IntroductionThis page has (hopefully) the latest information about how to build Android for x86 platforms like Eee PC. The built images runs well on a real hardware as well as virtual machines (qemu or virtual box). Now it is very easy to compile Android for x86 platform from our git repositories. You need not to apply any patch. Just follow the below instructions. The branches in Android-x86 treeSince AOSP evolves very quickly, we have created different branches corresponding to different releases of AOSP:
Getting Android-x86 source codeFirstly, follow the AOSP page "Establishing a Build Environment" to configure your build environment. Then $ mkdir android-x86 $ cd android-x86 $ repo init -u git://git.osdn.net/gitroot/android-x86/manifest -b $branch $ repo sync --no-tags --no-clone-bundle Where $branch is any branch name described in the previous section. This will point the projects created or modified by android-x86 to our git server. All the other projects still point to AOSP. If you have issues to sync from the git protocol, try the alternative http one $ repo init -u http://scm.osdn.net/gitroot/android-x86/manifest -b $branch $ repo sync --no-tags --no-clone-bundle If you hope to keep syncing your tree with Android-x86 repository, just do repo sync. No need to do repo init again. However, sometimes you may see conflicts during repo sync. See the below section for how to solve this situation. Note: The Android-x86 repository is very big (about > 10GB). If you encounter problems of sync it, it's likely a network problem or our server is too busy. Repeatedly run 'repo sync' until it succeeds without any error. Do not bother us with any of the syncing problem. Building the imageOnce the repo sync is complete, you can build a cdrom iso image. You need Oracle java 1.6 (OpenJDK may not work) to build branches before (includes) kitkat-x86. Since lollipop-x86, java 1.7 is required and OpenJDK is supported. Since nougat-x86, OpenJDK 1.8 is required. Note: Before froyo-x86 (included), you can build on either a 32-bit or 64-bit host. Since gingerbread-x86, a 64-bit build environment is recommended. Choose a targetYou need to choose a target for the x86 device you want to use/test. We provides several targets for different branches:
Actually, for historical reason, you have to use eeepc for a generic x86 PC, notebook or netbook before (includes) donut-x86 branch. Since eclair-x86 branch, eeepc is changed to serve ASUS EeePC family only. Do not use it if you are not using an EeePC. In short, if you don't know how to choose, use eeepc for donut-x86 branch, and use generic_x86 for eclair-x86 to ics-x86 branches. But note generic_x86 is just a base for other targets. It doesn't have some advanced features like hardware acceleration. Since jb-x86 we tried to use android_x86 as a universal target for all x86 devices. However, it may not optimized for a particular target device. If you are a developer, you can create a target based on android_x86 for your device. If you want to add new target for your x86 device, refer to the article. Using lunch command (recommended)You can source the file build/envsetup.sh into your bash environment to get some shell functions to help the building: $ . build/envsetup.shNow you can select a target by lunch command: $ lunch $TARGET_PRODUCT-$TARGET_BUILD_VARIANTwhere $TARGET_PRODUCT is any target described in the previous section, and possible values of $TARGET_BUILD_VARIANT are eng, user, userdebug. For example, $ lunch android_x86-userdebugThen you can build by m command: $ m -jX iso_imgm command is equivalent to make, but you can use it in any subdirectory of the android-x86 tree. Since froyo-x86, we also add menu selection to lunch command. Just type lunch, and you will get a list of available targets. Choose a target by inputting its number. Alternatively, just type lunch $number. Building directlyTo build a live cdrom iso image for target android_x86, type: $ make iso_img TARGET_PRODUCT=android_x86To generate a live cdrom iso for tegav2, type $ make iso_img TARGET_PRODUCT=tegav2Then you will get an iso file out/target/product/x86/android_x86.iso, etc. If the computer you build on has more then one processor or core, you can take advantage of multiprocessing (or make jobs) by adding -jX to the beginning of your make command: $ make -jX iso_img TARGET_PRODUCT=android_x86Replace X by the number of processors you have. For example, if you have a quad core CPU, replace X with 4: $ make -j4 iso_img TARGET_PRODUCT=android_x86Using buildspec.mkYou can create a buildspec.mk in your android-x86 directory to remember a particular target product you build often: TARGET_PRODUCT:=android_x86With your buildspec.mk file in your android-x86 directory, you can just make by $ make -jX iso_imgBuild smaller imageSince marshmallow-x86, the generated Android-x86 core filesystem will be compressed by squashfs by default. Before that, squashfs is used only if you have squashfs-tools 4.0 (older version will not work) installed in your host. The generated iso file is much smaller (only about 30-40%). However, if you hope to disable it for some reasons, add USE_SQUASHFS=0 to make. You can put it to buildspec.mk: USE_SQUASHFS := 0
Before froyo-x86 (included), If you hope to get a more smaller image, you may remove the debugging symbols by adding TARGET_STRIP := 1
Since gingerbread-x86, the debugging symbols are stripped by default. Do not use this option anymore. TestingThe generated image is located at out/target/product/$TARGET_PRODUCT/$TARGET_PRODUCT.iso
You can easily test the iso file by a virtual box or qemu. On the booting screen, select the VESA or debug mode to boot. Of course you can burn the iso to a CD disk and test it on a real hardware. On booting it will automatically detect your hardware and load necessary modules. If you have problem with the default frame buffer driver, you may try the VESA mode (select second item on boot screen). Since honeycomb-x86, we supports the hybrid iso format. That is, the iso could be dumped to a usb disk directly. You may create a bootable USB disk by $ dd if=out/target/product/x86/android_x86.iso of=/dev/sdXwhere /dev/sdX is the device name of your USB disk. This feature is only available for iso files released after 2011/12/25. Note usb_img is deprecated. Do not use it anymore. Some broken BIOS (e.g., Acer AO) is unable to boot a USB disk created in this way. If so, you may try to create bootable USB drive from the iso file by unetbootin. For both linux and windows user, here are the steps (suggested by Gregory Gee ) :
So now you should be able to boot from the USB key. Well, at least it worked for me. The UNetbootin is an interesting tool too.
Another choice is the Linux Live USB Creator ( LiLi ) project, which officially support Android-x86. AdvancedThis section describes some useful information for advanced users. You may need good linux expertise to complete it. Install to USB diskFor advanced linux users, you may create a bootable USB disk by hand. Here are the steps:
title Run Android-x86 Note androidboot.hardware= must be set to the target name of the built image. Since kitkat-x86 the SRC= parameter may be omitted if the system image is in the same directory as the kernel. Then you can boot from the USB disk and enjoy Android. Note all data are saved to the ramdisk, so all will lose after power off. If you hope to save data to disk, see the next section. Install to hard diskInstall to a hard disk is just the same as install to a USB disk. Even you do not need to create a new partition. Just copy android files into an existing partition, install grub to the hard disk (if not done yet), and modify the menu.lst. People still ask, what if my hard disk is empty? How to install grub and copy files into it? There are several ways to do it. I provide two here:
Save data to USB/hard diskWe support two ways to save data to your disk.
How to solve conflictsThere are several reason to have conflicts during repo sync, say
In this section we assume you have conflicts due to the upstream changed. That is, you don't have local modifications. If you do, you have to solve conflicts yourself. If you follow the procedures in this section, you may lose your local modifications. Here is an example of a conflict in the manifest: $ repo sync repo sync stopped on conflicts. Since we don't have local modifications, just ignore it by git rebase --skip: $ cd .repo/manifests If it complains about another conflict, do git rebase --skip again, until the rebase procedure completes. Usually it is enough, but if you hope to be absolute clean, you can ignore this branch and checkout a new one: $ git checkout -t kitkat-x86 m/kitkat-x86This may not be the best approach to solve conflicts, but should be easy enough for beginners. If you have better suggestions, just tell us. Customize kernelIf you'd like to customize the kernel for your hardware, read this article for details.
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