Abstract:

As a newer ChromiumOS (like Neverware Cloudready) can't be installed in a VirtualBox environment, Neverware only provides OVA-Files for VMWare. Sure, VMWare Player is freely available, but i don't want to install another virtualization software to get Cloudready running. The root cause of this problem is the new "Freon" graphics subsystem of ChromiumOS/Cloudready.

Prerequisites:

A previous version of Cloudready could only be started in Virtualbox using the 32-Bit Image. I have started directly with the 64-Bit image. Download the Image directly from neverware.com and extract the zip file to a location accessible by KVM.

I am not going into correct configuration of virt-manager and KVM, but there are some good tutorials out there (e.g. ubuntuusers wiki in german).

Configuration:

Create a new Virtual Machine in virt-manager

Create a new generic machine and create a new virtual image. Don't use the BIN file as a CD-ROM image (it does not work).

 

Do some further configuration

At first, switch BIOS to UEFI. You could leave chipset on i440FX, I have not tested Q35 yet.

Then, make the Disk configuration:

Disk 1: 20 GB clean image, SATA

Disk 2: Cloudready RAW image, SATA

Mouse, keyboard: Generic USB

Graphics: VirtIO works best for me

Boot order: Disk 2, then disk 1

Install CloudReady:

Boot CloudReady, then install it. The installer automatically shuts down the VM after installation process.

Before starting the system again, remove SATA Disk 2 (cloudready live image) and change the boot order to SATA disk 1 exclusively. The system should start without issues.

Issues so far:

• Can't set screen resolution

Not tested:

• Bluetooth
• WLAN