RTL8187SE support (RTL8192E is coming as an update soon)
  • Audio fix
  • Flash fix
  • Bookmark Sync fix
  • Power indicator fix (as long as it worked in Cherry)
  • Battery life improvements
  • Increased image size to 2GB (1GB was becoming too restrictive, needed to do this to add more hardware support, sorry!)
  • Webcam support (to test this, right click on a YouTube video and then click settings)

One feature that didn’t make the cut this time, is the new login screen. There’s quite a bit we need to do with that before we can ship it, and I just couldn’t get it all done in time and still get this release out in a reasonable timeframe (we were late already). I spent pretty much all of today tweaking the nVidia support and working to make sure it was a smooth as ride as possible moving between an Intel GPU device and a nVidia GPU device.

The nVidia support, is well, pretty awesome. The only nVidia hardware I had available to test for myself was my desktop, running a 9800GTX. This setup had no issue at all powering through 720P and 1080P YouTube content.

The applications directory doesn’t have too many apps right now, however soon I will be taking submissions for new applications to be added to this directory for users to add. If you’d like to get a headstart on this, you will need to produce/find a 128×128 transparently backed PNG icon for the app. It should blend in with the existing icons as best as possible, or it may not be accepted.

You can find the release on the main site here.

I’ll update this blog post more tomorrow once I’ve had some sleep, just wanted to get this to you as soon as it was ready.

Lastly, some credits and messages of thanks:

  • Cosmic Duck for producing the artwork and redesigned website
  • redpig for helping me with ChromiumOS build related topics
  • mdwittenberg for his work on the wiki (and everyone else who contributed)
  • egrep, inferno10681, Billiam, aikidoka for being excellent testers
  • The #chromium-os IRC channel on Freenode for all their help and assistance
  • The ChromiumOS development team for producing such an amazing operating system

137 Comments for this entry

  • LJ
    April 13th, 2010 on 5:16 am

    I’m a newb , how exactly does this go into the terminal in vmware.Everything goes right until I do step 4 and I receive this error:

    E: Unable to write to /var/cache/apt/
    E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

    I’m running off my laptop in vmware.If Deric or anyone else could point me in the right direction , I’d appreciate.

    (Deric Stowell
    February 18th, 2010 on 5:38 pm

    I fixed the server certificate problem by the folowing:

    1) ctl-alt-T for terminal window
    2) sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
    3) added deb ‘http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic main’
    4) sudo apt-get install aptitude
    5) sudo aptitude update & sudo aptitude safe-upgrade & sudo aptitude dist-upgrade)

  • appelboor
    April 13th, 2010 on 7:49 pm

    Hi, I’m typing this in Flow ChromeOS, booted from a USB stick in my Samsung NC10. Needless to say: it works!

    Cool.

  • LJ
    April 14th, 2010 on 9:22 am

    Update

    Everything that’s suppose to work is working , turns out I forgot to switch NAT to Bridged.Flow is the best out their.

  • matteo
    April 18th, 2010 on 2:39 pm

    tested on a eeepc 701 works fine but the same problem as rey: trying to install on hdd says “destination device is too small (4gb vs 6,7 gb). does this mean we could never install it on a eeepc 4g? :(

  • someone
    April 19th, 2010 on 10:36 pm

    when i login with my gmail and password, it won’t sign me in. how do you do it?

  • noone
    April 20th, 2010 on 2:36 pm

    login is facepunch/facepunch

  • vpolder
    April 25th, 2010 on 10:33 am

    Is there an option to change the default user accounts name or to add a other user or is this still under development ?

  • arsch-lecken.net
    April 28th, 2010 on 2:11 pm

    I would appreciate more visual materials, to make your blog more attractive, but your writing style really compensates it. But there is always place for improvement.

  • Scott K.
    May 11th, 2010 on 4:33 am

    I’m running Flow on my 2GB SD Card right now, on my HP Mini 110. Just thought it was pretty cool. Haha

  • Jadran
    May 15th, 2010 on 6:47 am

    Is Skype gonna be working in Flow?

  • Wayne Barnes
    May 15th, 2010 on 2:32 pm

    Like the unanswered comment above, Gmail won’t log me in. Does Flow think I am you?
    How do I tell flow to let me be me?

  • Gauntl3t
    May 16th, 2010 on 7:34 pm

    Uh… I can’t seem to get into GMail. It goes to the right page, but it says something about ‘page not available’

    This webpage is not available.

    The webpage at https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&tab=wm&ui=html&zy=l&pli=1&auth=DQAAAKwAAABapevhm4N7A7ilkrfYFfOusG9hqvNcvFmjubReLlC44wUEYjI-MtB1EYFRQMW1h0bu2tSB0do56UEhKhb2WPRD0wf5Vwqmsgu067Y_e5N9KKv8uNk1e82CY6Vg4L5DhBGRL_ACkEZZZa2AT-SiOaqu45BRxGfVkOt1AEcnd4x1pxH3DBZLwACXnds2xadJPD2fEhPCj3jgUvygr7lQUQ2XGPFfAhn-hDfJakqfOWyaCQ&gausr=legogenius%40gmail.com might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.

    Original error:
    Error 107 (net::ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR): Unknown error

    Does ChromeOS have working SSL yet? Or does it need to be implemented?

  • macaulays
    May 18th, 2010 on 9:17 am

    Love the OS I was finally able to quickly watch videos without any lag interruptions or annoying update requests.

    However I like those above can’t seem to get into my gmail account while in flow. its working fine in windows however.

  • Rob P
    May 25th, 2010 on 1:09 pm

    Just got this going on my Samsung N210. Sadly no wifi support at the moment, but looking good. I’ll be ditching my Phoenix Hyperspace in favour of it I think.

    I’m running it from my USB key which is 8Gb. Is there a way to do it so can still use the rest of the space on it as a storage device?

  • jiru
    May 29th, 2010 on 4:54 am

    how can i log in? in my chrome os flow? i try to loag in using my gmail but it wont work..

  • jiru
    May 29th, 2010 on 5:50 am

    i have my chrome os flow it works on my acer aspire… but theres no internet connection.. please somebody help me how to have wifi..

  • RobbyRobAZ
    June 6th, 2010 on 6:03 pm

    I had the same gmail error loading the page and after clearing cache and cookies and typing https://mail.google.com it worked! The key is the “s” as I think it’s a security issue.

  • BlinX
    June 8th, 2010 on 6:06 am

    Hi, Somehow, my App tab just went empty! Is there a way for me to get it back?

  • Everyone
    June 11th, 2010 on 7:56 am

    Someone asking this: When I login with my gmail and password, it won’t sign me in. How do you do it?

    The answer is: Plug in LAN (NOT Wireless!!!) to your computer, then connect to your router or whatever using WLAN (Wireless). Then, plug out the LAN. The OS will save the profile for you. Now, you can login.

  • Rajesh
    June 14th, 2010 on 4:39 pm

    This is great!!
    Though I’m trying to figure out why I’m unable to open HTTPS pages…
    And the default user/password could be placed somewhere more visibly…

  • Megger Test Equipment
    June 21st, 2010 on 3:57 pm

    gives employ a fantastic web-site decent Gives thank you for the work to assist me

  • Rolex
    June 22nd, 2010 on 10:19 am

    To be a adroit human being is to procure a philanthropic of openness to the mankind, an skill to trust aleatory things beyond your own restrain, that can lead you to be shattered in hugely extreme circumstances pro which you were not to blame. That says something remarkably weighty with the prerequisite of the honest compulsion: that it is based on a trustworthiness in the up in the air and on a willingness to be exposed; it’s based on being more like a weed than like a sparkler, something kind of feeble, but whose mere particular attractiveness is inseparable from that fragility.

  • Free Flash Game
    June 24th, 2010 on 2:02 am

    shares use a great web site decent Gives with thanks for the effort to support me personally

  • Shreyash
    June 24th, 2010 on 4:50 am

    Hello,
    I writed the img file to us y the provided writer at your site,
    my us was corrupted ,
    I used at windows 7
    what can I do?
    please help me

  • yxxyun
    June 24th, 2010 on 2:04 pm

    will there be a new release?

  • Shreyash
    June 27th, 2010 on 8:17 am

    When I burn the image file on to a usb drive,
    I select to boot from usb but it just shows a black screen whit a “_” sign.
    what can I do.
    I use it on Windows 7 32 bit?

  • jeremyy
    June 29th, 2010 on 10:46 pm

    how do i change the login
    ???

  • j 41 shoes
    June 30th, 2010 on 9:36 am

    These photos are absolutely beautiful. The same results just can’t be duplicated using Photoshop on a digital photo.

  • Magnus
    July 2nd, 2010 on 8:05 am

    Entire new ChromiumOS build available at http://stratus0s.org/

  • emsee
    July 14th, 2010 on 1:30 am

    I followed all the steps to put the OS onto my USB drive. And I could see the “Flow – Built by Hexxeh” screen, but then the screen just went black and the login screen just didn’t show up! Is my hardware incompatible?

  • Marisela Nonaka
    July 17th, 2010 on 12:02 am

    Thank you with regard to the information, I ‘m really looking forward to the Samsung Epic 4G, even though I have always been extremely interested in cool gadgets, for a long time I have been looking for my first smartphone and I did not get it yet. The actual explanations are quite simple: each and every couple of months there is a revolution in the marketplace (difficult to decide!) and prices here in Brazil are quite abusive. Maybe I would enter this world in excellent style with a Samsung Epic 4G. I hope so.

  • Gypik
    July 24th, 2010 on 4:13 pm

    Поздравте меня я нашел то что искал, спасибо автору топика за доступное изложения материала.Жаль что в интернете всю труднее откопать что либо стоящее, правду говорят интернет большая помойка

  • Cory Claxon
    July 25th, 2010 on 9:19 pm

    Do you plan releasing a new version of Flow soon? The current one is a just a bit dated, from Feburary :o

    Good work, and thanks,
    Cory

  • fredpc
    July 26th, 2010 on 11:25 am

    Hi guys
    I have flow on my win7 machine I could only get it to work on vmware player
    I used a username and password for my live.com account and it signed in ok

    I have installed this to my HDD on another pc but can’t get it to pick up internet connection….It is very fast to bootup tho

  • Tom McGrath
    July 29th, 2010 on 8:26 pm

    I’m slightly confused; will this run from my USB, meaning as soon as I remove my pen drive, it returns back to Windows? If so, that’s awesome. :)

  • jake
    July 30th, 2010 on 5:43 pm

    Hi Everyone,

    I have installed ChromiumOS on VmWare player using the vmdk image. Is there a way to add a custom Extension that I created to ChromiumOS. Since theres no file system on VMWare ( I believe) how do I get to my extension and install it?

« Older Comments

21 Trackbacks / Pingbacks for this entry

Leave a Reply