Android-x86 has anyone btdtgtp ? (for smart home)

[jpaul]

Has anyone dual booted (or one-shot run) x86 android - https://www.android-x86.org/ , as an alternative to using an emulator.

I have an older windows XP laptop (and windows tablet) I fancied trying it on, for running some Android Apps, that will not work correctly with an emulator, since that does not provide a wifi interface, it should be faster too.

Apps like those that communicate with smart devices, hue/sengled.

I was going to use rufus and put the ISO on a USB drive.

Just started using Nox emulator with Nougat upgrade - whats the catch ?

not for plaing games, but just access to a few android apps.
with hardware acceleration, it seems much faster than either bluestacks/Andy or googles android studio.

After it starts, I do block some IP addresses in the hosts file, in windows
per https://www.reddit.com/r/noxappplayer/comments/5nmoyf/stop_nox_from_installing_random_apps/
theoretically to avoids it loading unwanted apps.
[also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyQK2oIJvug]

The above article suggests blocking in both windows, and rooted android, but, I cannot find a free hosts editor for android,
and have not yet researched a better technique.

Anyway has anyone had any problems with it ??

 

[jpaul]

Dual booting android on an old laptop, is of intertest on its own (new lease of life they only have xp)

but, for the home automation, I had already tried that Noxplayer and other emulators that use vmware,
the issue is that hue and other systems need 2 - way communications with hubs/servers, it's like trying to setup a web server in an emulator,
so would need a port redirection mechanism to get the traffic to the emulator.

Spoiler: eg

eg

To initially setup the zigbee bulbs, some of the manufacturer apps give more control than you can get with a home-assistant integration, hence I looked at the two mechanisms as complimentary.
I'd been looking at this usb/windows option https://gadget-freakz.com/diy-zigbee-gateway

 

[jpaul]

OK , I'll look again, I'd been put off by this kind of discourse https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-networking

Using network redirection
To communicate with an emulator instance behind its virtual router, you need to set up network redirection on the virtual router. Clients can then connect to a specified guest port on the router, while the router directs traffic to/from that port to the emulated device host port.

To set up the network redirection, you create a mapping of host and guest ports/addresses on the emulator instance. There are two ways to set up network redirection: using emulator console commands and using the adb tool, as described below.

Setting up redirection through the Emulator Console
Each emulator instance provides a control console that you can connect to, to issue commands that are specific to that instance. You can use the redir console command to set up redirection as needed for an emulator instance.

First, determine the console port number for the target emulator instance. For example, the console port number for the first emulator instance launched is 5554. Next, connect to the console of the target emulator instance, specifying its console port number, as follows:

 

[jpaul]

Inside Android you'll see a fake virtual wireless access point

for the android virtual device to register the hub (which can then find the bulbs) I think it needs to be on the real access point the hub is connected too, and which the device running the emulation shares, since the android device needs to (multicast) broadcast to all the devices on the ssid to find the hub.
I need to install wireshark, or something to try and understand the traffic

 

[jpaul]

Wouldn't it be easier to use a real Android device?
It works fine connected to my Hue bridge with the fake wifi:

re-purposing old tablets(hp slate, linx), +laptops with Android, sounds like a good afterlife -

thanks - ok I'll indeed try android-x86 with its wifi.

If you're looking for home automation you might want to try out https://www.home-assistant.io/ running on a Raspberry PI / Virtual Machine. It works with Hue, Nest, smart switches, etc etc and lets you easily set-up automation between them. Really good.

so does (your?) raspberry pie act as a zigbee hub itself, or, the existing hue hub remains ?
in which case, it's disappointing that the hue hubs are not intelligent enough to have complex automation algorithms running on them directly, as opposed to needing a permanently on PI, too.

[

I'd been looking at this usb/windows option https://gadget-freakz.com/diy-zigbee-gateway

that was hopefully a lowish cost, zigbee hub, to erradicate other hubs
]

 

[jpaul]

well (easily) tried android-x86 iso live boot via a usb stick, courtesy of rufus, on an old laptop, booted fine,

the iso had no linux drivers for my wifi card, which, is apparently normal, connection via ethernet runs fine

and no sign of the promised

• Simulate WiFi adapter by Ethernet to increase app compatibility.

 

[jpaul]

I think you'll lose a lot of the Hue features like entertainment

ok - I'd thought Hue protocols had been mapped out, by packet analysis

have you tried these?

the thing I want to setup is a one touch zigbee switch (tradfri probably) method for a light, so that, you could, depending on the duration of press, cycle through a number of scenes, low intensity night time 2700k, to higher intensity day time 4000k ... which would be great for landing lights.

 

[jpaul]

Third party hue apps (All4Hue/iConnectHue) can let you set-up much more complex routines etc than the default Hue app

I don't understand if these just unlock capabilities on the hue hub, which runs the routines nonetheless, or,
if the app is running/scheduling from its host (phone/PI), so the hue hub has to be available for the app to connect too, all the time. ?