Android-x86 is an

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

project that makes an unofficial porting of the

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system for mobile phones, tablet computer, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal computing, personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typical laptops are "mobi ...

developed by the

Open Handset Alliance The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) is a consortium of 84 firms to develop open standards for mobile devices. Member firms include HTC, Sony, Dell, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Google, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, T-Mob ...

to run on devices powered by x86 processors, rather than RISC-based ARM chips. Developers Chih-Wei Huang and Yi Sun originated the project in 2009. The project began as a series of patches to the Android

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comment (computer programming), comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a Computer program, p ...

to enable Android to run on various netbooks, tablets and ultra-mobile PCs. Huang is the current project maintainer. Currently active developers include Mauro Rossi and Michael Goffioul.

Overview

The OS is based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) with some modifications and improvements. Some components are developed by the project which allow it to run on PC architecture. For instance, some low-level components are replaced to better suit the platform, such as the

kernel Kernel may refer to: Computing * Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems * Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution * Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming * Kernel method, in machine lea ...

and HALs. The OS enables

OpenGL ES OpenGL for Embedded Systems (OpenGL ES or GLES) is a subset of the OpenGL computer graphics rendering application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D computer graphics such as those used by video games, typically hardware-ac ...

hardware acceleration via

Mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a ...

if supported GPUs are detected, including Intel GMA, AMD's

Radeon Radeon () is a brand of computer products, including graphics processing units, random-access memory, RAM disk software, and solid-state drives, produced by Radeon Technologies Group, a division of AMD. The brand was launched in 2000 by ATI Tec ...

Nvidia Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

's chipsets ( Nouveau),

VMware VMware, Inc. is an American cloud computing and virtualization technology company with headquarters in Palo Alto, California. VMware was the first commercially successful company to virtualize the x86 architecture. VMware's desktop software ru ...

() and

QEMU QEMU is a free and open-source emulator (Quick EMUlator). It emulates the machine's processor through dynamic binary translation and provides a set of different hardware and device models for the machine, enabling it to run a variety of g ...

(). Without a supported GPU, the OS can run in non-accelerated mode via

software rendering Software rendering is the process of generating an image from a model by means of computer software. In the context of computer graphics rendering, software rendering refers to a rendering process that is not dependent upon graphics hardware ...

. Since release 7.1, the software renderer has been implemented via the SwiftShader project. Like a normal

Linux distribution A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading on ...

, the project releases pre-built

ISO image An optical disc image (or ISO image, from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media) is a disk image that contains everything that would be written to an optical disc, disk sector by disc sector, including the optical disc file system. I ...

s which can run under live mode or installed to a hard disk on the target system. Since release 4.4-r2, the project also releases efi_img which can be used to create a

live USB A live USB is a portable USB-attached external data storage device containing a full operating system that can be booted from. The term is reminiscent of USB flash drives but may encompass an external hard disk drive or solid-state drive, tho ...

to be booted from on

UEFI UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is a set of specifications written by the UEFI Forum. They define the architecture of the platform firmware used for booting and its interface for interaction with the operating system. Examples ...

systems. Since release 4.4-r4, the UEFI support was united into the ISO images and efi_img was marked as deprecated. Except AOSP, the following incomplete list of components are developed from scratch or derived from other

projects to form the entire Android-x86 codebase: *

Kernel Kernel may refer to: Computing * Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems * Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution * Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming * Kernel method, in machine lea ...

* Installer * drm_gralloc and gbm_gralloc *

* SwiftShader * Audio * Camera * GPS *

Lights Light is an electromagnetic radiation, part of which stimulates the sense of vision. Light or Lights may also refer to: Illumination * Light bulb * Traffic light Arts and entertainment Music * Lights (musician) (born 1987), Canadian singer-son ...

Radio Interface Layer A Radio Interface Layer (RIL) is a layer in an operating system which provides an interface to the hardware's radio and modem on e.g. a mobile phone. Android RIL The Android Open Source Project provides a Radio Interface Layer (RIL) between Andr ...

* Sensors More and more components may be added to the updated version. Android-x86 (Q) and (R) branches are only source code releases as of August 2022.

Related projects

Project Celadon

A related project, Celadon (formerly Android-IA) has been produced by

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...

that will run on newer UEFI devices. The project states that its intention is to drive Android support and innovation on Intel Architecture in addition to providing a venue for collaboration. It re-used the drm_gralloc graphics HAL module from Android-x86 in order to support Intel HD Graphics hardware. Back as Android-IA, it provided a FAQ with more detailed information.

Remix OS

Jide Technologies partnered with Chih-Wei Huang, the main developer of Android-x86, on Remix OS, a closed-source derivative of Android-x86 designed for use on conventional PCs. The first beta of Remix OS was made available on March 1, 2016. The project was discontinued on July 17, 2017.

Android TV x86

In late 2020, a senior member of

XDA Developers XDA Developers (also known simply as XDA; often stylized as xda-developers) is a mobile software development community launched on 20 December 2002. Although discussion primarily revolves around Android, members also talk about many other operat ...

created Android TV x86 to provide Android TV for PCs, which "should work out of the box because the ROM has its roots in the Android-x86 project".

References

External links

* {{Linux distributions Android (operating system) X86 operating systems Operating system distributions bootable from read-only media Linux distributions without systemd Linux distributions