So I have a smart phone running the Android platform and I know there is an x86 Android project to run it on a full desktop/laptop system.
I also found a DosBox app for it, which I haven't tried but I hear people have gotten Windows 3.11/95 to work on.
Also with the webtop on my phone it can run a full Debian Linux install.
My question is in two parts:
A. Has anyone tried to port this to other mobile phones (Windows, RIM, iOS, etc...) yet?
B. Has anyone tried to port any other OS's to Android?
I mentioned iOS specifically in A. because some MacFans really like their OS and might not want to give up that functionality and it might make people more willing to adopt the platform.
I'd have posted links to cite references, but I'm still under restriction for being new.
So I tried out Android x86 for my PC. It works beautifully. I cannot boot it on my Surface Pro though... It seems like the Surface Pro was designed to only boot EFI boot loaders. Not BIOS boot loaders... I was wondering if somebody could lend a hand at helping me get past this issue. I really think Android x86 would be great for the Surface Pro, there are so many things I miss from my Nexus 7 but I don't want an Android device, if I could just dual boot it every now and then, I would be happy. Can someone please get the Android 4.2 x86 ISOs to boot via EFI? That would be appreciated.
sionicion said:
So I tried out Android x86 for my PC. It works beautifully. I cannot boot it on my Surface Pro though... It seems like the Surface Pro was designed to only boot EFI boot loaders. Not BIOS boot loaders... I was wondering if somebody could lend a hand at helping me get past this issue. I really think Android x86 would be great for the Surface Pro, there are so many things I miss from my Nexus 7 but I don't want an Android device, if I could just dual boot it every now and then, I would be happy. Can someone please get the Android 4.2 x86 ISOs to boot via EFI? That would be appreciated.
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hmmm ... interesting you tried ...
and came out with a finding ...
following this thread on the possible development on this front ...
I've always dreamt of a Surface Pro on Android always ...
a reboot to Win7 for Work ... and back to Android !!!
going to be really very interesting ...
Hope the Android X86 team is peaking at this thread ...
Cheers!
Did you bother disabling secure boot?
Otherwise you can try "jar of beans" or "bluestacks" to run android applications for windows. There is a version of bluestacks which claims to be optimised for the surface pro, in reality its just bluestacks with proper windows 8 touch support.
SixSixSevenSeven said:
Did you bother disabling secure boot?
Otherwise you can try "jar of beans" or "bluestacks" to run android applications for windows. There is a version of bluestacks which claims to be optimised for the surface pro, in reality its just bluestacks with proper windows 8 touch support.
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Of course I did, the problem is the Surface Pro's UEFI chip does not actually support booting BIOS-based bootloaders. It only boots EFI-based bootloaders like the Windows Boot Manager or Grub EFI, etc. Unless one was to emulate BIOS to boot Android, it needs a EFI bootloader to even boot it on the Surface Pro. Ubuntu boots fine on the Surface Pro, but it is booting from Grub EFI. I copied the Grub EFI file to my other flash drive, and Grub indeed boots. It is the trouble of getting Android x86 to boot because it isn't using a EFI-based bootloader.
Also, that wasn't the point. I want to run pure Android just for the experience of having Android right on my Surface so I don't miss having a Nexus 7. I tried it on my desktop PC and it runs beautifully, if only I could get it on my Surface...
Surface Pro comes with Windows 8 Pro and a CPU capable of second-level address translation. It is therefore capable of running Client Hyper-V, which is a hypervisor-based virtualization (rather than hosted VM) technology that allows you to run another OS in parallel with Windows. I believe it includes support for BIOS-based OSes. Perhaps you should try that?
GoodDayToDie said:
Surface Pro comes with Windows 8 Pro and a CPU capable of second-level address translation. It is therefore capable of running Client Hyper-V, which is a hypervisor-based virtualization (rather than hosted VM) technology that allows you to run another OS in parallel with Windows. I believe it includes support for BIOS-based OSes. Perhaps you should try that?
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But what's the point in that? I don't want to virtualize. I want to run it natively... That's like saying hey use Bluestacks. I want Android running native on my Surface.
Anyway, guys I got it. Here it is.
First of all, running on a hypervisor is nothing like using Bluestacks. Android would then be running as "natively" as Windows at that point (Windows itself would also be running on the hypervisor), except that Windows would have first access to the display (Android would be able to use the graphics hardware nonetheless). When the virtual display was set to the Android machine, Android would be interacting with the input devices. As a plus side, you could switch back and forth rapidly...
That said, if you managed to get it working on bare metal, that's cool. Did you mean to include a link in your "Here it is "?
GoodDayToDie said:
First of all, running on a hypervisor is nothing like using Bluestacks. Android would then be running as "natively" as Windows at that point (Windows itself would also be running on the hypervisor), except that Windows would have first access to the display (Android would be able to use the graphics hardware nonetheless). When the virtual display was set to the Android machine, Android would be interacting with the input devices. As a plus side, you could switch back and forth rapidly...
That said, if you managed to get it working on bare metal, that's cool. Did you mean to include a link in your "Here it is "?
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The tutorial is on the YouTube page. But the problem with the Hyper-V hypervisor is it uses that remote console. I only found it decent for running Windows with the guest drivers installed. Unless I'm just not executing it very well, Hyper-V isn't a good solution. Since VirtualBox is used much more in the Linux world, I would use that before using Hyper-V.
I'll investigate the virtual solutions though and let you know.
more recent linux kernel versions do support hyper-v, partly provided by microsoft believe it or not
I would assume that hyper-v support would carry over into android. Just a case of setting it up.
Worth trying. However, Android runs a somewhat customized kernel build that probably doesn't include a lot of the optional stuff such as the Hyper-V helpers. Of course, you could install the required kernel module for them...
SixSixSevenSeven said:
I would assume that hyper-v support would carry over into android. Just a case of setting it up.
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I somewhat doubt the android platform itself has support for hyper-v.
Further, if you're looking to boot android directly would an android kernel and platform support booting via UEFI at all yet?
What partition would android be installed to? it likely wouldn't like being stuffed into an NTFS partition so you'd have to repartition the SSD and take some of the space from Windows, or boot android from an SDcard or USB memory stick.
EDIT: I see you did infact get it running, nice job, did you just use GRUB for a bootloader? did you have android run from the SSD or from elsewhere?
tbh if I had a surface pro I don't think i'd be installing android on it, slightly a waste.
by the way, a faster way of doing advanced reboot so you get the boot options is to hold shift and select the reboot option from the power menu.
So, after a short little flip around the web, I came across this
https://01.org/android-ia/downloads/2013/android-4.2.2r1-ia0
somehow.
I would love to have my Surface Pro dual-bootable between Android and Win8, but your tutorial has sort of overwhelmed me.
Are you using this code? Would it be better to?
Just wasn't sure where this development was going....
Purrsia said:
So, after a short little flip around the web, I came across this
https://01.org/android-ia/downloads/2013/android-4.2.2r1-ia0
somehow.
I would love to have my Surface Pro dual-bootable between Android and Win8, but your tutorial has sort of overwhelmed me.
Are you using this code? Would it be better to?
Just wasn't sure where this development was going....
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You can try my guide in windows 8 development forums
Sent from my HTC One X+ using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 10:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:36 AM ----------
feherneoh said:
Can't you add the lines which boot android-x86 into Ubuntu's GRUB? If it can be loaded, it could be used to load Android's kernel
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Microsoft locked it, you can only use the stock bootloader for now
Sent from my HTC One X+ using xda app-developers app
rEFIit
Have you tried a rEFIit or rEFIitd? As the name subtly suggests, its a bootloader for EFI machines. I suggest having a look. I'm going to try this myself on a couple of machines tomorrow once I get to work. Good luck! Let me know how it turns out or if I lead someone down the right track!
rEFInd - An EFI boot manager utility: http://goo.gl/KRwzk
rEFIt: http://refit.sourceforge.net/
Agreed, Android on a Surface would be kick ass. Windows for work, Android for real life!
Hi Folks.....
Feeling a little nervous here seems I must have took a wrong turn somewhere to end up in the Microsoft Surface forum LOL.
Is anyone still wondering about this? I noticed the other day that the linux kernel 3.10 which is currently used by the android-x86 project has android efi drivers/patches which maybe what you require. I'd also have a poke around the Android-IA sources which is the official intel android open source project from what I recall there's more efiboot goodies in there.
As an extra bonus the 3.10 kernel also includes a patch for Binder which allows a 32bit userspace to function correctly with a 64bit PAE kernel which means "BIG RAM" so if you have more than 4 gig and a 64 bit processor you can get access to the full ram allocation, not quite the pure 64bit Android that I want but it'll do for now while I figure out the finer points of x86_64 assembly language.
If Anyone wants/needs a kernel rattling off with these options enabled just let me know and i'll well rattle one off!
Thanks
trevd said:
Hi Folks.....
...I noticed the other day that the linux kernel 3.10 which is currently used by the android-x86 project has android efi drivers/patches which maybe what you require. I'd also have a poke around the Android-IA sources which is the official intel android open source project from what I recall there's more efiboot goodies in there.
As an extra bonus the 3.10 kernel also includes a patch for Binder which allows a 32bit userspace to function correctly with a 64bit PAE kernel which means "BIG RAM" so if you have more than 4 gig and a 64 bit processor you can get access to the full ram allocation, not quite the pure 64bit Android that I want but it'll do for now while I figure out the finer points of x86_64 assembly language.
If Anyone wants/needs a kernel rattling off with these options enabled just let me know and i'll well rattle one off!
Thanks
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If the offer still stands, I would be interested in this (..or even just a how-to).
I have a multiboot system with PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu, and Win8.1 running right now, and I can get the recent 4.4rc1 release from android x86 to boot if I switch to legacy bios and use legacy grub from PCLinuxOS or the android_x86 thumbdrive, but I cannot get it to boot from Ubuntu's EFI capable Grub2 (..d/t kernel panic). On my Acer m5-583p it works great in legacy mode (wifi, touchscreen, keyboard, etc), but I would like to be able to use an EFI bootloader so that I don't have to change to/from legacy/efi before selecting the OS at boot.
Thanks! :good:
I have searched lots on the subject of getting a full linux distro running on an android device most of which were really not really what I am looking for, almost everything I find on the subject seems to be some kind of hybrid solution where running linux side by side or on top of android but imo that just seems messy and may as well just be using andorid with it's apps than do that.
I ran into interesting information about modding chromebooks some of when were the similar side-by-side solution but others actually more what I was looking for, they enable legacy seabios while not enough to get windows installed seems to work fine to boot into linux and another guy had baked his own custom seabios replacing the chrome bios entirely.
my question, the atom tablets Im seeing pop up a few places are standard x86 right ? is it possible to either
1/run a modded sea bios similar to chromebook mods? then boot a stock ubuntu distro installation maybe from external storage?
2/or somehow have the existing/modded bootloader boot linux kernel/ubuntu install ?
can't help think if it were that simple maybe someone would have done it already but also thinking the hardware (drivers) are supported by android so they should be supported by linux right ? and if it is standard x86 can't be too much a stretch right ?
I don't own an atom tablet but was thinking it may be desirable (and add more use) if I could get a full linux distro installed and be a lot more affordable than full fledged windows based tablet.
anyway thanks
ps:that captcha is harcore
They are kinda standard. But they are not following PC architecture. They are so called Intel MID (Mobile Internet Device). On such devices you may find neither EFI nor ACPI. They have so called SFI which is a complete disaster. But Intel Merrifield is more or less supported by upstream kernel and Yocto (thanks to Intel Edison platform). You may try to gather information about those devices (official name of SoC is Intel Atom Z34xx).
Is it possible to speed up the switching between two OSes on a mobile phone? Nexus 5? Also, we are creating a brand of mobile device. Do you think a custom phone could accomplish this?
What if we used a custom bootloader, and created rooted apps for each OS, and hibernate OS states (copy RAM into storage)? Thoughts?
What is the possibility of creating a VM for mobile phones?
Wouldn't it be cool if you could swap between your android ROM and say, Firefox OS or Ubuntu?
Are there already any related Open Source projects to any of the above?
Dan's partner here. We are indeed building a brand of electronics products that seek ultimate compatibility and value across nearly every segment of the overall electronics market. T
an is a talented programmer looking to solve the problem of: "user in ubuntu touch wants to run an app that hasn't yet been ported, omg now I have to boot android there goes 5 minutes!". He is using a nexus 5 as his Dev platform right now.
Folks I am not much when it comes to programming, but this seems logical:
Android = Linux (and Java)
Ubuntu = Linux
Tizen = Linux
Plasma = Linux
Jolla = Linux
Folks it seems to me that we should only need to boot once. Can anyone point us in the right direction? There has got to be someone working on this too, right?
Something related to dual boot - http://lifehacker.com/how-to-dual-boot-ubuntu-on-your-android-device-1577325241
I really like the idea of the ubuntu phone, hdmi out etc, but I do need android for my daily use, whatsapp,waze etc.
So, will I be able to switch between them or do I just pick one os when I buy it and have to stick with that?
Yes, it is possible to dual boot your android device. There are many methods and ways to run two different Android ROMs or OSs on your device simultaneously. For this, you can get help from experienced XDA developers who can dual-boot your phone on two different operating systems. You can dual-boot any basic level phone easily.
For instance, Android OS and Firefox OS can run on your device at once. It is very much similar to your personal computer which can run both Windows and Linux OS at the same time. Moreover, it is totally safe to dual-boot your Android devices, and it wouldn’t directly affect your phone's speed and performance.