Android or WebOS? Try before you buy!

With Google and Verizon recently announcing that several Android phones will be coming out on their network, a Linux lover might have smartphones on the brain.  Obviously, having Linux running on your phone is awesome, but which Linux OS should you choose? AndroidWebOS?  Maybe even Maemo (Nokia N900) or roll your own on a Neo Freerunner?

This article will help you run two of these (Android and WebOS) as virtual appliances using VirtualBox. In the first part of the article I'll cover Android, in part two (now available), I'll cover WebOS.  



In this article, I will be using: Ubuntu 9.04 and VirtualBox (the most recent version is 3.0.8- download it here)

This tip is pretty distro- and OS- independent, though.  You could run this appliance on any other distro, or even Windows, if that's the way you butter your bread.



This article piggybacks on the "Put Android Anywhere" article that was featured in the October 2009 issue of Linux Journal, as it mentions running Android in VirtualBox using the "Porting Android to x86" project (http://www.android-x86.org/).  I will perform the same task using the Live Android Google Code project. (http://code.google.com/p/live-android/).

Go to the Live Android Google Code Project and download the latest liveCD (0.3 as of this writing. Torrent available here.)

Make a new virtual machine in VirtualBox.  Call it "Android" or some other witty name if you are motivated to do so.

Choose the Base Memory Size.  VirtualBox defaults to 256MB.  Since the HTC Dream (AKA the T-Mobile G1) has only 192 MB Megs of RAM, I figured that this is probably enough.

VirtualBox asks you to select a virtual hard disk.  Since we are running Android from a live CD, we don't need one.  Uncheck the box to choose a virtual disk, and check "Continue" when the warning box comes up.


Finish creating your virtual appliance, then select "Android" (or whatever your machine name is) from the main VirtualBox window, and click the "Settings" button.

Go to the CD/DVD-ROM section and check "Mount CD/DVD Drive", then select "ISO Image File".  Click the folder icon to the right and select the "liveandroidv0.3.iso" file that you just downloaded.  Press 'OK".



Click "Start" to start your Android virtual appliance. 
 
    

Since VirtualBox automatically configures a working Internet connection, feel free to stop by the Linux Journal Website using your shiny new Android Virtual Appliance!



Since it is a live CD, you don't get the resolution of a normal Android phone device, but at least you can kick the tires of the OS. In Part Two we'll look at WebOS.

______________________

Linux rocks! Personal blog: zootlinux.blogspot.com

Comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

A couple of broken links

LinkChecker's picture

The first and third image have broken links.
1) http://www.linuxjournal.com/ufiles/android-webos/large/large/android-pal...
Apparently it's two large :-)
2) http://www.linuxjournal.com/ufiles//ufiles/android-webos/large/VirtualHa...
Apparently ufile two deep :-)

LC

Fixed

Mitch Frazier's picture

Just an editor snafu on my part, fixed now.

Mitch Frazier is an Associate Editor for Linux Journal.

Still broken

Bobby R's picture

Some links do not seem to end in the right places.

White Paper
Fabric-Based Computing Enables Optimized Hyperscale Data Centers

Today’s modular x86 servers are compute-centric, designed as a least common denominator to support a wide range of IT workloads. Those generic, virtualized IT workloads have much different resource optimization requirements than hyperscale and cloud applications. They have resulted in a “one size fits all” enterprise IT architecture that is not optimized for a specific set of IT workloads, and especially not emerging hyperscale workloads, such as web applications, big data, and object storage. In this report, you will learn how shifting the focus from traditional compute-centric IT architectures to an innovative disaggregated fabric-based architecture can optimize and scale your data center.

Learn More

Sponsored by AMD

White Paper
Red Hat White Paper: Using an Open Source Framework to Catch the Bad Guy

Built-in forensics, incident response, and security with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Every security policy provides guidance and requirements for ensuring adequate protection of information and data, as well as high-level technical and administrative security requirements for a system in a given environment. Traditionally, providing security for a system focuses on the confidentiality of the information on it. However, protecting the data integrity and system and data availability is just as important. For example, when processing United States intelligence information, there are three attributes that require protection: confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Learn more about catching the bad guy in this free white paper.

Learn More

Sponsored by DLT Solutions