adding android x86 to windows boot manager

[Zahirul Alim]

who can add an android x86 option to Windows Boot Manager. i hate to use the grub loader

[Saipudin Haris]

How to Boot Android x86 from BOOTMGR
***tested on Win10 x64

1. Edit BOOTMGR "BCD" file using BOOTICEx86.exe (in the attached zip file) 
to chainload "grldr.mbr" (in the attached zip file) (see picture attached)

2. Create / Edit GRLDR "menu.lst" (in the attached zip file):

----------start "menu.lst" file---------
timeout 0
default /default

title Android x86

find --set-root /androidx86/kernel
kernel /androidx86/kernel root=/dev/ram0 androidboot.hardware=android_x86 quiet SRC=/androidx86/
initrd=/androidx86/initrd.img
----------end "menu.lst" file----------

note: /androidx86/ is a folder name, change it to what ever you like eg: /my android x86/
but it must contains the extracted (extracted to FAT32 partition) android x86 file system
from the android x86 ISO/IMG file and of course the android "data.img" file (ext4 formatted)
to save android x86 changes and user data.

3. put "GRLDR.MBR", "GRLDR", "MENU.LST" in your root boot partition (which contains the BOOTMGR file)
note: i resized my boot partition, from default FAT32 100MB "Windows Reserved Partition" to FAT32 8GB.
i also put the "data.img" and extracted the android x86 file system from the android x86 ISO/IMG file to this partition.

4. reboot the computer. enjoy.

[Abdullah Wiqar]

Does this work for uefi as well? If not, do you know how I can add Android x86 to the uefi boot?

[Abdullah Wiqar]

hey can you please provide a guide of installing it on windows 10 with uefi? 

I've it installed on my system but can't access it due to boot issues. Your brief guide to add it to the boot manager is a little confusing. 

From it, it seems that I am supposed to install android in the boot partition? Am I correct? Also, if the boot partition is fat32, where do I get the ext4 formatted data.img? 

Currently, I have installed android, using the usb method, on to an ext4 partition. I used linux reader to access the ext4 partition in windows but there's no data.img file that I can copy and paste into the fat32 partition. 

I'd greatly appreciate it if you can help me out. 

[Saipudin Haris]

quote:

on windows 10 with uefi?

the steps above are tested for installed windows in a harddisk with mbr type partition.
efi windows and gpt type partition harddisk are un-tested and not recommended.


quote:

where do I get the ext4 formatted data.img?

as for me, i create it my self.

here is the log steps to create ext4 formatted data.img using command prompt in Win10 x64:

------------start------------
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10240]
(c) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>d:

D:\>cd ddwin

D:\ddwin>

D:\ddwin>dd bs=10M count=1 if=/dev/zero --progress of=data.img
rawwrite dd for windows version 0.5.
Written by John Newbigin <j...@it.swin.edu.au>
This program is covered by the GPL.  See copying.txt for details
10,485,760 100%
1+0 records in
1+0 records out

D:\ddwin>mke2fs -t ext4 -F d:\ddwin\data.img
mke2fs 1.42.13 (17-May-2015)
cygwin warning:
  MS-DOS style path detected: d:\ddwin\data.img
  Preferred POSIX equivalent is: /ddwin/data.img
  CYGWIN environment variable option "nodosfilewarning" turns off this warning.
  Consult the user's guide for more details about POSIX paths:
    http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using.html#using-pathnames

Press ENTER to format d:\ddwin\data.img

Creating filesystem with 10240 1k blocks and 2560 inodes
Filesystem UUID: 571959c7-3937-483d-92ce-5d1cdeffcd63
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        8193

Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (1024 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

D:\ddwin>e2fsck d:\ddwin\data.img
e2fsck 1.42.13 (17-May-2015)
d_\ddwin\data.img: clean, 11/2560 files, 1445/10240 blocks

D:\ddwin>exit
----------stop-----------

optional:
if you want readonly or readwrite access to the contents of  data.img. after the final step above, you MUST install
the ext2fsd driver. after the ext2fsd installed, you can mount (readonly or readwrite) the data.img
using the osfmount utility to view/edit/copy the contents of the data.img.

note:
my zip file which contains the necessary files to create ext4 formatted data.img for android x86.

download link (8.3 MB):
http://www.solidfiles.com/d/c4566f7b87/


for "dd bs=10M" the M means Megabytes ---> 10M means 10 megabytes.
use G for Gigabytes ----> example "dd bs=10G" -----> 10G means 10 gigabytes.

for more info on dd for windows visit http://www.chrysocome.net/dd

[Abdullah Wiqar]

Thanks man. I gave up on Tuesday. Ran out of stamina. Had been at it for 3 days. Will give it another shot this weekend. This isn't a sprint but a marathon. Must pace self. 

[JJ Meijer]

I've got dual booting with uefi working nicely, I wrote a little guide about it: https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/android-x86/N12U5-S0-Ow maybe it will help you...