acer iconia w1-810 dual boot

wajdikh
wajdikh Member Posts: 1 New User

Is it possible to have android as second boot for acer iconia w1-810?

Answers

  • amyren
    amyren Member Posts: 10 New User

    There is a guide about installing android-X86 on Windows Tablets. I havent tried it, so I cant tell if it works on the W1-810. The W1-810 is a bit picky on what it will boot from. If probably will need an .efi bootloader file to boot from any other disk than the windows partition. Also you must enable UEFI in the BIOS.

    Here is a link to the guide: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-android-windows-8-tablet/

     

    Alternatively you might want to try an emulator. It will not give you the full speed, but it will make you able to run some android apps.

    I did test a few android emulators on my W1-810 with windows 10.

    Andy : Failed to run

    Droid4X: Did run, but had some freezes.

    Nox App Player: Does run, and I managed to get it set up and also tested running MineCraft PE on it. Minecraft does run, but it is a bit slow.

    I have not tried GenyMotion, Bluestacks or Freestacks.

     

  • amyren
    amyren Member Posts: 10 New User

    I just did a test with android-x86

    Dual boot is possible, using this procedure

    - go to android-x86.org/download and get the file android-x86_64-5.1-rc1.img

    - use win32diskimager or another tool to extract the img file to an USB stick

    - Use a USB OTG cable to connect the USB stick to the tablet.

    - enter bios on your w1-810. Note you must set a security password in the bios to be able to enter the UEFI settings.

    - In the UEFI settings you must navigate to your USB stick, to the efi/BOOT folder. Select the bootia32.efi file

    - Select YES to add the file to be allowed to boot from.

    - Optionally, you can edit the boot priority so that your USB stick is on pri 1. This way it will always boot from this usb stick if present. If no USB is present it will boot windows normally. And you dont have to use the boot manager to choose USB for booting every time.

    - Save changes and exit bios

     

    Now on next boot, the usb stick should boot up. 

    You will see a text menu, with Live Boot as selected option as default. 

    Wait 60 seconds and Android will start up.

    It will take a few minutes to start, be patient.

    On startup you will need to set some basic android settings, like language, name, timezone.

    After setting it up, the android systen seem to run quite fast, and much more responsive than the android emulators I tried earlier.

     

    There are some big limitations here though.

    - Booting from live media means that no changes will be saved, so you need to start from the beginning after a restart.

    - Onboard WIFI does not work, probably due to missing drivers

    - I think the live media does create a virtual system disk in RAM, and copies the system files there. This makes the available space for installing apps very limited.

    - Screen rotation sensors does not work, so it will stay in portrait mode.

    - Bluetooth is not working

    - On screen keyboard works, but I found that sometimes it fail to pop up.

     

     

    But my D-link DWL 122 wlan usb stick was detected and I was able to use that to get wifi working, my usb  keyboard was also usable. All connected via my 4-port unpowered usb hub.

  • amyren
    amyren Member Posts: 10 New User

    I have now installed Android 4.4 on my W1-810

     

    It is possible to install it to the internal disk, but I dont want to that for a couple of reasons:

    1. The current state of andoid-x86 drivers for this tablet makes it not desirable to use as the primary system.

    2. Installing it to disk means you must re-partition the internal disk, not only loosing valuable space for your windows installation, and also there always a risk of messing up windows so it will be unable to boot.

    3. Currently, the Grub menu startup menu is text based and to select any other entry than the default one will require to have a USB keyboard attached at startup.

    4. Because of the above, the only way to choose between windows and android is to enter the BIOS and disable/enable UEFI boot.

     

    Therefore I have installed the Android system on USB stick, and enabled UEFI in Bios. Then, if the USB stick is connected, the tab will boot into android, if not it will boot windows normally.

     

    Here is a short summary of my experience with androidx86 on Acer Iconia W1-810:

    - It boots from USB in less than 2 minutes (first boot, before it is set up will take very long time)

    - TouchScreen works good.

    - The interface seems fast and responsive.

    - Google Play is included and works.

    - Every app I have tried so far did work, even MineCraft PE.

    - Volumebuttons up/down are detected.

    - USB devices can be installed via an USB hub.

    - It detects and does use the internal SD card for storage.

    - Does work with USB-Wifi adapters

    - Does detect USB Bluetooth adapters (sort of, se below)

     

    What does not work:

    Internal WIFI

    Internal Bluetooth

    No Sound

    Power button is not working.

    Sensors not working (for screen rotation)

    Camera not working (I notice that there was no camera app with the OS, so it might not be supported in andoid-x86 at all)

    Battery status does not work, so you never know when its empty.

    Tried two different Bluetooth dongles. The first one, brand: SMK-Link, was not detected at all. Then I tried a cheap not-branded one, and this is detected and enables BT. But I was not able to detect any BT devices. (only tried with my FitBit watch, so others might work)

     

    Workarounds:

    Wifi: Work well with wifi dongles, as mentined above dlink-dwl122 works.

    Screen orientation: I installed an app to be able to force landscape when needed.

    Powebutton: You can always use the settings menu to power off, or you can install an app that will give you easy access to on-screen shutdown and reboot buttons.

    Bluetooth: Might work with the right dongle

    Sound: Might also work with usb soundcards (not tested)

  • amyren
    amyren Member Posts: 10 New User

    I just tested a usb headset, brand name: Plantronics Blackwire c220-M, and found that both Audio out and and Mic does work fine.

    But I think I'm very close to the limit for how much power I can draw from an unpowered usb hub, when I have the usb keyboard, wifi stick, usb flashdrive and the usb headset connected.

  • abdulmomin875
    abdulmomin875 Member Posts: 2 New User

    acer

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    I have a couple of these. Works fine with a PC I just like white.

  • lcbailey
    lcbailey Member Posts: 2 New User

    I have the Iconia w1-810 running Windows 10 and have been trying to dual boot off of a microSD card. Is this even possible?

     

    I followed the same steps from the makeuseof blog you mentioned above. I used the boot.img file from Intel's open source android zip folder and wrote it to my microSD using Win32DiskImager.

    I adjusted most of the UEFI settings that the page says, but due to the fact that my keyboard is a bluetooth, I cannot quickly boot into the BIOS (using f12) and select what my tablet boots up from. Additionally, there don't seem to be any options to boot from a microSD card when I use recovery>restart method. 

     

    So here are my questions:

     

    1. Is it possible to boot up android from a microSD card?

    2. Am I able to do so with only my Tablet and a Bluetooth Keyboard?

     

    3. If yes to both of these, do you have any ideas how to get that up and going? 

     

    Thanks for your help

  • amyren
    amyren Member Posts: 10 New User

    Short answer is

    1. NO

    2. NO 

     

    Long answer:

    I doubt that booting from SD card is possible on this device. But who knows, if they decide to support it in a future BIOS update.

    Latest bios is 1.10 I think: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/content/support-product/5735?b=1

     

    The makeuseof blog I did mention in one of my earlier posts was just an example I refered to. As I wrote in my post, I never did follow that guide myself.

    Look at one of my later posts and you will see that I did follow the more "safe" way, and did install and test a couple of versions of abdroid-x86 by booting from USB.

    Now I dont use the Iconia W1-810 so much, since I gave it away to my daughter. I did get a Iconia W700 instead, but have tested a few android versions on the W700 as well.

     

    I also discovered another way to boot android withot uisng USB and without messing with your harddrive partitions. What it does is that it will create a folder on your C:\ drive and install all android files there, then it will mount this folder into a virtual USB drive and make this bootable. 

    I guess that this method should work on the W1-810 as well.

     

     

    http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software/winapp-android-x86-installer-uefi-t3222483

     

    Take a look at www.android-x86.org and find a release you want to try. Note that you will need an .img file, not an .iso file. You might need to try several images before you find the version that works best for you.

     

    But I think the easiest way to find the best android version is to test them from usb stick first.

     

    For your bluetooth keyboard:

    Dual booting that needs the user to use a keyboard to select OS at startup will never work, since bluetooth drivers are not loaded before the OS starts. 

    Secondly, the internal bluetooth adapter in the W1-810 does not work with android. (it might work on later android-x86 versions, but not on the 4.4 and 5.1 that I did try).

     

    A last note. 

    There are a few other interesting android-x86 projects that you might want to check out.

    RemixOS at http://www.jide.com/remixos-for-pc

    PhoenixOS at http://www.phoenixos.com/en/download_x86

  • lcbailey
    lcbailey Member Posts: 2 New User

    Thank you very much!

     

    I will give your suggestions a try and see what comes of it Cat Happy

  • amyren
    amyren Member Posts: 10 New User

    You will need some GB free space on your c: drive before installing with that tool from xda. The install tool will ask you to specify the size of your data file (android storage)

    After installing you will need to use this method to boot into android:

    - In windows 10, go to PC settings

    - select update & security

    - select Recovery

    - Here you will se "Advanced startup", press the restart now button.

    - The system will restart into a screen where you can select to boot from a device

    - Now Android OS should be listed as a bootable medium

     

    good luckSmiley Happy