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---
title: Quick hack: Setting up a ChromiumOS dev environment
description: A concise step-by-step guide for setting up a ChromiumOS development environment on actual Chromebook hardware. Covers installing depot_tools, syncing the...
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og:description: A concise step-by-step guide for setting up a ChromiumOS development environment on actual Chromebook hardware. Covers installing depot_tools, syncing the...
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# Quick hack: Setting up a ChromiumOS dev environment

**[Collabora Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/collabora)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A concise step-by-step guide for setting up a ChromiumOS development environment on actual Chromebook hardware. Covers installing depot_tools, syncing the ChromiumOS repo, building packages and images, flashing to a USB device, enabling dev-mode on the Chromebook, installing the build, and setting up remote GDB debugging via gdbserver on port 1234. Includes both x86 and ARMv7 cross-compilation instructions for GDB.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/blog/2017/02/16/setting-up-a-chromiumos-dev-environment>

## Questions this post answers

### How do I build and flash ChromiumOS to a Chromebook from source?

Set up depot_tools, sync the ChromiumOS manifest repo with `repo sync`, then run `cros_sdk -- ./build_packages --board=<BOARD>` and `cros_sdk -- ./build_image --board=<BOARD>`. Flash the image to a USB drive with `cros_sdk -- cros flash --board=<BOARD> usb:/<USB_DEVICE>`, boot the Chromebook in dev-mode, and run `/usr/sbin/chromeos-install` from the Crosh shell to install it.

_Developers working with ChromiumOS builds track environment setup tips and toolchain changes on daily.dev._

### How do I set up remote GDB debugging for Chrome on a Chromebook?

On the Chromebook, remount root read-write, open port 1234 in iptables, and run `sudo gdbserver :1234 chrome`. On the dev machine, emerge the cross-architecture GDB (i686 or ARMv7), then connect with `i686-pc-linux-gnu-gdb`, set the sysroot to `/build/<BOARD>/`, and issue `target remote <CHROMEBOOK_IP>:1234` followed by `continue`.

_Engineers debugging low-level Chromebook software find cross-compilation and GDB workflow discussions on daily.dev._

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---

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