Enjoy Android on O2’s Joggler in 3 easy steps

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A few people have asked after my last Joggler post, so here’s how to unlock the potential of your dusty Joggler…

Step 1 – Prepare a USB stick

Follow the instructions at the top of the Android Prebuild Image page of the Joggler Wiki. I used the simple option, writing the empty partition .img file from Christian with the Image Writer for Microsoft Windows tool.

Step 2 – Download Android image

There are a few Android images around, but you can now download the best image I’ve found so far from Mijuu’s Porting Life blog.

Step 3 – Enjoy

Just unzip the image to the Android partition, boot up* and enjoy.

* I still haven’t made it to the Hursley Chinese lessons so I did have to switch to English. This is easier with the latest image which has a language option in grub.cfg – change it from LANG=zh to LANG=en before booting. To change the keyboard, long-press the text entry field and change the input type.

Step 3a – Get the market working

To get the most out of Android on the Joggler you’ll definitely want to install a few apps. Thanks to Angelo, it’s easy to get the Market working; the latest instructions are on the Joggler Wiki.

And finally, a few links which may be of use:

Updated: updated steps for latest version, Mijuu Release 1.2.3/Android 2.2.2. (22 June 2011)

Update: James Pearce has been doing some great work on creating a pre-loaded image to make it easier to get Android up and running on a Joggler. I haven’t tried the tweaked images but they seem well worth a look to avoid headaches coaxing the Market in to life using the vanilla image. (11 August 2011)

Update: the 1.2.3 release from Mijuu is probably still the best version of Android I’ve found for the Joggler, but there have been a few updates since I originally wrote this post. (3 April 2012)

26 thoughts on “Enjoy Android on O2’s Joggler in 3 easy steps”

  1. Thanks for the links – I’d been meaning to ask you about this.

    After dusting off my joggler, I put on the android image which was easy enough, but ultimately I couldn’t get it to connect to my network – despite by router saying it had dished out an ip address.

    I then put on the latest Ubuntu Natty image from http://joggler.exotica.org.uk/ubuntu/ and was very impressed how much better an experience that was than the last netbook remix I tried last year. It boots in no time and had no problems with my network.

    Still not sure what I’ll use the joggler for, but at least it’s been dusted.

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    • That’s odd, I didn’t have any trouble with the network, although I didn’t try wireless.
      I didn’t have so much luck with the Amazon app store- it installed ok but I can’t seem to log on. Might be because I have a UK ID I guess. Next experiment is to install flash and give we7 a try.

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      • The Amazon app store for Android is non-functional outside of the US.

        I’m thinking that this could be brilliant if anyone manages to port Honeycomb (Android 3.0/3.1) back to the Joggler, but the source isn’t around yet. That really is natural for a screen larger than a phone. I suspect we’ll have to put up with 2.2 though, unless anyone is working on Gingerbread.

        Definitely going to give this a shot. Thanks!

      • curious, have you got Flash on there yet? I am wondering whether there’s a build of it that will work on the Joggler’s CPU.

        (dd’ing the Android image as I type this)

    • I had a look at that discussion but it’s not straightforward… for starters I can’t seem to enable adb to accept network connections to enable me to adb push / sideload easily, so I can’t see how I can really get code onto the Joggler.

      I was wondering whether the new android-x86 gingerbread build would work, too. That would be far better than Froyo.

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  4. @Andy, house moving and work has been eating in to play time at the moment so I’ve not had a chance to investigate flash yet. Will probably attempt to find a way to grab screen shots for changing the language before I get to that as well.

    @angelo, that’s fantastic news, definitely want to get that working. Any app recommendations for the Joggler?

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  5. Have you connected the device to a NAS box, as I am wondering what you used to connect it. On my phone I have CIFS as I use cyanogenmod based roms but not sure if this has it.

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  6. guys,

    For putting apps onto the joggler I’ve down the following
    1. Navigate to http://www.dropbox.com/android and download the dropbox.apk from there
    2. install, configure etc
    3. Then from any pc, download your chosen apk and put it in your dropbox
    4. On the joggler, navigate to your dropbox and voila install..

    Alternatively download the apk’s to a local webserver somewhere and install from there..

    That said, I’ve created a joggler image which everything installed/working including market.

    see http://www.jogglerwiki.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=137
    2. Use the inbuilt browser to browse to this url and install it from there.

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  7. Hi JT

    http://www.mporting.com/download/ does not work anymore: “This webpage is not available.”

    Could you upload the image somewhere; and post the link ? :-)

    Thanks – need it.

    (Where can I follow the work on honeycomb for Joggler ??)

    Do you know of some Joggler like devices that is still on the marked ?
    Does some Chinese company still produce the Joggler ?

    Kind Regards

    Andy

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    • The joggler is basically a x86 atom device Im sure there are comparable devices on the market.. If your after another joggler then Id go to ebay, there’s still quite a few there..

      alternatively if your really after a small android tablet, then Id would go out and look at some of the cheap chinese clones.. simply pick one which has a number of developers porting andoird et all to it.

      maplin’s got one for £99 running android 2.2 + market.. ok its a resistive screen but should be ok as a fridge tablet :-)

      If your after an x86 machine, then you cant beat the joggler (ebay)

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    • ((I will use asantaga’s image – looks good. / I overlooked it on this page…… So do not need Chinese image.))

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      • Mijuu’s download link seems to be working again but it’s great to have another now. Angelo’s looks like it should make things a bit simpler- I’d be interested to know how you get on with it.

  8. I unpacked the system.sfs on the ANDROID partition to make system.img as I noticed that the initrd would also mount that.

    I loopback mounted the system.img and unpacked the “G Tablet” google apps as mentioned here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=827209

    I then followed the instructions here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=845175

    (I sideloaded titanium by copying it onto the SD partition of my USB stick and then using the android file manager to install it).

    However… my calendar and contacts are not populating from my google account. Calendar won’t add an account and contacts will only add an exchange account.

    Settings, Accounts & Synchronization has my account listed, but only for gmail.

    Anyone know why?

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  10. Pingback: New Joggler Apps! « Notes from a small field

  11. All,

    Checkout http://www.jogglerwiki.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=176 , Mijuu’s produced a new version (android 2.2.2) which promises to fix some wifi issues, cifs support etc etc etc.. Im travelling at the moment so havent tried it yet but worth checking out..

    My image still works fantastically and if you look at the wiki we’ve collectively started to add some “recomemnded” apps and some which dont work..

    Im currently uploading the image to my webspace, but mporting seams to be working fine for now..

    Angelo

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  12. Just installed tonight and am amazed at the speed – why did I buy a Asus EEE Pad :) For those having problems with wireless connections do the age old Android trick of putting it in airplane mode then back into wireless mode and it should connect…

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  13. Hi, thanks for this tutorial, my Joggler is alive again :)
    But I’ve been struggling to change a wallpaper. Every time i try to, it wants to crop it and it looks horrible. I copied jpg file of size 800×480 px.

    Any ideas why it does it?

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  14. So I’m back at the parents’ for the weekend trying to make my mum’s Joggler do something vaguely useful once again and the first useful post I come across is by someone else who works at Hursley… unbelievable!

    Hi, and thank you :-)

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      • Thanks for the link – ICS will be great.

        I set up an android vnc client to use it as a second display, but nothing else too exciting.

        My mum’s only gripe is that I can’t find a clock widget big enough to match what the original software had!!

  15. I did this and as soon as i turn it off and turn it back on again nothing saved the network the language the apps NOTHING! help what am i doing wrong!

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