Chromebook Acer C720P getting Google Play Store with Chrome OS 65+ recovery from USB.

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nabil2000

Senior Member
Sep 12, 2005
521
149
London
It is possible to get Google Play Store perfectly running on Acer CB C720P,
off the USB 3.0 port using a USB 3.0 bootable stick with the recovery rom for Acer Chromebook R11 - it needs adjustments, & a version of Chromium OS above 55 like https://www.dropbox.com/s/kebu46foi6quu96/Camd64OS_R55-8777.0-Special.7z?dl=0
(use WIndows Diskimager to map it to usb stick, then expand the data partition file system to use up all the disk)

A great how-to for this method & the chromefy method is in post 163 by Hnk1,
https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=78806350&postcount=163

https://xdaforums.com/hardware-hack...er-c720p-getting-google-t3805304/post78806350
Request : Can you put the link (one I mentioned above, post # 163 )in the first post mate ? So more people can install it on their CB and it will be easier to see. What you reckon?

Do not use this, latest cyan Acer C720P CB will not allow booting. Acer & Google teamed up to block this hack -
New recovery roms as per June 2018: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0lh7zamkntisdum/recovery2018_2.conf?dl=0
https://twitter.com/meNabster/status/1012024823885844488
https://twitter.com/inabster/status/1012029701119004673

Use this -
Recovery roms links as per May 2018 in this link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zje8hlg7fmvp48d/recovery_2008.conf?dl=0

Up to date recovery roms are here:
https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chromeos/recovery/recovery.conf

& adapting this script I hacked:

sudo apt-get install cgpt
# this is if you are doing it from a linux distro or via crouton, cgpt is available natively in the chronos shell...

image_file=chromeos_5841.98.0_link_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v4.bin # the rom you need is cyan for Acer Chromebook R11 (CB5-132T / C738T)

rootfs_start="`cgpt show -i 3 -n -b -q $image_file`"

rootfs_size="`cgpt show -i 3 -n -s -q $image_file`"

mkdir chrome_efi_mount

sudo mount /dev/sdb12 chrome_efi_mount -t vfat

mkdir chromium_efi_mount

sudo mount -ro loop,offset=$((`cgpt show -i 12 -n -b -q $image_file`*512)) $image_file chromium_efi_mount

sudo cp chromium_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B chrome_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B -f

sudo cp chromium_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B chrome_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.A -f

sudo umount chrome_efi_mount

sudo umount chromium_efi_mount

sudo dd if=$image_file of=/dev/sdb3 bs=512 skip=$rootfs_start count=$rootfs_size

Sorry for now too lazy to write a full step by step how to...

Here are exhibits on my twitter feed
https://twitter.com/inabster/status/1007856882738978816
 
Last edited:

guyome

Member
Mar 22, 2015
43
16
Hello,

The link to download the rom on dropbox was truncated - can you post it as code ?

Thanks.
 

nabil2000

Senior Member
Sep 12, 2005
521
149
London
Hello,

The link to download the rom on dropbox was truncated - can you post it as code ?

Thanks.

The link to recovery_2008.conf is in dropbox, I can access it, so should you.
look up for the rom link in the recovery_2008.conf file.

as I suspect you are lazy, here is the entry:

name=Acer Chromebook R11 (CB5-132T / C738T)
version=10323.62.0
desc=
channel=stable-channel
hwidmatch=^CYAN .*
hwid=
md5=27ae1147ec3984f698a7b7d17a19b676
sha1=e570292bb40155d9de96369e3c9f493369bbc7b5
zipfilesize=1100976852
file=chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin
filesize=2271232512
url=https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chromeos/recovery/chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin.zip
 

nabil2000

Senior Member
Sep 12, 2005
521
149
London
misc notes Google Play Store on USB stick Acer C720P

Some notes:
Kernel versions -

Official Kernel for Acer Chromebook C720P: (no Play Store)
Linux localhost 3.8.11 #1 SMP Sat Jun 16 19:11:45 PDT 2018 x86_64 Intel(R) Celeron(R) 2955U @ 1.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Official Kernel for Acer Chromebook R11 (CB5-132T / C738T) after Play Store update (which is already in the recovery rom):
Linux localhost 3.18.0-16509-gfd728222c3ad-dirty #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Mar 20 23:42:10 PDT 2018 x86_64 Intel(R) Celeron(R) 2955U @ 1.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Official Kernel for Asus Chromebit CS10 as per latest update: (no Play Store yet, though planned)
Linux localhost 3.14.0 #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Jun 15 04:13:16 PDT 2018 armv7l ARMv7 Processor rev 1 (v7l) Rockchip (Device Tree) GNU/Linux

To me Google is playing to force consumers to buy newer machines, it's a capitalist move, Play Store runs perfectly on Acer C720P, & Google Chrome OS is far more stable & snappy than with Kernel 3.8 they want to keep.

It will be cool if a good firmware coder could flash the firmware of C720P making it look like an Acer CB R11 - that will allow to install the R11 recovery rom onto the C720P SSD - so not having to go through putting it on a usb stick, though personally, it doesn't bother me.

This would be redundant if Google + Acer decide to officially support C720P - instead of being greedy.
https://twitter.com/inabster/status/1008526962439147520

Here are exhibits on my twitter feed
https://twitter.com/inabster/status/1007856882738978816
 
Last edited:

guyome

Member
Mar 22, 2015
43
16
Hello,

Thank you for your answer, but I was speaking of this link : https://www.dropbox.com/s/kebu46foi6...pecial.7z?dl=0

Regards

---------- Post added at 10:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:01 AM ----------

Ok, I found the recovery rom for Acer R11 thanks to your post - it was indeed in the conf file.

After, I put this Rom on a usb stick with Windows Diskimager - Ok

Then, I enter the recovery mode on the C720P by holding the Esc and Refresh keys then pressing the power button, and I restore the image on the USB key, so the Acer R11 image - OK

After, what do I do ? Restart the C720P ? Where should I use your script lines ?

Thanks !
 

nabil2000

Senior Member
Sep 12, 2005
521
149
London

nabil2000

Senior Member
Sep 12, 2005
521
149
London
The odd bit:
Image recovery for C740 does not work, even though C720 & C740 are very similar.
Also using latest chromium OS 67 (arnoldthebat) will not work.
What I got working is Chrome OS R11 recovery with the arnoldthebat chromium OS rom I linked to above, others might work, but I posted what was successful, so I provided the links to them on my dropbox.

https://twitter.com/inabster/status/1009289981024702466
! @arnoldthebat latest special build Camd64OS_R67-10575.B-Special doesn't boot on Acer W700 hybrid tablet, Apple Macbook Air 2011, and Acer CB C720P (+only efi no mbr) -
your old build Camd64OS_R55-8777.0-Special works on all (efi+mbr) - I use it for this: https://xdaforums.com/hardware-hack...er-c720p-getting-google-t3805304#post76864776
 
Last edited:

guyome

Member
Mar 22, 2015
43
16
Thanks for the dropbox link
Ok, if I have understood everything :
- I install chromium OS on the USB key - the file is the one on Dropbox Camd64OS_R55-8777.0-Special.7z
- I copy the recovery image of the Acer R11 - link provided in the conf file - so chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin
- I boot the chromebook, and plug the USB Key
- I launch a shell session (no need to be in developpper mode ?)
- I execute your script lines but should not the second line be "image_file=chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin" instead of "image_file=chromeos_5841.98.0_link_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v4.bin" , so the name of the downloaded recovery image ?

Thank you for your answers
 
Last edited:

nabil2000

Senior Member
Sep 12, 2005
521
149
London
Of course -
image_file=chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin

Thanks for the dropbox link
Ok, if I have understood everything :
- I install chromium OS on the USB key - the file is the one on Dropbox Camd64OS_R55-8777.0-Special.7z
- I copy the recovery image of the Acer R11 - link provided in the conf file - so chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin
- I boot the chromebook, and plug the USB Key
- I launch a shell session (no need to be in developpper mode ?)
- I execute your script lines but should not the second line be "image_file=chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin" instead of "image_file=chromeos_5841.98.0_link_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v4.bin" , so the name of the downloaded recovery image ?

Thank you for your answers
 

guyome

Member
Mar 22, 2015
43
16
And I have to boot on the usb stick with chromium ? With CTRL+U starting in developper mode ?
 
Last edited:

lunchplease

Senior Member
Feb 22, 2012
138
25
Realme 6 Pro
Wow I can't believe this! Can't wait to try on mine. I always thought it would be able to get android play store/apps on it! Waiting to see how it all works out and will try to install soon. Thanks so much to the OP for this, so stoked to see someone has managed to do this!

---------- Post added at 01:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:05 PM ----------

And I have to boot on the usb stick with chromium ? With CTRL+U starting in developper mode ?
How'd you get on installing this? Did you get it up and running?
 

guyome

Member
Mar 22, 2015
43
16
I am trying to find how it works for the moment - I think I know almost all the steps to be done
 

lunchplease

Senior Member
Feb 22, 2012
138
25
Realme 6 Pro
I am trying to find how it works for the moment - I think I know almost all the steps to be done
Please let me know if/when successful. I believe I understand it in the main, but waiting to hear re your question whether we need the Chromebook in dev mode. Mine currently is as have Linux xfce on it as well as the stock dev chrome OS image. I assume though that as this installs on the USB as opposed to the internal SSD, that chances of breaking the Chromebook as pretty remote, as you can pull the USB and go back to the internal SSD...I await your attempt! :cowboy::)
 

guyome

Member
Mar 22, 2015
43
16
I think that you have to boot on the USB key containing Chromium OS and the image file you want to deploy, and then execute the command lines in a shell in order to install the image on the Chromebook. After, you should be able to remove the USB key and to boot on the SSD with the new deployed image (one of Acer R11)
 

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    SOME NOTES, BACKGROUND and BASICS
    I only have made instructions more user friendly and writing my experience to help the community as when I started, it took me more than a week to get everything sorted out although I am quite familiar with chromebook and android. I have put links within text (orange colour) to make links more user friendly and this guide neater.

    I have intended to write this guide so that not only C720P users can benefit from it but also for other devices which lack android / linux support on their chromeboks. However, non chromebook users can benefit from it as well by using the second method or following Project Croissant.

    There are essentially two methods/ hacks which work with C720P which I know. All credits to @nabil2000 and Project Croissant @alesimula to make it possible.


    The method one is intended for chromebooks only whereas method two is intended to work on all devices and you can check the link mentioned in the name below.

    The first method was found by @nabil2000. In essence this method simply takes your chromebook image/ custom chromeos as base and uses another chromebook bin to overwrite the files, adding new ones and making it possible for old devices without android or linux support to run google play store and crostini.

    The second method works beyond chromebooks and can run on to almost any device which can be booted via a USB. There is a separate thread for it Project Croissant Link. However, I will also mention in easy steps how I used chromefy (Project Croissant).

    PRE REQUISITES FOR BOTH METHODS
    1. Chromebook running developer mode
    Turn it off and then press Esc+ Refresh+Power
    Ctrl+D to disable chromeos verification off
    This will reset your device so backup everything in advance.

    2. Enabling USB boot + Legacy Boot
    In your Chromebook, Open crouton (ctrl+alt+T)
    Type
    Code:
    Shell 
    
    sudo crossystem dev_boot_usb=1 dev_boot_legacy=1
    
    sudo crossystem dev_boot_usb=1
    Restart and this will enable usb boot

    METHOD 1


    METHOD 1 BASICS USEFUL FOR OTHER CHROMEBOOK USERS
    So the trick is to choose an IMG which supports your device hardware drivers, that's why special builds on ATB are preferred than vanilla ones, while FydeOS 5.3.1 also has a very wide range of driver support.

    Once you have choosen the IMG file, look for a BIN file which has GOOGLE PLAY STORE SUPPORT if you are looking for that, or Google Play Store and Linux if you are looking for both.

    So if you have a Dell 3120 which does not have both, look for a device which has google play store and Crostini and is very similar to Dell 3120 and choose that BIN. However, strangely EVE CAROLINE have more success rate than other builds.
    Another thing note mentioning is that suppose if you are using IMG base as 70, even using BIN file of 71 and 69 yields some great results. However, i think that using all three of same version might yield best results (i had similar success with different versions but YMMV)

    You just need to follow the same method for other devices and you only need to change bin file names and location (sdb sdc etc) in the script after you have chosen IMG and BIN files as close as possible for your devices.

    C720 METHOD
    Requirements

    1. A custom IMG (fyde /ATB/ your chromebook as base)
    2. A software like rufus/windows image write to write that image to a usb
    3. 1 or 2 USBs , 16gb are enough and for older versions even 8 gb is enough
    4. BIN file
    [/LIST]

    STEPS
    1. Write IMG of your choice to a USB ( ATB version 55 Special ) Download CYAN.bin
    2. Place the cyan.bin in your chromebook download folder or you can use a separate usb. I prefer it in chromebook download folder
    Ctrl+Alt+ T and type
    Code:
    shell
    move to your download folder using crouton by
    Code:
    cd home/chronos/user/Downloads     where D is case sensitive
    once you are there, check if your file is in the same folder. This will show your bin file name.
    Code:
    ls

    3.Type the following commands[/B]

    if you rename your file, make sure to rename it in the following command line as well. In my case it is chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin
    Also, make sure your name your usb sdb accordingly. The last command will take some time so be patient.

    Code:
    rootfs_start="`cgpt show -i 3 -n -b -q chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin`"
    
    rootfs_size="`cgpt show -i 3 -n -s -q chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin`"
    
    mkdir chrome_efi_mount
    
    sudo mount /dev/sdb12 chrome_efi_mount -t vfat
    
    mkdir chromium_efi_mount
    
    sudo mount -ro loop,offset=$((`cgpt show -i 12 -n -b -q chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin`*512)) chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin chromium_efi_mount
    
    sudo cp chromium_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B chrome_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B -f
    
    sudo cp chromium_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B chrome_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.A -f
    
    sudo umount chrome_efi_mount
    
    sudo umount chromium_efi_mount
    
    sudo dd if=chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin of=/dev/sdb3 bs=512 skip=$rootfs_start count=$rootfs_size

    Once everything is done, turn off your PC and use ctrl U to boot from the USB. If everything working and all drivers are working well for your device, you can think of even writing your USB to your SSD. Intructions are after method 2


    METHOD 2
    Requirements
    1.Fyde 5.3.img
    2.Caroline 71.bin
    3.Cyan 71.bin
    4.Chromefy.sh
    5.Chromebook running developer mode which has usb boot enabled + legacy. Instructions above
    6. A live Linux usb. I prefer Ubuntu . You can use 8gb usb for this.

    Remember , You'll need at least 16gb usb for this to work on C720. I suggest use a good usb like sandisk extreme 16gb. I had two Kingston D50 3.0 but after few writes on them, they were dead. (Were easily claimed under warranty)
    However, an old SanDisk 2.0 cruzer blade and 16gb Kingston s9 2.0 survived many writes. So I suggest that get a usb which is 3.0 as it'll take less time to write and boot.

    STEPS
    1.Put all of above in a usb (fyde Caroline Cyan and chromefy) and connect it to your c720 running developer mode.
    2. Ctrl+Alt+T and you will be into crouton
    3. Type the following
    Code:
    shell
    sudo  bash  chromefy.sh  Fyde53.img  cyan71.bin  caroline71.bin
    It will start a script and may take up to 30 minutes. Answer N when prompted in the end. This will write all changes from bin files to your IMG.

    4.Once it is done, copy Fyde53 (or whatever the name was of your IMG) from USB and using either RUFUS / WINDOWS IMAGE BURNER to burn it on a USB having at least 16gb space.
    5. Once you have it burnt on a USB , boot with it by pressing ctrl+u
    6. Check if everything is working out and check playstore and everything is to your liking before you can think of writing it to your SSD.

    You'll notice that in your USB from which you are booting, it doesn't show the actual size of the disk.
    I suggest ignore it for now and you may write chromeos from your usb to your SSD.

    WRITING TO YOUR SSD FROM A WORKING USB
    Make sure you boot from the usb while trying to do this.

    1. In crouton , ctrl alt+t, first see the partitions by
    Code:
    Shell
    Lsblk
    2. Check which is sda and which is sdb etc . Usually SSD is sda while usb could be sdb or sdc . Make sure you check well.
    3.Next , check if your SSD partition size is larger than your usb. This is important because if the size is not same or less than usb size, it may end with errors. In my case, my usb was 28.2gb and my SSD was 29.2Gb. in your case, if your SSD actual size is 15.0Gb , make sure your usb is no larger than 15. Even 14.9 is fine else it may end up with errors.
    4. Type this command which will start writing from usb to ssd
    Code:
    sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda bs=4MB
    This will end in few minutes. Do NOT STOP IN THE MIDDLE OR SHUT DOWN your PC while this is happening because it can potentially damage your SSD and you may need to buy a new one.

    5.Once this is done, you be running chromeos using ctrl +D from SSD.

    Now the issue of internal memory needs to be sorted.

    I used different Linux flavours (latest even ) to resize ssd partitions. You just need to resize your state partition to maximum size by using Linux gparted live usb. However, there is a very good chance you'll end up loosing attributes making your SSD non bootable. Thus you'll need to add the attributes back to your partitions by booting chromeos from the usb. I suggest before doing this, make sure you try it on a USB to see you can make it bootable again after resizing.

    To check your attributes, after shell in Chromebook crouton or in Linux if cgpt is installed,

    Code:
    cgpt show -d /dev/sda
    where sda is your ssd
    Kern-A will have attributes before resizing your disk and after that, they may be lost so you'll need to add by

    Code:
    cgpt add -i 1 -S 1 -T 5 -P 10 -l KERN-A /dev/sda2
    Where sda2 refers to kernel A partition when using cgpt show command.

    Once done , recheck and see that successful has 1 attribute. If yes, your SSD can boot on its own


    Reboot to check

    @nygmam

    On mrchromebox, you can have everything working with android 9, camera migration, google assistant and linux
    Steps here
    4
    Does Camd64OS_R55-8777.0-Special.7z already contain the chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin recovery, or do I still need to use the script in the original post to add it to sdb3? if not, why not to include it there in the first place? Or is this allows to inject recovery for different devices? What is in sdb3 of the 7z by default?

    ---------- Post added at 11:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:01 AM ----------

    Today I got my first Chromebook - grabbed Acer C720 from eBay. I have 0 experience with Chrome os so had to figure few things out. Here is what I did to get google play store working on my c720 with the touchscreen. All the credit is to the nabil2000. I just collected all he said in one post. Please correct me if i got things wrong:
    1) Download and install win32diskimager-1.0.0-install.exe
    https://ayera.dl.sourceforge.net/project/win32diskimager/Archive/win32diskimager-1.0.0-install.exe

    2) Download extract and write to USB stick:
    Camd64OS_R55-8777.0-Special.7z
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/kebu46foi6quu96/Camd64OS_R55-8777.0-Special.7z?dl=0
    Use 7zip to extract IMG file from the downloaded file.
    Use Win32 Image Writer, then select the IMG file and select the USB device from the menu.
    Click on “Write”.

    3) Download and extract:
    chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin.zip
    https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chr....0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin.zip
    Also, @nabil2000 says you can use this one now:
    https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chr....0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin.zip

    4a) on ChromeOS
    press ctrl + alt + T and this brings you to what's called the crosh shell (command prompt or terminal) on a Chromebook. It'll now launch in a separate tab of the Chrome browser. Once the crosh shell has launched, you'll type “shell” to get to the root Linux shell from within your Chrome Browser

    CTRL-C to copy and CTRL-Shift-V to paste into the terminal

    4b) On Ubuntu machine:
    sudo apt-get install cgpt

    5) Create the script file:
    vi /tmp/myscript.sh
    # Get rid of the space in the first line in "stable" - no idea why xda forum injects a space there:
    image_file=chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin
    or the line below ,depending on which one you got in step 3
    image_file=chromeos_10575.58.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin
    rootfs_start="`cgpt show -i 3 -n -b -q $image_file`"
    rootfs_size="`cgpt show -i 3 -n -s -q $image_file`"
    mkdir chrome_efi_mount
    sudo mount /dev/sdb12 chrome_efi_mount -t vfat
    mkdir chromium_efi_mount
    sudo mount -ro loop,offset=$((`cgpt show -i 12 -n -b -q $image_file`*512)) $image_file chromium_efi_mount
    sudo cp chromium_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B chrome_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B -f
    sudo cp chromium_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B chrome_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.A -f
    sudo umount chrome_efi_mount
    sudo umount chromium_efi_mount
    sudo dd if=$image_file of=/dev/sdb3 bs=512 skip=$rootfs_start count=$rootfs_size

    6) Copy .bin file to the same folder as a script
    At this point I assume your recovery .bin file should be located in the same folder as the script
    cp /media/samba_share/Downloads/c720/*.bin .
    7) verify that your usb stick is indeed /dev/sdb using dmesg

    8) run the script - on ubuntu I used
    bash -x myscript.sh

    9) to boot from USB you probably need to follow steps 1&3 (not sure if you need step 2) from here http://www.fascinatingcaptain.com/blog/dual-boot-chrome-os-and-linux/
    from the shell:
    sudo crossystem dev_boot_usb=1 dev_boot_legacy=1
    sudo enable_dev_usb_boot

    my system already came shipped with developers mode on, so I have not had to do step 1

    10)Boot from USB stick
    Unmount and remove that flash drive and insert it into one of your Chromebooks USB ports. Boot the device and then, at the startup screen, press Ctrl+l to boot from the legacy BIOS. When prompted, hit Esc to enter the boot menu and select 1 for the USB drive

    At that point my Chromebook booted and I have google play store. Everything is pretty slow, but I think this is due to the old and slow USB stick. I will now buy a faster low profile one. IS my USB stick now my storage. I have very little storage (about 3GB) after booting from USB. How can I expand it if I have a 32 GB stick? Any recommendations on the USB stick to use?

    >There's a more recent ROM (v66) that can be used to load Google Chrome OS with Play Store on USB of hybrid tablet Acer Iconia W700
    Does this also apply to c720?
    3
    Hi mate
    I have been following your updates for a while. Thanks a lot mate for updates and all your work.

    I was wondering, what is the best combo till now for c720P in which i can use google play and crostini ?
    I have managed to run play store from usb from your guide and want to have it on hard drive. What are my options ?

    Thanks alot

    The best combo so far for Acer CB C720P is FydeOS 5.3 with cyan R70 caroline R70 - you get everything working... but no google assistant as this is R71, which is not yet released for cyan - Acer CB R11 (cyan) is closest match to C720P.

    I never install to internal SSD, but if I wanted to, I will boot to a Linux live USB (ubuntu 18.04) and do:
    $ sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda bs=4M
    with /dev/sda the internal SSD & /dev/sdb the usb stick that holds a working Chrome OS I chromefied to.

    PS & NB - make sure you saved a recovery USB for your CB in case you bork it...
    Also if you did not know, this is how identify disk drives /dev/sdx (x=a,b,c...)
    $sudo fdisk -l
    3
    [CHROMEFY] Install official Chrome OS w/ Android & crostini for Acer Chromebook C720P

    1. You need two USB sticks with arnoldthebat Chromiusm OS enhanced R69 special build - get it here:
    https://arnoldthebat.co.uk/wordpress/chromiumos-special-builds/
    Using windisk imager, image the 2 sticks with the Chromium OS.
    One stick (with Chromium OS r69) will be to boot to from USB, the other stick (or SSD) will be to install Chrome OS to.

    N.B. The target install partition to hold Chrome OS ROOT-A /dev/sdc3 in my case, needs to be resized to at least 4GB (from 2 GB) -
    I used gparted gui from a Ubuntu livecd to resize it, expand it by 2048MB,
    this requires to rezise/move the /dev/sdc1 partition to the right by 2048MB, then resize /dev/sdc3 by expanding it by 2048MB.

    2. Boot up to the installation/configuration stick (from above) & download the chromefy.sh script from
    https://github.com/imperador/chromefy/releases/tag/v1.1
    to a folder in~/Downloads
    (specifics left to you)

    3. Download from Google repository these two recovery images
    fizz
    chromeos_10895.78.0_fizz_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v8.bin.zip
    caroline
    chromeos_10895.78.0_caroline_recovery_stable-channel_mp.bin.zip

    url addresses in first post of this thread...

    unzip both bin images to a folder in ~/Downloads
    (specifics left to you)

    4. Determine which is the location of the second USB stick you want as target (it has the second Chromium OS you imaged earlier)
    In my case it is /dev/sdc
    (/dev/sda is the internal, /dev/sdb is the Chromium OS you booted into & are working from)

    5. from a shell (ctlt-alt-t)
    $ shell
    $ cd ~/Downloads
    $ sudo df # (or sudo fdisk -l) to determine disk target
    $ sudo bash chromefy.sh /dev/sdc3 chromeos_10895.78.0_fizz_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v8.bin chromeos_10895.78.0_caroline_recovery_stable-channel_mp.bin

    that's it - it will do its thing, then ask you to reboot...
    remove the 1st usb stick, replace it with the 2nd usb stick, boot from it
    & you have, hopefully, a fully working Chrome OS with Linux Kernel 4.14, Android & crostini enabled...

    ack & greets, respect to anoldthebat & the chromefy team for making this possible...

    small caveat - you cannot root android in this setup as trying to make the system r/w wrecks the setup - welcome to solve this ;)

    NB & PS -
    It might be a good idea to use the combo cyan / caroline first in 5) to start with to make sure to avoid the blank screen described below for Acer Chromebook C720P...
    3
    Does Camd64OS_R55-8777.0-Special.7z already contain the chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin recovery, or do I still need to use the script in the original post to add it to sdb3? if not, why not to include it there in the first place? Or is this allows to inject recovery for different devices? What is in sdb3 of the 7z by default?

    ---------- Post added at 11:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:01 AM ----------

    Today I got my first Chromebook - grabbed Acer C720 from eBay. I have 0 experience with Chrome os so had to figure few things out. Here is what I did to get google play store working on my c720 with the touchscreen. All the credit is to the nabil2000. I just collected all he said in one post. Please correct me if i got things wrong:
    1) Download and install win32diskimager-1.0.0-install.exe
    https://ayera.dl.sourceforge.net/project/win32diskimager/Archive/win32diskimager-1.0.0-install.exe

    2) Download extract and write to USB stick:
    Camd64OS_R55-8777.0-Special.7z
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/kebu46foi6quu96/Camd64OS_R55-8777.0-Special.7z?dl=0
    Use 7zip to extract IMG file from the downloaded file.
    Use Win32 Image Writer, then select the IMG file and select the USB device from the menu.
    Click on “Write”.

    3) Download and extract:
    chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin.zip
    https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chr....0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin.zip

    4a) on chromeos
    press ctrl + alt + T and this brings you to what's called the crosh shell (command prompt or terminal) on a Chromebook. It'll now launch in a separate tab of the Chrome browser. Once the crosh shell has launched, you'll type “shell” to get to the root Linux shell from within your Chrome Browser

    CTRL-C to copy and CTRL-Shift-V to paste into terminal

    4b) On Ubuntu machine:
    sudo apt-get install cgpt

    5) Create the script file:
    vi /tmp/myscript.sh
    image_file=chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin
    rootfs_start="`cgpt show -i 3 -n -b -q $image_file`"
    rootfs_size="`cgpt show -i 3 -n -s -q $image_file`"
    mkdir chrome_efi_mount
    sudo mount /dev/sdb12 chrome_efi_mount -t vfat
    mkdir chromium_efi_mount
    sudo mount -ro loop,offset=$((`cgpt show -i 12 -n -b -q $image_file`*512)) $image_file chromium_efi_mount
    sudo cp chromium_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B chrome_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B -f
    sudo cp chromium_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B chrome_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.A -f
    sudo umount chrome_efi_mount
    sudo umount chromium_efi_mount
    sudo dd if=$image_file of=/dev/sdb3 bs=512 skip=$rootfs_start count=$rootfs_size

    6) Copy .bin file to the same folder as a script
    At this point I assume your recovery .bin file should be located in the same folder as the script
    cp /media/samba_share/Downloads/c720/*.bin .
    7) verify that your usb stick is indeed /dev/sdb using dmesg

    8) run the script - on ubuntu I used
    bash -x myscript.sh

    9) to boot from USB you probably need to follow steps 1&3 (not sure if you need step 2) from here http://www.fascinatingcaptain.com/blog/dual-boot-chrome-os-and-linux/
    from the shell:
    sudo crossystem dev_boot_usb=1 dev_boot_legacy=1

    my system already came shipped with developers mode on, so i have not had to do step 1

    10)Boot from USB stick
    Unmount and remove that flash drive and insert it into one of your Chromebooks USB ports. Boot the device and then, at the startup screen, press Ctrl+l to boot from the legacy BIOS. When prompted, hit Esc to enter the boot menu and select 1 for the USB drive

    At that point my Chromebook booted and I have google play store. Everything is pretty slow, but I think this is due to the old and slow USB stick. I will now buy a faster low profile one. IS my USB stick now my storage. I have very little storage (about 3GB) after booting from USB. How can I expand it if I have a 32 GB stick? Any recomendations on the USB stick to use?

    >There's a more recent ROM (v66) that can be used to load Google Chrome OS with Play Store on USB of hybrid tablet Acer Iconia W700
    Does this also apply to c720 ?

    Steps 4B and 5 did not work for me using Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit to tweak the Chromium 64-bit thumb drive
    4B. Using Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit platform, install cgpt is slightly different:
    sudo apt install cgpt

    5. Using same Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit platform, I extracted/copied chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin into my login profile's Downloads folder.
    Then manually I ran terminal from there, "Login@ComputerName:~Downloads$"
    rootfs_start="`cgpt show -i 3 -n -b -q chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin`"
    rootfs_size="`cgpt show -i 3 -n -s -q chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin`"
    mkdir chrome_efi_mount
    sudo mount /dev/sdb12 chrome_efi_mount -t vfat
    mkdir chromium_efi_mount
    ###below is one long line
    sudo mount -ro loop,offset=$((`cgpt show -i 12 -n -b -q chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin`*512)) chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin chromium_efi_mount
    ###End of one long line
    sudo cp chromium_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B chrome_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B -f
    sudo cp chromium_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.B chrome_efi_mount/syslinux/vmlinuz.A -f
    sudo umount chrome_efi_mount
    sudo umount chromium_efi_mount
    sudo dd if=chromeos_10323.62.0_cyan_recovery_stable-channel_mp-v3.bin of=/dev/sdb3 bs=512 skip=$rootfs_start count=$rootfs_size

    Booted it up on C720P and logged in...BOOYAH! Google Play Store. So funny as I bought an R11 Cyan for this very purpose and now it's running on my ol' C720P. Giving the R11 to my wife. :)