Support for Dell Dimension..specs provided

[Whalon Herbert]

Greetings:

 

This may be a long shot, but I have been attempting to run via USB flash the live cd for android (4.3, 4.2, 4.0) on a dell dimension pentium 4 with an intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV graphics card.  I used unetbootin-windows 581 to load android-x86-4.3-20130725 and have verified SHA-1 hashes to be correct.  After my initial install attempts failed, i modified the boot parameters by removing the "quiet" switch, and also included the switch for "xforcevesa", "nomodeset", and "nomodeset xforcevesa"  The startup process runs and everytime i get to the same place...the android command prompt and flashing underscore...i read also to type "start" if the process stalls...which i tried to no avail.  I also read where some in similar situations have had success with different images; android-x86-4.0-r1.1-asus_laptop.iso, aspire1000s_ics_beta3.iso, or android-x86-2.2-sparta. I am in the middle of evaluating these images, but wanted to inquire to the forum in the mean while. Lastly, when I run the live cd in debug or VESA mode, i get an error related to the display mode (which seems to be root cause of my issues, if i had to guess)

 

I attempted to force the install to boot into a low res display mode, but I dont think I formatted the command correctly

 

Is there any other information that would prove useful to help diagnose my issues?

 

Thanks,

Whalon

 

 

 

[Michael Cunningham]

Unfortunately, since ics-x86, Intel no longer wants Android-x86 to support non-SSE3 CPUs.

If you build the image yourself; you will be able to get it mostly-functional; but will never be able to run mainstream apps on it.

 IOT get Android 4.3 x86 to compile for non-sse3 cpu's; you need to 
change line #118 of (build/core/combo/TARGET_linux-x86.mk) to: 
                TARGET_GLOBAL_CFLAGS += -march=pentium-m -mstackrealign -mmmx -msse -msse2 -mno-sse3 -mfpmath=sse -m32 

I don't remember if the Pentium 4 even has SSE at all; so you may have to use:

TARGET_GLOBAL_CFLAGS += -march=pentium4 -mstackrealign -mno-sse3 -mfpmath=387 -m32 

More info on the flags can be had at https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GCC_optimization or one of the other 10 billion Google hits on "GCC -march optimization"

I'm in the same boat with several tablets and laptops; but it took me almost a month to figure out why it wouldn't work.

V/r,

Mike

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[Whalon Herbert]

Thank Mike for your valuable insight. I am glad this exercise won't have to end just yet :-). One follow up: would/does using virtbox change anything? I have the prog installed, but haven't tried creating a vm to load android yet. As you can imagine, my box doesn't exactly scream, which is why I've been using the USB live CD method so far.

[Terry Poulin]

All Pentium 4 cores had SSE2 support and some had SSE3 (e.g. Prescott). I know this because a gamer-friend had trouble when his cheaper AMD lacked SSE like my families old Dimension D4x00 :-)

[Michael Cunningham]

The best way to find out which capabilities your CPU has; is to boot Android-x86 into debug mode, and cat /proc/cpuinfo

If your cpu supports sse3, you will see ssse3 under the flags section. Examples:

WITH (from a Core i7): flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good xtopology tsc_reliable nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt hypervisor lahf_lm ida

WITH (from a Core 2 Duo): flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm tpr_shadow

WITHOUT (from a Pentium M): flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe nx bts est tm2

{Pentium/Celeron/Xeon} 4's all support SSE2; and the newest of them, the Prescott (90nm) series, support SSE3; but I do not see any evidence that the Prescott was ever released in a mobile platform.

Good images to try would be:

  ICS-x86 thinkpad image (non-SSE3): http://www.android-x86.org/download (official release)

  JB-x86 le1600 image (non-SSE3): http://theigb.com/le1600/ (unofficial release)

If either of those boot into the gui, your system supports SSE2 but not SSE3

IRT your graphics card; the 845G is supported by the i915G drivers; so you should not have an issue there.

V/r,

Mike

[Whalon Herbert]

I started with the ThinkPad image. I booted each mode available, but all ultimately lead to the same terminal prompt. ( ANDROID root@thinkpad :/ # _ )

1. Here is the boot string I'm working with. The red text indicates where I have removed or modified the default value during some iteration of testing

/kernel initrd=/initrd.img root=/dev/ram0 quiet androidboot.hardware=thinkpad video=1024x768 i915.lvds_downclock=1 i915.powersave=1 usbcore.autosuspend=2 quiet SRC= DATA=

Here are the results of each boot mode attempt:

• Live CD: with default boot, no errors, nothing happening at prompt.
  
• VESA Mode: undefined video mode 314...after this error, i selected the mode just prior to this one...311...process finished, but ended at terminal prompt
  
• Debug Mode: same as VESA mode 

I'm moving on to the other image...i'll post back shortly

[Michael Cunningham]

What do you get for flags, when you cat /proc/cpuinfo

--

[Whalon Herbert]

fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe up pebs bts cid xtpr

 

I tried to attach my screenshot, but couldnt get everything within 2000px x 2000px.

[Whalon Herbert]

Here's the screenshot of output from cat /proc/cpuinfo

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/zzmji8690ejbswu/Aw0AW9ZoY3

[Gus Finley]

have you tried the vga=ask boot parameter?

On my Older PCs I've usually have to go through a few vga modes (even of the same screen resolution) that would work right. When you find the one you want, just replace it with vga=0x317 (or whatever HEX number worked from the vga mode input screen).

[Whalon Herbert]

Hello Gus:

The vga=ask boot parameter takes me to the same screen I encountered after previously booting into VESA or Debug mode.  After reading your comments, I had to refresh myself on linux video modes briefly, and if I understand correctly, I should be able to pass the hexadecimal number representing an acceptable VESA mode at boot time.  I've added a screenshot of my available video modes...once you see the pic, it should make sense...Mode 314 is throwing an error (consistently since I started this exercise), so if I am choosing mode #311 anytime I boot up....So in hex format, that should be 0x137? Mode #311 says it displays 640x480x16 and is Type VESA. This seems like the best of my "options"

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g7nputonerihiyo/Video%20Modes.jpg

[Whalon Herbert]

Took a couple of tries, still didnt get the OS to load, but i am no longer being stopped at the terminal prompt...this time, after all the scripts finished, screen just went black...I used vga=0x311

[Greg M]

you got to convert hex to dec 0x311   hex 311 = 785 dec so vga=785