We have already written a dedicated article on how to install Chrome OS on PC, but many users are looking to run Chrome OS and Windows 10 side by side. And that’s why we have brought this detailed tutorial on how to dual boot Chrome OS and Windows 10. It will allow you to have the fast performance of Chrome OS and the versatility of Windows 10 side by side. Not to mention, there is support for Play Store and Linux apps as well. Basically, the confluence of Chrome OS and Windows 10 is a win-win combination for users. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and learn how to install Chrome OS and Windows 10 on a single machine.
Dual Boot Chrome OS and Windows 10 (Updated February 2021)
Before we go ahead, I want to make it clear that the tutorial is quite technical in nature so proceed only if you are well-versed with operating multiple systems. Apart from that, this tutorial will not touch any of your Windows files, but as a matter of precaution, you should back up all your important files. One never knows when things go south. Finally, I would recommend you to go through the guide step by step and for that, we have created multiple sections for easier navigation.
Requirements
- UEFI support in the motherboard
- Support for legacy BIOS has also been added, but there are a few limitations. You can read the documentation here.
- Intel-based CPU and GPU
- Support for AMD CPU and GPU has also been added, but currently, it only supports AMD Ryzen 3XXX and AMD Stoney Ridge processors
- A USB flash drive with at least 16GB of storage space
Downloads
1. First off, download the Linux Mint Cinnamon image. You can also use other Linux distros such as Ubuntu or Debian, but since Linux Mint is pretty lightweight, I am using it in this tutorial.
2. Next, download Rufus (Free) so that we can flash Linux Mint Cinnamon on the USB drive.
3. After that, download the official Chrome OS recovery image from here. If this link is not working then you can download the image from here as well. Open the website and search for “rammus”. Now, click on the latest recovery image to download it (right now it’s 87, but it may change in the future). Here, I am recommending “rammus” because it works on modern Intel processors. However, you should follow the below rule and download the specific image based on your processor.
- “rammus” is the recommended image for devices with 4th generation Intel CPU and newer.
- “samus” is the recommended image for devices with 3rd generation Intel CPU and older.
- “zork” is the image to use for AMD Ryzen 3XXX.
- “grunt” is the image to use for AMD Stoney Ridge.
4. Now, download the most important file: Brunch. It’s a framework built by a developer named sebanc so huge thanks to him for making this project possible. The framework creates a generic Chrome OS image from the official recovery image so it can be installed on any Windows PC. To download the file, click here and look for the latest stable build and then click on “Assets”. Now, download the “tar.gz” file.
5. Finally, download the “multi_install.sh” script which magically installs Chrome OS on a Windows partition. The script has been written by Kedar Nimbalkar. To download it, click here and press Ctrl + S to save the file. If the above link is not working then you can click on this alternative link to download the “multi_install.sh” script.
Now that we are done with the downloads, let’s jump to the steps, shall we?
Manage Files
1. First of all, create a folder named “Chrome OS” on a drive that has ample space. After that, move the “multi_install.sh” file to the “Chrome OS” folder.
2. Next, right-click on the Brunch file and choose “Extract to Brunch…”. All the files will be extracted in a folder.
3. Now, move all the extracted Brunch files to the same “Chrome OS” folder.
4. Similarly, extract the official Chrome OS recovery image and you will get a folder on the desktop. Open it and rename the file to rammus_recovery.bin. If you have downloaded another image then rename it accordingly. For example, if you have downloaded the “samus” image then rename it to samus_recovery.bin.
5. Finally, move the “rammus_recovery.bin” file to the “Chrome OS” folder. By the end, you should have these 6 files inside the “Chrome OS” folder. Make a note of where you have kept the “Chrome OS” folder.
Create Partition
You need to create an “Unallocated” partition on Windows 10 which should at least have 14GB or more space. I have provided 100GB of space, but you can choose your own partition size. Having said that, make sure to follow these rules so that you don’t encounter errors during the installation process.
- Make sure the Chrome OS partition (unallocated) size is less than the drive where you have stored the Chrome OS folder. For example, I have stored the Chrome OS folder in the C drive which has 120GB of free space so I assigned 100GB to the Chrome OS partition.
- Although I have created a 100GB partition in this tutorial, I would recommend you to assign partition size in this fashion: the partition size should be divisible by 11. For example, 99000MB (99GB), 88000MB (88GB), 77000MB (77GB) and so on. I know this sounds weird, but it has worked for many users.
1. Press the Windows key once and search for “disk partition“. Now, click on the first result.
2. Here, right-click on the last drive and select “Shrink Volume”.
3. Now, enter 102400 MB which equals 100 GB or whatever your preferred size is (must be above 14GB). After that, click on “Shrink“.
4. You have successfully created an “Unallocated” partition. In the next few steps, you will be installing Chrome OS to this unallocated partition.
Flash Linux Mint Cinnamon
1. Connect your USB flash drive and open Rufus. Next, click on the “Select” button and choose the Linux Mint Cinnamon ISO image. Now, just click on “Start”. You will get a few prompts so click on “Yes” and “OK” to continue the flashing process.
2. After Rufus is done with flashing, close it. Now, plug the USB flash drive into the PC on which you want to install Chrome OS. If you are installing Chrome OS on the same PC then keep it plugged in.
3. Next, restart your PC and press the boot key continuously to boot into the UEFI/BIOS menu. If you don’t know the boot key of your PC then you can find it from the below table.
4. Once you have entered the BIOS, move to the “Boot” tab and select “UEFI” from the Boot List Option. If this option is not available then don’t worry, move to the next step.
5. After that, move to the “Security” tab and disable “Secure Boot”. Keep in mind, every BIOS has its own interface so the menu placement might differ from one PC to another. Nevertheless, look for “UEFI” and “Secure Boot” under Security, Boot, or System Configuration tabs and make the changes accordingly. Keep in mind, disabling Secure Boot is mandatory.
6. Finally, move to the “Exit” tab and choose “Exit Save Changes“. Immediately, after that, start pressing the boot key again. You will be asked to choose your boot device. Select the “USB drive” and hit enter.
7. You will boot straight into Linux Mint Cinnamon. If you are prompted with a splash screen, choose the default option: “Start Linux Mint“.
Install Chrome OS
1. Now that you have booted into Linux Mint, click on the network icon at the bottom-right corner and connect to WiFi or Ethernet. The Chrome OS installer will need an active internet connection to download some necessary libraries and dependencies.
2. Now, open “Computer” on the desktop and move to the drive where you have stored the “Chrome OS folder“.
3. Here, right-click anywhere on the window and open Terminal. Now, type sudo sh multi_install.sh and hit enter.
Note: If you are getting “read-only” or any kind of error then head over to the Troubleshoot section for help.
4. It will start downloading the necessary libraries. After that, a GParted window will automatically open up. Here, scroll down and select the “unallocated” partition (100GB). After that, click on the “Plus” button at the top menu bar.
5. Next, choose “ntfs” as the file system and click on “Add”.
6. After that, click on the “Done” button at the top menu-bar.
7. Next, click on the “Apply” button.
8. Now, make a note of partition number which starts with “sda”. For instance, mine is sda9. Finally, close the GParted window.
9. On the Terminal window, enter the partition number that you noted above and hit enter.
10. It will show you the partition detail and will ask for your confirmation. If the partition selection is correct, type yes and hit enter.
Note: If you face any error then go through the Troubleshoot section to find the solution.
11. Finally, Linux Mint will start installing Chrome OS on your Windows partition.
12. After the installation is complete, on the Terminal window, scroll up a bit and you will find a “menuentry” section. Now, select whatever is inside the “menuentry” section and copy it. You can right-click on the Terminal window to copy it.
13. Open “Computer” from the desktop again and move to C drive or any other Windows partition. Right-click and select New Document -> Empty document. Here, add .txt at the end and save it.
14. Now, open the text file and paste the commands that you copied from the terminal window. After that, save the text file.
15. You are finally done with the installation. Now, click on the start menu of Linux Mint and restart your computer. Immediately after that, remove the USB drive and you will boot directly into Windows 10 as we have one more step to do.
Dual Boot Chrome OS and Windows 10
You have successfully installed Chrome OS on a Windows partition, but you need to add Chrome OS as a bootable OS during the startup. And for that, we will use the Grub2Win application.
1. Boot into Windows 10 and download Grub2Win (Free) application. Keep in mind, the application is slightly slow so keep patience while handling it. If Grub2Win is not working then you can try EasyUEFI (Free trial for 15 days) as well.
2. During the setup on Grub2Win, keep everything as default and move forward. After that, click on “Manage Boot Menu“.
3. Here, click on “Add a New Entry“.
4. From the drop-down menu, select “submenu” and type “Chrome OS” under the Title field. Next, click on “Edit Custom Code“.
5. Here, paste the command that you copied from the Terminal and saved it in a text file. It should start with “img_part” and make sure there is no “}” at the end. Now, click on “Apply” and “OK”.
6. You have successfully added Chrome OS to the boot menu along with Windows 10. You can also move Chrome OS to the top by clicking on the “arrow” icon. Finally, click on “Apply”.
7. Now, restart your computer, and this time, you would find both Chrome OS and Windows 10 in a Grub2Win interface. Select “Chrome OS” and it will take some time to set up everything on the first run.
Note: If the Grub2Win interface is not showing up after a few bootups then move to the Troubleshoot section for resolving the issue.
8. You can now set up your Google account and enjoy Chrome OS along with Windows 10. In case, WiFi or any other hardware device is not working on Chrome OS then move to the Troubleshoot section to find a solution.
Note: Before logging into your Google account, keep in mind, you are officially not allowed to run Chrome OS with Play Store support on non-certified machines. In some ways or the other, you might be violating Google’s terms and conditions. So, I would recommend you to sign in with a secondary Google account so that your primary account remains safe.
Uninstall Chrome OS From Windows 10
If you want to uninstall Chrome OS from Windows 10 then the steps are quite easy. Just boot into Windows 10 and open Disk Management. After that, right-click on the Chrome OS partition and format it. Next, open Grub2Win and remove the Chrome OS entry and save changes. You are done.
Troubleshoot
If you are getting a “Not enough space to create image file” error then I would recommend you to follow my partition rules in “Create Partition” section. It has seemingly worked for many users.
For users who are getting “failed-to-get-canonical-path-of-cow” error, I would recommend you to not worry and move to the next step. Many users have reported that despite the error Chrome OS dual boots with Windows 10 successfully.
And if you are getting “read-only file system” error then you have most probably put the “Chrome OS” folder in the USB drive. You should store the folder in your computer’s drive. You should also disable the “Fast Startup” option in Windows 10 from Control Panel and check if you are still getting this error.
In case, you are still getting all kinds of errors then just create one more unallocated drive in Disk Management (14GB or more) and install Linux Mint on this partition. After the installation, boot into Linux Mint without the USB drive and locate the “Chrome OS” folder, and execute the script from there. I am pretty sure, you won’t face any error this time.
Apart from that, many users have complained that after the initial few bootups, the Grub2Win interface does not show up and the computer directly boots into Windows 10. It happens because Windows is overriding other EFI interfaces.
For a quick solution, you can press the boot key (F7, F8, F9, etc.) during the startup, and from there, you can select the Grub2Win EFI interface. After that, you will be presented with a multi-boot option. I know it’s a hassle to press the boot key every time during startup, but it’s a quick solution and one that works.
If you are having issues with WiFi, Bluetooth, touchscreen display, etc. then you can try adding support for your specific hardware device from the Crosh terminal. Just open Chrome on Chrome OS and press Ctrl + Alt + T to open the Crosh terminal. After that, enter shell and hit enter. Now, run sudo edit-grub-config. Here you can add support for your hardware device. You can find the complete list of commands from here.
For example, if you have an RT3290/RT3298LE Bluetooth device then you can add “options=rtbth” (with quotes) at the end of “cros_debug” and before loop.max…. Now, press Ctrl + X and press “Y”. Next, hit enter to save the file. Finally, restart your computer, and this time Bluetooth should work fine.
Similarly, if you want to fix WiFi then first you need to find out the manufacturer of the wireless card. If it’s Broadcom then add to the same line like this: “options=rtbth,broadcom_wl”. This will fix both Bluetooth and WiFi issues. You can remove rtbth if Bluetooth is already working for you. Similarly, if it’s Realtek then add “options=rtbth,rtl8188eu” or “options=rtbth,rtl8821ce”. Basically, you can add support for hardware devices in this fashion: “options=option1,option2,…” (without spaces) to activate them.
Enjoy Chrome OS and Windows 10 on a Single Machine
So that is how you can install Chrome OS on a Windows partition and boot both the operating systems on a single machine. While the steps are quite lengthy and complex, if you have dealt with Linux systems before then you can easily dual boot Windows 10 and Chrome OS. Anyway, that is all from us. If you are facing any issues then do comment down below and let us know. We will definitely try to help you out.
I’m stuck on the libparted 3.2 part, it opens my gpart, but don’t ask me to type the partition, anyone have an ideia of what to do? Tks!
The menuentry is correct for me except the 1st 2 lines. Also I have 2 of them. I have the first 2 lines of the first one as :-
menuentry “ChromeOS” {
rmmod tpm
The second one:-
menuentry “ChromeOS (debug mode)” {
rmmod tpm
Any ideas to fix this problem?
just copy first one, start with img bla bla
To those people who have AMD devices I’ve installed the Chrome OS on my Acer Nitro 5 with Ryzen 5 3550H and it works fine. I’ve downloaded the ZORK file instead based on in instructions.
One step I had trouble though was on the partition part once I booted the device on Linux because I kept getting the name of the partition as ‘nvmeOnp4’ not ‘dev/sd4’ or something like that and installing Chrome OS didn’t work. What I did was click the drop down button on the right side and select the drive D where I made the partition and it worked.
I also had to turn off Fast Boot on my Windows power plan settings so that the GRUB2WIN startup will show up.
One thing I noticed though is that I couldn’t seem to download the latest version of the OS which was 89 from the version 87 I have installed. I still couldn’t figure out how.
bcuz the brunch version doesn’t support it
Can you please give me a Google Drive link for downloading? I am facing some problems while downloading it.
As I understood now, the greate script of Kedar Nimbalkar works good IF:
The partition for installation must be sdX (sda, sdb, sdc and so on) between 1-4 (for ex: sda1, sda2 . . .). if you partition name is something like “nvme0n1p7”, this script gives you different errors.
But even in such case there’s a universal way out: You must install Chrome OS on external usb-HDD, where you may create a partition with name sda1(for ex.) of the same size wich is on your internal hard drive. After finnishing of the script you can get “chromos.img” file with immage of your Chrome OS and “chromos.img.grub.txt” with strings for Grub4win. Now copy “chromos.img” to your internal hard drive patition and while settin up Grub4win you must edit Chrome OS loadin item. The string something like “img_part=/dev/sda1” could look like “img_part=/dev/nvme0n1p7”. After restarting your PC Chome OS will be installed on your new partition and will work great.
And some more details: There’s only one correct name for bin-file in script – “rammus_recovery.bin”. Rename your bin-file so.
And one more thing. The partition which you’re going to use for installation must be unmounted.
When i was installing the OS my partition name was nvme0n1p8 and the greate script of Kedar Nimbalkar worked like a charm. So i have to disagree with you.
the latest update to Kedar Nimbalkar’s script added support for nvme0n1 devices, so this was a great workaround until it was made obsolete
can i use zork for amd 4xxx ? i’m use ryzen 3 4300u
I don’t know but i read some where that it can be used on AMD Ryzen 4xxx.
The Brunch official website is down. It is saying “Brunch website is under maintenance. Please check again later.”(Last updated on 3rd Jan). Also, when I am trying to download Brunch from GitHub, the file is downloading a little and then it is saying “Failed-Forbidden”. Any ideas to solve this problem??
tui ki bangali naki bara?
The Brunch official website is down. It is saying “Brunch website is under maintenance. Please check again later.”(Last updated on 3rd Jan). Also, when I am trying to download Brunch from GitHub, the file is downloading a little and then it is saying “Failed-Forbidden”. Any ideas to solve this problem??
To resolve “Not enough space to create image file” isuue, I put space before and after partition… Worked for me. After several attempts, finally figured trying this, and it worked…
Hello Rodney,
Will you please share more details on this, I am facing same issue & not able to resolve the same.
I was facing the same issue “Not Enough space to create image file”, I was using 16GB Ubuntu live Usb to install ChromeOS, I noticed that when i created the bootable usb using Rufus it gave me less than 3GB to store the file on USB. So i completely installed the Ubuntu on my laptop and tried to install again and it worked..
Hey, there is a new recovery for ryzen CPUS called Zork, I don´t know if it will work with older versions of ryzen.
I don’t know how much older you are talking about but it work perfectly on Ryzen 3rd gen. i am using Ryzen 3550H.
What should be minimum hardware requirements for this?
a potato
i use a ginger tho
Your Grandparent’s PC will work fine.
Even after following the exact same steps and partition way as yours , i get the error “failed-to-get-canonical-path-of-cow” . What can i do ?
In this case you have to install Linux Mint as a Dual boot on the computer itself (for example: Windows 10 with Linux Mint), not as a bootable stick. Why? The stick is only mounted as readable only
In this case you have to install Linux Mint as a Dual boot on the computer itself (for example: Windows 10 with Linux Mint), not as a bootable stick. And procede as instructed above
I got this error. However used the live version of elementary OS, and it worked installed the chromeos. Tried a lot of other Linux versions first without success
I used the live version of elementary os too, but I have errors during the installation:
Not enough space to create image file
Copy the above grub menu entry in grub customizer
sudo: grub-customizer: command not found
CAN ANY ONE PLEASE HELP ME?
I was getting the same error but on Live version of Ubuntu, so i installed the Ubuntu on my laptop and it worked.
Can you use Windows PE as well?
HOW TO DOWNLOAD .EXE FILE OF ANY APPLICATION
after first reboot and chosen chrome os to boot from
there is a error message
ERROR : no suitable video mode found.
booting in blind mode
*nb: i have 2 hard desk in my laptop ssd and hdd
windows on ssd
and 100gb , 60gb i created them on hdd
me too
In the Grub2Win Software change the resolution to 1024×768 or 1366×768
this didn’t work for me, is there any other way to fix this?
at worked. Will research on having a few more issues on the installation. At times it just gets stuck at installing Windows when it gets to “Getting files for installation” and sometimes when redoing the complete setup again, I get “No bootable deivce”.
any update on this error? “failed-to-get-canonical-path-of-cow”
I got the same error but I ignored it and the system works for me
I ignored this error and it works properly for me
im only 6 years old im i alowd to play umong us
Check if you are not getting any other error in terminal, if not and your installation is complete just ignore it.
How come You have a 6 Files in a folder CHROME OS after You extracted Brunch files.
I extracted Brunch files and… I only have 1 file ( brunch_r81_k4.19_stable_20200510 ), WHY?
That’s a folder. You take those files and cut and paste them into chrome os folder. Boom now 6 items. You’re welcome
Help. In terminal, I put ntfs but it’s always in logical drive, I can’t switch to primary partition. And it all goes well till I want to boot Chrome OS. It starts, and then restarts and boot windows again. BTW on Grub I don’t see windows boot, just Chrome OS. Can you help me?
Great guide. Thanks. I was successful until the last step. When I try to install Grub2Win, I receive the error message “The minimum allowed display size is 1024 x 768. The current display setting is 1280 x 720”. This is incorrect as my current display resolution is 1920 x 1080
How do I bypass this error?
i am having the same issue
Change the resolution of your computer display to 1024 x 768 in settings and install it. After that, change it back to normal.
Try to set scaling in display settings to 100%. After installation you can set it to recommended again.
Can I do the same with a Win 7 machine?
Of course, why not?
i cannot install grub2win in my window 10 seems like the app is broken
do we have an alternative beside grub2win?
Hi thanks for the guide!
I have successfully installed chrome os on my hp laptop but there is no sound coming out from the speaker, however the earphone does work when connected, does anyone have a clue?
Can You Help Me?
It’s Said Its A Read-Only File System
I had the same problem when installing ChromeOS from within linux mint
What I done was made the file read write and it fixed my problem
On a HP stream machine
How did you make it writeable?
I did everything and after I click on Chrome OS in the Grub2Win boot menu I get the message: “GNU Grub is now loading Chrome OS”, then the computer reboots directly into Windows, what can I do?