Howto: Setup NextBook Flexx 11 (and likely several other similar devices) with Android-x86 7.1
Shawn Peterman
*Warning, this guide is for setting Android-x86 as the standalone OS. I do not have instructions for setting up dual boot. Also, this guide assumes you have a working knowledge of CLI (Command-line Interface). At least well enough to delete, copy and rename a few files.*
Hi! I went through a bit of work and discovery to setup my little NextBook Flexx 11 with Android-x86 7.1. I created this howto in the hopes of saving others some trouble. (and because I may need to do it again and I forget things :-) )
First things first: Some things work all on their own quite well!
Performance: Your device is about to be lightning fast compared to the way it ran under Windows!
Wifi. No issues.
Bluetooth. No issues.
Display. Overall very few issues. A few video apps don't play properly. Particularly Hulu and Directv Now.
Chromecast. No issues casting video. Will not screencast.
USB. No issues.
SD Card. No issues.
Battery. No issues.
There are some things that just don't work.
Installation media. I had difficulty but I'll explain and give workarounds below.
Boot. It's tricky but completely possible. Workaround below.
Camera. It just doesn't function. Haven't tried to fix it. There may be fixes out there but none that I have found.
Screen rotation. Mine doesn't work. Your mileage may vary. Workaround around below.
Power button. If you touch it at all it will restart your device. Workaround below.
Sound. Does not work natively. Easy workaround below.
Google Assistant. Does not work natively. Easy workaround below.
Installation:
My install was tricky. I have multiple machines but for the sake of being able to make this easy for as many people as possible, I did everything on a Windows 10 machine. In theory you should be able to setup the USB drive for installation on the NextBook machine itself.
First thing you need is the right Android-x86 image. You'll need the x86 version. The 64 bit version won't work on this device. For the purpose of this tutorial I used the iso found here. Download it and save it somewhere you'll remember.
Next thing you need is Rufus bootable USB creator. It was the only one I could get to create a USB drive that this machine would boot. The trick it seems was in the "Partition Scheme" setting. It only worked when I selected "GPT partition scheme for UEFI". Select the USB drive you want to install from, set the option mentioned in the last sentence, file system is Fat32, I checked quick format, create bootable disk using ISO, choose the Android-x86 ISO that you downloaded, I put a check in "create extended" below that then hit start. It may give you a warning about the ISO being a Hybrid, just go with the recommended setting.
When it's done, you are ready to reboot the machine with the LIVE USB drive you just created. Within the first second of boot up hit escape. You may need to hit it multiple times. This should allow you to access boot options. Choose your USB drive and try out the live version. Remember the limitations noted above. Some things won't work in Live version. If you decide to install, we'll get a lot of those issues worked out. Test drive it here and if you decide to install, continue below.
Boot (part 1):
Reboot the device as we did above to the grub menu and choose one of the Installation methods. Follow the install instructions. After install it will boot up into Android-x86 and run great... until you reboot. Then it's going to give you errors. You can "boot from file" in the boot menu by navigating to the efi folder on your hard drive and selecting the file "bootia32.efi". Next we're going to automate that process. We’ll get there in the sound section below.
Sound (Boot part 2):
Now we need to boot back to the Live USB for safety because we’ll need root privileges. Get through the setup (you can just skip all the signing in). Open Chrome and navigate back to this post. There is a file attached to this post named “bytcrrt5640.state” provided by youling257. Download it, it’s going to fix your sound. Close Chrome. Now we’re going to go into your apps and find “Terminal Emulator”. Relax, this is relatively painless. Once at the terminal prompt do the following:
x86:/ $ su root #This will get you root privileges. A superuser request will pop up. Grant it#
x86:/ $ mkdir /mnt/hdd #We’re creating a folder to mount the boot portion of the hard drive#
x86:/ $ mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/hdd #Mounting the boot partition#
x86:/ $ cd /mnt/hdd/efi
x86:/ $ mkdir Microsoft
x86:/ $ cd Microsoft
x86:/ $ mkdir Boot
x86:/ $ cd Boot
x86:/ $ cp /mnt/hdd/efi/boot/bootia32.efi ./bootmgfw.efi #Taking the boot file for Android-x86 and copying it so your machine thinks it’s booting Windows#
x86:/ $ cp /sdcard/Download/bytcrrt5640.state /etc/alsa/ #This file makes your sound work#
Reboot and your NextBook should boot right back into Android-x86 complete with sound!
Google Assistant:
Easiest one. Go here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trivisionzero.getassistant&hl=en this app will walk you through setting up Assistant on your NextBook.
Screen Rotation:
I don’t rotate my screen much but for those who do you may want to grab “Set Orientation” from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.afterecho.android.setorientation it’s a simple free and ad-free app to manually rotate your screen. I use it to keep my screen in the prefered Landscape.
Buttons:
The power button works for me if I hold it until the dialog pops up to reboot or power off. Tap the power button and you have a few seconds to wake the machine up before it reboots. However, I did make use of two app to simulated turning the screen off and hopefully prolonging screen life. I’m not going to consider it a permanent fix but it’s a good bandaid. Grab “Button Mapper” https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flar2.homebutton and “Blackr” https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neximolabs.blackr from the play store. You can set you “home” button on the back to darken the screen using the two of them together. There may be far better alternatives than these for your needs.
It’s entirely possible that I’ve missed some steps here or forgotten some details. Reply to this thread if you’re having issues me or someone much more knowledgeable will try to help you out if we can. Remember, we’re all volunteers doing favors so be patient and polite :-)