GalliumOS
Chrome hardware
GalliumOS was a Linux distribution for ChromeOS devices, developed by the community-supported GalliumOS project. The distribution was made for Chrome hardware including Chromebook, Chromebox, Chromebit and Chromebase. GalliumOS beta1 was released on 10 November 2015.
As of 2022, the GalliumOS project has been discontinued. Its wiki advises existing GalliumOS users to migrate to another Linux OS due to security hazards.
01Features
GalliumOS was based on Xubuntu and maintained compatibility with the Ubuntu repositories. Multiple sources indicate that Gallium's boot time was faster than other Linux distributions made for ChromeOS. It was optimized to limit stalls and had integrated touchpad drivers.
GalliumOS was compatible with some ChromeOS devices. It was necessary to prepare the device in different ways based on the hardware chipset.
02Prerequisites
Some Chromebooks require a third-party firmware update before they can boot other operating systems, including GalliumOS. Chromebook firmware can be updated after disabling hardware write-protect, a process that varies by model. A firmware installer script is available for most models, written by MrChromebox.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “GalliumOS”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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