Category Archives: Android

Building Android for the Asus Eee PC 701

NOTE as of 2009-02-19:

These instructions are now probably out of date. Thanks everyone for the discussion and the links. If you’re really interested in this, you should probably check out the android-porting google group / mailing list.

BIG RED FLASHY WARNING

  • THIS WILL wipe whatever you have installed on your Eee PC
  • THIS IS at a rather experimental stage, so don’t expect everything to function appropriately

Now that you’ve read the warnings, I’ll point out that I’ve posted an installation image below. If you want to roll your own, continue from here.

Instructions

  1. READ THE WARNINGS – I won’t be held responsible if you nuke your Eee PC
  2. Get the source by following these instructions.
  3. Create a local_manifest.xml file in your .repo directory with the following contents:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <manifest>
    <project name="platform/vendor/asus/eee_701" \ path="vendor/asus/eee_701"/>
    </manifest>
  4. Sync – do another repo sync to pull the eee_701 stuff
  5. Build – type

    TARGET_ARCH=x86 TARGET_PRODUCT=eee_701 DISABLE_DEXPREOPT=true make -j8 installer_img
  6. Wait … It’ll take a while, particularly webkit
  7. Make installer USB stick

    dd if=out/target/product/eee_701/installer.img of=/dev/<usbstick of your choice>
  8. BIOS Settings – Go into the BIOS settings (press F2 on boot) and set the boot device order so that the hard drive comes first. Also under IDE configuration set the internal flash drive to load before any USB drives. ADDED 2008-12-21 – You must also turn off the SD card reader for the installation procedure.
  9. Boot – Plug the usb stick into your Eee PC and boot from it. When the BIOS screen comes up, press the ‘Esc’ key to get the boot menu. Select the USB drive. You should be presented with a rudimentary installer menu. Quickly press an arrow and select option 0 (sysloader), then press Enter.
  10. Let the install run – When it’s done type “reboot” and hit enter. Once it reboots, wait a few seconds and then the android boot screen will appear. Tada!

Note that wifi and many other things don’t work right now, so I’m trying to figure them out. I’ll post the installation image shortly, and more details here as I find them.

These instructions are mostly based on information found here.

Here’s a screenshot from the awful camera on my android phone:

Android Cupcake on the Eee PC

Android Cupcake on the Eee PC

UPDATE: 2008-12-20 19:12Z

Image for your consumption is here (mirror) (torrent). (Please use the torrent if you can). This is governed by the Apache 2.0 and GNU GPL Licenses. The sources are currently available from Google.

UPDATE: 2009-01-03 22:51Z

For the pedants, and my conscience. (On a related note, hello Slashdot and Gizmodo visitors.)
The software included in this product contains copyrighted software that is licensed under the GPL. A copy of that license is available here (2008-01-04 – Link typo fixed, sorry). You may obtain the complete Corresponding Source code from me for a period of three years after the binary was posted, which will be no earlier than 2011-12-20, by sending a money order or check for $5 to:

Brock M. Tice
PO BOX 17416
Saint Paul, MN 55117

Please write “source for Android EeePC build ” in the memo line of your payment.

This offer is valid to anyone in receipt of this information.

K9

So, you haven’t heard much from me in a while. The little one has been using up great amounts of my time and attention. (And she’s totally worth it).

However, I’m finally getting back into the swing of things with work, around the house, etc. I’ve started roasting my own coffee, which is great, and Amanda got me an espresso machine that should be arriving within hours in which to use my freshly-roasted beans.

The thing that has been using up the greatest amount of my “free” time (whatever that means these days) has been hacking on an improved email client for the new “Google Phone”, the G1. The included email client was utter crap, to put it kindly, not even as sophisticated as the client on my little Razr2 v8 flip phone. However, someone forked the open-source email client that came with the device into a project called K-9. The name is derived from that of an old UNIX-y email client called mutt, the idea being that K-9 (canine) is a sort of androidy name for a dog, I guess.

Anyway, the client has been rapidly improving. I haven’t done much — just a few bug fixes here and there, and possibly the addition of some bugs (hope not) — but several people are working on it. It’s already getting rave reviews in the Android market, particularly since people have only the crappy built-in client an an alternative. Heh. I don’t know Java, really, but that hasn’t been stopping me. It’s not that different from Python and C++. Anyway, if you have a G1, check it out. We’re improving performance, fixing bugs, and adding features all of the time.