[TWEAKS] Surface Pro 3 & other tips for Remix OS

[henri.k...@gmail.com]

Hi all! :)

First, thank you so much Android-x86 & Jide people for doing this. You're awesome! I'm loving the OS, works really well!

Then to the topic...

Tips for Surface Pro 3 users for a better Remix OS experience

Installation & running Remix OS (adapted from some posts on Reddit, these forums and XDA, forgot which)

1. Install it normally on a USB stick according to the instructions provided by Jide
2. Test if it works and boots up, and if it does, go on.. if not, make sure you followed the instructions and if you are still having problems, search the forums & reddit
3. Install Google Apps for the best Android experience: http://liliputing.com/2016/01/remix-os-for-pc-how-to-install-the-google-play-store.html
   
4. Create a folder called AndroidOS in the root of your C drive, like so: C:\AndroidOS
5. Copy these files from the USB stick to the AndroidOS folder: data.img, initrd.img, kernel, ramdisk.img, system.img
6. Download this: https://www.reddit.com/r/RemixOS/comments/40pek2/premade_image_with_efi_booting_no_legacy/
7. Now, add the EFI folder from the REMIXDRIVE package to the root of a USB drive (as small as possible, it'll only be used for booting later on, it can be the same you installed the OS on earlier but make sure you format it first)
8. Download this file https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxJiEaPT8-__eEt2dk1FLWh0MzA/view?usp=sharing and put it to the AndroidOS folder, so that it's path is C:\AndroidOS\android.boot (not sure if this is needed but mine didn't boot otherwise)
9. Now, the images of Remix OS are on your Surface's SSD and the files used to boot it on your USB stick. To boot it, we need to do a few more things still...
10. Boot to the UEFI menu https://www.microsoft.com/surface/fi-fi/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/how-to-use-the-bios-uefi and disable Secure Boot, leave TPM on. Also check if alternate boot order is USB -> SSD
11. Now plug in the USB stick that has the boot files on it and choose save and exit in the UEFI menu. Instantly press volume down and you should see the grub menu. Choose Android or let the countdown go to zero for it to start. Through Windows you can edit the grub.cfg file and set the timer to something more reasonable like 3 seconds: change set timeout=10 to set timeout=3
12. Now always when you wanna use Remix OS, plug in the USB drive and press volume down to start it up. After you're in Remix OS, use it's file manager to eject the USB drive and then you can safely take it off and enjoy Android on this awesome tablet!
    
13. I haven't yet checked if these files let us boot straight from the EFI partition on the SSD but I'll look into that when I get more free time. It might be possible, follow the instructions on the forums/reddit/elsewhere on how to install it on a PC's UEFI, but use the files from the EFI folder from the REMIXDRIVE package.
    

Tweaks to build.prop - BACKUP FIRST!

1. Root your Remix OS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1DJRqPNygE
2. Use a build.prop editor like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jrummy.apps.build.prop.editor

DPI/Tiny UI fix
Use a DPI changer like Le DPI Changer OR edit build.prop and find the lines ro.sf.lcd_density and persist.sys.disp_density and change their value to 216, for example ro.sf.lcd_density=216

• 216 is the SP3's pixel density, so I thought to test that and found it to be THE crispiest and most natural DPI at least for me
• Text, icons and everything else looks so much better now. Crisp, sharp, easier to read. Books are awesome now (even though there's no portrait mode, can we please have that someday Jide? <3)

EXPERIMENTAL, CAN BREAK STUFF, BUT FIXES YOUTUBE 1080p AND POSSIBLY OTHER STUFF -- I at least will use these until the graphics issues are solved (and keep testing) :D
Change dalvik.vm.heapgrowthlimit=192m to dalvik.vm.heapgrowthlimit=256m -- some apps seem to run better and since we have 4GB RAM this should be no problem

Add these to the end of your build.prop if you wanna get a bit better performance (gives some boost to me, haven't tested battery life or other effects)

#Experimental additions
debug.sf.hw=1
debug.performance.tuning=1
video.accelerate.hw=1
debug.composition.type=gpu
debug.egl.hw=1
debug.egl.profiler=1
debug.enabletr=true
hw3d.force=1
persist.sys.ui.hw=1
force_hw_ui=true
ro.config.disable.hw_accel=false



These make sure hardware acceleration is enabled even in situations where it might not be needed, like menus, desktop and other 2D stuff. I have zero menu/window lag or jitter now. Continuing testing to see if they have more negative than positive impacts... Didn't really see a difference in Minecraft because it was already butter smooth, but web browsing and other stuff feels better now.

You can also edit the build.prop file by mounting it in for example Ubuntu if you don't want to get full root on Remix OS:

1. Copy the system.img file to a USB stick and plug that in a Linux PC. I'm using my Raspberry Pi 2 with Ubuntu Mate in this example.
2. Open Terminal, type sudo su and enter your password, then cd to the mount location of the USB stick, for example mine is /media/hkoivuneva/STICK/
3. Let's make sure the permissions are correc, typet: chmod 0644 system.img
4. Create a folder to mount the image on, type: mkdir remixos
   
5. Mount the image, type: mount -o loop,rw -t ext4 system.img remixos
6. Now to easily browse it, run your file manager (since we mounted it as root we need root capabilities), type: caja -- or nautilus if you're on regular Ubuntu, etc.
   
7. With the file manager browse to the mounted image, you should see it as removable media. Then open build.prop with your favorite text editor and get hacking!
8. After you've done, save the file and close the text editor and file manager window, not terminal yet
9. We gotta unmount the image now, so type: umount remixos
10. Then close the terminal and eject the USB stick. Put it on your Surface while in Windows, go to the AndroidOS folder, rename your original system.img to system-old.img and then copy over the edited system.img and boot to Remix OS to see if your changes worked.

Now if you want to remove some stock apps you don't want, before booting to the OS, mount the image the same way as above but use the file manager to browse and delete what you want. For example Holo Spiral Live wallpaper input:

• Browse to /app and delete the HoloSpiralWallpaper folder.

There are apps in the app and priv-app folders. You might want to check them out.

If you want to remove all traces of root, even the stock superuser binaries, mount on a linux pc with the above instructions and delete these:

• /system/bin/su
• /system/xbin/su
• If it exists: /system/app/SuperSU.apk and /system/app-priv/SuperSU.apk and other superuser apks if you got them
  

Current bugs/great to have features on Surface Pro 3, maybe others too:

• No portrait mode, I'd LOVE to have this
• Some games don't work, for example
• Minecraft: Story Mode (black boxes, graphical glitches, driver issues?)
• Snapchat (There was a problem connecting to the server. Please try again.)
  
• Periscope (Blank screen after login, stays at loading circle) -- BUT gets to lists etc. after setting the above experimental build.prop stuff! Then it stays at "loading" if I open a stream :( no more live "online traveling" (check out Lonely Planet btw)
• YouTube stays at 360p max, no difference which app version I use -- BUT 1080p works (albeit choppily) after enabling the above experimental build.prop stuff! That fan noise though..
  
• These are the 4 apps I installed Remix OS for haha! Any idea what's up with them? Graphics drivers?
  
• Touch screen and type cover sometimes stop responding. Taking the type cover out and putting it back in fixes that, and then you can use it to reboot the system. After reboot it works. Haven't checked logs yet to see if they have any clues.
  

More to come! Please share your tips, tricks and tweaks too! :)

[sam.m...@gmail.com]

When i add experimental build.prop i have no change, youtube always at 360p :/ 

[Gary A]

Surprised you didn't see these:
ro.remixos.box=true
ro.remixos.no_wallpaper=true

Switch both to false and you can get rotation setting in Experimental Features. No_wallpaper is if you turn off the file mode for the launcher.

Pic if needed: [url=http://postimg.org/image/59t58nl33/][img]http://s11.postimg.org/59t58nl33/Screenshot_2016_02_18_16_35_50.jpg[/img][/url]

[Gary A]

No bb codes I guess; screenshot here http://postimg.org/image/59t58nl33/

[sam.m...@gmail.com]

Ok, thanks for youtube it's the same ?

[sam.m...@gmail.com]

After make this, i have no change, no rotation but i have not the option "Allow All apps to switch to phone mode"

[Gary A]

Multi-tap on kernel version in settings=>about to add more option to Exp.Features

Might need to turn off launcher file mode to get rotation on launcher.

Still just 360 on youtube for me but I'm not using a surface; any suggestion for the video to test with so every ones trying the same one?

[sam.m...@gmail.com]

Still not work, can you give me your build.prop ? What's your device if it's not a surface ?

[David Dzado]

Is there a trick to get Resident mode to work? It seems to be stuck in a boot loop. Guest mode loads rather quickly.

[sam.m...@gmail.com]

You have try with last version with dualboot on C disk ? With me work fine !

[David Dzado]

Which instructions are you referring to?

[sam.m...@gmail.com]

Here ^^ http://www.jide.com/en/remixos-for-pc#downloadNow 

But as it's so easy i don't use this, i use my mean ^^ ...Donwload file via torrent, use the installer tool, and install on C: and after reboot...dual boot...remix

[Miguel Belbut Gaspar]

Does that change enable you to rotate the display, eithar manually (how?) or automatically (detecting orientation change)?

I tried all settings I could find relating to orientation, to no avail.

(Why are there so many settings that apparently should control the same thing? "Force landscape", "Experimental->Allow rotation", "Accessibility->Allow Rotation", ...)

[masterp...@gmail.com]

Please, edit your answer. Those installation steps are not needed since the Remix Install tool does it very well, without doing anithing, just by selecting install to Hard Drive.

[Mateusz Raczyński]

in some kind of devices are required to work F.E. my Lenovo Miix 2

[johnfmcr...@gmail.com]

Any ideas on improving webcam video live broadcasting using PERISCOPE. CERTAINLY WORKS VERY WELL AT LAST WHILST looking at others live broadcasts. I use a logitech c920r hd webcam. To have it working properly would be fantastic.
Cheers. John

[johnfmcr...@gmail.com]

[johnfmcr...@gmail.com]

[johnfmcr...@gmail.com]