System crashes constantly when using hardware acceleration

[Omair Salman]

Hi y'all, how are you doing?

So, let's cut right to the problem. Whenever I use Android-x86 normally (i.e. with hardware acceleration) it just freezes, CONSTANTLY. It freezes on the initial setup after connecting to a network, when changing language while using the physical keyboard, when clicking anything in system dialogue boxes that show that an app isn't responding, when using developer options to change the resolution, and sometimes just random freezes. These are all the specific times it does it, and sometimes if leave it for too long on the lock screen after booting it freezes. it's so frustrating. I can't for the life of me use it properly!

My PC's specifications are the following:

intel core i5-7500

16 GB of DDR4 ram.

Gforce GTX 1060 3 GB GPU.

I specifically said when using it normally, because when I choose no hardware acceleration it never crashes. Like, NEVER. It runs smoothly without any problems.

Please if anyone has any solution, explain it thoroughly and in detail since I'm kinda a noob in linux/terminal stuff.

Thanks a bunch in advance.

[Prajna Sariputra]

The NVIDIA graphics is the problem most likely, normal Linux distros usually have trouble with them too without the proprietary driver, which isn't available for Android-x86. So, your best bet would be to try to use the Intel integrated graphics instead.

[Omair Salman]

does the i5-7500 have integrated graphics? and if so, how do I enable them/force the system to use them instead?

also, 2 new problems popped up, if you (or anyone reading this) know any fixes for them, the included default launcher (Quickstep) doesn't let me pin apps to the home screen in hardware acceleration, if I long-press an app it goes right to the home screen (I tried the pixel launcher from google for 9.0 and it keeps stopping, so now I use the rootless pixel launcher), and also the freezes now BRICK my keyboard, in a sense that it stops working ANYWHERE (BIOS, windows, etc it doesn't work anywhere) until I fully power-cycle my pc, turn it off - unplug it from wall - wait a couple of seconds then re-plug and turn on.
Gosh, this is system is nice but a bit broken. Isn't there a way to integrate the linux drivers in it?

[Prajna Sariputra]

The i5-7500 does have an Intel HD Graphics 630 in there, although to use it you'd probably need to plug your monitor into the display ports in the motherboard at least, and maybe also go into the firmware settings and turn it on. I don't know if having the NVIDIA GPU still attached would cause instabilities (although on a laptop with switchable Intel+NVIDIA graphics Android-x86 simply uses the Intel one, could just be because the NVIDIA GPU there doesn't have any display outputs).

As for using Linux drivers directly, the problem is that the only thing Android really shares with most Linux distros is the kernel, so everything else other than that must be adapted/modified to work on Android-x86 specifically (not all of the driver code is actually in the kernel). Both Intel and AMD graphics have good open-source driver support, so those are well supported by Android-x86 (haven't tested AMD ones myself though), so you can blame NVIDIA for their non-existent support for the open-source driver (nouveau).

[Omair Salman]

Then screw you nvidia lol, you're bad.

Thanks for the tip, I'll poke around my bios settings and see how to enable it.

what is the kernel exactly? is it like the core of the linux os?

[Prajna Sariputra]

Yes, it's the deepest part of the operating system, the closest part to the hardware itself. Linux technically is just the kernel alone, everything else that's on top is what makes the biggest difference between Android and other Linux distros (Ubuntu, etc).