Re: Old Old dell inspiron 500m

[Zootoxin]

Please could somebody help me achieve this? 

It would mean the world to my dad.

On Tuesday, August 28, 2012 3:37:24 PM UTC+1, Zootoxin wrote:

Hi Chaps,

Firstly I'd like to say I love the work that is going on with Android x86 and secondly I am not quite sure how I ended up here but I got here none the less. 

Anyway, I would love to resurrect my ancient Dell Inspiron 500m with the Android x86 OS 

I am hoping to get it to a good running state so I can give it to my Dad for web browsing and a bit of music and youtube. 

Soooo......

Could you nice gentlemen help me out? 

Many thanks 

Zoot 

[Gernot Hillier]

Dear Zoot!

Am 13.09.2012 10:41, schrieb Zootoxin:
> Hi Chaps,
>
> Firstly I'd like to say I love the work that is going on with
> Android x86 and secondly I am not quite sure how I ended up here but
> I got here none the less.
>
> Anyway, I would love to resurrect my ancient Dell Inspiron 500m with
> the Android x86 OS
>
> I am hoping to get it to a good running state so I can give it to my
> Dad for web browsing and a bit of music and youtube.

So did you already try the ISOs available in the download section? Did
they work? Did you see a specific problem? Or how can we help you?

--
Gernot

[Zootoxin]

Hi Thanks for the reply, 

I have tried on the Dell yet as I wanted to make sure I did things correctly. 

Experimenting with VirtualBox allowed me to boot a live cd version by I got confused when it came to making fake sd cards etc. 

I would like the Dell to run off a USB stick and be a permanent installation - So I would need to be able to install apps for good. 

Sooo where do I start? 

 

On Tuesday, August 28, 2012 3:37:24 PM UTC+1, Zootoxin wrote:

Hi Chaps,

Firstly I'd like to say I love the work that is going on with Android x86 and secondly I am not quite sure how I ended up here but I got here none the less. 

Anyway, I would love to resurrect my ancient Dell Inspiron 500m with the Android x86 OS 

I am hoping to get it to a good running state so I can give it to my Dad for web browsing and a bit of music and youtube. 

[Gernot Hillier]

Hi there!

Am 13.09.2012 18:16, schrieb Zootoxin:
> I have tried on the Dell yet as I wanted to make sure I did things
> correctly.

[...]

> I would like the Dell to run off a USB stick and be
> a permanent installation - So I would need to be able to install apps
> for good.
>
> Sooo where do I start?

Ok, so up to my understanding, you need to find out which components
(CPU type, graphics controller, sound, wlan, etc.) are used inside your
target machine (Dell Inspiron 500m) and see which android-x86 image fits
best. Or simply try all of them and see which works best. :)

In addition, you could try the builds from http://www.tabletsx86.org ->
"Android-x86 test builds", they have additional support for Ethernet and
the ARM emulation library.

Booting from USB is supported, please refer to the instructions in the
release notes how to create a bootable USB stick from the ISOs.

In general, however, please notice that the current state of Android-x86
might not work for you out of the box, so you should have some Linux
background and be willing to invest some time and eventually experiment
with different drivers and probably your own builds to get things
running smoothly on devices not currently supported by the Android-x86
builds...

--
With kind regards,
Gernot Hillier

Siemens AG, Corporate Technology, CT RTC ITP SDP-DE
Corporate Competence Center Embedded Linux

[XAP Ken]

Another area to consider is what version of Android would work for your application.  My personal interest is in 2.3.n (Gingerbread).  Currently working on the Mariuz custom builds, which are available at:  http://mariuz.android-dev.ro/

In terms of hardware compatibility, I find the following have been significant:  Video, GPU, sound, ethernet, and Wi-Fi.  Keyboard and mouse have worked out of the box on most that I've tried.  So far I've been able to get everything working except GPU, which is elusive for me.

One thing to keep in mind is that most android devices run on ARM cpus, and binaries compiled for ARM don't run directly on x86.  Some of the android-x86 distributions are setup for ARM binary support using a library from intel with integration supplied by a dev known as Buildroid.  Without ARM support, some android apps won't run at all.


Ken

[XAP Ken]

I can't revise my previous post.  Here's an alternative with info that might be useful.  Please understand, there's no way we can guess your technical level (Linux experience, etc) so this post assumes very little.

Basic setup procedure:

Download a distribution.  If you don't know which will work, best bet is one marked generic.  The files are in ISO (cd-rom) format.

Use an application on your PC to burn the ISO image to disk.  NOTE: this means burn it directly, not create a CD and drop the ISO in as a file.

The finished CD should be bootable if it was burned correctly.  Insert it into a system and restart the system.  The CD should boot to a menu.

Note: check boot order in CMOS setup if the machine runs the OS and not the CD.  If the CD is 1st in boot order and the CD doesn't boot, the disc is bad.

For the first test, use the LIVE CD option (not install to hard drive).  This will boot to Android using the CD and memory in your system without touching the HD.

Test Results:

1. If you don't make it to an Android desktop (black screen, flickers, or garbage), then there is a problem with video.  That's not an easy fix, trying a different distribution would be best.

1.b  If you don't make it to an Android desktop and you get errors on screen, the distribution doesn't like the machine.

2. If you make it as far as the Android desktop, login by swiping the symbol like you were using a phone.  You should have mouse support to do this.

3. Assuming the machine has ethernet and is plugged into a network that provides DHCP (autoconfigure) service...  open the Google search tool and type test.  If you get a response from Google, then ethernet is working.  If you get an error about no data connection, then ethernet is not.

4. Open the apps menu to see the list of pre-installed applications.  Look for Jet Boy.  If you find it, start it.  Start the game, wait a few seconds and listen for sound.  Volume might be VERY low, so get close to the speakers.  If you hear sound, then sound is working.


Ken

[Zootoxin]

HI XAP Ken, 

Thanks for your update so I have tried so far 

android-x86-4.0-RC2-tx2500 - All I got was a blank screen. 

generic_x86.iso from maruiz - I get a black screen showing 

A N D R O I D root@tx2500:/

Any ideas? 

[Zootoxin]

Anyone?