Running Android Jellybean 4.0 on the Asus eeepc 900

The Asus eeepc 900 came on the market in May of 2008. If it were human, it would be just old enough to go to kindergarten this fall, but since it is a computer it is more like an elderly retiree. I can still run the original Xandros Linux on my eeepc, and it is still a speedy, capable operating system. Over the years, however, I have booted a variety of other distros on the device including Tiny Core Linux, BrowserLinux, and most recently Ubuntu. This week, however, I decided to install Android Jellybean 4.0 on an SD card and test it out in the little Asus.

To create a bootable sd card with Android Jelly Bean for the Eeepc 900, follow the following steps:

(These instructions assume that you are using a Linux system. Windows users will need to use a software program for burning a bootable usb stick.)

1. Download the android-x86-4.0-RC2-eeepc.iso from http://www.android-x86.org/download

2. Once the file has downloaded, open a terminal window and change directories until you are in the one containing the iso (to simplify typing the dd command below). Use the ls command to see the files in each directory as you navigate to the correct location.

3. Rename the iso file to android-sd.iso (to have less chance of making a typo on the all-important dd command below).

mv android-x86-4.0-RC2-eeepc.iso android-sd.iso

4. Use the mount command to see what  device drives you have normally:

5. Insert your usb stick and use the mount command again to discover the name of the device:

Be sure to unmount the usb stick at this point!
6. Carefully type--

dd if=android-sd.iso of=/dev/sdc

(Change /dev/sdc to whatever is the correct device name as discovered using the mount command above. Since you are going to overwrite the usb stick's master boot record, make sure to use sdc instead of sdc1. Double check for typos or any other errors before you hit the key. The dd command is popularly known as "disk destroyer" for a reason, but it is also the most direct and efficient way to accomplish the task at hand. You will probably need superuser privileges for this command. If so, preface the command with sudo or su--whichever works in your version of Linux. Or type su on its own line before the dd command. If you are creating your bootable usb stick on a Windows computer, you will need to use something like UNetbootin and follow the instructions of that program.)

7. After the file has copied, shut down your computer and reboot using whatever procedure is necessary to boot from a usb stick. Ascertain that Android works properly in live-cd mode.

8. Prepare a bootable sdhc card. I used an 8-gb card and reformatted it in Linux using cfdisk. I formatted the card as a single partition using the ext3 file format. Make sure that you toggle the switch to make the card bootable.

9. Boot Android from your usb stick with the formatted sdhc card in the sd card slot. Follow the instructions for installing to hard drive. Here is a little Youtube video of my eeepc booting Android.

Some Notes on Using Android x86 on the eeepc

Swiping with a mousepad can be difficult. To swipe to left or right, try positioning the pointer on the far left or right side of the page and then clicking. That works in some apps. Swiping pages up and down can be unpredictable. You can often double-tap and then drag text up or down, but you can also use two fingers to more easily scroll up or down. However, most apps also allow the use of the up-arrow and down-arrow to move a line at a time. Most allow the PgUp and PgDn key combinations. And a few advance a screen of text at a time with each press of the space bar.

Selecting / Highlighting text. This actually works better on the eeepc than it does on my Android tablet. In some apps (text editors) you can highlight text simply by positioning the cursor and then using Shift+rightarrow to highlight. In others (e.g., the browser) you should first double-click on the first word to highlight and then use Shift+rightarrow to extend the highlighted selection. 

The "Menu" key reliably brings up menus.

The key "Esc" sometimes serves as a "Back" button.

Google Play Store works well and allows you to download virtually any app you might like, but be prepared for occasional difficulties. Some apps display only in the portrait rather than the landscape mode of the eeepc screen. When that happens, the easiest thing to do is to shut down the computer, reboot, and uninstall the offending app. The following apps work well for me: Google Play Music, X-plore (for file management),  Google Keep (for note taking), QuickPic (for photo displays and slideshows), Google Currents (for general magazine-style articles), Kingsoft Office (for word processing), Gmail, Google Maps, and YouTube.  

In some apps (X-plore, for example) double-tap-and-hold brings up a menu of options for actions on the selected file. This allows one to edit a text file that is stored on Google Drive and be confident that the changed file will be uploaded to Google Drive.

After a page has fully loaded in the browser, double-tap enlarges the text. Double-tapping again makes it smaller.

Music Player works nicely but it is necessary to transfer music into the sdcard Music directory for it to be recognized. It will not play music directly from the sdb1 partition. On the other hand, X-plore will play music directly, but it seems to be a limited music player (no playlists or cue controls that I can see). Google's Music Player does have a nice equalizer that allows the eeepc to have pleasant volume and sound. Hit the three dots in the upper right corner of the dedicated menu key on the keyboard. Then click on Settings and Equalizer. Click the "On" button in the upper right corner of the screen. Play with the various preset options or select "User" and tinker for yourself.

Superuser access is readily available and the distro comes preloaded with a handy superuser app. This is a true blessing because you will need to enter some terminal commands in order to get access to the built-in sda and sdb drives as well as usb sticks. Here are the commands to use in a terminal to access sdb1:

Open a Terminal window

In Terminal type:

mkdir /mnt/sdcard/sdcard2
su                                         (Note that you will be asked to grant superuser privileges.)
busybox mount /dev/block/sdb1 /mnt/sdcard/sdcard2

You can now use a file manager to navigate to the sdcard2 directory where you will find all of the files on your eeepc's internal sd-drive.

A single push of the power button attempts to send the eeepc into sleep mode, but even when it does go into true sleep mode it soon reawakens into a semi-comatose state with a dim, locked screen and only somewhat reduced power usage. Another longish push of the power button is needed to bring the screen back to full power and allow swiping to unlock.

To shut down the computer, try two slightly spaced pushes of the power button.