Manually update kernel 4.18.14 in Android x86-64 7.1 R2?

[Haukness]

Good afternoon,

I have an old Dell Optiplex 390 PC that I am currently running Android x86-64 7.1 R2 on.  This build runs well and is stable, and it runs all of my apps and games, with good mouse support and a touch-screen monitor.  The machine has an old Radeon HD 8570 graphics card installed, which has hardware support in kernel 4.9.95 and provides hardware acceleration, and it runs all the games I play fairly well at 1920x1080.

I have a much newer and more powerful Radeon RX 550, but kernel 4.9.95 does not have hardware support for that card.  Kernel 4.18.14, which you folks have included in Android x86 8.1 RC2, DOES support the RX 550, as confirmed with an 8.1 RC2 LiveCD, and given that the card is far more powerful than the HD 8570, it provides much better hardware acceleration.  However 8.1 RC2 has a multitude of other minor-but-annoying stability and usability issues on the PC that have made me decide not to upgrade to 8.1 just yet.

My question is this:  Is it possible and fairly simple to simply update the kernel in my existing 7.1 R2 installation to 4.18.14, the version included in 8.1 RC2?  I anticipate doing this will allow me to use the RX 550 while continuing to use my existing 7.1 R2 installation.  Can this be done?

-Haukness

[Chih-Wei Huang]

Haukness <hauk...@gmail.com> 於 2018年11月16日 週五 上午5:43寫道：

Basically speaking, yes, provided you've
installed 7.1-r2 system as read-write mode.

Boot an 8.1-rc2 live usb to debug mode,
then mount the partition containing 7.1-r2, say

mount /dev/sda3 /hd

Copy kernel & modules of 8.1-rc2 to 7.1-r2:

cp /src/kernel /hd/android-7.1-r2/
(backup the old kernel file if you want)

cp -a /lib/modules/* /hd/android-7.1-r2/system/lib/modules/
umount /hd

Then reboot to 7.1-r2. The new kernel should work.

--
Chih-Wei
Android-x86 project
http://www.android-x86.org

[Haukness]

Chih-Wei,

Thank you very much for the prompt reply and detailed instructions!

I installed 7.1 R2 in read-write mode, so I will take a backup image of my 7.1 R2 installation first, then try your instructions! I'll let you know how I make out.

-Haukness

[Haukness]

Chih-Wei,

I followed your instructions, and was able to copy the updated kernel and it's modules from an 8.1 RC3 LiveCD to my 7.1 R2 installation.  Success!

I then installed the RX 550 in the machine, and have confirmed it now works correctly and provides hardware acceleration under the new kernel.  Thank you very much again for the help!

-Haukness

[Paweł Styrna]

Hello!

After reading that post i do the same way to update my kernel in 7.1-2 32bit because of dualshock 4 modules in newer kernel.

I've followed instructions by mr. Chih-Wei and after reboot my android stuck on black screen , probably bootloop ;(

Kernel I used from 8.1-rc2 32bit is copied succesfull. So what happened when I updated my kernel , what i've doing wrong ?

[Paweł Styrna]

Of course Android is installed in read-write mode on ext4 partition

[youling 257]

32bit 7.1 userspace used 32bit binder, 32bit 8.1 userspace used 64bit binder.

the different is CONFIG_ANDROID_BINDER_IPC_32BIT.

32bit 7.1 kernel CONFIG_ANDROID_BINDER_IPC_32BIT=y

32bit 8.1 kernel # CONFIG_ANDROID_BINDER_IPC_32BIT is not set

在 2018年11月19日星期一 UTC+8上午6:16:30，Paweł Styrna写道：

[Paweł Styrna]

thanks for answer