Android-x86 7.1-rc2 Now Supports NVMe SSDs, Better QEMU VirGL

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Android-x86 7.1-rc2 Now Supports NVMe SSDs, Better QEMU VirGL

The Android-x86 project derived from Google's Android Open-Source Project code-base remains officially at Android 6.0, but there is an Android 7.1 "Nougat" build available for testing...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Android-x86-7.1-RC2

[Shnatsel]

I've read "SwiftShader" and my first thought was "Wait, isn't that very much proprietary"?

Turns out Google acquired and open-sourced it back in 2016. Surprisingly, it was never benchmarked on Phoronix; I'm curious how it stacks up against llvmpipe and that software renderer from Intel, and whether it is capable of usable framerates for something like GNOME Shell, for example.

[leipero]

I wonder if it's possible to do ARM translation in it (for pure ARM apps), I remember back in, what was it, Remix OS (based on 5.0 or 6.0) it was possible to run some ARM applications (Need For Speed) while on Android x86 it would be "hardware not supported". Maybe there was a way to make it work on pure Android x86, it is much better option, you can use existing ext4 partition and set it in one folder, add efi to grub and you are good to go, or even load it directly from UEFI, and it's easy to remove it the same.

[c117152]

It sadly regressed in stability for BayTrail since rc1*. But I liked where the taskbar is going with regards to substituting the unofficial multiwin & special launcher approach OpenTHOS and PhoenixOS have hacked together. So, I ended up finding it in fdroid and rolled back to rc1 and installed it there

Incidentally OpenBSD 6.2 installs fine but can actually freeze (without dumping core!) much like how linux does so whatever Intel screwed up between their DRM and cstate drivers, it got carried over :/

Overall, pretty good so far.

* Newer kernel so I'm guessing they haven't picked up all the baytrail patches yet ? I wish they could just pick up the patches off the kernel in AUR ( https://aur.archlinux.org/pkgbase/linux-baytrail49/ ) since it mostly works great.

[Brophen]

I wonder if it's possible to do ARM translation in it (for pure ARM apps),

I thought Android x86 included libhoudini but could be wrong. In any case, if not there's always PhoenixOS

[You-]

Is there any project out there that is trying to make a flatpak runtime of Android? Ever since I read about them using Wayland and other current tech for Android apps on ChromeOS I have thought this might be an interesting option.

[Brophen]

Is there any project out there that is trying to make a flatpak runtime of Android? Ever since I read about them using Wayland and other current tech for Android apps on ChromeOS I have thought this might be an interesting option.

Not flatpak, Anbox is an attempt to package Android in a snap. It's alpha though

[RussianNeuroMancer]

It sadly regressed in stability for BayTrail since rc1*.

You can rebuild iso with your own kernel with necessary BayTrail patches, there is script (mydroid-x86.tar.xz). By the way 4.13 upstream should be mostly Ok (just need Android-specific patches).

whatever Intel screwed up between their DRM and cstate drivers, it got carried over :/

AFAIK there is few hardware issue that lead to hard lockup, few of them was fixed, few of them - still not.

[aht0]

Installs fine. After first reboot works. After second it never comes up. For whatever reason.

[Uqbar]

Installs fine. After first reboot works. After second it never comes up. For whatever reason.

For the reason it doesn't work.