the Chromium logo

The Chromium Projects
ChromiumOS > Guides >

Building Chrome for ChromeOS (Simple Chrome)

This workflow allows you to quickly build/deploy Chrome to a ChromeOS VM or device without needing a ChromeOS source checkout or chroot. It's useful for trying out your changes on ChromeOS while you're doing Chrome development. If you have an OS checkout and want your local Chrome changes to be included when building a full OS image, see below.

At its core is the chrome-sdk shell which sets up the shell environment and fetches the necessary SDK components (ChromeOS toolchain, sysroot, VM, etc.).

Typography conventions

Label Paths, files, and commands
(shell) outside the chroot and SDK shell on your workstation
(sdk) inside the chrome-sdk SDK shell on your workstation
(chroot) inside the cros_sdk chroot on your workstation
(device) in your VM or ChromeOS device

Getting started

Check out a copy of the Chrome source code and depot_tools.

Important: Be certain to update .gclient to include target_os = ["chromeos"].

Get the Google API keys

In order to sign in to ChromeOS you must have Google API keys:

Set up gsutil

Make sure you have credentials to access Google Storage bucket by setting up your ~/.boto file. See the gsutil setup documentation for more details.

Install additional build dependencies

Run the install-build-deps.py script in Chrome's source code, located at $CHROME_DIR/src/build/install-build-deps.py. This will install other packages that you will need to build and run binaries.

VM versus Device

The easiest way to develop on ChromeOS is to use a VM.

If you need to test hardware-specific features such as graphics acceleration, bluetooth, mouse or input events, etc, you may also use a physical device (Googlers: Chromestop has the hardware). See Set up the ChromeOS device for details.

Enter the Simple Chrome environment

There are two ways to use Simple Chrome: 1) shell-less flow (recommended) and 2) traditional flow.

The shell-less flow is currently in use by all of Chrome's builders, so there's some guarantee that it will function correctly. Conversely, the traditional flow that uses the shell has no such continuous build coverage and is mostly community-supported. In practice, however, the two flows are mostly identical under the hood. So if one works, the other is likely to as well.

The shell-less flow currently does not handle custom toolchains thus you should use the traditional flow if you need custom toolchains.

Shell-less flow

The shell-less flow conforms more closely to how the browser is built for its other supported platforms. In this workflow, the cros chrome-sdk is never called directly by hand, but instead called once during gclient sync.

To do this, simply add the board you're interested in to the cros_boards (device) or cros_boards_with_qemu_images (VM) custom gclient var of your .gclient file. For Googlers, be sure to include "checkout_src_internal": True and set up reclient to speed up builds.

solutions = [
  {
    "name": "src",
    "url": "https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git",
    "managed": False,
    "custom_deps": {},
    "custom_vars": {
        "checkout_src_internal": True,
        "cros_boards": "<board name>",
    },
  },
]
target_os = ["chromeos"]

The board's SDK will then be downloaded (and cached) everytime you run gclient sync, which should be run after every update to your chromium checkout. You may specify additional boards in the cros_boards variable by appending :<board> to the variable. For example, "cros_boards": "amd64-generic:betty-pi-arc" includes the amd64-generic and betty-pi-arc boards. Similar to the traditional flow, this will also create a convenient build dir at out_$BOARD/Release ($BOARD refers to the board name) for each board listed in your .gclient file, with args.gn file that contains a line that looks like this (if your board is hatch):

import("//build/args/chromeos/hatch.gni")

This is required to build Chrome for the board correctly. If you don't need to customize GN args, you can simply generate GN files by:

(shell) gn gen out_$BOARD/Release

If you want to customize GN args (e.g. adding is_chrome_branded=true), make sure that you keep the import statement like this (if your board is hatch):

(shell) gn gen out_hatch/Release --args='import("//build/args/chromeos/hatch.gni") is_chrome_branded=true'

Note: Unbranded Chrome applies experimental field trial flags by default.

You can also use gn args out_hatch/Release to edit your GN flags with a text editor. See also ChromeOS Build Instructions for other useful GN flags.

To compile Chrome:

(shell) autoninja -C out_$BOARD/Release chrome

Unlike the traditional shell flow, any tool or script you would run should include the full path inside chromite. For example, a deploy_chrome invocation in the shell-less flow looks like:

(shell) ./third_party/chromite/bin/deploy_chrome --build-dir=out_${BOARD}/Release --device=$IP_ADDR

Traditional flow

Building Chrome for ChromeOS requires a toolchain customized for each Chromebook model (or "board"). For the ChromeOS VM, and non-Googlers, use amd64-generic. For a physical device, look up the ChromeOS board name by navigating to the URL about:version on the device. For example: Platform 10176.47.0 (Official Build) beta-channel samus has board samus.

To enter the Simple Chrome environment, run these from within your Chrome checkout:

(shell) cd /path/to/chrome/src
(shell) export BOARD=amd64-generic
(shell) cros chrome-sdk --board=$BOARD --log-level=info [--download-vm]

The command prompt will change to look like (sdk $BOARD $VERSION).

Entering the Simple Chrome environment does the following:

  1. Fetches the ChromeOS toolchain and sysroot (SDK) for building Chrome.
  2. Creates out_$BOARD/Release and generates or updates args.gn.
  3. Adds use_remoteexec to the gn args which builds Chrome with reclient. reclient can be disabled with --no-use-remoteexec. Additional setup may be required.
  4. --download-vm will download a ChromeOS VM and a QEMU binary.

cros chrome-sdk options

Googlers: Use --chrome-branding if you need a branded Chrome build including resources and components from src-internal to work on internal features like ARC and assistant. --official doesn't involve branding, instead it enables an additional level of optimization and removes development conveniences like runtime stack traces. Use it for performance testing, not for debugging.

ChromeOS developers

Use the following command:

(shell) cros chrome-sdk --chrome-branding --board=$BOARD --log-level=info

Optional: Please help development by setting dcheck_always_on=true and filing bugs if you encounter any DCHECK crashes:

(shell) cros chrome-sdk --chrome-branding --board=$BOARD --log-level=info --gn-extra-args='dcheck_always_on=true'

Alternatively, you can set dcheck_is_configurable=true to log DCHECK errors without crashing.

cros chrome-sdk tips

Important: When you sync/update your Chrome source, the ChromeOS SDK version (src/chromeos/CHROMEOS_LKGM) may change. When the SDK version changes you may need to exit and re-enter the Simple Chrome environment to successfully build and deploy Chrome.

Non-Googlers: Only generic boards have publicly available SDK downloads, so you will need to use a generic board (e.g. amd64-generic) or your own ChromeOS build (see Using a custom ChromeOS build). For more info and updates star crbug.com/360342.

Note: See also Using a custom ChromeOS build.

Build Chrome

To build Chrome, cd into src subdirectory of chromium checkout and run:

(sdk) autoninja -C out_${SDK_BOARD}/Release chrome nacl_helper

Note: Targets other than chrome, nacl_helper or (optionally) chromiumos_preflight are not supported in Simple Chrome and will likely fail. browser_tests should be run outside the Simple Chrome environment. Some unit_tests may be built in the Simple Chrome environment and run in the ChromeOS VM. For details, see Running a Chrome Google Test binary in the VM.

Note: The default extensions will be installed by the test image you use below.

Set up the ChromeOS device

VM

If you are planning on using VM, start it:

(sdk) cros_vm --start

You can then connect to it via SSH (use test0000 as a password):

(sdk) ssh -p 9222 root@localhost

or via VNC to localhost:5900.

Unless you plan to also setup a device, you can skip the rest of this section.

Getting started

You need the following:

  1. USB flash drive 4 GB or larger (for example, a Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0)
  2. USB to Gigabit Ethernet adapter

Before you can deploy your build of Chrome to the device, it needs to have a "test" OS image loaded on it. A test image has tools like rsync that are not part of the base image.

Chrome should be deployed to a recent ChromeOS test image, ideally the version shown in your SDK prompt (or (sdk) echo $SDK_VERSION).

Create a bootable USB stick

Non-Googlers: The build infrastructure is currently in flux. See crbug.com/360342 for more details. You may need to build your own ChromeOS image.

Flash the latest canary test image to your USB stick using cros flash:

(sdk) cros flash usb:// xbuddy://remote/${SDK_BOARD}/latest-canary

You can also flash an image with the sdk version (the SDK prompt has the full version, for instance, R81-12750.0.0):

(sdk) cros flash usb:// xbuddy://remote/${SDK_BOARD}/R81-12750.0.0

Tip: If the device already has a test image installed, the following can be used to update the device directly.

(sdk) $ cros flash $IP_ADDR xbuddy://remote/${SDK_BOARD}/latest-canary

See the CrOS Flash page for more details.

Put your ChromeOS device in dev mode

Note: Switching to dev mode wipes all data from the device (for security reasons).

Most recent devices can use the generic instructions. To summarize:

  1. With the device on, hit Esc + Refresh (F2 or F3) + power button
  2. Wait for the white "recovery screen"
  3. Hit Ctrl-D to switch to developer mode (there's no prompt)
  4. Press enter to confirm
  5. Once it is done, hit Ctrl-D again to boot, then wait

From this point on you'll always see the white screen when you turn on the device. Press Ctrl-D to boot.

Older devices may have device-specific instructions.

Googlers: If the device asks you to "enterprise enroll", click the X in the top-right of the dialog to skip it. Trying to use your google.com credentials will result in an error.

Enable booting from USB

By default Chromebooks will not boot off a USB stick for security reasons. You need to enable it.

  1. Start the device
  2. Press Ctrl-Alt-F2 to get a terminal. (You can use Ctrl-Alt-F1 to switch back if you need to.)
  3. Login as root (no password yet, there will be one later)
  4. Run enable_dev_usb_boot

Install the test image onto your device

Note: Do not log into this test image with a username and password you care about. The root password is public ("test0000"), so anyone with SSH access could compromise the device. Create a test Gmail account and use that.

  1. Plug the USB stick into the machine and reboot.
  2. At the dev-mode warning screen, press Ctrl-U to boot from the USB stick.
  3. Switch to terminal by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F2
  4. Login as user chronos, password test0000.
  5. Run /usr/sbin/chromeos-install
  6. Wait for it to copy the image
  7. Run poweroff

You can now unplug the USB stick.

Connect device to Ethernet

Use your USB-to-Ethernet adapter to connect the device to a network.

Googlers: If your building has Ethernet jacks connected to the test VLAN (e.g. white ports), use one of those jacks. Otherwise get a second Ethernet adapter and see go/shortleash to reverse tether your Chromebook to your workstation.

Checking the IP address

  1. Click the status area in the lower-right corner
  2. Click the network icon
  3. Click the circled i symbol in the lower-right corner
  4. A small window pops up that shows the IP address

You can also run ifconfig from the terminal (Ctrl-Alt-F2).

Deploying Chrome to the device

To deploy the build to a device/VM, you will need direct SSH access to it from your computer. The scripts below handle everything else.

Using deploy_chrome

The deploy_chrome script uses rsync to incrementally deploy Chrome to the device/VM.

Specify the build output directory to deploy from using --build-dir. For the VM:

(sdk) deploy_chrome --build-dir=out_${SDK_BOARD}/Release --device=localhost:9222

For a physical device, which must be ssh-able as user 'root', you must specify the IP address using --device:

(sdk) deploy_chrome --build-dir=out_${SDK_BOARD}/Release --device=$IP_ADDR

Note: The first time you run this you will be prompted to remove rootfs verification from the device. This is required to overwrite /opt/google/chrome and will reboot the device. You can skip the prompt with --force.

Deploying Chrome to the user partition

It is also possible to deploy Chrome to the user partition of the device and set up a temporary mount from /opt/google/chrome using the option --mount. This is useful when deploying a binary that will not otherwise fit on the device, e.g.:

(sdk) deploy_chrome --build-dir=out_$SDK_BOARD/Release --device=$IP_ADDR --mount [--nostrip]

Note: This also prompts to remove rootfs verification so that /etc/chrome_dev.conf can be modified (see Command-line flags and environment variables). You can skip that by adding --noremove-rootfs-verification.

Additional Notes:

TARGET             SOURCE                                      FSTYPE OPTIONS
/opt/google/chrome /dev/sda1[/deploy_rootfs/opt/google/chrome] ext4   rw,nodev,noatime,resgid=20119,commit=600,data=ordered

Updating the ChromeOS image

In order to keep Chrome and ChromeOS in sync, the ChromeOS test image should be updated weekly. See Create a bootable USB stick for a tip on updating an existing test device if you have a ChromeOS checkout.

Debugging

Log files

Chrome-related logs are written to several locations on the device running a test image:

Command-line flags and environment variables

If you want to tweak the command line of Chrome or its environment, you have to do this on the device itself.

Edit the /etc/chrome_dev.conf (device) file. Instructions on using it are in the file itself.

Custom build directories

This step is only necessary if you run cros chrome-sdk with --nogn-gen.

To create a GN build directory, run the following inside the chrome-sdk shell:

(sdk) gn gen out_$SDK_BOARD/Release --args="$GN_ARGS"

This will generate out_$SDK_BOARD/Release/args.gn.

You can edit the args with:

(sdk) gn args out_$SDK_BOARD/Release

You can replace Release with Debug (or something else) for different configurations. See Debug builds.

GN build configuration discusses various GN build configurations. For more info on GN, run gn help on the command line or read the quick start guide.

Debug builds

For cros chrome-sdk GN configurations, Release is the default. A debug build of Chrome will include useful tools like DCHECK and debug logs like DVLOG. For a Debug configuration, specify --args="$GN_ARGS is_debug=true is_component_build=false".

Alternately, you can just turn on DCHECKs for a release build. You can do this with --args="$GN_ARGS dcheck_always_on=true".

To deploy a debug build you need to add --nostrip to deploy_chrome because otherwise it will strip symbols even from a debug build. This requires Deploying Chrome to the user partition.

See Stack Traces for some tips on getting stack traces at runtime (not during a crash).

Note: If you just want crash backtraces in the logs you can deploy a release build with --nostrip. You don't need a debug build (but you still need to deploy to a user partition).

Note: You may hit DCHECKs during startup time, or when you login, which eventually may reboot the device. You can check log files in /var/log/chrome or /home/chronos/user/log.

You can create /run/disable_chrome_restart to prevent a restart loop and investigate.

You can temporarily disable these DCHECKs to proceed, but please file a bug for such DCHECK because it's most likely a bug.

Remote GDB

Note: You want symbol_level=2 in your gn args to get everything (line numbers, function names, local variables, etc). Assuming you use cros_gdb you do not need --nostrip when deploying since gdb reads symbols from the local copy.

The cros_gdb wrapper automates most of the setup to get gdb attached to Chrome and running. Assuming you're in the chromium src folder, $TARGET is the hostname or ip:port of your device and $BOARD is the target board:

Shell-less workflow: ./third_party/chromite/bin/cros_gdb --board $BOARD --remote $TARGET --attach browser -g="--eval-command=cd $(pwd)/out_$BOARD/Release"

Simple-chrome workflow: (sdk) cros_gdb --board $BOARD --remote $TARGET --attach browser (inside the chrome-sdk shell, you may need to adjust the path to find sources).

cros_gdb --help to see more options (e.g. how to attach to a renderer process instead of the main browser process).

Manual steps (no cros_gdb)

If you don't want to use cros_gdb (perhaps you want to use a different version of gdb) you can set things up manually.

Core dumps are disabled by default. See additional debugging tips for how to enable core files.

On the target machine, open up a port for the gdb server to listen on, and attach the gdb server to the top-level Chrome process.

(device) sudo /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 1234 -j ACCEPT
(device) sudo gdbserver --attach :1234 $(pgrep chrome -P $(pgrep session_manager))

On your host machine (inside the chrome-sdk shell), run gdb and start the Python interpreter:

(sdk) cd %CHROME_DIR%/src
(sdk) gdb out_${SDK_BOARD}/Release/chrome
Reading symbols from /usr/local/google2/chromium2/src/out_amd64-generic/Release/chrome...
(gdb) pi
>>>

Note: These instructions are for targeting an x86_64 device. For now, to target an ARM device, you need to run the cross-compiled gdb from within a chroot.

Then from within the Python interpreter, run these commands:

import os
sysroot = os.environ['SYSROOT']
board = os.environ['SDK_BOARD']
gdb.execute('set sysroot %s' % sysroot)
gdb.execute('set solib-absolute-prefix %s' % sysroot)
gdb.execute('set debug-file-directory %s/usr/lib/debug' % sysroot)
# "Debug" for a debug build
gdb.execute('set solib-search-path out_%s/Release/lib' % board)
gdb.execute('target remote $IP_ADDR:1234')

If you wish, after you connect, you can Ctrl-D out of the Python shell.

Extra debugging instructions are located at debugging tips.

Additional instructions

Updating the version of the ChromeOS SDK

When you invoke cros chrome-sdk, the script fetches the version of the SDK that corresponds to your Chrome checkout. To update the SDK, sync your Chrome checkout and re-run cros chrome-sdk.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

Specifying the version of the ChromeOS SDK to use

You can specify a version of ChromeOS to build against. This is handy for tracking down when a particular bug was introduced.

(shell) cros chrome-sdk --board=$BOARD --version=11005.0.0

Once you are finished testing the old version of the chrome-sdk, you can always start a new shell with the latest version again. Here's an example:

(shell) cros chrome-sdk --board=$BOARD --clear-sdk-cache

Updating Chrome

(sdk) exit
(shell) git checkout main && git pull   # (or if you prefer, git rebase-update)
(shell) gclient sync
(shell) cros chrome-sdk --board=$BOARD --log-level=info

Tip: If you update Chrome inside the chrome-sdk, you may then be using an SDK that is out of date with the current Chrome. See Updating the version of the ChromeOS SDK section above.

Updating Deployed Files

deploy_chrome determines which files to copy in chrome_util.py in the chromite repo which is pulled into chrome/src/third_party/chromite via DEPS.

When updating the list:

  1. Make changes to the appropriate list (e.g. _COPY_PATHS_CHROME).
  2. Be aware that deploy_chrome is used by the chromeos-chrome ebuild, so when adding new files make sure to set optional=True initially.
  3. Changes to chromite will not affect Simple Chrome until a chromite roll occurs.

Using a custom ChromeOS build

If you are making changes to ChromeOS and have a ChromeOS build inside a chroot that you want to build against, run cros chrome-sdk with the --chroot option:

(shell) cros chrome-sdk --board=$BOARD --chroot=/path/to/chromiumos/chroot

Running tests

Chrome's unit and browser tests are compiled into test binaries. At the moment, not all of them run on a ChromeOS device. Most of the unit tests and part of interactive_ui_tests that measure ChromeOS performance should work.

To build and run a chrome test on device (or VM),

(sdk) .../chrome/src $ cros_run_test --build --device=$IP --chrome-test -- \
out_$SDK_BOARD/Release/interactive_ui_tests \
    --dbus-stub \
    --enable-pixel-output-in-tests \
    --gtest_filter=SplitViewTest.SplitViewResize

Alternatively, manually build and use the generated run_$TEST scripts to run like build bots:

(sdk) .../chrome/src $ autoninja -C out_$SDK_BOARD/Release interactive_ui_tests
(sdk) .../chrome/src $ out_$SDK_BOARD/Release/bin/run_interactive_ui_tests \
    --device=$IP \
    --dbus-stub \
    --enable-pixel-output-in-tests \
    --gtest_filter=SplitViewTest.SplitViewResize

To run tests locally on dev box, follow the instructions for running tests on Linux using a separate GN build directory with target_os = "chromeos" in its arguments. (You can create one using the gn args command.)

If you're running tests which create windows on-screen, you might find the instructions for using an embedded X server in web_tests_linux.md useful.

Setting a custom prompt

By default, cros chrome-sdk prepends something like '(sdk link R52-8315.0.0)' to the prompt (with the version of the prebuilt system being used).

If you prefer to colorize the prompt, you can set PS1 in ~/.chromite/chrome_sdk.bashrc, e.g. to prepend a yellow '(sdk link 8315.0.0)' to the prompt:

PS1='\[\033[01;33m\](sdk ${SDK_BOARD} ${SDK_VERSION})\[\033[00m\] \w \[\033[01;36m\]$(__git_ps1 "(%s)")\[\033[00m\] \$ '

NOTE: Currently the release version (e.g. 52) is not available as an environment variable.

Googlers: Prebuilt minidump_stackwalk and other Breakpad tools

Googlers: If you work with minidumps and need tools such as minidump_stackwalk, minidump_dump, and so on, you can install them on you workstation:

(shell) sudo glinux-add-repo breakpad
(shell) sudo apt update
(shell) sudo apt-get install breakpad

Use dpkg -L breakpad to see other available tools.

Testing a Chromium CL remotely on CrOS CQ

If you have a chromium/src CL that you suspect might have peculiar or risky effects on a subsequent chromeos-chrome uprev, or if you'd like a bootable CrOS image generated with your CL incorporated, you can use the chromeos-uprev-tester browser trybot. This trybot will take your CL and run it through CrOS's CQ, essentially dry-running an attempt to uprev chromeos-chrome to that Chromium CL.

This has the benefit of running a much larger set of tests than Chrome's other trybots provide. Additionally, for every board covered in CrOS's CQ during uprevs, its builders will upload their resultant CrOS images to Google Storage. This allows you to download locally an image built with your pending Chromium change without having to compile anything locally.

To use the trybot, click the CHOOSE TRYBOTS button on Gerrit on any Chromium CL and select the chromeos-uprev-tester builder. Its duration will be that of an uprev attempt, which as of writing can be upwards of 12 hours long.

***note SIDE NOTE:

Unlike all other Chrome/Chromium trybots, the chromeos-uprev-tester bot does not apply the patch on top of ToT during builds. Meaning: if a CL was uploaded on a parent revision that's seven days old, the uprev-tester builds will compile using that same seven day old revision.

Consequently, it's suggested that you simply click the REBASE button on a Gerrit CL prior to triggering the chromeos-uprev-tester trybot to compile an up-to-date browser.

Bisecting Chrome on ChromeOS

Prepare a DUT and use the Shell-less flow.

First find the cros version that introduces the bug. Flash and test using built images until you identify the cros revision that introduced the bug:

cros flash $DUT xbuddy://remote/hana/R91-13844.0.0

Identify the chrome version bump for that cros version bump using crosland under 'src/third_party/chromiumos-overlay'.

https://crosland.corp.google.com/log/13843.0.0..13844.0.0

For example this cros version bump 13843.0.0 -> 13844.0.0 bumped chrome from 91.0.4442.0 -> 91.0.4443.0.

To rule out changes in cros deploy the pre-buggy version of cros to the dut:

cros flash $DUT xbuddy://remote/hana/R91-13843.0.0

Now start the git bisect.

git bisect start
git bisect good 91.0.4442.0
git bisect bad 91.0.4443.0

Manually iterate and test the bisect or write a script: example

Manual bisection:

gclient sync
autoninja -C out_$BOARD/Release chrome
~/chromiumos/chromite/bin/deploy_chrome --build-dir=out_hana/Release --device=$DUT
ssh $DUT /usr/local/autotest/bin/autologin.py --url chrome://version
# test for the bug
git bisect good/bad

Gotchas with bisect

Deploying chrome using this method does not wipe the device of all state, this could cause issues with locating the cause of the bug. For example shaders may be cached by the chrome version string and redeploying chrome will not cause shader recompilation. There is no golden bullet way to clear all dut state, some of these may help:

Building Ash Chrome in the chroot

Simple Chrome can be a very quick and easy way to build Chrome for ChromeOS. However, Simple Chrome is not used when building the Chrome that gets released on ChromeOS. For such releases, Chrome is instead built in the chroot, similar to any other package. It can be occasionally useful to build Chrome precisely as it's built in releases, but with your own browser changes. This can be achieved by following the steps in the OS development guide for a package, but with some special Chrome-specific flags. The basic steps are:

$ cros_sdk setup_board --board=${BOARD}
$ cros workon --board=${BOARD} start chromeos-chrome chrome-icu
$ cros_sdk --chrome-root <path-to-chrome-checkout> cros_workon_make --board=${BOARD} chromeos-chrome

Some notes about the above: