Replace Express Gate with Android

[LICBuyers]

I have an EEE netbook with both Express Gate and Windows 7 Home
Premium installed. Express Gate can be booted via a nifty dedicated
button. It's not bad, but really I think Android would be better.
I've run Android-X86 (2.2) via the SD card slot and it works well.

Can anyone suggest a way to eliminate Express Gate and replace it with
Android? Ideally this would mean I could hit the dedicated Express
Gate button to boot Android instead.

[Ikem Krueger]

> 2011/3/20, LICBuyers <licb...@gmail.com>:

> I have an EEE netbook with both Express Gate and Windows 7 Home
> Premium installed.

> Express Gate can be booted via a nifty dedicated button. It's not bad,
> but really I think Android would be better.

> Can anyone suggest a way to eliminate Express Gate and replace it
> with Android?

There is a german Howto:

[Guide] EFI Partition und Express Gate auf Asus T101MT - Lösung
http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f100/efi-partition-und-express-gate-auf-asus-t101mt-loesung-720945.html

There's a bit explained how "Express Gate" works.

As much as I understood:

* hit the button
* hidden partition is accessed
* EFI is loaded
* Express Gate is loaded

For further details, check out his Howto.

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[Eric Krygelmans]

Hello

I'm also interested in replacing the useless expressgate with android on my EeePC, I found this info on the subject

http://hackingyourmind.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/asus-t101mt-hacking-express-gate/

I still haven't got time to do it but maybe someone else could try it

[Gia90]

Hi, i'm the author of this http://hackingyourmind.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/asus-t101mt-hacking-express-gate/
article...

I've been using this method to boot android using the secondary button
till now and everything works flawlessly :D
If you need some help, ask me ;)

On Mar 5, 11:50 am, Eric Krygelmans <eric.krygelm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello
>
> I'm also interested in replacing the useless expressgate with android on my
> EeePC, I found this info on the subject
>

> http://hackingyourmind.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/asus-t101mt-hacking-e...

[Duarte Velez Grilo]

Do you think you could write it in english? I know we can use google
translate, but I think much more people will read it if it's already
in english.

Cheers,
-- Duarte

2012/3/31 Gia90 <goog...@gmail.com>:

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[enrico valletta]

when i read an italian guide i start cry :) my 101 is in medical check..when come back..i become your first adept :)

[EFK]

Hi Gia90

Thanks for chiming in this thread

Some questions

Did you keep FAT32 on the SDA3 partition ? From what I understood if you use FAT32 you can't save anything with Android, so everytime you reboot you loose everything

Did you resize the size of SDA3? is 5GB size enough for Android 4 RC1 and Express Gate?

Thanks!

[Gia90]

Duarte Velez Grilo, i wrote in this thread to help people who had
problems understanding my article....so i think it's not necessary to
translate the whole article since you can directly ask me what you
need :)
In Addition, google translates it quite well and if i choose to
translate it, i will have to translate all the comments which contain
a lot of useful infos...

EFK, Android can't save data and configuration directly on a fat32
partition, but it can store them if you create a data.img during the
installation :)
Yes, i resized SDA3 and everything keeps working. You can resize it
the size you need, anyway 5gb should be enough (i resized it to 10gb,
since i also created a 2gb fake card and i needed more space to test
how Express Gate works)

On 31 Mar, 20:23, EFK <eric.krygelm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Gia90
>
> Thanks for chiming in this thread
>
> Some questions
>
> Did you keep FAT32 on the SDA3 partition ? From what I understood if you
> use FAT32 you can't save anything with Android, so everytime you reboot you
> loose everything
> Did you resize the size of SDA3? is 5GB size enough for Android 4 RC1 and
> Express Gate?
>
> Thanks!
>
> El sábado 31 de marzo de 2012 15:47:23 UTC+2, Gia90 escribió:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Hi, i'm the author of this

> >http://hackingyourmind.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/asus-t101mt-hacking-e...

[Kev]

This is nothing short of incredible! And perfect. I have the t101mt as well and this is a perfect Sat afternoon project for me. I'll let you know how it goes

And again, thanks for the post and the updates!

[Kev]

So, it turns out my T101MT doesn't seem to want to boot correctly when I press the ExpressGate boot button. It comes on when I press the button, but then goes to the usual BIOS boot screen. I'm guessing maybe I've messed up the ExpressGate partition somehow.

Interesting side note, I did install Android directly to the ExpressGate partition and I'm able to boot from it with no issue. So now I can boot into what-ever I want.

how-ever I'm still missing the nifty quick boot button. But oh well..........................

[Gia90]

Yes Kev, if pressing the Express Gate button, the Bios appears then
you have messed up the Express Gate partiton.

What i've understood till now, the things Express Gate needs to work
are:
- A partition with fat32 fs (i still need to test if other fs are
supported)
- 2 folders in this partition named "grub" and "ExpressGate" with
some grub legacy files (you can find these files+instructions in the
box.net widget on the left column on my blog
http://hackingyourmind.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/asus-t101mt-hacking-express-gate/)
- An empty EFI system partition (IMPORTANT!!!)

Let me know if it helped :)

[Kev]

Yes. I have the main windows partition (hd0,0), and then the Expressgate partition (hd0,1) but I seem to have lost the EFI partition somewhere. So need to make that one again!

[Gia90]

Yes, you need to.
It's not so difficult you need just gparted + some terminal command,
or just use dos and diskpart if you are a win user

On Apr 1, 8:15 pm, Kev <kbm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes. I have the main windows partition (hd0,0), and then the Expressgate
> partition (hd0,1) but I seem to have lost the EFI partition somewhere. So
> need to make that one again!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sunday, April 1, 2012 9:07:54 AM UTC, Gia90 wrote:
>
> > Yes Kev, if pressing the Express Gate button, the Bios appears then
> > you have messed up the Express Gate partiton.
>
> > What i've understood till now, the things Express Gate needs to work
> > are:
> >  - A partition with fat32 fs (i still need to test if other fs are
> > supported)
> >  - 2 folders in this partition named "grub" and "ExpressGate" with
> > some grub legacy files (you can find these files+instructions in the
> > box.net widget on the left column on my blog
>

> >http://hackingyourmind.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/asus-t101mt-hacking-e...)

[enrico valletta]

Gia.. you have root permission on your t101mt? I need for install fast reboot or another app but i cant..

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[efk]

Hi Gia90
I finally found some time to install :-) 

I've installed android 4.0 RC1 on a Asus Eeepc 1005PE but still no luck in booting Android with the express gate button… I can only start Android using the normal power button which gives me the Windows 7 / Android boot menu.I’ve tried to follow more or less the steps you describe in your guide but maybe I’ve missed something. I’ve installed Android on the SDA3 FAT 32 partition. Then copied the grub and express gate folders(the ones you have on Box) to root of SDA3. One thing I’ve noticed is that I have also have an original folder called EG with a file named fbloader.bin inside (which I presume maybe has something to do with express gate??) but before messing things I would like to know if maybe you had an idea on what could be the problem.

Thank you