Android-x86 is a project that provides Android support for x86, making it easy to install it on netbooks or laptops. You can use it like any other Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich device: install applications from the Android Market, add widgets and so on.
The Android x86 team has released Android x86 4.0 RC1, based on Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and features:
- Support Multi-touch, Wifi, Audio, Bluetooth, G-sensor and Camera.
- OpenGL hardware acceleration for AMD Radeon and Intel chipsets
- Kernel 3.0.8 with KMS enabled - most netbooks can run Android-x86 in the native resolution.
- V8 javascript engine
- Simulate sdcard by internal storage
- External usb drive and sdcard are auto mounted to /mnt/USB on plugging
- Experimental support of Renderscript
- A text based GUI installer which supports ext3/ext2/ntfs/fat32 filesystems
- Hybrid ISO (you can dump the iso into a usb drive using "dd if=android-x86-4.0-xxx.iso of=/dev/sdX")
In my test Android x86 4.0 worked great on my Asus EeePC: the camera, Wifi and so on are supported out of the box. The only issue I've had was related to suspend/sleep: I was unable to unlock the screen, but at least in my case, there was a fix (see under tips below). Also, applications compiled for ARM like Chrome, Firefox or Netflix and others don't work (they don't even show up in the Market) unless you recompile them.
If you don't have a netbook or laptop to test it and you want to give it a try in VirtualBox, unfortunately the ethernet won't work for now. You can, of course, test it in VirtualBox without an Internet connection - simply download the EeePC version, create a new VirtualBox machine and run it.
Update: for a custom ISO with a patch that adds ethernet support, see THIS post (thanks to Paweł Lesiecki!) but please note that this build doesn't have the Android Market installed by default (and comes with some other customizations). Since this not an official Android-x86 ISO, use it at your own risk!
Update: for a custom ISO with a patch that adds ethernet support, see THIS post (thanks to Paweł Lesiecki!) but please note that this build doesn't have the Android Market installed by default (and comes with some other customizations). Since this not an official Android-x86 ISO, use it at your own risk!
A few Android-x86 4.0 (ICS) tips:
- When using it in VirtualBox, but make sure you select "Disable Mouse Integration" (under the "Machine" menu) to get the mouse to work once you boot the Android x86 4.0 Live ISO
- Disable screen autorotate from the Android-x86 settings, or else some application might rotate it for you (and that's quite annoying if your device doesn't support it)
- If you can't unlock the screen, try to use the built-in wake-up keyboard shortcut if available (Fn + F1 for my Asus EeePC), then use the mouse to slide the keyguard
- For shutdown / power off, you can use an application such as Shutdown.
Android x86-4.0 RC1 screenshots
Here are a few screenshots from my Asus EeePC running Android-x86 4.0 RC1:
Download Android x86 4.0
Android-x86 4.0 has been tested / it should work on AMD Brazos (MSI 110W), Asus EeePC or some Asus laptops/tablets and Tegav2 / Viewpad 10. These are the officially supported devices, but Android-x86 should work on others too. An old list of supported devices / hardware can be found HERE.
Download Android-x86 4.0 RC1 Live CD ISO.
To use it, write the ISO on an USB stick using Unetbootin, Linux Live USB Creator (LiLi) or using the command line (example: "dd if=android-x86-4.0-RC1-eeepc.iso of=/dev/sdX", where "sdaX" is your USB drive). For more info, see the Android-x86 installation page or see here: 4 Ways to Create Bootable Live USB Drives (For Windows, Linux and Mac OS X).
Update: also see -> How To Dual-Boot Android-x86 And Ubuntu (With GRUB 2)
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