Sorry, ChromeOS Flex, but you ain’t gonna make it up ‘Thar wid the Sticky Posts. Just a quick test ‘n brief review.

Start here: Chrome OS Flex installation guide

Scroll down a tad for this info: USB drive – From time to time, Sandisk or other USB drives might not work as installers.

I suggest a Samsung USB…read my Linux ‘n USB Flash Drives page for more info. Basically, many USBs cannot handle the Linux ext4 format; however, this is the first time I’ve seen SanDisk mentioned, even tho I ran into problems wid SanDisk when I was testing the CloudReady OS. I used Samsung back then ‘n Samsung for this test.

Next biggie is: you need a Chrome browser (Chromium may work but I don’t remember?) and add the Chromebook Recovery Utility to it.

That should get most people to the point of being able to install ChromeOS Flex; however, one clear exception would be Jesse Smith of DistroWatch. If you get a DW 400 Bad Request by clicking the DistroWatch link, then try viewing this post wid the WordPress Reader instead. WordPress Support told me DW was blocking my posts’ links to them.

After reading all you need, then you’ll have to give them some info:

If you don’t want to give them any info then just click Chrome browser’s extensions ‘n open the Recovery Utility mentioned above.

Next – “Identify your Chromebook”:

Choose “Select a model from a list”:

That gets you Chrome OS Flex in the two drop-downs.

Next:

Insert USB or SD card ‘n then select the correct device or Google will wipe out something else ‘n make it look like this:

That was your Windows 11 drive until you selected the wrong device trying to install ChromeOS Flex! 😉 Anyway, that is what my Samsung USB looked like after installing the bootable media. If you want to reformat that ‘Thang, then I suggest getting the Gnome Disk Utility…unmount everything ‘n reformat wid GParted.

OK…back to the Recovery Utility:

I didn’t select anything here – just hit “Create now”.

Next:

It starts creating ChromeOS Flex.

When finished, then reboot and go thru the same Chrome OS process as wid a Chromebook…basically.

In fact:

It says it is the Google ChromeOS, but it is Flex.

Here’s the DE:

Conclusion

More like CloudyReady OS wid the Google stamp on it, and prepped for older equipment wid a focus (it seems?) on Enterprise installations in the Cloud. Differences between Chrome OS Flex and Chrome OS.

  • I couldn’t get the ChromeOS Flex USB bootable media to boot on two Test computers that had a Nvidia GPU; however, it booted easily on the ‘Rose‘ test computer.

I didn’t install it to a SSD or other permanent drive device, but it is easily done. If you can’t convert you expiring (AUE) Chromebook to a Linux ‘Lappy‘ then ChromeOS Flex would probably be your best solution. Otherwise, IMHO, just leave ChromeOS Flex in ‘Da Clouds! 😉

Will add this post to the Chromebooks page…

LINUX IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES – you never know what you’re gonna get!

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