Chromixium 64 bit – new public test release

It’s been a long time coming, but finally there is a new Chromixium 64 bit edition ready for public testing. This is closely aligned to the 32 bit 1.5 branch and should be very close to a finished product 🙂 .

All improvements in this release will also be included in an updated 32 bit 1.5.1 release and a service pack 2 in due course.

We have had a few releases tested by forum members (with thanks), and after a fairly swift development cycle, this public test release is made available – Chromixium 1.5 x64/amd64 Release Candidate 5.

I am hoping that if feedback is positive that the final release will be made within weeks. Please note: you will not be able to update from the RC to the final release. Fresh installs are required as I can only offer on-going support to stable releases. 

Download link

http://sourceforge.net/projects/chromix … /Unstable/

Filename: Chromixium-1.5RC5-amd64.iso
File size: 902.8 MB / 861 MiB
MD5SUM: 148c8f22f5f5871b2d980be0e1a00526

Recommended RAM = 3GB

Instructions for transferring the ISO to USB (and troubleshooting) follow at the end of this post.

What’s new?

• EFI boot and installation support is now fixed. It has not been tested with Secure Boot but it should work. If you have a Secure Boot enabled PC, please enable it and test an installation.
• Supports dual boot with Windows 10.
• Guest session is now fixed. Icons and Chromium now work as expected (required lightdm upgrading)
• After a lot of deliberation I have included a re-branded Lubuntu Software Center to make installing applications that bit simpler. Look out for the Chromixium Software Center in the Control Panel and Settings menu. I have removed the Ubuntu Apps Directory web app as the search function was awful and many packages just weren’t available for installation. Synaptic is still available for Power Users.
• Chromixium PPA is enabled by default along with:
  • Chromixium Input which takes over mouse and keyboard settings
  • Google Browser Choice so you can easily switch to the Google Chrome browser
  • Chromecast Daily wallpaper (startup entry, disabled by default) for stunning daily wallpapers randomly picked from the Chromecast collection.
• Nautilus fast start added to startup to make the Files app open quicker
• Transparent wallpaper added so you can use this to set a solid background colour
• I have introduced some subtle but effective window compositing effects such as shadows and fade in/out. Please let me know your thoughts!
• Much better dual monitor support via an updated LXRandR package. Now there is only one Monitor Settings app that actually works between reboots.
• Inclusion of OpenVPN, Openconnect and Strongswan VPN plugins for network manager
• Cardapio menu is simply named Applications Menu. This allows you to drag a standard applications/start menu to the dock
• Keyboard configuration tool added to Control Panel to change the system-wide keyboard layout.
• Control panel appearance slightly adjusted
• Various minor bug-fixes and annoyances fixed

Known limitations:

• Installations using JFS or XFS filesystems for the root/boot partition are not seen by Grub2. Please use Ext4 or BTRFS for / or /boot.
• If you need advanced language/keyboard switching, please install either ibus or fcitx manually post-installation. You may also add the Keyboard Layout Handler plugin to the system tray (LXPanel) to handle keyboard layout switching.
• Dock settings app does not work with locales that use a comma instead of a full stop (period) for decimal numbers. The workaround is to switch to a US keyboard using the LXPanel applet while making changes to the dock, then switch back afterwards.
• If testing this in a VM, the ISO will not prompt to remove the media on shutdown unless you use the Text (debug) boot option (in which case, you just need to power off the VM).

Feedback

Please test and feedback. In particular I am looking for feedback with:

• EFI installations
• Secure Boot installations
• Updating system manually and checking it is happening automatically
• Installing applications
• Encrypted root and/or encrypted home (run sudo swapoff -a prior to running the installer)
• Control panel apps and system configuration
• Additional Hardware Drivers eg Broadcom, Nvidia, Radeon…

You can leave a comment here or at the forum where there is a thread:
http://chromixium.freeforums.org/chromixium-1-5-64-bit-rc5-out-for-testing-now-t622.html

Instructions for creating live media

The 64 bit version supports booting and installing on EFI systems with or without Secure Boot enabled. It of course works on conventional MBR/BIOS systems.

Linux

1. Plug USB stick into PC
2. Open a terminal
3. Type this command to determine your USB device ID:

    sudo lsblk -l
    <type your password>

4. Type these commands to format and transfer the ISO to USB which will create an MBR and EFI compatible bootable device (replace sdX with your device ID):

   sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1 count=512
   sudo dd if=/path/to/Chromixium-1.5RC5-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M && sync
   eject /dev/sdX

Windows

1. Plug USB stick into PC
2. Open File Explorer to check the drive letter of your USB device
3. Download Rufus USB creator tool.
4. Run the downloaded rufus.exe file (you will need admin rights)
5. Make sure the correct drive letter is chosen
6. Choose either “MBR Partition Scheme for BIOS or UEFI” for a standard BIOS or change to “GPT partition scheme for UEFI” if you explicitly want EFI/Secure Boot support.
7. Click on the small disk icon about half way down on the right and select the Chromixium-1.5RC5-amd64.iso image.
8. Make sure Quick Format is checked and click Start.

You may also create a live DVD using your favorite image burning software.

Trouble-shooting

• If the live media doesn’t log you in automatically and you get dropped to a log in screen, then the Live media wasn’t correctly created.
• If the live media boots with a kernel panic error or missing initd.gz error, then the Live media wasn’t correctly created.
• First check the MD5SUM matches the one given above. In Linux, from a terminal type:

  md5sum Chromixium-1.5RC5-amd64.iso

• In Windows, download WinMD5 and use this to check the ISO.
• When the Live media first boots, run the “Check disk for defects” boot option. It should complete error free.
• Try the Text (Debug) boot.
• Try a different brand of USB stick or DVD, a different port, or a different writing method.

Installing to Hard Disk

1. Please note, if you require an encrypted installation, please disable swap before launching the installer by running this command from a terminal (Crtl+Alt+T):

   sudo swapoff -a

2. Open the Installer from the icon on the dock
3. Select your language (note: not all aspects of Chromixium are translated)
4. If you already have an OS installed on the disk, there will be options to:
   1. “Erase and (re)install” – wipes entire drive and installs Chromixium. You will have the option to encrypt your installation and/or choose LVM partitioning if you choose this option.
   2. “Install alongside” – this will give you the option to shrink an existing Windows or Linux installation and install Chromixium into the space created.
   3. “Something Else” – opens a manual partitioning screen. Useful if you have already partitioned your device or freed up space using Windows disk management. Select an empty area or partition to format and install Chromixium onto. You will need at the very least a root ( / ) partition. A swap partition of twice your RAM or 4GB should be created to allow for hibernation.
   4. You will get the chance to review and accept or reject any partition changes, but once accepted the changes will be written to disk immediately.
5. Select your Keyboard layout
6. Choose a username, hostname (computer name) and password. Select autologin and/or encrypted home area. If you select autologin you will be required to log in once after the installation to authenticate your credentials, then subsequent logins will happen automatically.