Upgrading My Android x86

I have had my Android x86 version 4.3 installed in my VirtualBox since April 2014. With software upgrades being released by the day, I think its about time I have this operating system upgraded to a more recent release.

Version 7.1 r2

Version 7.1 r2 looks like a good bet, out since May 2018.

But after spending something like two hours downloading the installation ISO image, it looks like it wouldn't work with 512 MB RAM in VirtualBox - that's all I could afford in my 1GB RAM computer. There is lots of disk activity alright; it doesn't seem to stop. After waiting for something like 20 minutes and not seeing the home or setup screen, I gave up.

Installation was a breeze though. It zip right through in about a minute.

Version 6.0 r3

Next, I tried Android x86 Version 6.0 r3. That's the Android Marshmallow release I think.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't work either. A little better though compared to Version 7.1 r2 above - I managed to get to the initial setup screen and that's just about it. I couldn't proceed any further. Again, lots of disk activity.

Version 4.4 r5

Think I'll skip Version 5 and go back to version 4 instead - version 4.4 r5 to be precise - and not waste any more time. I'm expecting Version 5 to be slow too but maybe just a bit slightly better than Version 6.

Average download speed is not really super-fast at about 160 KB/s. I just wish there are more alternative download sites or maybe even a Bittorrent download option like they used to.

I'm still in the middle of downloading this ISO image and hence this blog post. I am hoping that Version 4.4 r5 will go well. Otherwise, I'll just stick to Version 4.3 like what I have to during the last 4 years.

Update: 6th July, 2018

I got Version 4.4 r5 installed. It works with 512 MB RAM. But still version 4.3 is more responsive.

It's worth pointing out that the auto update to the Google Playstore app will cause the downloading of new apps to malfunction - with a message saying 'pending' instead of showing the progress in downloading. Solution here is to disable auto updates to Google Playstore and then to delete the updates.

Also, the included web browser doesn't work. Not sure why. Maybe because of 512 MB memory constraint. Opera Mini works though; Google Chrome doesn't.