Problems with wi-fi, hdmi (why not "plug and play"?)

[Benoit Misonne]

I have installed various versions (8.1 r1 and 7.1 r2) and cannot use it as I planned because of wi-fi and hdmi issues, in further details:

Background:

(1) I live in China which is getting increasingly more restrictive on reaching out to the Rest of the World.

(2) I have a Sharp Aquos, but powered by Lenovo as China will not allow their (Sharp) fresh, out of the box, Android TV OS.

(3) This has taken much of my time then, but I managed to install apps. Not possible to root it, but I found ways and those worked for several years

(4) The show is over as it forced upgrading my firmware (I had disabled it fully) and thereby deleting all apps I had managed to install.

Status:

(1) I hate living with those restriction so I need an Adroid (if possible Android TV) box, to hook up to my VPN wifi, and my TV. There are many such boxes (some amazing) but I can only buy them outside of China. I won't be out for up to a year an cannot wait that long. HENCE, I need an intermediate (possibly permanent) solution.

(2) Best I found is to install Android on an old desk/lap top, and YOURS (Android x86) is the best I found.

- I had first installed the Android TV x86 but it never connected to my wifi.

- So I decided to give up on the TV spec and installed the original x86 8.1 r1. Amazing when I switched on the laptop for the first time (right after installation). No problem accessing to my wi-fi networks (incl. with VPN), connecting to my Google Play a/c, installa apps, etc. but after rebooting ... no more wi-fi ssid (none, zero ...). I thought my antenna burned out but my Windows (other drive) connected with no issue.

- So I went to 7.1 r2. It works, after fresh install, and after resterting - I CAN see all ssid. I can connect to one of them (192.168.1.1) but no longer on my secondary (VPN) subnet (10.10.10.1) even though I managed to after fresh install. No VPN = no Google play, no Youtube, no whatever ...

(3) Once I hook-up to TV (HDMI), it's connected, BUT only half size (centre of screen of course).

Questions:

(1) How do I fix wi-fi ... ea-si-ly ...

(2) How do I fix hdmi output ... ea-si-ly ...

In any event: great initiative!

My system: Thinkpad laptop