How to make a Hybrid Android LiveUSB and Generic Flash Drive

What is this?

Looks like a harmless same-old USB drive right? You put it into a Windows PC and it has a few photos and mp3s on it, hmm?

WRONG!

What you see here is a Persistent Android Live USB with storage space that can be shared with windows. Pop it in a PC, boot from the USB drive and you have your own personal customized Android at your fingertips.

After several iterations, I finally got this to work. Here is how it is done.

1. Choose a USB stick

Android can install inside 200MB if using a read-only system (400MB for a read-write), but you'll also need some space for all the apps and media you may acquire. Then, decide how much space you'd like shared with windows.

I used an 8GB USB stick: 750MB for Android 1.25GB for Android Data and 5GB to share with windows.

2. Partition the USB drive

Yes, you can partition a USB drive - but probably not using windows built-in tools. You may need a Linux Live CD for this one - or specialized windows software. I prefer using Peppermint 3 (lightweight Linux).

The first partition will be the partition to share with Windows. If you try to put this partition in any other position on the USB drive, Windows will never read it and if you give it permission will format ONLY the first partition. It may look like windows will format a different partition, but it won't- TRUST ME!

Format the partition as FAT32. This is the only file system that Android and Windows both like. In my case, I made a 5GB FAT32 partition.

Next, create the partition for the Android system files. This will need to be at least 250MB for using a compressed, read only system - 500MB for read-write system files. Format this in ext2, which is more flash memory friendly. This will protect your Android system from access by Windows since it can't read linux file systems. In my case, I formatted partition 2 at 750MB. MAKE THIS PARTITION BOOTABLE!

Next, create the Android data partition. Format this in ext2. In my case, I formatted partition 3 1.25GB. Again, this will protect your Android data from access by Windows.

3. Install Android

Download the latest generic x86 Android iso from Android-x86.org and put it on a CD or USB. Pop it in your PC and boot from the device you installed it on. Feel free to try android from this Live medium all you want, but once you leave Android your data will be gone.

At the GRUB boot menu, select the option to install Android. Now pop in the partitioned USB stick and select: Detect devices. Three new partitions should be added to the list. Select the 2nd new item, sdx2 (where x is the proper linux drive letter). Tell it what kind of partition and feel free to format it if you like. Install GRUB.

Continue with the installation and choose a read-only or read-write install type. After installtion is complete, you get two options: Run Android or Reboot. Pull out the Android install medium and the new Android USB Drive and reboot.

4.  Tweak Grub

Boot to a Linux operating system. Put the Android USB drive back in and open /grub/menu.lst as root. You will need to add DATA=sdx3 (substituting x for the proper drive letter) to each menu item. I also added options for booting with different screen resolutions and for situations where the USB drive would be sda or sdb. Here is what mine looked like:

default=0
timeout=6
splashimage=/grub/android-x86.xpm.gz
root (hd0,1)

title Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on sdb (1280x1024)
    kernel /android-4.2-test/kernel quiet root=/dev/ram0 androidboot.hardware=android_x86 video=-16 SRC=/android-4.2-test vga=794 DATA=sdb3
    initrd /android-4.2-test/initrd.img

title Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on sdb (1024x768)
    kernel /android-4.2-test/kernel quiet root=/dev/ram0 androidboot.hardware=android_x86 video=-16 SRC=/android-4.2-testvga=791 DATA=sdb3
    initrd /android-4.2-test/initrd.img

title Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on sda (1280x1024)
    kernel /android-4.2-test/kernel quiet root=/dev/ram0 androidboot.hardware=android_x86 video=-16 SRC=/android-4.2-test vga=794 DATA=sda3
    initrd /android-4.2-test/initrd.img

title Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on sda (1024x768)
    kernel /android-4.2-test/kernel quiet root=/dev/ram0 androidboot.hardware=android_x86 video=-16 SRC=/android-4.2-test vga=791 DATA=sda3
    initrd /android-4.2-test/initrd.img

5. Reboot and Test

Save the Grub modifications and reboot the PC. Boot from the Android USB Drive. There will be some initial setup questions when android starts. When it tells you your tablet is ready, make a few changes (like the wallpaper), then shut it down and boot again. This time it should skip the questions and boot right into Android with your new wallpaper. Yay! It's working! Now Shut it down again.

6. Test the Shared data partition

Plug the Android USB drive into a Windows PC. If it does not recognize it, then let it format the drive. Now copy some media to the Andriod USB. Unplug the Andriod USB and boot from it again. It should auto mount the first FAT32 shared parition and you should be able to access your media.

7. Play!

You now have an Android Persistent Live USB / Windows Removable drive. Now anywhere you go you can pop in your "Flash drive" and have a customized operating system at your fingertips. Have fun

Read More

Paradigm Shift - Android for PC

A while back I got curious - I wonder if anyone has ever tried to install google's android "smartphone" operating system on their PC. A google search turned up Andriod-x86.org . Yup, someone has tried it. Their builds were initially targeted for devices such as Asus Netbooks. I downloaded one of the Live CD images and tried it on my Compaq Presario C700 Laptop. Not good. It was super slow.

A few weeks ago, I got curious again. This time Anrdoid-x86.org had released a generic x86 build of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. I followed the instructions for making a live USB from a linux terminal, shoved the USB stick in the C700 and fired it up. Wow! This is definitely an improvement! It was speedy and booted in 24 seconds from a compressed file system (requires decompression at boot).

So is Android a viable operating system for a PC? Mostly.

Pros:

OPTIMIZED FOR LOW HARDWARE

Android is optimized for minimal hardware. Chances are that old PC that is gathering dust in the basement is on par with your smartphone as far as speed goes. I have Android installed on a Pentium 4 PC that my employer was getting rid of. I've also tried it on a Celeron laptop, a dual core laptop and dual core desktop as well as other Pentium 4 PCs and I am suprised by how fast it runs on each of these.

I did a little test on a few of these PCs to quantify speed. I used a stopwatch to time how long it took from operating system to startup to loading up facebook in a browser window. Here are the results:

Dell Precision 370 Pentium 4 3.2GHZ
     - Peppermint (lightweight Linux) = 1 min 1 sec
     - Android from IDE Hard Disk = 46 seconds
     - Android from USB stick = 59 seconds

Compaq C700 Laptop Dual Core 1.7 GHz
    - Windows Vista = 2 mins 1 sec
    - Peppermint = 46 seconds
    - Android (compressed file system) 53 seconds

Generic AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 3GHz
    - Windows 7 = 1 Min 1 Sec

So, the functional equivalent of Browsing Facebook is actually faster with Android on a Pentium 4 than with Windows 7 on a Quad Core AMD. Who knew!


You really don't even need a hard drive in the PC to run Android. It will install on a 250MB USB stick (compressed) or a 500MB USB stick (read-write).

I've created an 8GB USB stick which functions as a persistent Android operating system as well as providing 5GB of shared storage that can be accessed by Windows and shared with Android. Here's How to make one

USER INTERFACE

Android's user interface is beautiful, simple and more intuitive than Windows systems and has a small learning curve. Overall you'll get things done faster with Android. Some PCs will even be able to run some live wallpapers.

Of course, Android is meant to be used with a touch screen. So how does it work with a mouse and keyboard? Pretty well.

There is a pointer for a mouse, with support for the scrollwheel but no right clicking that I have found yet.

My multimedia keyboard controls volume, launches the music player, email, calculator, the back button, forward button (browser only), the home button, menu button and probably more I haven't discovered yet. The delete key (backspace only?), home and end keys don't seem to do much which has been a little frustrating as I am typing this on my Pentium 4 with Android Persistent USB stick. (This seems to be an android browser problem. Firefox for android - available for Android-x86.org - made good use of them.)

Where Android really shines is on a trackpad/touchpad. It not only functions as a mouse, but also as a quasi-direct-manipulation interface (touchscreen). Simply tap the trackpad them swipe away as if with a touch screen. It takes a little getting used to but you'll make your way around Android easier this way. This also works with the mouse, but its a little more difficult.

Cons:

ARM-ONLY APPS

Being that Android was designed mostly for portable processors based on the ARM achitecture and not the Intel (x86) architecture, you will find that some apps won't work on your PC with Android. Noteable apps are Android's Music Player, Angry Birds, Netflix and Redbox. Other apps will run on some PCs and not others. There are enough apps out there to fill in the Gaps for the most part, though. There has been an ARM translator available in previous releases. Let's home this gets implemented soon in Jelly Bean x86.

DESIGNED FOR PORTABLE APPS

Let's not pretend that Android would be the ideal business operation system. You won't use it to create spreadsheets or presentations... at least not yet .. who knows what the future will bring.

There are still things I need to do that I'd rather do on a full-fledge operating system (like adding the pics to this post)


Android for PC tips:

1. Try it! Download the latest .iso from Android-x86.org and burn it to a CD or USB stick. You can try it without installing. It will install to your RAM and everything you do will be gone when you turn off the PC. If you like it install it!

2. If you're having monitor trouble, press tab at the LiveCD/LiveUSB boot screen to edit the boot command line. Remove "quiet" and "video=-16" and add "vga=ask". It will ask you what video mode you would like to use. Try the 16-bit (HxWx16) modes in your monitors native resolution. If you're still having trouble try adding "nomodeset" and then also "xforcevesa".

3. If it seems a little slow, this may just be a visual issue. Go to the developer settings and turn off the animations (set animation scaling to none).

4. You can install it in the same partition as windows or another operating system. It will install in a subdirectory on the partition you chose. A menu will ask what operating system you want to start up.

5. Open the development settings and make sure the display never sleeps. If it does, you will have to power down the PC to get back to Android. Suspend and Resume aren't currently supported in Androidx86

6. If you like Android and love windows try Android on a Virtual Machine. I didn't have success geting the jb-x86 distrobution to work, but I found an AndroVM site that had a good one all setup up for download.

Read More