I am writing here today (probably a TL
R thread for most) about my trials and tribulations of making my Toshiba WT8-A into an Android monster machine! They said it can't be done (well, actually, they didn't say that, but it felt like it some times).
Rather than tell you all the "don't's" I'll plaster you with the "do's".
I didn't want Windows on my machine because it took up at least 20GB of the 32GB eMMC. So, get rid of it. It is redundant on a tablet anyway. Android can do the same (if not more) than any Windows application on a tablet. Plus, you can still have Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc on Android anyhow.
So, what do you need to do?
Step 1: Get rid of everything! Erase the hard drive and give some new partitions.
How? Easy, I used gparted.
Make a bootable USB for gparted - I used Rufus. You will use Rufus again soon, so keep it.
With your bootable gparted USB drive get a USB hub and a USB keyboard and aUSB mouse (optional, but advised). Insert the USB, keyboard and mouse into the Toshiba WT8-A and turn the WT8-A on. If you have a powered USB hub repeatedly push F12 on the keyboard to enter the start up commands. If you have an unpowered hub, let Windows boot then power off the tablet and power on again near immediately, the residual power will allow you to push F12 on the keyboard.
With gparted loaded it is time to erase the hard drives.
Delete all the partitions. ALL OF THEM!! Probably best to remove any SD card before starting if you have valuable pictures on it.
Click apply, and sorry, Windows has gone now.
Now click Device and make a partition table. You will need to set this to GPT.
Apply that.
Now make the partitions. You will need three partitions. Make the first one FAT32 and make it close to 500MiB. The second partition will be the remainder of the drive and make the ext4. Then cut 100MiB from that and leave it unallocated.
Apply.
Now turn off the tablet by logging out of gparted.
Step 2: Get your Nougat on!
go to Android x86 and choose your weapon. At the time of writing I used: ReleaseNote 7.1-rc1 - Android-x86 - Porting Android to x86
Go to one of the download pages and download the file (it is around 800MB). I used the 64 bit ISO. I suggest the same.
Use Rufus or Win32 Disk Imager to burn the ISO. I used Win32 Disk Imager in this case.
Make the ISO (I have seen people recommend making this a DD instead of ISO with Rufus, but I found that may not work).
Once completed, you're now ready.
Step 3: Install Nougat on your Toshiba WT8-A.
But the USB into the hub, have just the keyboard in this time, and power up the tablet and repeatedly push F12 on the keyboard. Boot from the USB and install Android (you can run the live version, and if you have read through my guide so far, run the live version with Windows still on, then you can see for yourself it should work).
The installation prompts you to do a few things. 1) You do not need to format the drive if you did this in gparted. 2) You do need to install GRUB 2 EFI but you do not need to format if you did this in gpaarted. 3) You do not need to have read/write but I did.
Once installed and synced to the disk you get the option to go into Android or reboot. I choose to reboot. When the tablet is off completely remove the USB from the hub and let the tablet restart without the USB.
Let Android load, and you have a new Android tablet.
Some issues you may encounter:
1) Super User does not remember Super User requests, so you need to continually re-do those.
2) WiFi switches off between each reboot. But switch it back on.
3) Waking up the tablet if it goes to sleep is hold power button for 3 or 4 seconds. If you're unlucky it will reboot, but sometimes it wakes from sleep.
4) Auto rotate stopped working about a day after install. But then worked again a few hours later. I am unsure what the cause is. But install a "force rotation app" like this.
5) You can not control brightness of the tablet, but you can install an app that does it for you, like this one here.
Finally, I can not guarantee this will work. It worked for me, but it may not for everyone. Be careful and be prepared to be reinstalling if it doesn't work.
R thread for most) about my trials and tribulations of making my Toshiba WT8-A into an Android monster machine! They said it can't be done (well, actually, they didn't say that, but it felt like it some times). Rather than tell you all the "don't's" I'll plaster you with the "do's".
I didn't want Windows on my machine because it took up at least 20GB of the 32GB eMMC. So, get rid of it. It is redundant on a tablet anyway. Android can do the same (if not more) than any Windows application on a tablet. Plus, you can still have Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc on Android anyhow.
So, what do you need to do?
Step 1: Get rid of everything! Erase the hard drive and give some new partitions.
How? Easy, I used gparted.
Make a bootable USB for gparted - I used Rufus. You will use Rufus again soon, so keep it.
With your bootable gparted USB drive get a USB hub and a USB keyboard and aUSB mouse (optional, but advised). Insert the USB, keyboard and mouse into the Toshiba WT8-A and turn the WT8-A on. If you have a powered USB hub repeatedly push F12 on the keyboard to enter the start up commands. If you have an unpowered hub, let Windows boot then power off the tablet and power on again near immediately, the residual power will allow you to push F12 on the keyboard.
With gparted loaded it is time to erase the hard drives.
Delete all the partitions. ALL OF THEM!! Probably best to remove any SD card before starting if you have valuable pictures on it.
Click apply, and sorry, Windows has gone now.
Now click Device and make a partition table. You will need to set this to GPT.
Apply that.
Now make the partitions. You will need three partitions. Make the first one FAT32 and make it close to 500MiB. The second partition will be the remainder of the drive and make the ext4. Then cut 100MiB from that and leave it unallocated.
Apply.
Now turn off the tablet by logging out of gparted.
Step 2: Get your Nougat on!
go to Android x86 and choose your weapon. At the time of writing I used: ReleaseNote 7.1-rc1 - Android-x86 - Porting Android to x86
Go to one of the download pages and download the file (it is around 800MB). I used the 64 bit ISO. I suggest the same.
Use Rufus or Win32 Disk Imager to burn the ISO. I used Win32 Disk Imager in this case.
Make the ISO (I have seen people recommend making this a DD instead of ISO with Rufus, but I found that may not work).
Once completed, you're now ready.
Step 3: Install Nougat on your Toshiba WT8-A.
But the USB into the hub, have just the keyboard in this time, and power up the tablet and repeatedly push F12 on the keyboard. Boot from the USB and install Android (you can run the live version, and if you have read through my guide so far, run the live version with Windows still on, then you can see for yourself it should work).
The installation prompts you to do a few things. 1) You do not need to format the drive if you did this in gparted. 2) You do need to install GRUB 2 EFI but you do not need to format if you did this in gpaarted. 3) You do not need to have read/write but I did.
Once installed and synced to the disk you get the option to go into Android or reboot. I choose to reboot. When the tablet is off completely remove the USB from the hub and let the tablet restart without the USB.
Let Android load, and you have a new Android tablet.
Some issues you may encounter:
1) Super User does not remember Super User requests, so you need to continually re-do those.
2) WiFi switches off between each reboot. But switch it back on.
3) Waking up the tablet if it goes to sleep is hold power button for 3 or 4 seconds. If you're unlucky it will reboot, but sometimes it wakes from sleep.
4) Auto rotate stopped working about a day after install. But then worked again a few hours later. I am unsure what the cause is. But install a "force rotation app" like this.
5) You can not control brightness of the tablet, but you can install an app that does it for you, like this one here.
Finally, I can not guarantee this will work. It worked for me, but it may not for everyone. Be careful and be prepared to be reinstalling if it doesn't work.
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