[DEV] LineageOS 16.0 (Android 9) for Raspberry Pi 4 B

[bushrat]

Hi guys,
How much of Android currently works with the Pi? For example, could we get telephony going using something like this: https://www.adafruit.com/product/2691 (for example)

I love the idea of getting Android going on the Pi as a way to bring repairability to devices like smartphones. With proper drivers for the GPU, a cellular modem and a few more creature comforts, I'd be all for using a Pi-Phone.

I don't know about you guys, but I want a fatter phone with USB ports

[Konsta]

Hi guys,
How much of Android currently works with the Pi? For example, could we get telephony going using something like this: https://www.adafruit.com/product/2691 (for example)

There's working/not working lists on my site what comes to hardware features. There's no support for telephony in this build so it doesn't include most of the parts that are needed to support it anyway.

Can you make something like this work? Most likely if you have the required skill set and you're willing invest the hours to do the required work. Is there some plug-and-play solution or can you expect someone else to do this for you? No, and probably not.

[dhamipreet]

Newbee on a Rasp Pi4 ModelB, I have ported the Image of 16GB Sandisk SD Card.

Overall the OS is running well, when I connect to a LED TV Screen.

But when I connect to a old LED Monitor Compaq 185Q, using a HDMI to DVI Cable, there is NO Display ( Monitor Error: Use Recommended Settings 1366 X 768 60Hz ).

The same monitor is working well with other OS on RASPberry.

Can you please suggest me some solution please.

[Konsta]

Newbee on a Rasp Pi4 ModelB, I have ported the Image of 16GB Sandisk SD Card.

Overall the OS is running well, when I connect to a LED TV Screen.

But when I connect to a old LED Monitor Compaq 185Q, using a HDMI to DVI Cable, there is NO Display ( Monitor Error: Use Recommended Settings 1366 X 768 60Hz ).

The same monitor is working well with other OS on RASPberry.

Can you please suggest me some solution please.

Please read the relevant FAQ section on my site. 720p is the maximum resolution supported by the graphics drivers that are currently used.

[dhamipreet]

I have checked the FAQ, I tried to change the Config.txt
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=81

Still NO Success, What I am doing wrong.. Plz Support

[Konsta]

I have checked the FAQ, I tried to change the Config.txt
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=81

Still NO Success, What I am doing wrong.. Plz Support

hdmi_mode=81 -> 1366x768

768p > 720p that is the max currently. You need to use a smaller resolution that your display supports.

[teddyng]

Just need a bit of help as I can't seems to find the solution anyway. I am having overscan problem (the image is bigger then my screen). I am guessing I need to change boot/config.txt, but it wouldn't allow me to edit that 'config.txt is unwritable'. Anyone know how to fix that. I am using root by typing su and also did a chmod 777 which result in a message of 'chmod to 100700'

[Konsta]

Just need a bit of help as I can't seems to find the solution anyway. I am having overscan problem (the image is bigger then my screen). I am guessing I need to change boot/config.txt, but it wouldn't allow me to edit that 'config.txt is unwritable'. Anyone know how to fix that. I am using root by typing su and also did a chmod 777 which result in a message of 'chmod to 100700'

Probably the easiest option is just to mount the sdcard on your computer. Boot partition uses FAT filesystem so even Windows can manage that.

Boot partition is mounted read-only on Android. Use

Code: Select all

su
mount -o rw,remount /boot

to mount it writable to make modifications.

[ChrisChris]

Hi!

Me again. Is there a way to change the default download folder to a USB device? It is listed but I am unable to switch to it. Alternatively, I have a rather large SD card of which the image is using only a small part. Can I extend as either external or shared storage? I could not find Gparted for android and the few other apps I tried did not displayed properly on the screen and where therefore unusable (see my first post #9).

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards,
Chris

[Konsta]

Hi!

Me again. Is there a way to change the default download folder to a USB device? It is listed but I am unable to switch to it. Alternatively, I have a rather large SD card of which the image is using only a small part. Can I extend as either external or shared storage? I could not find Gparted for android and the few other apps I tried did not displayed properly on the screen and where therefore unusable (see my first post #9).

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards,
Chris

I'm not aware of any way to change default download location system wide. Some apps may have an option to select which download path it uses (e.g. Chrome). Generally speaking user apps should only have limited access to external storage devices.

You would need to mount the sdcard on your computer and use GParted on Linux to resize the data partition. You can't do it on Android because /data needs to be mounted and you can't resize partitions that are being used of course. It might be possible in TWRP but I haven't looked into it. You can't use Windows tools because this is an EXT partition (Linux filesystem).

[ChrisChris]

You would need to mount the sdcard on your computer and use GParted on Linux to resize the data partition. You can't do it on Android because /data needs to be mounted and you can't resize partitions that are being used of course. It might be possible in TWRP but I haven't looked into it. You can't use Windows tools because this is an EXT partition (Linux filesystem).

Damn, no linux available, so I guess I am out of luck. My android phone let me throw together the sd card and the internal disc into a large internal storage. I was hoping this would work here, too.

I would like to download from Amazon Prime and there just is not a lot of room for video files left. I found reports on the web that (older?) apps would ask where to store but mine obviously does not provide that option. Would be too easy I guess ...

Chris

[Konsta]

Damn, no linux available, so I guess I am out of luck. My android phone let me throw together the sd card and the internal disc into a large internal storage. I was hoping this would work here, too.

I would like to download from Amazon Prime and there just is not a lot of room for video files left. I found reports on the web that (older?) apps would ask where to store but mine obviously does not provide that option. Would be too easy I guess ...

Chris

You can easily live boot Linux from an USB drive on you PC. And you also have a Raspberry Pi that practically only runs Linux.

The sdcard here is not the same as sdcard on a regular Android devices. Here it's equivalent to the eMMC/UFS storage on your phone. There's no 'external' sdcard you could use to expand internal storage. You can't use external USB devices to expand internal storage either.

[ChrisChris]

You can easily live boot Linux from an USB drive on you PC. And you also have a Raspberry Pi that practically only runs Linux.

I have tried a Linux installation earlier that worked fine, but since it would be on a different card, that won't help much.

Finding a Linux to boot from USB for the PC would probably be a better option. I would then install GParted, extent the partition of the Android card and just throw it back into the Raspberry?

Chris

[Konsta]

You can easily live boot Linux from an USB drive on you PC. And you also have a Raspberry Pi that practically only runs Linux.

I have tried a Linux installation earlier that worked fine, but since it would be on a different card, that won't help much.

Finding a Linux to boot from USB for the PC would probably be a better option. I would then install GParted, extent the partition of the Android card and just throw it back into the Raspberry?

Chris

To do this on the Pi, you'd need two sdcards and an external USB sdcard reader. One sdcard with e.g. Raspbian you boot normally and another one in the sdcard reader with LineageOS image.

Most Linux live images have GParted included so you don't need to install it separately.

Someone made a video of the resizing process (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oTgPmbKoNc). You don't need to leave any unallocated space after data, though. You need to format data partition in TWRP after resizing it if you plan to encrypt it later (otherwise not necessary).

[ChrisChris]

Most Linux live images have GParted included so you don't need to install it separately.

I had to add it manually but I managed and it seems to work fine; the available size is the full sd card size. The system then graced me with another 2 restarts but seems to be working fine now. I am trying some downloads for starters.

What it does frequently is start up without audio, forcing me to restart again to get it. I have it hooked up to my tv via HDMI, so this should not really be an issue. Any ideas?

Regards,
Chris

[Konsta]

What it does frequently is start up without audio, forcing me to restart again to get it. I have it hooked up to my tv via HDMI, so this should not really be an issue. Any ideas?

You could try adding hdmi_force_edid_audio=1 to /boot/config.txt or powering on your display before you power on the Pi.

[ChrisChris]

You could try adding hdmi_force_edid_audio=1 to /boot/config.txt or powering on your display before you power on the Pi.

It is on; if switched to another port the raspberry will force it to switch to its port. Could that be enough delay to cause this problem? I will monitor it to find out. Thanks!

Chris

[Kred1t]

Konsta, thank you for your hard work. It looks interesting but unfortunately it’s not ready for every day use.

It would be great if you could explain to people who are not very into Android development what are major challenges for running Android on Raspberry Pi ? Will something change after an open-source Vulkan driver is released?
What do you think about a community Android port? Is it possible without a support from the Raspberry Pi Foundation ?

[gabrix]

I just downloaded and installed Lineage os 16 KonstaKANG. Everything ok with the monitor "Longruner for Raspberry Pi 4 Touch Screen Display Monitor Hdmi 7 Inch Inch".
But frankly, it's too small for my purpose.
Then I want to use this TV: "INNO Hit IH23910T17BF LED HD 720p 16: 9" with these characteristics:

https://ibb.co/T2H45Bs

Following the guide on raspberrypi.org in config.txt I used these parameters:

Code: Select all

hdmi_force_hotplug = 1
hdmi_ignore_edid = 0xa5000080
config_hdmi_boost = 11
hdmi_group = 1
hdmi_mode = 19
disable_overscan = 0
overscan_left = 48
overscan_right = 48
overscan_top = 48
overscan_bottom = 48

Even if the Raspberry pi4 in my possession turns on and the green light blinks I don't see any signal on the TV.
What am I wrong with?
Thanks for the attention
kind regards

[WODAK]

Firstly ... thank you for your effort and great work!

Just a few questions:

Is there a posibility to run VNC server (like dispman vnc) or RDP server on the system?
Is there a posibility to ssh to the system?
Is there a posibility to run any manual .sh scripts (for example mount other partitions and reboot to them with a shortcut) ?

Thank you for your anwsers!

[skrimo]

You can adb to your pi like any other android device, i couldn't ssh into android.

Download terminal emulator, and then you can write your own scripts and execute them just like you can in raspbian os. The only difference is that some things are not in the same directories as with the raspbian os.
I have a script running at startup that executes "reboot - p" (shutdown) if/when ground and gpio21 gets connected.
Was using it for a short time as headunit replacement in my car, but sdcard read/write is too big of a bottleneck for it to be a viable alternative.

If/when usb3 boot will be possible, then I might go back to raspberry android headunit.

Until then I really don't know what to do with the android os on a raspberry pi. Can't use it for media purposes because it is limited to 720p,

But nevertheless I really appreciate the time and effort that it being put into the process and I hope you can make it even better and most of all faster, snappier

[WODAK]

Thank you for your anwser!
For remot desktop adb works perfectly

Now for some other problems. I have an SD card with multiple OS-es using PINN. So one of them is also Lineage (version from january). Now the problem accours when I try to install gapps from recovery mode. When I try to install it It seems that partions can't mount right. I get lots of errors about mounting the partitions (vendor, system and data).

My partitions for Lineage OS16:

/dev/mmcblk0p9 /media/pi/data
/dev/mmcblk0p8 /media/pi/vendor
/dev/mmcblk0p7 /media/pi/system
/dev/mmcblk0p6 /media/pi/boot

It seems that recovery excepts the partitions mmcblk0p1 to mmcblk0p4....I also tried to mount those partitions manualy but when installing the gapps the proces first unmounts all the partitions and then It tries again to mount them. And then the sasme error repeats as before (mounting errors) ..


And another question. I have installed the LineAge 16 from january. Is there a way to update to the version of february without loosing data? In tutorial it says I have to first burn the new image to the sd card and then restore the backup data. Hope there is another way...othervise I'll wait for procount (maintainer of PINN) updates PINN to the latest image, and then I'll create the backup and restore it back to the new image.

thank you again for your help!

[procount]

@wodak - Ahh, I understand your issue now that you have explained it fully.
It was an ommission of PINN to update the LineageOS recovery image. I am converting the Feb release atm so I hope to fix this at the same time.

[WODAK]

@procount great news!

Something came to my mind....is it possible to install PINN with the latest Lineage OS on one SD card. Then tar.gz all the partitions (boot, vendor, system and data). Next step would be to untar them to the same partitions(using LineAge OS) on the other SD card with already installed PINN with more OS-es (including LineAge 16)?

[procount]

@wodak - you should continue further discussion of PINN in the PINN thread to avoid cluttering Konsta's thread
But the capability you describe is already included in PINN through it's ability to backup an installed OS to a USB device and subsequently reinstall it to another SD card.