[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] AdrianDC:
Android-x86 for the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro XE700T1C

My goal here is to help you achieve a fully working multiboot between Windows / Android / else (Ubuntu ?)

on your Samsung XE700T1C, using a method normally compatible for everyone.

I'll be using Windows to start and then Ubuntu for the changes and transfers.

Do not worry, you do not need to have Ubuntu installed.​

Informations :

If you have a doubt or a problem, please do ask before masking a mistake...

Instead on F2, if the keyboard is unplugged, hold the "Windows" button on startup

As of today, day of writing 04/05/2015, the latest Android-x86 release is Android 4.4 r2

My 4GB value is not an obligation, adapt it to how much you need / want for Android

Needed for the installation :

Android-x86 ROM (Latest img file) : http://www.android-x86.org/download

Download Win32DiskImager : http://win32diskimager.sourceforge.net/

Empty 1GB (or more) USB flash drive

Empty 4GB (or more) USB flash drive

Ubuntu installed or a 2GB (or more) USB Live Ubuntu (detailed below)

Prepare the installation with a 1GB USB :

Make sure the drive is empty

Run Win32DiskImager

Browse for the .img file under "Image File"

Choose the corresponding Device (E: for example)

Write, and wait until done

Prepare the Ubuntu Live USB if you do not have one :

Download the Ubuntu iso (14.10 64Bits recommended) : http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

Download Rufus : https://rufus.akeo.ie/

Choose your empty 2GB (or more) USB drive

Then "GPT for UEFI", FAT32, Default, "Ubuntu USB", ...

Next to "ISO Image", browse for your downloaded .iso file

Start, Yes, OK, wait until it's finished

We will boot on it later, unplug the USB drive

Prepare the SSD and USB destinations :

Prepare the 4GB (or more) USB flash drive :

Use a partition software like EaseUS Partition Master or GParted

Resize the probably already present FAT32 partition to leave 4GB free

Create a new 4GB ext-2 partition named "Android-USB"

Apply the changes to the drive

For the SSD, do not randomly change things

If you have doubts, please ask before you delete something by mistake

Prepare the SSD for the Android partition :

Use a partition software like EaseUS Partition Master or GParted

Resize one of the partitions with a lot of free space (a data partition would be safer)

The empty space has to be as big or larger than the USB ext-2 partition (4GB here)

Apply the changes to the drive

Prepare the BIOS Configuration :

Reboot the computer with both USB drives connected

During the boot (Samsung Logo), maintain F2 pressed

In the Samsung BIOS Configuration, go to "Boot"

Set "Secure Boot" to Off

Set OS Mode Selection to "CSM and UEFI OS"

In "Advanced", set "Fast BIOS Mode" to Off

Press "Save", and "Yes"

While rebooting, maintain F2 again

Install Android-x86 to the 1GB USB flash drive :

In Samsung BIOS Configuration (F2), go to "Boot to Device"

Choose one of the last entries named like "UEFI: Generic USB"

Select the Android Installer option

Choose CAREFULLY the USB partition you created ("Android-USB")

Accept (if you're sure of having selected the correct partition) formating to ext-2

Deny installing a bootloader

Accept the Read/Write option for the /system

At the end of the installation, reboot and remove the USB flash drives.

Use Ubuntu to migrate Android to the SSD :

Start using Ubuntu :

Plug in the Ubuntu Live USB drive and the USB flash drive where Android is installed

In Samsung BIOS Configuration (F2), go to "Boot to Device"

Select the UEFI: Ubuntu USB drive you created before (or boot to Ubuntu)

Start Ubuntu in Live mode (Try...)

In order to search for an application, press the Windows key and search with the name

Copy the Android partition from the USB drive to the SSD :

Launch the GParted application (or in Terminal, "gparted")

If you can't find it or it isn't installed, read this : http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/gparted

You can select the SSD or the USB drive in the top right selector

Right clic the "Android-USB" partition, if available "Unmount" it

Copy the "Android-USB" partition to the empty SSD space, resize if needed.

For that, right clic on the "Android-USB" partition, "Copy", right click on the empty space

from the SSD, "Paste", adapt and accept the Resizing Popup if needed

Apply the changes

Rename the partition "Android" (Right clic, "Label")

Apply the changes to the drive

Just look what number your "EFI" partition has (around 100MB, probably sda2)

Exit GParted when done

Unplug the Android USB drive

Prepare the Android SSD partition contents :

Launch the Nautilus application

On the left, open the newly created Android partition

Close Nautilus

Launch the Terminal application

Execute the "sudo nautilus" command

On the left, open the Android partition

Rename the "android-X.X-rX" folder to "android"

Launch the GEdit application

Save an empty file named "android.id" in the Android partition's root

This file will help identifying the partition and simplify your life

If you cannot save the file from the previous step,

do it by launch GEdit with "sudo gedit"

Mount the UEFI partition in order to edit it :

This step should not be needed if you're using Ubuntu installed on the SSD,

to make sure, check in Nautilus if "Computer/boot/efi/" is accessible

Launch the Terminal application

Execute the following commands one after the other :

"sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt"

"sudo mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi"

"sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot/efi"

sda2 may have to be adapted depending

on what you earlier saw for the EFI partition

"sudo apt-get install efibootmgr"

If requested, accept the installation with Y/O/... and Enter

"sudo efibootmgr"

If you do not have a full list of your booting options,

please stop here and post a question to fix the issue

Launch the Nautilus application, make sure "Computer/boot/efi" is accessible

and contains for example a "EFI" folder with a "Microsoft" folder into it.

Otherwise, please ask for help and delay your installation to an other time.

Install the EFI files for the Android bootloader :

Launch the Terminal application

From a Live USB Ubuntu : Execute the "sudo nautilus /mnt/boot/efi/" command

From an SSD installed Ubuntu : Execute the "sudo nautilus /boot/efi/" command

Paste the "Android" folder of the .zip attached to the post in the .../efi/EFI/ folder

This UEFI bootloader is based on the one provided by Android-x86 on the installation drive

Add the new UEFI values to your computer to boot Android :

Launch an other Terminal

On this screenshot, you can see the commands I use, you won't have the Ubuntu one :

Adapt the following commands to what you need :

"sudo efibootmgr -v" : Complete list of the UEFI elements

"sudo efibootmgr -b 0001 -c -d /dev/sda -p 2 -L "Android 4.4" -l /EFI/Android/bootx64.efi" :

Creates an entry 0001, named, path to the new UEFI, on the SSD, with EFI on second partition

"sudo efibootmgr -b 0001 -B" : If a mistake is done, removes the entry 0001

"sudo efibootmgr -o 0000,0001" : Sets the boot order to 0000 (Windows ?) and 0001 (Android ?)

Turn off the computer (top right on Ubuntu)

Boot to Android, configure and start using it :

Remove all unnecessary USB drives from the computer

In Samsung BIOS Configuration (F2), go to "Boot to Device"

Choose the "Android 4.4" entry (see below for an example of my choices)

Android-x86 will appear, press Enter or wait 2 seconds (see the grub.cfg from my UEFI)

Done, your Android is booting nicely normally

Important things about Android on the XE700T1C :

Press the Power button 2 times quickly to access the Power Menu

Brightness doesn't work manually for the moment so you can use the Night Mode application

Rotation works but can be annoying sometimes, use the Set Orientation application

I advice using Titanium Backup to backup and remove apps

The language always reverts back to English, so using an application like "Root Explorer" (black icon),

go to the /system/build.prop file, remove the two lines ending with EN and US and save the file.

Set your language in the Android settings, reboot, your language should be remembered now.

My update process when a new version is released :

Instead of doing everything new, you can update the Android system

Repeat the installation to USB process with the new img

In Ubuntu, open both Android SSD and Android USB partitions

Using a terminal, run "sudo nautilus", and delete everything except /data/in the "android" folder on the Android SSD partition

Using the terminal, locate both locations (ls /media/USERNAME/, ls /media/USERNAME/Android-USB and ...SSD for example)

Run the following command (adapt it before) : "sudo cp -rp /....USB/android-4.4-r2/* /......SSD/android/"

The result on my Samsung XE700T1C :

My boot options, accessible with F2 / Boot to Device or F10 :

My "not so many" partitions :

Known issues on the Samsung XE700T1C :

Brightness doesn't work manually, you can use an application like "Night Mode" (Fix : See http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=68227221&postcount=242)

GPS Module isn't working for me

No other "major" issues I known of

Hope I did help some of you !

Ubuntu for the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro XE700T1C​

Some hints if you want to install Ubuntu :

Create some free space from Windows using EASEUS Partition Master for example

During the installation from a USB drive, choose the "Advanced" manual installation

Use an ext-4 partition for the "/" mount and for example a 512Mo swap partition.

Choose to install the GRUB bootloader in the same partition as "/"

Adapt the following commands to what you need :

"sudo efibootmgr -v" : Complete list of the UEFI elements

"sudo efibootmgr -b 0002 -c -d /dev/sda -p 2 -L "Ubuntu 14.10" -l /EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi" :

Creates an entry 0001, named, path to the new UEFI, on the SSD, with EFI on second partition

"sudo efibootmgr -b 0002 -B" : If a mistake is done, removes the entry 0002

"sudo efibootmgr -o 0000,0002,0001" : Sets the boot order to 0000 (Windows ?), 0001 (Android ?) and 0002

About my rEFInd MultiBoot for a clean and nice boot selector :

I use rEFInd for the boot selection on startup, with a 5 seconds timeout for an automatic boot of the last one used,

configured with clean icons, minimum layout items, using the Windows / Ubuntu / Android EFIs.

If you want to use my reconfigured rEFInd MultiBoot files

(see the refind.conf for further configuration and if you need to adapt the menuentries I am using)

"sudo efibootmgr -v" : Complete list of the UEFI elements

"sudo efibootmgr -b 0003 -c -d /dev/sda -p 2 -L "Multiboot" -l /EFI/refind/refind_x64.efi" (Adapt if needed)

"sudo efibootmgr -o 0003,0000,...." : Reorder the entries to your OS values.

Special thanks and credits to Roderick W. Smith for rEFInd.

About Android using the Ubuntu GRUB Bootloader :

If you prefer having GRUB as a default bootloader instead of separate UEFI bootloaders,

you can add a new line to your GRUB settings equivalent to my menuentry in the zip.

For a safe edition of the GRUB bootloader, I recommend using GRUB Customizer.

In the Terminal application, run the following commands :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

sudo grub-customizer

In GRUB Customizer, you can add a new entry with (then save) :

search --file --no-floppy --set=root /android.id

linux /android/kernel quiet androidboot.hardware=android_x86 SRC=/android

initrd /android/initrd.img