No Android build working!

[tophneal]

Would you have a link to the "specific img" perchance?  Thanks.

This one: http://files.pine64.org/os/PinebookPro/A...oot.img.gz

The wiki denotes that use of rkflashtool is required to boot it, but it isn't. Just write that to an SD and get settled in for the boot. This image takes minutes to boot up the first time, but is noticeably faster booting subsequent times.

[Vinay]

I'd like to add I'm one of those trying to boot Android 7.1 (as downloaded through the Wiki link) from the SD card. I flashed it using Balena Etcher and when I try to boot my PBP with the SD popped in, it just boots into Manjaro. I haven't gone into such depth as others seem to have gone (and I honestly don't have the knowledge too, yet). I don't think I'd care for version 9 as I only need Android for one little thing so 7.1 would probably be sufficient (if it allows me to install the required app).

One thing I noticed is that Balena does mention that when I choose the Android image (with the proper MD5 sum and decompressed with 7zip), that it is missing the partition table and that it won't be bootable. So it seems to be an issue with the image as at that point I haven't chosen the SD card and also, it doesn't happen for instance with the Ubuntu image (which does boot). I have to mention that I used Balena Etcher in MS Windows 10, not on linux.

So yeah, to all those whose Android SD card doesn't boot, haven't you noticed a mention that partition table is missing and that it might not boot? To me this seems to be the problem. I hope now that there is someone who can find the solution to this .

[KC9UDX]

I recall having to do nothing to get it to work. Oddly it was just about the only thing I could get to work at the time. I don't use etcher though. Maybe I was using an older version than what you've found, I have no idea.

Using Android on SD though, hosed my eMMC. It's like Android just wanted to take over the whole system.

[Vinay]

I recall having to do nothing to get it to work.  Oddly it was just about the only thing I could get to work at the time.  I don't use etcher though.  Maybe I was using an older version than what you've found, I have no idea.

Using Android on SD though, hosed my eMMC.  It's like Android just wanted to take over the whole system.

Oh, that doesn't sound pretty! I'd want it to run on the SD card and stay there. No point accessing anything else on my computer, it is just for running an app I need.

[KC9UDX]

I might have done something wrong. So please don't avoid trying it because of what happened to me. But do have a backup of your eMMC just in case.

FWIW, I used `dd` on a computer with NetBSD to create the working SD card. You could use `dd` in Manjaro on your PBP. I don't know the first thing about Etcher. I've heard lots of good things about it, and never heard anything bad about it. But `dd` is the most direct way to do this job. I can't imagine using anything else (in Unix/Linux).

dd if=file.img of=/dev/sd bs=4M status=progress
Should get the job done in Manjaro, I think. Of course, replace "file.img" with the correct image file. If it's zipped, unzip it first. (unzip file.img.bzip) You'll have to replace /dev/sd with the raw device for the SD card. I don't recall the device name for Manjaro; you might already know it. If you don't, let me know and I'll dig up that information.

[WhiteNoise]

I'd like to add I'm one of those trying to boot Android 7.1 (as downloaded through the Wiki link) from the SD card. I flashed it using Balena Etcher and when I try to boot my PBP with the SD popped in, it just boots into Manjaro. I haven't gone into such depth as others seem to have gone (and I honestly don't have the knowledge too, yet). I don't think I'd care for version 9 as I only need Android for one little thing so 7.1 would probably be sufficient (if it allows me to install the required app).

One thing I noticed is that Balena does mention that when I choose the Android image (with the proper MD5 sum and decompressed with 7zip), that it is missing the partition table and that it won't be bootable. So it seems to be an issue with the image as at that point I haven't chosen the SD card and also, it doesn't happen for instance with the Ubuntu image (which does boot). I have to mention that I used Balena Etcher in MS Windows 10, not on linux.

So yeah, to all those whose Android SD card doesn't boot, haven't you noticed a mention that partition table is missing and that it might not boot? To me this seems to be the problem. I hope now that there is someone who can find the solution to this .

It was mentioned somewhere in this forum that you can boot Android when you disable eMMC using a switch. I've done it and was able to boot android 7.1. Without disabling eMMC, PBP boots to Manjaro. I've used 'dd' to flash SD card with android image. I cannot mount SD card with Android image flashed in Manjaro.

Other thing is that for me Android image is not useful at all. But this is for another thread.

[KC9UDX]

What U-Boot are you using? I would think that has more to do with not booting from SD card than Manjaro.

I expect that the first thing you'll want to do is install one of the non-Google market apps. That should get you closer to what you're probably expecting for usability. Otherwise you might need to install Google Play Services or something like it.

[Vinay]

Thanks all for your replies and sorry for being away this long. Good to know about the switch, I wasn't aware of that. I will look into it. I currently don't feel such an urgency for trying Android anymore but I might try some debian/ubuntu flavor someday just for when I need to use a commercial package as these linux packages are typically released as .deb. But yeah now I know, when I want to boot from SD I need to disable the eMMC.

As for Android, I just needed it as my sports watch manufacturer (Suunto) switched from synchronizing over a computer (so I was using a Windows machine for that) to synchronizing over a cellphone app (so now I need Android). But I recently got a cheap used Android phone for just that and sideloaded the .apk file to run the app. So far I have not felt the desire to install an app unavailable outside the Google services so yeah, I should probably be good if I manage to run Android from that SD card and install the app there. There is less of an urgency now though I'll give it a shot at some point. But at this stage I'll first use your advice on use it to run Ubuntu from SD and see how that goes. So thanks a lot either way!

[tophneal]

The reason you have to switch off that emmc is because mainline uboot doesn't play well with bsp images. You'll see similar issues trying to boot Chromium images from SD while Manjaro (or any other mainline image) is installed on the emmc. mounting it in linux is another problem, that's more directly related to the filesystem/container/i forget the exact specifics. there is a way you can use parted to get into the Android image (Tux told me how to do, like a year ago, in the chat.)

since play store can't be added to this android image, try using Aurora Store.

if anyone reads this, and is willing to take a crack and making an updated/better android img for the pbp, pm me. i have resources i'm happy to make available.

[Vinay]

Thanks for the clarification. Switching off the eMMC with Manjaro obviously isn't an issue for me if I want to boot from SD (or USB drive too, probably). It is just that I wasn't aware of this. Until now I just thought I could plug a live demo of whichever distro in my USB drive and if the USB drive was earlier in the boot order than the boot partition on the harddisc, it would boot from USB. So that's why I missed it. But again, this is no issue for me. I'll try this with debian/ubuntu and see if I can make it work.

Higher up my list of things to learn though is to get comfortable with the i3 window manager. I come from Windowmaker and never managed to be as quick and efficient with KDE. i3 seems interesting so I'll likely put  more time into that one than into trying different distros. Should I at some point try Android again and run into issues, I'll revisit this discussion. For now, thanks for your help everyone!