Monday, March 18, 2013

Fixes to use boot-picuntu to dualboot Picuntu/Android

If you have parsed the [outdated] Picuntu repo, you may have found the following dir:
http://code.google.com/p/rk3066-linux/source/browse/boot-picuntu/

It contains two scripts for Android and one for Picuntu that allow you to kind of set the default OS to boot the stick into, and an easy way to boot back into the other one.

However the README file contains a couple of typos that prevent it from working.


How-to


The way this is done is taking advantage of the "init.d" functionality that custom Android ROMs usually provide (in my case thanks to Bob's Finless ROM 1.4 for Measy U2C). If you don't have the folder /etc/init.d/ (in your Android filesystem, not on Picuntu!) then you probably can't use this.

First of all install, in your rooted Android, the ES File Explorer, open it and go to its Settings to check allow root access and to mount the root system with write permission.


Android files setup


Then just download file http://rk3066-linux.googlecode.com/git/boot-picuntu/40picuntu
and store it in /etc/init.d/    (easiest way may be copying and pasting from ES File Explorer)
now open a terminal emulator in Android, and type:
su
chmod 777 /etc/init.d/40picuntu
(note that in the README file it is erroneously typed "chown", instead of "chmod"). Make sure that upon download the file was not renamed as 40picuntu.bin or something like that (or else remove the dot and extension).

Then download file http://rk3066-linux.googlecode.com/git/boot-picuntu/go-picuntu.sh
and store it in /mnt/sdcard/    (easiest way may be copying and pasting from ES File Explorer)

now open a terminal emulator in Android, and type:
su
chmod 777 /mnt/sdcard/go-picuntu.sh
(note that in the README file it is erroneously typed "chown", instead of "chmod")


Android files corrections


Next step is to edit both files and comment (prefixing with a #) the line that reads:
DEVC="/dev/block/sda1"
to
# DEVC="/dev/block/sda1"
and also change line:
# DEVC="/dev/block/mmcblk0p1"
to
DEVC="/dev/block/mmcblk0"
(IMPORTANT: note that also the trailing "p1" has been removed!)
I do it with the bad-old "vi" through the Terminal emulator (just because I know the obscure key combinations for basic "vi" file manipulation), but you may prefer to use any Android text editor.

Last step is to run go-picuntu.sh from the Terminal emulator with:
su
sh /mnt/sdcard/go-picuntu.sh
and then you'll be always booting into Picuntu by default, until you run (in Picuntu) the script go-android.sh

2 comments:

  1. Thank you very much, is there any way to make this from a windows computer?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You could plug the stick to your Windows PC and it'll be detected as a new disk, write the files in a PC text editor and save them somewhere in that unit. Then, on the Android stick, use the mv command on the terminal to move them to the proper places (and set their permissions).

      Delete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.