Install Android OS along with Ubuntu and Windows

Solution 1:

I'm assuming you will install android into it's own partition - for example /dev/sda3 - if in doubt type sudo fdisk -l in a terminal.

When installing android and it asks you to install Grub - DON'T!

Next, boot into Ubuntu

Launch Nautilus and double click the Android device and note the name of the Android folder name

Next we need to add some custom grub entries:

menuentry "Android-x86 2.2 (MDPI)" {
set root=(hd0,4)
linux /android-2011-02-20/kernel quiet root=/dev/ram0 androidboot_hardware=generic_x86 acpi_sleep=s3_bios,s3_mode SRC=/android-2011-02-20 DATA= DPI=160
initrd /android-2011-02-20/initrd.img
}

menuentry "Android-x86 2.2 (HDPI)" {
set root=(hd0,4)
linux /android-2011-02-20/kernel quiet root=/dev/ram0 androidboot_hardware=generic_x86 acpi_sleep=s3_bios,s3_mode SRC=/android-2011-02-20 DATA= DPI=240
initrd /android-2011-02-20/initrd.img
}

menuentry "Android-x86 2.2 (VESA)" {
set root=(hd0,4)
linux /android-2011-02-20/kernel quiet root=/dev/ram0 androidboot_hardware=generic_x86 acpi_sleep=s3_bios,s3_mode SRC=/android-2011-02-20 DATA= vga=788
initrd /android-2011-02-20/initrd.img
}

menuentry "Android-x86 2.2 (Debug mode)" {
set root=(hd0,4)
linux /android-2011-02-20/kernel root=/dev/ram0 androidboot_hardware=generic_x86 acpi_sleep=s3_bios,s3_mode DEBUG=1 vga=788 SRC=/android-2011-02-20 DATA=
initrd /android-2011-02-20/initrd.img
}

In a terminal:

gksudo gedit /etc/grub.d/40_custom

Copy and paste the above custom entries into gedit.

Search and replace android-2011-02-20 with the android folder name - for example android-2012-01-29

Next you need to work out which hard-disk and partition you have install android.

I've installed Android-x86 on sda3, so I've searched and replaced (hd0,4) with (hd0,3) - hd0 means the first hard disk (sda) and 3 is the partition and comes from sda3.

Hard disk naming starts with 0 so basically, sda is hd0, sdb is hd1 and so on. Counting partitions doesn't start with 0, so if you've installed Android x86 on let's say sdb5, you'd use (hd1,5).

Save and close gedit

Finally update your grub configuration

sudo update-grub