Android-x86 OS build

With kernel customization

Here in this post we will be building Android x86 OS image with kernel customization
for specific purpose I needed to add network driver supports to the kernel so i am going to show how i did that .
If you need to build an image with kernel customization you can follow my approach

>> host machine info

ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~$ uname -a
Linux ayx-ThinkPad 5.0.0-29-generic #31~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Sep 12 18:29:21 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64
x86_64 GNU/Linux

>> install dependencies

ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~$ sudo apt -y install git gcc curl make repo libxml2-utils flex m4
ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~$ sudo apt -y install openjdk-8-jdk lib32stdc++6 libelf-dev
ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~$ sudo apt -y install libssl-dev python-mako syslinux-utils
ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~/android-src/android-x86$ sudo apt-get install ncurses-devel libncurses-dev

>> Download Source

ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~/android-src/android-x86$ repo init -u http://scm.osdn.net/gitroot/android-x86/manifest -b pie-x86
ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~/android-src/android-x86$ repo sync -j8

This will download all the source

>> environment setup

ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~/android-src/android-x86$ make clean
ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~/android-src/android-x86$ . build/envsetup.sh
ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~/android-src/android-x86$ lunch

Choose : “android_x86_64-userdebug”

============================================
PLATFORM_VERSION_CODENAME=REL
PLATFORM_VERSION=9
TARGET_PRODUCT=android_x86_64
TARGET_BUILD_VARIANT=userdebug
TARGET_BUILD_TYPE=release
TARGET_ARCH=x86_64
TARGET_ARCH_VARIANT=x86_64
TARGET_2ND_ARCH=x86
TARGET_2ND_ARCH_VARIANT=x86_64
HOST_ARCH=x86_64
HOST_2ND_ARCH=x86
HOST_OS=linux
HOST_OS_EXTRA=Linux-5.0.0-29-generic-x86_64-Ubuntu-18.04.3-LTS
HOST_CROSS_OS=windows
HOST_CROSS_ARCH=x86
HOST_CROSS_2ND_ARCH=x86_64
HOST_BUILD_TYPE=release
BUILD_ID=PI
OUT_DIR=out
============================================

>> Obtaining Network card info

ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~/android-src/android-x86$ lspci | awk '/[Nn]et/ {print $1}' | xargs -i% lspci -ks %
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 2230 (rev c4)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 2230 BGN
Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
Kernel modules: iwlwifi
0c:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
Controller (rev 07)
Subsystem: Lenovo RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169

Take note of the network card’s kernel module names

>> Customization of the Kernel

ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~/android-src/android-x86$ make -C kernel O=$OUT/obj/kernel ARCH=x86 menuconfig
Now the standard Linux kernel customization graphical interface in terminal will show up
[make sure your terminal is wide and long enough ]

Note: The configuration file is the default .config

Browse to >Device Drivers > Network device support

│ <*> Virtio network driver

Browse to >Device Drivers > Network Device Support > Ethernet Driver Support
│ <*> Realtek 8169 gigabit ethernet support

In a similar way you can change the kernel as you want

>> Now copy this config file to build systems’ actual config files’ location
ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~/android-src/android-x86$ cp out/target/product/x86_64/obj/kernel/.config
kernel/arch/x86/configs/

>> Now rename the .config file

ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~/android-src/android-x86/kernel/arch/x86/configs$ mv .config my_x86_64_conf_20190923

>> Now build the kernel only

ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~/android-src/android-x86$ nproc
8
ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~/android-src/android-x86$ make -j8 kernel

The build took around 25 minutes

The built kernel is at out/target/product/x86_64/

The kernel modules are at out/target/product/x86_64/system/lib/modules/

>> Now we will build the final image with the kernel we just built

ayx@ayx-ThinkPad:~/android-src/android-x86$ make iso_img -j8 TARGET_PRODUCT=android_x86_64

TARGET_PREBUILT_KERNEL=~/android-src/android-x86/out/target/product/x86_64/kernel

Total translation table size: 23151

Total rockridge attributes bytes: 10128
Total directory bytes: 24576
Path table size(bytes): 130
Done with: The File(s) Block(s) 342143
Writing: Ending Padblock Start Block 342197
Done with: Ending Padblock Block(s) 150
Max brk space used 23000
342347 extents written (668 MB)

out/target/product/x86_64/android_x86_64.iso is built successfully.

#### build completed successfully (08:51:29 (hh:mm:ss)) ####

>> Android-x86 installation on VM

Open Virtual Box >> Create new machine , choose linux type , create a virtual disk
From Settings -> storage -> Select the ISO you built

Now boot the machine , select installation of hard disk , Use GPT to write partition table
Create a partition out of the free space of the VDI , format by EXT4 , then GRUB will be asked but GRUB won’t work
on a GPT partitioned so MBR will be used

Enable 3D and 2D acceleration , after installation completed remove iso attachment , these are shown in the pictures
below