Ability to dual-boot on the Pyra?

[blimpsgo180]

Hi,


I'm curious to know if the Pyra will be able to dual-boot two different operating systems. I'm specifically interested because I'd like to boot into the Android operating system. Android is home to some of the best games of this generation, and rivals Steam in terms of quality and selection of games.


I've certainly noticed the drop off in availability of homebrew games between the GP2X and the Pandora, and expect it will get worse between Pandora and Pyra. Having the option to run Android as a second operating system would make up for this shortcoming.


Thanks y'all.

 

[slaeshjag]

While Android technically runs on the devboard, it would need a non-trivial amount of work to become usable. The dual-booting itself shouldn't be too problematic.

 

[FaeMinx]

Android is home to some of the best games of this generation, and rivals Steam in terms of quality and selection of games.

What?


When did this happen?


That ship must have sailed right past my port... what are the names of some of these brilliant 'Android' games may I ask?


I'm terribly curious.

 

[ekianjo]

and rivals Steam in terms of quality and selection of games

LOL is this a Troll ?

 

[TrashyMG]

Hi,


I'm curious to know if the Pyra will be able to dual-boot two different operating systems. I'm specifically interested because I'd like to boot into the Android operating system. Android is home to some of the best games of this generation, and rivals Steam in terms of quality and selection of games.


I've certainly noticed the drop off in availability of homebrew games between the GP2X and the Pandora, and expect it will get worse between Pandora and Pyra. Having the option to run Android as a second operating system would make up for this shortcoming.


Thanks y'all.

There is always an option to run Android, but like slaeshjag states a working image will take a skilled individual or individuals to get it working. However knowing the history of the Pandora, the people with the skills to make a working Android image have no interest in Android. EvilDragon stated he may investigate getting it to work, but I can imagine it won't be a large priority as he's more concerned with at the moment. 

I'll call you out on Android being the best homebrew game source, I see a lot of re-packaged garbage and games that are just ad revenue generators and rarely anything worth playing.  The open-source community has more homebrew offerings, many of which are on the pandora repo. Some of games are not playable on the Pandora, but the Pyra will have a bit of extra horsepower and With lunixbochs efforts with glshim and ptitseb improving on it, a lot of opengl only games are just a compile away from working.

 

[blimpsgo180]

1 hour ago, blimpsgo180 said: Android is home to some of the best games of this generation, and rivals Steam in terms of quality and selection of games.

 
What?


When did this happen?


That ship must have sailed right past my port... what are the names of some of these brilliant 'Android' games may I ask?


I'm terribly curious.

I started making a list for when someone suggested that smartphones aren't becoming a serious avenue for hardcore gaming.


Previously on console / PC


Knights of the Old Republic


NBA 2K16


GTA3 / Vice City / San Andreas


GTA: Chinatown Wars


Sonic CD


Sonic the Hedgehog 4


Shadowrun Returns


The Banner Saga


Sine Mora


Baldur's Gate 1 & 2


Icewind Dale


Torchlight (coming soon)


Half Life 2 (currently exclusive to nVidia Shield, but likely to come to all Android devices)


Shmups


Airattack 2


Sky Force 2014


Super Crossfighter


Countless more


RPGs


Evoland


Battleheart Legacy


Chaos Rings I-III


Reaper


Soulcraft 1 & 2


Angel Stone


Adventure


Super Brothers Swords and Sorcery


Lara Croft Go


Strategy


Clash of Clans


Fallout Shelter


Anomoly Warzone Earth


Countless tower defense games...


Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[blimpsgo180]

While Android technically runs on the devboard, it would need a non-trivial amount of work to become usable. The dual-booting itself shouldn't be too problematic.

Also replying to TrashyMG...


Sounds good. I remember Android being available for Pandora so I'm going to hold on to hope that someone will make a port.


Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[DaMummy]

I'm just gonna point out that I came past this thread.

 

[Klumpen]

Relevant (and a better solution than running Android):

 

[FBnil]

I'm just gonna point out that I came past this thread.

And you withold us your wisdom? The horror! Nevermind.. Klumpen already pointed to the right place (at the end of that topic is the anwser....)


Cider brings iOS apps to Android so Pandora also is able to run iOS apps...

 

[blimpsgo180]

I'm just gonna point out that I came past this thread.

I care.


Having Android's game library makes Pyra all the more valuable.


Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[TrashyMG]

Like anything it needs work, maybe you can volunteer to make that happen. 

 

[blimpsgo180]

Like anything it needs work, maybe you can volunteer to make that happen. 

If only I could program...


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[TrashyMG]

If only I could program...

Well that seems to be the mantra of anyone that wants Android around here.

 

[_jr_]

Being prepared to donate large amounts of money to people that actually can program could also help.

 

[blimpsgo180]

Well, it looks like the people at ARM were kind enough to make a post on how to do it:


https://community.arm.com/groups/android-community/blog/2013/09/18/from-zero-to-boot-porting-android-to-your-arm-platform


It's 4 1/2 years old and its pretty long, but it proves its not impossible. Maybe a dev for Pandora / Pyra could shed some light on this?

 

[_jr_]

You just need Android 1.x support? Then the description might still work. Anyway, you don't need a Pandora/Pyra developer. You need one that isn't loathe to touch Android. And these are hard to come by - at least around here.

 

[edgex004]

Android games and apps are a "nice-to-have" for me. If someone is able to make a slick android set up that can take advantage of the hardware, then I'll try out the games. If it doesn't happen, I won't be too sad about it.


If we get a compatibility layer of some sort, as Klumpen linked to, I'd appreciate that too. It might not be best for games, but having the option to run Android apps in Pyra OS is a nice feature.

 

[Haraldur]

Apologies for the derail:


Given that Android is widespread and likely to last for long, one expects there to be many useful and/or fun applications, as on Microsoft Windows, so that a WINE-equivalent for Android would be worthwhile. The problem is, as someone who has never used* (and never wants to use) an Android device, I have no idea whether that expectation is justified as I know not the good applications.


Would anyone indulge me by listing the games and/or productivity applications that may benefit a GNU/Linux system? I must confess that my impression of mobile games (from no experience at all, just hearsay) is not positive.


*Not quite true: I tried Android x86 on Virtualbox, very briefly. I could not see why anyone would want it, but I realize that I know very little and that the x86 version likely misses much of the primary, ARM, version(s).

 

[elw3]

Wine equivalent for android... Well the pandora already has apkenv which does that. But look at how its maintained: last update 2013


I use the android pnd sometimes to use one android program, but really it is so very hard to find something that not also exist for standard gnu/linux.