If you’ve been looking forward to installing Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread on your HP TouchPad, you don’t have to wait any more! The other day, members of the TouchDroid team uploaded a tutorial detailing all of the steps required to install a pre Alpha build of Android 2.3.5 on the TouchPad.
If you want to attempt this long and frustrating process, you can follow these steps (taken from the TouchDroid team’s website):
Hello Community!
I have decided to release a system dump from my TouchPad which contains a semi-working build of Android 2.3.5 with working touchscreen on the HP TouchPad. Please use this data and the below steps on installation as you see fit. I hope this release will light a fire under the community to work together on a full working port!
*** I am in no way responsible if this bricks or otherwise damages your TouchPad ***
Get the system dump and android.uImage here - http://touch-droid.com/touch-droid.torrent
Mirror is here: http://randomshit.dreamhosters.com/TouchPad/
**Place these files in your novaterm installation folder as they will be referenced there later in this installation tutorial**
Steps on installing this onto your TouchPad -
0. Plug your HP Touchpad into your PC via USB and DONT MOUNT IT.
1. First you will need novaterm/novacom. Follow steps at the following URL to get both installed on your machine -
http://www.webos-internals.org/wiki/Portal:Accessing_Linux
2. Open a command prompt / terminal window and type the following:
novaterm
3. We will need to create partitions for android on the device. Run all commands in novaterm:
Resize /media first:
lvm.static lvresize -L -1706M /dev/store/media
lvm.static lvcreate -L 10M -n android-persist store
lvm.static lvcreate -L 32M -n android-etc store
lvm.static lvcreate -L 320M -n android-system store
lvm.static lvcreate -L 320M -n android-cache store
lvm.static lvcreate -L 1024M -n android-data store
Create partitions for android:
mkfs.ext3 /dev/store/android-cache
mkfs.ext3 /dev/store/android-data
mkfs.ext3 /dev/store/android-etc
mkfs.ext3 /dev/store/android-persist
mkfs.ext3 /dev/store/android-system
4. Mount the system partition on /tmp/system (in novaterm).
mkdir /tmp/system/
mount -o loop -t ext3 /dev/mapper/store-android--system /tmp/system/
5. Open a new command/terminal window and run the following:**Do this in cmd/terminal not novaterm**
novacom put file://tmp/system/system.tar.bz < system.tar.bz
6. Unzip system.tar.bz and move files to /tmp/system/ (in novaterm):
cd /tmp/system/
tar -xvf system.tar.bz
cd system
mv * ../
cd ..
rm -rf system
7. Run the following to unmount /tmp/system:
cd /
umount /tmp/system
8. Now boot into bootie by running the following in novaterm:
tellbootie recover
9. Open a new command/terminal window and change to your novaterm folder and run the following:
novacom boot mem:// < android.uImage
10. Start pressing Volume UP on the TouchPad until you see a purple line on the right hand side.
11. If all steps were followed correctly you should boot right into Android 2.3.5 and have a working touchscreen.** To boot back into android after restarting you have to repeat steps 8 and 9 only.
**If you would like to remove this and revert back to normal WebOS run the following in novaterm:
-
lvm.static lvremove store/android-persist
lvm.static lvremove store/android-system
lvm.static lvremove store/android-data
lvm.static lvremove store/android-cache
lvm.static lvremove store/android-etc
lvm.static lvresize -L +1706M /dev/store/media
Here are two video walkthroughs (I was going to make one but for some reason it didn’t work properly):
Keep in mind that there are still issues with this Alpha build, such as WiFi, and it’s not intend for the average user. With that said, stay tuned for more news on the progress of the Android for TouchPad port.
