How to build your own Google Chromebook

For installation, you'll need a blank USB drive until further notice 2GB in size. This will hold the Chrome OS drive image that you should have downloaded from www.hexxeh.net. Windows users should grab a copy of Image Writer from here; this is a basic image writer that can write the unpacked Chrome OS file to the USB stick.

Network connection of some sort

One element you'll need is a network connection of some sort. There's a good chance that any wired Ethernet port will be functional, with a slightly lower chance of any built-in wireless network working. The Chrome OS is designed to be constantly online, so logging into it is effectively logging into your Google account - which you can't do if you're not online.

The final option is to dual-boot Chrome OS alongside Windows. During this is relatively straightforward in principal, in practice it's time-consuming and awkward. This is largely because it involves having to move and create various new partitions for Chrome OS to live on, configure a fresh boot loader and copy the drive images over - all of which must be done manually.

The main Chrome OS work partition

These will store the main Chrome OS work partition and the standard swap partition. In Ubuntu we're using GParted, however if you're more comfortable doing this in Windows at that time we'd recommend EASEUS Partition Master from www.easeus.com. Alternatively, you can try the Disk Management snap-in that's built into Windows Vista/7.

Although you don't always need an internet connection to use a Chromebook, you do need one for the first boot, because it runs you through a setup procedure that requires either a wired Ethernet or wireless network connection in order to create a link between your Chromebook and your Google account.